Page 52 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

Kane’s was set in an old church and was the most popular nightclub in Moonlit Ridge. It boasted fucking killer bands and had rotating specialty drinks most nights of the week.

It was the perfect cover for what we did.

This room that was buried thirty feet underground had undoubtedly been used for storage—for regular supplies or those of the illicit sort, I wasn’t sure, but it served as an ideal meeting place for us.

Locked away by the raw, rugged walls where not a soul could hear us.

A single, dingy bulb hung from above, illuminating the space in a yellowed hue.

River, the one who’d set this whole thing into motion, pushed a tattooed fist out into the middle of the round table where we sat.

We glanced at each other as we stretched out our left fists to meet with River’s.

Fists that were all tattooed with the same symbol on the back.

Two stacked Ss with an eye in the middle and a dagger running through, though mine had a skull at the top.

A reminder of who I was.

The destruction I caused.

“I call to order this meeting of Sovereign Sanctum,” River rumbled.

There were five of us.

River, our leader and the one who, until last summer, had done our extractions before I had stepped up to take his place. The job was dangerous, getting women and children out of the direct threat that ruled their lives.

In theory, we whisked them away unseen and brought them to The Sanctuary where they’d forever disappear. Their identities and appearances changed before we set them up in new homes to begin better lives.

It didn’t always work that way, though. Sometimes it ended in a battle with the monsters who brutalized them, and we made sure those monsters went down by any means necessary.

Since River had a family, we’d ruled his role as extractor had become too risky, not that he’d taken that change easily.

Bottom line, though, he knew what was important—Charleigh and Nolan who were waiting for him at home.

He’d begun to spend more time searching out connections. Making contacts we could trust so we could get more of the vulnerable under Sovereign Sanctum’s wing.

Then there was Otto. This big, burly, loveable motherfucker.

Our deliverer. The one who transported the families to their new homes.

Kane was our money launderer. He owned three dive bars and this club that we used as a cover. When River had stepped back from his position, he and I had paired up to take over, though now with Maci and Emery in his life, he’d stepped down, too.

Now that responsibility fell on me and Cash.

Cash who was also our hacker. The one who could make anything disappear or come to be.

Then there was me.

The protector.

The one who stood guard over those in our immediate care.

Honestly, though, we all stepped in wherever we were needed. Each of us willing to fight to the death for the people we brought under our wing.

For each other.

For this family.