Page 26 of Falcon
Spade would find enough to start pulling threads.
My vision blurred from staring at the screen, yet I refused to look away.“Does Atilla know?”
“He’s in the office with Spade.General too.”Tinker finally glanced over.“Want me to --”
“No.”I rolled my shoulders, trying to shake the crawl under my skin.“I’ve got it.”
Mikey stepped aside to let me through.“She okay?”
“Scared,” I answered, already moving.“Breathing, though.Women have her.”
A nod.Respect in his eyes.“Tougher than she looks.”
“Yeah,” I muttered.“She is.”
The hall outside the gatehouse felt colder than it had an hour earlier.Or maybe the chill lived inside me now, sharpened by the knowledge Roth -- or someone close enough to share his stink -- had cruised past our fence and taken a good, long look.
We’d expected attention.Didn’t mean I welcomed it.
Spade’s office sat near the back of the main building, tucked between the shop and the admin rooms.I knocked once and pushed inside at Atilla’s grunt.
Screens covered every wall of the cramped office.The center monitor replayed the footage I’d watched moments ago, paused on the black SUV with its mud-smeared plates.To my left, numbers and graphs scrolled across another display -- financial trails or surveillance data; I couldn’t tell and didn’t care.The third screen showed our town, red dots pulsing at intersections where cameras caught movement.
Spade glanced up from his keyboard, glasses low on his nose.“You see our visitor?”
“Yeah.”I crossed my arms.“Jade saw it too.”
Atilla’s posture stiffened.His eyes cut to mine.“How’d she handle it?”
“She froze for a second.I pulled her back from the window and talked her through it.”
General shifted in the armchair near the wall, coffee steaming in his hand.“Recognize the vehicle?”
I shook my head.“Too far.Too fast.”
Spade spun one of the monitors toward me, finger tapping the plate.“Mud job’s sloppy.I’ll run what I can pull.”
“He did us one favor,” Atilla said.“Drove right through our sightlines instead of sending someone sneaking on foot.”
General snorted.“Overconfidence.”
“They aren’t untouchable,” I said.
Atilla held my gaze for a long beat.“No.They aren’t.”
Spade leaned back, chair creaking.“Roth either wants his asset back or wants to show his boss he’s got control.News travels fast.”
“At least he hasn’t tested the gate,” I said.
A humorless sound left Atilla.“If he had, we’d be cleaning blood off the drive instead of watching footage.”
The image rose unbidden -- brothers lining up, one bad move turning into a body count.A part of me wanted that release.Another part knew it would spiral fast.
“What do you need from me?”
Atilla didn’t hesitate.“You stay glued to Jade.No window-watching.No isolation.Make sure she eats and sleeps.And you don’t go hunting Roth alone.”
I clenched my jaw.“I don’t go hunting Roth without backup.”
