Page 7 of King’s Reckoning (Blind Jacks MC #5)

The box screamed.

At least, that's what it felt like to Rowan as she touched its surface, a high-pitched whine piercing her skull. She jerked back, phantom sensations tingling through her fingers. Barbara immediately moved closer, her archaeological tools spread across the clubhouse table.

"Some kind of resonance,"

the professor said, running specialized equipment over the metal surface.

"The alloy is responding to...something. Like it knows we're here."

"That's not possible,"

Reed said from his position by the door. But his hand rested on his weapon, and his eyes never left the artifact they'd retrieved from the warehouse.

Rowan understood his unease. The box didn't just look wrong—it felt wrong, like it was operating on frequencies just beyond human perception. Her mother's journal had warned about this, abou.

"safeguards built by those who came before."

But experiencing it firsthand was something else entirely.

"Flash's box never did this,"

King observed. He stood at Rowan's shoulder, close but not touching. Their relationship was still evolving, each revelation bringing new complications.

"What makes this one different?"

Before anyone could answer, the clubhouse door burst open. Ace rushed in, his usual calm shattered.

"We've got trouble. Big trouble."

"Devils?"

Reed asked, already moving.

"Worse."

Ace's face was grim.

"They found Abby."

King went very still. "Where?"

"Hospital. Someone worked her over pretty good. But before she passed out..."

Ace hesitated, glancing at Rowan.

"She was asking for you, boss. Said she knows about The Archive. About Elena."

The name hit like a physical blow. Rowan saw King flinch slightly.

"She's lying,"

Reed said flatly.

"Trying to play us."

"Maybe."

King's voice was cold.

"But we need to know for sure."

He turned to Rowan.

"Your mother ever mention someone named Abby?"

Rowan started to say no, then stopped. There had been something...a photo she'd found once, buried deep in Elena's things. A woman with striking features standing next to a much younger King. On the back, in her mother's precise handwriting.

"The price of secrets."

"Who is she?"

Rowan asked instead.

The silence stretched. Finally, King spoke.

"Someone from the old days. Someone who might know too much."

His eyes met Rowan's.

"Someone who could destroy everything we're trying to protect."

He was already reaching for his cut.

"I should go alone."

"No."

The word came from both Rowan and Reed simultaneously. They exchanged glances before Rowan continued.

"Mom's journal was clear. We work together on this. Whatever Abby knows about her, about The Archive, we need to hear it firsthand."

"Besides,"

Reed added.

"somebody worked her over for a reason. Could be Blackwood's people, could be Devils. Either way, she needs protection while we question her."

King's jaw clenched, but he nodded.

"Fine. Small team. Rowan, Reed, Ace. The rest of you secure that box. Barbara, figure out why it's acting strange. And somebody get Darkness back here. I want extra security on the clubhouse."

The hospital corridors were eerily quiet at this hour, their footsteps echoing off sterile walls. Two prospects guarded Abby's room—men Rowan recognized from her surveillance of the club. They straightened as King approached.

"Any visitors?" he asked.

"Just medical staff,"

one reported.

"But she's been in and out, talking crazy about some kind of archive and old burial grounds."

Rowan felt Reed tense beside her. Even delirious, Abby knew too much.

The woman in the hospital bed looked nothing like the photo Rowan remembered. Bruises mottled her face, and bandages covered what looked like defensive wounds on her arms. But her eyes… When they snapped open at their entrance, they were sharp with intelligence.

"Marcus,"

she rasped.

"Took you long enough."

"Save it,"

King growled.

"What do you know about Elena?"

Abby's split lip curved in a smile.

"Which part? How she found The Archive? How she used it to control you? Or how she died protecting it?"

Rowan moved before she could think, but Reed caught her arm. "Easy,"

he murmured.

"She's baiting you."

"Smart boy,"

Abby said.

"But wrong. I'm telling truths nobody wants to hear. Ask your father about the night Elena left. Ask him what really happened to Flash. Ask him—"

"Enough."

King's voice cracked like a whip.

"You don't know anything."

"No?"

Abby shifted, wincing.

"Then why did Elena come to me that night? Why did she trust me with her secrets before she disappeared? Before she started training your daughter to finish what she started?"

The machines monitoring Abby's vitals beeped steadily in the silence that followed. Rowan's mind raced. Her mother had never mentioned Abby, never hinted at sharing The Archive's secrets with anyone else.

Unless…

"The codes,"

Rowan said suddenly.

"In Mom's journal. Some of them didn't match her usual patterns. Because they weren't hers, were they? They were yours."

Abby's smile widened despite her split lip.

"Smart girl. Elena knew she couldn't protect The Archive alone. Knew she needed backup plans. That's why she left pieces of it with trusted brothers, why she encoded the locations. And why she came to me."

