Evan was alive\u2026 because of Cole.<\/p>\n
But Mira didn\u2019t know that.<\/p>\n
Not yet.<\/p>\n
Cole didn\u2019t admit the truth right away.<\/p>\n
Because something didn\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n
Evan wasn\u2019t the first person to vanish tied to Braddock\u2019s operation.<\/p>\n
He was the tenth.<\/p>\n
The other nine?<\/p>\n
Dead.<\/p>\n
Except\u2026<\/p>\n
Three days earlier, everything had cracked.<\/p>\n
Someone betrayed the\u00a0Iron Vipers<\/strong>. Evan\u2019s hiding place\u2014the \u201csafe house\u201d\u2014went dark, like someone had strangled the signal.<\/p>\n And even Cole wasn\u2019t sure Evan was still breathing.<\/p>\n That was why the bar had been tight with tension for weeks. Cole looked at Mira\u2014really looked at her\u2014and for the first time in a long time, guilt stabbed somewhere in his chest he\u2019d believed had turned to steel years ago.<\/p>\n He\u2019d lost a brother once. He wasn\u2019t going to lose another kid.<\/p>\n Not if he could do something about it.<\/p>\n \u201cIf anything happens to my brother,\u201d Mira said, her voice shaking\u2014not with fear, but with grief trying to tear its way out of her, \u201cyou answer to me.\u201d<\/p>\n People should\u2019ve laughed.<\/p>\n A blind girl threatening a biker king?<\/p>\n But no one laughed.<\/p>\n Because everyone could hear the truly terrifying thing in her words: the desperation of someone about to lose the last person she has.<\/p>\n Cole didn\u2019t scare her. Cole turned to the bartender. \u201cGet her water. She stays.\u201d<\/p>\n And just like that\u2026<\/p>\n A blind girl had done what no one else could.<\/p>\n She was the first outsider Cole Mercer allowed to sit at his table.<\/p>\n Only hours later, the Iron Vipers\u2019 network roared to life like a kicked hornet nest. Engines thundered in and out. Information ran through short, sharp calls. Deals were sealed in alley shadows. People who\u2019d stayed silent started talking\u2014out of fear, out of old grudges, out of life-debts.<\/p>\n And right when hope flickered\u2026<\/p>\n A body was found outside town.<\/p>\n Male. Everything in Cole tightened. For fifteen minutes, the world ended.<\/p>\n Then the truth detonated.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t Evan.<\/p>\n The body belonged to\u00a0Jax Rowan<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n Cole\u2019s right hand.<\/p>\n The traitor.<\/p>\n Jax hadn\u2019t been killed by enemies.<\/p>\n Braddock executed him.<\/p>\n He thought betrayal would pay.<\/p>\n Instead, it buried him.<\/p>\n And the story stopped being about a disappearance.<\/p>\n NEXT PART \ud83d\udc47<\/span><\/span>\ud83d\udc47<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Someone inside the club sold information.<\/p>\n
That was why no one wanted to talk.
That was why the air in\u00a0The Widow\u2019s Hollow<\/strong>\u00a0felt dangerous as oxygen.<\/p>\n
A war-shadow still sat on his shoulders every night.<\/p>\n
Losing Evan did.<\/p>\nThe Storm Exploded<\/h2>\n
Dark-haired.
Shot.<\/p>\n
Everything in Mira\u2026 collapsed.<\/p>\n