Page 86 of Tick Tock, Boom!

I sent Hoax the address and called him immediately. "I need you to work your magic and tell me where this place is." I barked.

Hoax took a minute before coming back on the line. My brother knew not to ask questions just act when I asked him for something. He'd ask his questions after. "Cypress Hollow? Mile marker forty-two? Fuck, man, that’s deep bayou.”

“Can you tell who owns the property?”

There was a long pause and then I heard him exhale. “It’s Brewer. It’s Scorpion property.”

My hand tightened on the handles, and I sped the bike up. “I’m going to kill him.”

“You’ve got to tell me what’s going on, Man?"

"Natalia sent the address. Gabe’s missing."

Silence followed. Then, Hoax’s response matched my own. "Fuck."

"Knowing her, she's gone to get him her damn self. Because she can't be fucking patient..."

Hoax interrupted me. "Alright, hold on. Let me pull something up... Wait, she’s moving."

"What? You can see her?"

"Her phone’s still active. I never pulled the tracker."

I was halfway to cussing him out but stopped short. "We’ll discuss that later. For now? You’re a goddamn genius."

Hoax's tone shifted. "Meet me there. I’m bringing backup."

"Bring fire," I snarled, revving the engine. "These fuckers aren’t surviving the night."

* * *

Mile markerforty-two was barely visible, choked by vines and decay. Knuckles and Colt were waiting, tension crackling off them like a live wire. Hoax pulled up shortly after, phone in hand, eyes locked on the screen.

"They’re close. Eight hundred yards east in some rundown processing plant," Hoax confirmed, his voice tight with urgency.

We stood at the edge of the dirt lot, the thrum of engines gone silent behind us, the night thick with heat and tension. Colt adjusted his rifle strap while Knuckles scouted ahead with sharp, precise motions.

I clenched my jaw, my fingers twitching against the trigger. "We breach from the back," I said. "Flank the southeast corridor, force their eyes to split. Colt, you take the high ground. Knuckles, you get the left side entrance. I'm going through the fucking front."

Hoax looked up from his device, alarm written all over his face. "Tick Tock, wait. We need to move as a unit. Don’t go rogue."

But then I heard it. Natalia’s scream. And my fucking soul caught fire. It shredded every ounce of discipline I had left. I looked at Knuckles for a brief second.

One word was all he got out. "Fuck."

Suddenly, Gabe’s cries followed, small, broken, and filled with terror, and the world narrowed to a blood-red tunnel. I was gone before they could stop me.

"Shit! Tick Tock!" Knuckles hissed in my comms, but I was already sprinting toward hell, guns drawn, fury wrapped around me like armor.

This wasn’t going to be a rescue, it was going to be a fucking reckoning.

Natalia’s screams carried through the humid air like a fucking dagger to the heart.

"Mom! MOM!" Gabe's broken voice, clear as day, made me stumble as I ran forward, my lungs burning.

Everything in me snapped. Even with Knuckles screaming through the comms to wait for the plan, that I was going ot get myself killed, but I was already moving.

I kicked the door in, and stormed through the building. Men yelled as they pulled out their weapons. I noticed the scorpion on their leather cuts, and I could feel my blood grow cold. Thinking and hesitating got you killed. I shot first, never stopping to ask names.

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