"Why you?"

Reed demanded.

"What made you so special?"

"Because I was there at the beginning,"

Abby said.

"When they first found the tunnels, when they realized what was buried under this territory. I saw what it did to them—the power, the fear. Saw how it changed everything."

Her eyes found King's.

"Saw how it drove you apart."

King's hands clenched into fists.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't I? Elena wasn't the only one who made sacrifices to protect The Archive. Some of us just didn't run away."

"She didn't run,"

Rowan snapped.

"She protected me. Protected all of us."

"And now here you are, following in her footsteps. But you don't even know what you're really protecting, do you? What's really buried in those tunnels?"

Before Rowan could respond, fire alarms began blaring in the hallway. Ace burst in, gun already drawn. "Company,"

he reported.

"Multiple hostiles, heavily armed. Coming up the stairs."

"Devils?"

Reed asked, moving to cover the door.

"Worse. Blackwood's personal security team. They must have followed us."

King cursed.

"They're after her. After what she knows."

He turned to Abby.

"Can you move?"

She was already pulling out IVs.

"Always could handle pain better than you, Marcus."

"Reed, get them out,"

King ordered, ignoring her jab.

"Back stairs to the garage. Ace and I will slow them down."

"Not happening,"

Rowan said firmly.

"We stick together."

The argument was cut short by gunfire in the hallway. Screams and chaos erupted from patients and staff already in the process of evacuating. The prospects were buying them time, but it wouldn't last long.

"Window,"

Reed said suddenly.

"Stairs will be packed. Service elevator shaft runs right alongside this room. Maintenance platform two floors down."

"You want us to go out a window?"

Abby demanded.

"Eight floors up?"

"Unless you'd prefer Blackwood's hospitality."

More gunfire, closer now. Rowan could hear shouts, running feet. Their time was running out.

"Help me with her,"

she told Reed. Together they got Abby to her feet, while King and Ace barricaded the door.

The window opened onto a narrow ledge. Cold wind whipped at them as Reed rigged a quick rappel line of linens, curtains and anything else he could find, like a modern MacGyver. Below, the maintenance platform waited like a metal island in the darkness.

"Ladies first,"

Reed said, securing the line to Abby's hospital gown. She grimaced but didn't argue as they lowered her down.

Rowan went next, the rope burning her palms despite her gloves. The platform clanged under her feet as she landed. Above, she could hear the fight reaching their room as distant sirens closed in.

"Coming down,"

Reed called. He was halfway to the platform when the explosion hit.

The blast caught him as he was reaching for the platform's railing. Rowan lunged, catching his arm as he started to fall. For a moment they hung suspended, his weight threatening to pull them both into the void.

Then strong hands grabbed Rowan's belt, anchoring her. Abby helped her haul Reed to safety just as more explosions rocked the building.

"Move,"

Reed ordered, already reaching for his weapon.

"They'll have the bottom of the shaft covered."

"This way,"

Abby said. She pointed to a maintenance door.

"Service tunnels run under the whole hospital. I mapped them years ago, back when..."

"Back when what?"

Rowan demanded.

Abby's smile was grim.

"Back when your mother and I were planning for exactly this kind of situation."

The door opened onto a maze of utility tunnels. Pipes and conduits lined the walls, and the air smelled of damp concrete. Abby led them through turns and junctions with suspicious familiarity.

"Mom really did plan for everything,"

Rowan muttered.

"She had to,"

Abby replied.

"Once she understood what The Archive really was, what it could do...she knew they'd never stop hunting it. Never stop hunting you."

"What is it?"

Reed asked.

"What makes it so valuable?"

Before Abby could answer, Rowan's phone buzzed. A text from King. Clear. Heading for rendezvous point B.

"Your father always did know how to make an exit,"

Abby said.

"Usually with things exploding behind him."

They emerged into a parking garage two blocks from the hospital. King and Ace were waiting with vehicles—nondescript sedans instead of bikes. Less conspicuous for moving their injured guest.

"We need to talk,"

King told Abby as they helped her into one of the cars.

"About Elena. About everything."

"Yes,"

she agreed.

"we do. Because they're getting closer. The ones who've been searching all these years, they're finally putting the pieces together. And when they do..."

"When they do what?"

Abby's eyes found Rowan's.

"When they do, you'll understand why your mother was willing to die to keep The Archive safe. Why we all were."

Rowan felt Reed's hand on her back, steady and warm.

"Then we'd better make sure that doesn't happen."

They drove through the pre-dawn streets, leaving the chaos at the hospital behind. But Rowan knew they were just trading one battlefield for another. The weight of secrets—her mother's, her father's, Abby's—pressed down on her.

Whatever The Archive was, whatever power it held, one thing was becoming clear: the price of protecting it was measured in blood. And they weren't done paying yet.