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The tattoo machine quiets in my hand, and I give my client one last wipe. They stand and go to the mirror, twisting to look at the portrait on their upper arm. It’s black-and-gray realism, with gleaming jewels in the frame around the woman.

This piece has been a work in progress for months, and now it’s done.

The sense of accomplishment fills me, and I rise from the stool when my client’s face breaks out into a huge smile.

“Let me snap some pictures,” I say, adjusting my lighting, “and then we’ll get it wrapped up. You’re already familiar with my aftercare instructions.”

“Yep.”

The guy is covered in tattoos. He started coming almost a year ago, and we’ve kind of bounced around his body since then. A mermaid on his thigh, a compass. He works on a fishing boat that comes into port here in Sterling Falls. Sometimes he brings me fish, which has been a fun little barter.

“What are you doing with that?” He points.

I glance over at the sweatshirt slung over the edge of the couch, and my brow furrows.

“Someone left it here yesterday,” I say slowly. “I didn’t notice it.”

My office girl only comes in to confirm schedules and balance the accounts. She would’ve been the one to spot it, but she’s taking some personal time. It’s fine by me—I opened this shop by myself and still regularly handle most of the day-to-day shit.

“I…” He turns to face me. “You don’t want anything to do with them.”

“You’ve lost me, man.”

“The Cyclopes.”

My body tenses. It’s one of those fight-or-flight reactions, I think, but instead, I freeze. I look again at the sweatshirt, the stitched logo on the breast, and then back to my client.

He’s a big guy, but right now his eyes are wide.

“Can you go into a little more detail?” I ask. “I mean…”

“They tried to get a foothold in Emerald Cove and failed,” he says.

“But it was brutal. They made a strong press, and it was bloody for a while. The police had their hands full, not that the other gangs were willing to cooperate. One of those we’ll-deal-with-it things.

But my buddy’s cousin is familiar with Emerald Cove.

Grew up there. He said the Cyclopes were not to be fucked with. ”

“Why?”

Reese and I had a conversation about them. How he was brought in on a lower level, doing some shit for them as a way to survive. And then Reese came here… We know they’re in West Falls already. The roadblocks they set up without police interference, obviously.

“Their main method of intimidation is to take an eye.” He scratches at his wrist. “Just one, not enough to kill you, but it sends a message to everyone else.”

Jesus.

“Nobody else wears their shit, man. You had a Cyclops in your shop.”

And it’s Kade’s sweatshirt.

My stomach drops, but I manage to keep a straight face. I go over and snatch up the sweatshirt, shoving it into the bin.

“He’s not going to come back,” I say. “Thank you for letting me know.”

“You see that eye with the snake and you fucking walk the other way, dude.” He holds out his hand. “Just trying to… I don’t know. Keep you aware? You seem like a straight-up guy.”

“I am.” I shake his hand.

After he pays for the last session, with a promise to return in a few months, I sit behind the desk and blow out a breath.

It doesn’t seem real. Or right.

Kade gave a sweatshirt just like it to Artemis. It had the logo. It made me irrationally angry at the time, seeing her in his clothes, but we thought nothing of it.

The eye, staring at me from the trash, tells me how fucking stupid I am.

If Kade is a Cyclops, that means we’re more fucked than I realized.

I call Artemis, but it goes straight to voicemail.

Same with Antonio.

Swearing under my breath, I barely spare time to lock up the shop and sprint to my bike. I hop on and gun it, shooting down the streets toward the hospital.

That place has no cell reception—and it’s also the last place I saw Artemis. And Kade…

My heart pounds against my rib cage. I make great time, but instead of a parking space, I just leave the bike on the sidewalk right outside the doors. I drop my helmet onto it and rush inside, taking the stairs instead of the elevator. It’s faster.

And when I burst into Reese’s room, I find him…

Awake.

Sitting up.

He stares at me. I stare at him.

“When did you?—?”

“About an hour ago.” He frowns. “No one will tell me anything.”

I glance around. Artemis’s phone is still on the charger on the other side of the room.

“Was she here?”

“Just a nurse who came in after I woke up.” He seems confused. He touches his side and winces. “I don’t understand.”

“Kade,” I seethe. “He had something to do with this, and we’ve got to find him.”

