Page 103 of Scornful

He tears through the house like a hurricane, destroying everything the Patriot touched.

I see tears streaming down his face as he continues, finally feeling everything since his house was bombed, since his kids were hurt.

Runes' voice cuts through the destruction. "Enough!"

Our president stands in the doorway, taking in the devastation.

He approaches Kraken carefully. "Brother," Runes says quietly. "I know. Trust me, I know."

Kraken spins on him, wild-eyed. "He tried to kill my kids!"

"He tried to take my granddaughter," Runes counters. "Killed Flora, left Rio's babies without a mother. You think I don't want to tear him apart with my bare hands?"

Kraken’s chest heaves. "Then why aren't we?"

"Because this," Runes gestures at the destroyed room, "this is what he wants. Us out of control, makin’ mistakes. This isn't how we win, brother. This is how we lose."

Slowly, painfully, Kraken calms himself down.

He slumps against the wall, suddenly looking older than his years. "My boy asked why," he whispers. "Asked why someone wanted to hurt him. What do I tell him?"

"The truth," Runes says simply. "That there's evil in the world, but his family will always protect him. That we'll get justice."

"Justice," Kraken spits. "He's missing a leg. That's not justice."

"No," Runes agrees. "But what we do to the Patriot will be."

While Runes talks Kraken down, the rest of us search the house.

I find some partially burned documents in the fireplace—financial records, property deeds, text logs.

The Patriot was in a hurry when he left, so he knew we were coming.

"Got something," I call out.

The papers reveal more than what Marcus told us—multiple properties across the state, offshore accounts in the Caymans, connections to the smaller cartels in Mexico.

The smaller cartels are nothing when Liam’s step-mother is part of the big dogs—the Ramirezes.

The Patriot isn't just some local dealer.

He's trying to run a multinational operation.

"Jesus." Tor whistles. "Fucker’s been busy."

"Good," Kraken says, rejoining us. His eyes are red but focused again. "More ways to hurt him. More threads to pull until everything unravels."

We gather everything useful and head out.

The ride back is quiet, dawn breaking as we reach the clubhouse.

Hakon meets us at the door. "Disabled the device at the spa. Professional job—military grade explosives, sophisticated trigger mechanism. But nothing I couldn't handle. Would've taken out half the building, maybe killed everyone inside."

Another reminder of how close we came to another catastrophe.

If Marcus hadn't talked, if we'd waited until morning...

Fenrir speaks up next, "Everything cleaned up downstairs?"

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