Page 120 of Blood & Throttle

Then she obeys. She drops the gun. The clatter of metal on concrete is sharp. Final.

The enforcer backs off, so do the handlers. The weight on my ribs vanishes, and I push forward but she’s already moving. Already standing over Jace like she didn’t just let him live, like she still might change her mind.

Voss approaches her without flinching and stuffs a thick stack of Syndicate cash into her hand.

“Twenty-five grand,” he says. “Vex had a price.”

She doesn’t even glance at the money.

“And him?” she asks, eyes locked on Jace as two enforcers drag him upright.

Voss doesn’t answer.

The silver-haired man does. “Don’t worry about him.”

Ghost steps up beside me. “You’re taking him?”

The man turns slightly, slow, deliberate. “This doesn’t concern you.”

Ghost’s mouth clamps shut and the tension in the air spikes.

But Bishop—always the one who tests the line—leans forward. “What if she’d pulled the trigger?”

The man doesn’t blink. “Then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

It’s not a guess. Not a threat. It’s a fucking fact.

He would’ve ordered her dead, right there in the dirt beside Jace. No broadcast. No delay. Just one less racer for the next round.

Sin stares at him for a moment longer, like she’s daring him to say it again. Then she pockets the money without a word.

The enforcers drag Jace off, limping and dazed. Blood trails behind him but he doesn’t fight, doesn’t look back.

The crowd explodes in boos. Loud. Relentless. Districts screaming through their screens, furious they were robbed of the execution they paid to see.

The Syndicate never steps in. Not like this.

Luca mutters beside me, “Something’s off. Way off.”

He’sright.

None of this tracks. None of it fits the rules, even the unwritten ones.

And as I watch them disappear into the smoke with Jace between them, my stomach twists.

They didn’t save him. They didn’t protect him. They claimed him, and I don’t know why. But I’d bet every credit I’ve got it has something to do with Kane.

The drones are still filming, but the game just changed. Whatever’s coming next? It won’t be part of the script.

It’ll be war.

Twenty-Two

Sienna

Ride - Ciara Ft Ludacris

Jace hitslike a spoiled rich boy who’s never been punched in the mouth by a girl who bites.