Page 69 of The Dark Stranger
No girls.
Just drag marks in the snow leading to tire tracks.
They’d been taken.
My chest tightened in a way I hadn’t felt in years.
Not fear.
Rage.
Controlled. Focused. Deadly.
“Search the woods. Every inch,” I ordered. “Thermals. Drones. I want shell counts and tire impressions documented.”
My men scattered instantly.
I crouched near the blood in the snow.
Too much of it.
“Jace,” I said into my earpiece, voice low and steady despite the war inside me. “Find them. Now.”
“I’m on it, boss. Traffic cams are glitching from the storm. I’m rerouting through state feeds.”
Behind me, one of my men approached. “Looks like at least four hostiles, possibly more. Professional.”
Ialready knew.
Lionetti.
You son of a bitch.
“They cleaned fast,” the man added.
“No,” I corrected. “They extracted fast.”
I stood, scanning the horizon.
The storm had erased half the tracks already.
Smart.
Too smart.
“Clean it up,” I ordered coldly. “I don’t want local PD stumbling into this. No evidence this ever happened.”
My men nodded.
No reports.
No headlines.
No witnesses.
This war stays in the dark.
I climbed back into my vehicle, leaving half the crew behind to sanitize the scene.
