Page 133 of Royal Bargain

I sit rigid in the backseat, one hand gripping my gun, the other clenched so tight it’s gone numb. My leg won’t stop bouncing. I’ve got so much adrenaline in my veins I feel like I could tear the doors off the damn vehicle.

“She said the fish would rot where it all began,” I mutter, barely loud enough to be heard. “She knew where they were taking her. She knows them inside and out.”

No one says anything for a second.

Then Rory speaks, voice steady as ever from behind the wheel. “We go in from three sides. Fast, clean, no room for mistakes.”

Kellan leans forward in the passenger seat, tapping something on the tablet mapped out with old blueprints. “There’s a weak point on the northeast wall—security there’s always been shit. We breach through, sweep toward the main factory floor. If they’re holding her, that’s where she’ll be. Somewhere visible. Somewhere they can?—”

He cuts off, but I know what he meant. Somewhere they can show her off.

I swallow back the bile rising in my throat.

Behind me, Lucky’s laptop clicks furiously. “I’ve already hijacked the factory’s internal systems. I can loop the cams, jam their comms, reroute any alarms. They won’t even know we’re on the property until it’s too late.”

“You lock them in?” Rory asks.

“First thing I did,” Lucky replies. “They’re caged now. We’re the wolves.”

They all talk like it’s just another mission. Just another job.

But my hands won’t stop shaking.

“She left Lily in the crib,” I say quietly. “Left a note under her. Like she knew she wasn’t coming back.”

Kellan turns in his seat, locking eyes with me. “When they took Rose, I thought the same thing.”

I clench my jaw, eyes stinging. “But you got her back.”

“Not all of her,” he says softly. “But I got enough to build a future on.”

My throat burns.

“I keep thinking maybe it’s already too late,” I admit. “That maybe that note was her way of saying goodbye. Maybe they’re just waiting there with her body—waiting to watch me break when I see it.”

Rory’s voice cuts through the silence. “Then we break them first.”

His eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror.

“We don’t stop until we get her back, Liam. We don’t stop until this ends.”

Lucky looks up, just for a second. “Dariy wants an audience. He wouldn’t kill her yet. He wants you to see it. He wants your rage.”

Well, he fucking has it.

I curl my fingers tighter around my gun, pulse pounding in my ears.

If they’ve hurt her—if they’ve even touched her—I’ll burn the whole goddamn world down.

The factory looms like a carcass in the dark, rotted and rusting under the glow of the moon.

We pull up just beyond the fence line, engines off, hearts primed for war.

Rory gives one last glance across the group. “We stick to the plan. Three points of entry. No one moves until Liam’s in position.”

I nod, already moving.

I slip through the back entrance alone, just like we talked about. It has to look like I came here desperate. Foolish. Alone.