It’s irrational. Reese just woke up, he’s been in the hospital, but right now my panic—a simmering thing just under my skin and barely restrained for now—is taking charge.

“Kade?” he repeats. “It wasn’t Kade who took me, it was Gabriel.”

Gabriel. Kade.

Are they both Cyclopes?

I shake my head. “Someone took Artemis, and my guess is Kade. Are you going to help me, or?—”

“No need.” Kade’s voice comes from directly behind me. “I’m here.”

I whirl around. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Where is Artemis?”

His expression blanks.

Even Reese, who is arguably seeing Kade for the first time—conscious anyway, and maskless—sits up straighter.

“Laurent,” Reese snaps. “Tell us the truth.”

Guilt.

Just a hint of it.

“He wanted to keep you unconscious forever,” Kade says softly to Reese. “I couldn’t let that happen. I had to give him what he wanted.”

“Which was…?”

“Artemis. She was the one who he wanted most, and I didn’t realize that when we arrived.”

Because they arrived in Sterling Falls together.

“Motherfucker,” I growl. “Where is she?”

He swipes his hand down his face. “It’s too late. Whatever he’s going to do to her?—”

I’m going to beat him half to death, drag him back from the edge, and then do it again. Over and over again. I’ll tattoo him blind. Cut off his fingers?—

“Stop.” Kade’s voice is pained, but it’s directed at Reese.

Reese, who is pulling the stickers from his skin, then removing the IV needle. The shrill beeping of the monitor as it loses contact startles all of us, but he doesn’t stop. He swings his legs over the edge, putting his feet flat on the floor, and stands.

Wobbles.

Kade is there in a flash, gripping his forearms.

They exchange some wordless conversation, and Kade finally grunts.

“Clothes,” Kade says to me.

I scowl.

There’s just one problem with that demand. We brought Reese into the hospital in his boxers and a sweatshirt, essentially, after we removed everything to search for signs of trauma. Which means that, besides the boxers they kept him in, he’s got a zip-up sweatshirt. That’s it.

“Hang on,” I bark.

I get creative.

I act a bit like I own the place when I head down the hall and into a utility closet. There are scrubs there, clean and in plastic sleeves. I grab a shirt and pants, then find a bin of slip-on shoes.

When I return, Reese has gone back to sitting. The monitors are silent.

No nurse came running, though, which is even more strange. There wasn’t one in the hallway either.

“What did you do?” I ask Kade. Suspicion colors my tone. “Are you going to try to kill me next? Because I won’t go down without a fight, that’s for damn sure.”

Kade rolls his eyes. “Calm down. I’m not going to kill you. I paid the nurses to take the other patients down for some fresh air, so we have a few minutes to ourselves.”

Lovely.

I throw the packets of clothes at him and go back to the doorway. He helps Reese change and soon shuffles him up beside us. Reese seems in pain, but his head is held high. I can’t see how him coming along on a rescue mission is a good idea.

“Terror,” Reese says simply.

Kade narrows his eyes.

“What?” I scowl at him, then Kade.

“Artemis and Gabriel’s history goes back to Terror. You know, the sex trafficking club. If he wanted her, it was probably to hash out some past trauma, or revenge or something.”

Kade’s getting stiffer by the second.

Why? Because he knows something? Because he and Gabriel are buddies?

This could’ve been their plan all along. Get close to us, get Artemis’ guard down, then attack when we’re vulnerable.

An uncomfortable feeling takes root in my chest.

Just how far has Kade gone? Both in his deception and… otherwise.

But part of what Reese is saying doesn’t quite make sense, either.

“Why would he need revenge against her?” I ask. “She wasn’t running the place.”

“No…” Reese continues out the door, his hand on his rib cage. “No, she wasn’t. But she still carries a lot of guilt about what happened to him.”

There’s something he’s not saying, but there’s no time to piece it together. I dial Antonio’s number again and swear when it goes straight to voicemail.

Something isn’t right.

“Do you have your car?” I ask Kade.

The stony-faced man nods once. I haven’t revealed his involvement with the Cyclopes, but that can wait. If he’s helping us now, the accusation could only make him abandon ship.

