Page 38 of Crusher's Illusion

Everything stops. Even Killian’s pain goes still.

“Erik Morrison. Deliver him or you’ll bury what’s left of your Club.”

The call ends before Steel can respond. The silence that follows feels like a bomb waiting to detonate.

“What the fuck is going on?” Rock growls. “Why do they want him?”

Everyone looks at Crusher. He stands still, shoulders tight, fists clenched, and his jaw is locked like a vice. “They think I have something that belongs to them,” Crusher says, his voice is gravelly low.

I see it before anyone else does. The shift in his posture. No guilt, no fear, just rage and regret.

Steel steps forward. “Explain.”

Erik closes his steel grey eyes for a second. “When Jordan died… I kept something. I didn’t even know what was on it back then. Just thought it might matter someday.”

“What is it?” Steel asks, no edge to his voice, just gravity.

“A flash drive. It was hidden in the lining of his vest.”

My chest tightens. Jordan, the boy he watched bleed out in his arms. The one he couldn’t save.

“I found out later,” Crusher continues. “He wasn’t just helping that girl escape. He was tracking the transport route. Recording conversations. The drive had names, dates, and faces. A direct link between Dominic Vassaro and the Echelon Syndicate and a human trafficking ring that’s been operating in three states.”

The whole room hears it. Jordan’s story. The flash drive. The trafficking ring. Crusher’s silence. The piece of evidence that could take down the Syndicate… or get everyone around him killed.

“He died trying to expose them,” Crusher says, quieter now. “And now they’re back because I kept what he died for.”

“And you never brought it to us?” Steel’s voice is low, lethal.

“I didn’t know what it was until last year.” Crusher’s jaw ticks. “And by then, I couldn’t risk turning it in without getting others killed. So I hid it, waiting for the fire to die down.”

I step forward, and then all their eyes land on me. “Where is it now?”

Crusher doesn’t look at me. He doesn’t answer.

“Where is it, Crusher?” Steel growls.

“Locked away, safe.”

“Define safe.”

“A place they can’t touch.”

Doc finishes stitching up Killian and slips off her gloves, mumbling something about needing whiskey and a better job.

Something in Rock snaps. “You still think bringingherhere was a good idea?” he spits. “We’re sitting on a damn target, and the enemy’s got a fucking journalist in their back pocket. You’re a walking liability, sweetheart. Pretty face, bleeding heart, and just enough smarts to get us all killed.”

“I’m not your enemy,” I snap with a shaky voice before he can finish.

The second the word leaves my lips, Crusher turns on me. His voice is too quiet. “They didn’t know where it was. Until now.”

I freeze. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying someone gave them enough to start digging again.”

“You think I…”

“I don’t know!” he explodes, voice raw and ragged. “That’s the problem. I think you’re a fucking reporter who writes secrets she swore she wouldn’t.” He doesn’t blink. Doesn’t breathe. “And that scares the hell out of me.”