Page 107 of Reckless: Chaos

Like I taught her.

Finn appears in the doorway, glasses slightly askew—the only tell that he’s as rattled as the rest of us. “Security footage shows nothing. No breaches, no anomalies. Just...” His lips twist. “Just perfectly timed gaps between camera sweeps.”

Like he taught her.

A crash from below makes the foundation shudder. Jinx, finding her go-bag exactly where she knew we’d look first. Hisrage floods our pack bonds, but there’s something else beneath it. Something darker.

Pride.

Because she used his parkour routes. His shadow paths. His lessons in controlled chaos.

“She played us.” Finn’s voice carries equal parts admiration and devastation. “Used everything we taught her to?—”

“To protect us.” The words taste like ash. Like guilt. Like the drive I gave her burning a hole in my conscience. “She’s not running away. She’s running toward something.”

Theo’s heat-scent spikes with distress. “Sterling.”

The name hangs between us like a death sentence. Like a challenge. Like everything we’ve been preparing for without realizing it.

Jinx appears then, deadly silent—his most dangerous state. “I’m going to kill him.”

“No.” I stand, letting alpha power fill my voice. “We’re going to do something much worse.” My eyes meet each of theirs in turn. “We’re going to show Sterling exactly why they call us the psycho squad.”

Finn’s glasses catch light as he tilts his head. “Quinn will shut us down.”

“Let him try.”

“Call him,” Jinx says, voice carrying that edge of mania that earned him his reputation. “Tell him what we’re about to do. Give him the chance to stop us.”

I already have my phone out, Quinn’s number dialing. Because they need to know—need to understand that what comes next might cost us everything.

But she’s worth it.

Worth our jobs. Worth our freedom. Worth watching the world burn if that’s what it takes to bring her home.

Quinn answers on the first ring. “Ryker?—”

“The psycho squad is going hunting.” I meet Jinx’s feral grin with my own. “You can either help us or get the fuck out of our way.”

Silence stretches. Then, “Jesus Christ, what are you about to do?”

“Show Sterling why you should never touch a pack’s beta.” My voice drops lower, colder. “You might want to look away for this part.”

I hang up before he can argue. Before he can remind me of protocols and consequences and all the reasons this is a terrible idea.

“Jinx.” His head snaps up at my tone. “Take point. Show us how you tracked Emma’s killers.”

His laugh holds no humor. “You sure about that, boss? Last time I tracked someone this personal, there weren’t many pieces left to find.”

“Good.”

“Plans?” Finn asks, already pulling up building schematics on his tablet. Always our strategist, even in crisis.

“We hunt.” The words come out in that space between alpha and animal. “But not like they expect. Not like last time.”

“Last time?” Theo’s heat-scent carries confusion beneath the panic.

“Sterling Labs.” My hands clench, remembering. “When we went in through the front. Making noise, causing chaos.” I meet Jinx’s eyes, watch that familiar mania sharpen into something precise. “This time we do it right.”

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