Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Rusk swung for my head, recovered from my first counter faster than most men would have, and caught my shoulder with the iron hard enough to send heat down my arm. The blow burned away the last distance from my control without taking the discipline with it.
I trapped his next swing, drove an elbow through his jaw, and kicked the bar away when it hit the pavement. He lunged anyway and used his weight to slam me against the trailer. I shifted him past my center, put him face-first into the road, and broke his arm when he came up reaching for the pistol under his vest.
His bellow echoed off the quarry walls as I stripped the gun and pinned him with one knee between his shoulders. Every part of me wanted to keep going until he could never raise a hand against another person Wade considered weak, but my brothers were still fighting and Wade was disappearing deeper into the complex. I handed Rusk to Trigger, then swept the road while Zero and Ghost finished the remaining men and Hawkeye and Breach dragged the pickup’s driver through the shattered window.
Nomad reported Wade moving east between the old conveyor structures, while Falcon confirmed the western exit was sealed. The collision had pulled the tarp from the trailer, exposing a compact excavator and skid steer with fresh paint covering the places where identifying decals had been stripped. Cipher checked the visible damage and serial locations from Zero’s truck, then confirmed both machines matched the missing-equipment list.
“Wait twenty minutes, then send Raines the location,” I ordered, watching Wade vanish behind a rusted support. “Tell him to bring enough transport for the prisoners and the equipment.”
Hawkeye came alongside me with blood streaking one cheek from flying glass, but his breathing remained even and his weapon steady. He confirmed Nomad was cutting north, Falcon held the west, and Ghost could secure the road until deputies arrived. I ordered everyone into pairs, left Skyfall with the wounded and recovered equipment, and took Hawkeye with me toward the processing complex because we didn’t know what Wade had stored inside or whether more men were waiting.
The quarry twisted sound against the rock walls until engines and shouted commands seemed to come from every direction. Hawkeye and I moved past abandoned machinery, broken concrete, and rusted belts half-buried in weeds, following Wade’s prints through the dust toward the eastern side. He had abandoned his truck, the stolen machines, and every man who’d protected him without looking back, proving exactly what his version of loyalty was worth once his own skin entered the bargain.
My phone vibrated in my cut’s inner pocket as Hawkeye and I reached the shadow of the main warehouse. Jacqueline’s name showed on the screen, and I answered immediately while keeping my weapon trained on the dark loading bay ahead.
“Talk to me,” I spoke only loud enough to make sure she could hear me.
“I think I found another route.” Her voice carried tension but no panic, and the rustle of paper told me she probably had Otis’s notebook and one of the ranch maps open in front of her. “There’s an abbreviation beside the quarry entries—ES. I kept thinking it meant equipment storage, but Grandpa used to haul stone from there when I was little, and I remember him talking about the east service shed.”
I motioned Hawkeye closer while Jacqueline continued. “There’s a narrow track along the eastern boundary that doesn’t connect to the main quarry road. It comes in behind an old maintenance shed near the drainage cut. Grandpa used it when trucks blocked the scales, and he wrote that the culvert was still passable the last time he checked.”
With barely a sound, I conveyed the information to Hawkeye who pulled a property map from the pouch inside his cut, found the eastern drainage line, and traced the route with one finger. Then he nodded, affirming her information.
Pride moved through the rage sitting inside me, because Jacqueline had done exactly what a partner should—used what she knew, stayed protected, and handed us information that changed the field without trying to put herself in the middle of the fight. “Thanks, baby. You did good.”
“Be safe.” She paused, and when she spoke again, her tone carried the quiet steadiness that had made me claim her before I knew her name. “Brogan, did you find Wade?”
“Ran into the quarry.” I looked toward the dark interior where a loose sheet of metal moved in the evening wind. “Cutting him off now.” I paused, debating whether to say more. But we were nothing without honesty between us. “Need you to understand something.”
Silence held for one breath on the line, and Hawkeye shifted a few feet away to give me the privacy he could without leaving my flank.
“Okay,” Jacqueline whispered.
“If the Black Crowns reach Wade before Raines does, we’re not holding his hand until deputies arrive.” I kept my voice level because softening the truth would insult the promise I’d made to keep her informed. “He tried to kidnap you, burned your barn, opened fire on our home, and sent men to kill you. The justice waiting inside this quarry won’t be lawful.”