Page 139 of Cobra
Typing explodes on his end. “Got it. I’m pulling maps now.”
“Send it to Logan.”
“Already doing it.”
I end the call.
The man looks at me, blood on his teeth. “I told you.”
“Yeah.”
“So what? You letting me walk?” No one in the room speaks. His face changes as understanding arrives. Slow. Then fast. “No. No, wait. I gave you what you wanted.”
I look at him. Calm. Clear. “You touched the route.”
“I didn’t touch any girl.”
“You carried the system.”
“That’s not—”
I hit him once. Hard enough to stop the sentence.
He drops this time because I let him. He hits the floor and curls around his side, groaning.
Hammer looks at me. “Alive?”
I look down. The man is breathing.
For now.
“We need him?” Joker asks, almost hopeful we don’t.
Shadow checks his phone. “Dom says face match pending. Logan wants him breathing until Cain gets here.”
Logan’s call.
Fine.
I crouch in front of the man. He flinches. “You breathe until my president decides you stop,” I tell him. His eyes fill with panic again. I lean closer. “But if you lied, if that feed mill is empty, if one girl moves because you gave us shit information, I come back.”
He shakes his head. “I didn’t lie.”
“Hope not.” I stand.
Hammer zip-ties him tighter than necessary.
Joker looks disappointed but not surprised.
We clear the rest of the building fast. No more men. No hidden crew. No second vehicle left behind. Just burn marks, missing supplies, and enough pieces to confirm what we already knew. They’re not stopping. They’re moving. We leave the man in the rear office for Cain and step back into the main warehouse.
My hands are bloody. Not much. Enough. I look at them without feeling anything that resembles regret. There was a time violence was noise in me. A thing that came from old dark places and needed somewhere to land. Tonight isn’t that. Tonight is clean. Surgical.
A man with a wound gives a route. A route gives a target. A target gives us girls before they disappear. That’s useful. That’s purpose. That’s what matters.
Shadow steps up beside me. “You good?”
“No.”
