My stomach drops like I’ve stepped off a cliff. He’s wearing a dark jacket, gloves, a beanie. His eyes go wide when he sees me.
Fear.
Then anger.
“Fuck you,” he snarls, backing up.
I bring my weapon up, steady. “Don’t move.”
He laughs—sharp and ugly. “You people think you’re heroes?”
“I don’t think,” I say. “I do.”
He glances past me, looking for an exit. There isn’t one. Boyd appears behind him like a nightmare. Marcus freezes.
Rafe steps in from the left, calm as death. “Hands where we can see them.”
Marcus’s jaw clenches. “You don’t know what you’re messing with.”
“Oh, we know,” I say. “And you’re done.”
He spits, “She told you? That little liar?—”
My vision goes red. I’m across the space in a blink, slamming him back into the wall hard enough to rattle the shelving. My weapon stays controlled, but my hand grips his collar like I’m holding him over an edge.
“You don’t say her name,” I growl, voice low and feral. “You don’t get to speak about her like you own her.”
His breath comes fast. “She’s nothing?—”
Boyd’s fist slams into his stomach like a wrecking ball. Marcus folds with a choking sound.
Rafe’s voice is cool. “You’ll talk. Or you’ll bleed. Your choice.”
Marcus wheezes, trying to recover. “You can’t?—”
Silas appears at the end of the hall, deputies with him. His badge glints in the low light like a warning. “I can,” Silas says. “I’m the sheriff. And you’re under arrest for kidnapping, trafficking, conspiracy, and whatever else I feel like stacking once I’m done reading your file.”
Marcus’s eyes flick to the badge. Then to us. Then to the floor. His bravado crumples. He mutters, “It wasn’t me. I didn’t… I didn’t touch them.”
Thorne steps closer, voice flat. “You moved them.”
Marcus swallows. “I just… handled logistics. That’s all.”
My jaw tightens. “Who’s above you?”
He shakes his head fast. “I don’t know?—”
Silas crouches in front of him, gaze like ice. “Mark Renshaw.”
Marcus flinches.
Silas’s mouth tightens. “Say it.”
Marcus’s voice breaks. “Renshaw.”
There it is. The name that makes my blood run cold.
Silas stands. “Cuff him.”