I’m functioning, and so is he, but Reese…

Reese limps along faster, glaring at us when we’re too slow. We take the elevator down to the parking garage, and he finds Kade’s vehicle faster than me.

They know each other. I need to keep reminding myself about that fact, because it means there’s a potential alliance there. They could choose each other over me. It sounds like Kade already made his decision regarding Artemis…

A laugh bursts out of me.

They both look at me oddly, but I just shake it off. Reese and I had this conversation. The burning-building question. He said he’d save Kade.

And I picked Artemis.

I will continue to pick Artemis… I just have to make sure she knows it.

We pile in the car, me in the back, Kade at the wheel, and Reese hunched in the front seat. Our drive to Bow & Arrow seems to take hours, even though in reality we arrive in minutes. The club, at this time of day, is not yet active. Even the restaurant isn’t open.

But there is someone loitering, and my brows furrow.

“One of the waitresses,” Kade says.

We park and hop out, and he approaches her. “Mel, right?”

She nods.

“What’s going on?”

“Tem was supposed to meet me to go over the schedule.” She shrugs, then fumbles a lighter out of her pocket. A cigarette follows. “I think she’s going to fire me.”

Not helpful. Minus the fact that she hasn’t shown up, and I don’t think Tem has ever ducked a meeting with her staff. It’s not her way, not when Bow & Arrow means everything to her.

“Did you call Antonio?”

“He didn’t answer.” She sighs. “I am really getting fired, aren’t I? It’s because I like to go over to the Hell Hounds’ clubhouse sometimes. It’s not my fault?—”

“Save it,” I snap.

We need to get into the building. A tug on the front doors confirm that they’re locked, but there’s another entrance in the alley. It’s where Tem usually parks, and the kitchen staff enter that way. They have direct access to their work stations on the top floor.

Reese heads in that direction, and we follow.

He doesn’t stop there, though. There’s another door farther down, painted black to match the wall. I can’t say I’ve ever noticed it before, but he seems familiar. He goes and yanks it open, and the squeal of hinges fills the alley.

I check back at the mouth of it, ensuring no one sneaks up on us, then follow him and Kade inside.

I’m not expecting a short set of stairs down, then a long, sloping hallway. It’s in much worse condition than anything at Bow & Arrow.

“Where does this go?”

“To Terror,” Reese answers.

Again with that name. When Tem said it, it was offhand. Easy, in a way, but more of a brush-over than anything else. Reese says it with a lot more warning in his voice, as if the idea of it makes him sick.

And Apollo said it was a guise for a sex trafficking ring.

One that Artemis was in.

My gut twists. She didn’t let us home in on that in the moment, and like an absolute fucking idiot, I let it go. Kade, too. We trade a glance, for once setting aside the fact that we’re on opposite sides.

That Kade got Artemis into this position in the first place.

You don’t just give the girl to the bad guy.

We reach another metal door, and Reese pauses. He takes a moment, mumbling something that I don’t catch, then carefully opens the door. This one is a lot quieter, and we step into yet another hallway.

This has many doors on either side, and the bulbs overhead flicker. The air is stale, and an insidious feeling overtakes me.

We shouldn’t be down here.

I glance into one of the open doors, shocked that the room inside resembles a jail cell. Worse, though, because it doesn’t even have a bed. Just a dirty, hole-filled pad on the floor. A knocked-over bucket. A single light bulb.

Others are closed, the deadbolt on the outside of each keeping them locked.

Sex trafficking has to keep them somewhere , a little voice in my head whispers.

I’m not the only one horrified. It seems like Kade hasn’t seen this place either. We follow Reese down, and I’m still fucking confused at his involvement. Tem was scared of him in the beginning.

“Were you a guard?” I ask.

He shakes his head, then presses a finger to his lips.

Right. Silence.

There are voices farther ahead. We pass what seems like remnants of a doctor’s office, although the room’s been trashed. There’s broken glass everywhere.

Reese looks at Kade. Motions him ahead of us. The voices are louder now, but Kade just scowls and nods.

He takes the lead and rounds the corner.

“Well, well,” a voice calls. “What are you doing here, brother?”

I exchange a glance with Reese.

They’re fucking brothers ?

This can’t be good.