Tessa didn’t flinch. She didn’t ask me to stay. She simply nodded, a fierce, blazing light of total understanding and unwavering support illuminating her face.
“Go,” she said softly, stepping back. “Show them.”
I picked up my dark tactical jacket from the chair, sliding my arms into the familiar weight. Far down the driveway, the crunch of heavy tires on gravel broke the evening silence. A black, heavily armored SUV pulled into view, kicking up a massive cloud of dust in the fading twilight.
“We’re coming,” I whispered to the cold wind, stepping off the porch to meet my brothers in arms. “And we never come alone.”
As I opened the heavy steel door of the SUV, the faint glow of the dashboard illuminated a hidden compartment near the center console. Taped to the inside lid was a laminated newspaper clipping showing Silas and Caleb Sterling, looking broken and terrified, locked behind federal iron bars.
Sitting directly beneath it was a brand-new, thick manila dossier. It was overflowing with surveillance photos, heavily redacted financial records, and flight logs.
The new target was a powerful, two-term State Senator. A man who truly believed that his immense generational wealth and iron-clad political connections made him a god among men.
He had absolutely no idea that the dark was already in the car, and we were on our way.
