Page 5 of Peak’s Code

"I am a threat,” she said.

"To us?” Peak asked.

"No." Her voice cracked ever so slightly. "To anyone hunting me or anyone I love." Peak caught it. There was just enough emotion to convince him she wasn't making this up.

He slowly opened his laptop again. "You got a last name for your sister?"

Maeve immediately shook her head. "No."

"You don’t know your sister’s name?" he drawled.

"I can’t tell you her name because if you start searching for her, they’ll know.” She looked straight into the screen. Peak froze with his fingers hovering over the keyboard.

"Explain to me how they’ll know,” he demanded.

"They monitor searches with her name,” she insisted.

"Who does?" Peak asked.

"The people moving the shipment,” Maeve said.

Warden frowned. "What the hell does that even mean?" Peak understood exactly what she was saying.

He slowly closed the laptop. "You think they're monitoring law enforcement databases."

"I know they are. Along with hospital admissions,” she said.

"Missing person files, too," Peak said.

"They are monitoring her social media pages—everything." Peak rubbed a hand over his jaw. That wasn't impossible. It would be expensive, but not impossible. Which meant whoever these people were, they had money.

"You've done this before." Maeve gave him the smallest smile.

"I've spent about eighteen months looking for my sister."

Peak stared at her. "Eighteen months?"

"Honestly, I stopped counting after the first year,” she admitted. Something in his chest tightened. He lost his grandfather, and he knew what grief looked like. This wasn't grief; it was obsession—the kind that hollowed someone out from the inside until all that remained was purpose.

"What happened to her?"

"They took her,” she said simply. But Peak knew that there would be nothing simple about her sister being abducted.

"Who took her?" he asked.

"I don't know,” she admitted.

"You just said⁠—"

"I know who owns the operation." She swallowed. "I don't know which man physically took her." Peak nodded slowly because that made sense.

"What does this have to do with our docks?" he asked.

Maeve looked toward the small window in the door before answering. "They're moving women using your territory." Every muscle in Peak's body went rigid. "They've been using fishing boats to bring them into the Chesapeake." She looked back at him. "The containers leave from your territory because nobody questions freight moving through Grave Prowler waters."

Warden exploded. "The hell they don't."

"They don't know it's happening." Maeve never raised her voice. "Your club isn't helping them, but they're hiding behind your reputation." Peak's stomach dropped. That was worse, much worse. Someone was using the Grave Prowlers as camouflage. Captain was going to lose his damn mind.