Chapter 26 THE SECOND BOSS?
"Who the hell is Reid, Si?"
The question from Jax was sharp, cutting through the low hum of the garage like a blade. I stopped mid-motion, my hand frozen over the handle of my bike. I hadn't realized I’d muttered the name out loud.
"Pip told me you gave him good money for info on him." He added before I could lie or deny.
I turned slowly, trying to keep my face a mask of bored indifference. Jax was standing by the workbench, his arms crossed over his massive chest. He looked tired, the dark circles under his eyes a testament to how hard the crew had been working lately.
"Just someone from the files," I said, my voice steady. "A name that kept popping up in the Valenti reports. Why? You recognize it?"
Jax shook his head, his brow furrowing. "No. And that is the point. I’ve known you since we were kids, Si. I know every mark on your skin and every ghost in your head. If there was a Reid in your life, I would have known. But the way you said it... it sounded like you were mourning him."
I felt a prickle of cold sweat at the back of my neck. Sienna had kept Reid a secret from the people she trusted most. She had loved him in the dark, protecting him until the very end. But her protection hadn't been enough.
"The coma is a messy thing, Jax," I lied, looking away. "Names come back without faces. Faces come back without names. It is all just noise right now."
Sienna had kept their relationship secret to shield him from scrutiny, from politics, and from the inevitable interference of powerful fathers.
And it hadn’t worked.
He had still died.
She had still been destroyed.
Secrecy hadn’t saved them.
It had only ensured no one could help.
That realization settled heavily in my chest. Sienna hadn’t been reckless the day she stormed Black Hollow. She had been grieving.
I didn't wait for his response and just quickly walked away to join Kael in the garage, where he was tuning my bike. I needed someone who had been close enough to that night to smell the truth.
So I chose the Butcher.
He had been one of the men I beat to reclaim my title in the pits. Large. Loud. Brutal. The kind of mid-level enforcer who followed orders without asking too many questions.
Men like him heard things.
Men like him survived by pretending not to.
I signaled to Mina, who was waiting by the door.
"What's up, Si?" she whispered, sounding excited.
I gave her a look. "You don't even know why I called you aside, and you're already excited."
"You look like you wanted to tell me a secret, so of course I'm excited."
I rolled my eyes, though my fondness for her grew. "I need you to help me lure someone out."
"See, I was right," she said, smiling widely.
She texted him from a burner, flirted lightly, and promised something private in exchange for information about potential contracts. He agreed faster than I expected.
The Butcher was hiding in a dilapidated alleyway behind a row of meat-packing plants. He looked pathetic. His arm was in a dirty, makeshift sling, and his eyes were bloodshot and wild. He had lost everything after I beat him: his reputation, his men, and his dignity.
Butcher grinned when he saw Mina first.
“Didn’t know you were into private negotiations,” he chuckled.
“That depends on the negotiation,” Mina replied sweetly, stepping aside.
When he saw me step out of the shadows, he tried to run, but Mina was faster. She kicked his legs out from under him, sending him sprawling into the wet trash.
"Hello again," I said, my voice dropping into that low, raspy growl.
I didn't waste time with pleasantries. I stepped on his broken arm, my boot pressing down with a slow, calculated pressure. He let out a strangled cry, his face turning grey with pain.
"I have questions, Butcher. And you are going to answer them if you want to keep the other arm."
"I told you everything!" he wheezed, his eyes bulging. "The Harbingers... they own the turf now! I’m nothing to them!"
"Not about the turf," I hissed. I leaned down, my face inches from his. "I want to know about the Valenti hit. I want to know about Reid. Who gave the order?"
The Butcher froze. The pain seemed to vanish, replaced by a terror so deep it made him tremble. "You... you don't want to know that, Siren. Walk away. Please. Just kill me instead."
I applied more pressure. I felt the bone in his arm groan. "Name. Now."
"It was complicated!" he shouted, tears of agony streaming down his face. "The order... it didn't come from the captains. It came from way above our level. Above our pay grade."
“That doesn’t answer me.”
I leaned closer, lowering my voice to a whisper.
“Say the name.”
He swallowed hard, eyes darting around the alley like he expected something to emerge from the dark. “It came from the second boss,” he blurted.
I frowned, looking at Mina. She looked just as confused as I felt.
"You mean Kanan? You mean the boss?"
"No," the Butcher whispered, his voice shaking. "It was the second boss. The Shadow."
I stopped. My heart skipped a beat. "The second boss? What the hell are you talking about? The Harbingers only have one leader. Kanan Maddox runs the show."
He shook his head violently. “You don’t understand. It’s not like that.”
I tightened my grip on his broken wrist.
“Explain.”
“It’s a deep family thing,” he gasped. “Inner circle only. ... I saw them together once. If anyone knew I knew, I’d be eliminated."
The terror in his voice was genuine.
I grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him up. "Who is it? Is it Thorne? His right hand?"
"No! Thorne is a dog compared to him," the Butcher cried. "He is a monster. He is the one who does the things even Maddox won't touch. He is..."
"Give me a name!" I roared, the Siren's rage taking over.
"His name is..."
The word was cut short by a sharp, cracking sound that echoed through the alley like a whip.
A sharp crack split the air.
For half a second, I didn’t process it.
The butcher's head snapped back. A small, neat hole appeared in the center of his forehead, followed instantly by a spray of red against the brick wall behind him. His eyes went flat and empty. He slumped forward, his dead weight nearly pulling me down with him.
Mina stumbled back, shock flashing across her face. “What the—”
Another shot rang out.
"Get down!" I screamed, then grabbed her arm and dragged her down behind a dumpster as concrete chipped where we’d been standing.
"Sniper!" I hissed, my chest heaving.
I looked toward the rooftops of the surrounding warehouses. The rain was coming down harder now, blurring the edges of the buildings into a grey, indistinct mass. I couldn't see the shooter, but I knew they were still there, watching through a high-powered scope.
Another bullet struck the concrete inches from Mina’s neck, showering her in grey dust.
"We are exposed!" I yelled, grabbing Mina’s arm. "Move! Now!"