Page 19 of Hardline Torque
Silence fell again.
“What did you mean,” Victor asked finally, “by claiming each other?”
Tane exhaled and shifted closer, pulling Victor back against his chest.“I meant you matter to me, and the more time I spend with you, the more you start to mean to me.The physical part will come—but only when you want it.And when you’re healed.”
Victor lay there, absorbing that, when Tane tightened his hold and pressed a kiss to his neck.
“Sleep,ku?u aloha,” he murmured.“Tomorrow, we plan.”
“Plan what?”
“Taking down more of the Directorate’s bullshit.”
Victor drifted off feeling safe.
For the first time in his life.
Chapter Four
It took Victor a coupleof days to start opening up to him.
Not all at once.Not with speeches or confessions.Just small pieces, offered carefully, like he was testing the weight of the ground before committing his full step.
Tane noticed everything.
He noticed the way Victor lingered at the edge of conversations before stepping in.The way he watched Kael and Niko work like he was mapping a system, not just a team.The way he corrected Luca once—quietly, respectfully—about a data assumption, then waited as if bracing for backlash that never came.
What he shared, he shared cleanly.
“The Directorate isn’t one thing,” Victor said one afternoon, standing at the main table while maps and live feeds glowed beneath the glass.“It’s cells.Semi-autonomous.Some ideological, some purely profit-driven.They don’t always know what the others are doing.”
That got Kael’s attention.
Victor continued, fingers moving with precision.“East Coast has a logistics-heavy sect—shipping, money laundering, off-books transport.Midwest focuses on recruitment and training.The one nearest here—Colorado corridor, outside Colorado Springs?”He paused.“Arms.Street-level distribution.Guns into kids’ hands.Fast money.High churn.”
The room went cold.
