Chapter 166 Day Two

Chapter 166 Day Two
Cade came home just after midnight, moving quietly so he wouldn't wake her, except she wasn't asleep.

"You're up," he said, surprised, finding her at the kitchen table with the lamp on low.

"Couldn't sleep." She looked at him properly, taking in the dirt on his jacket, the tired set of his shoulders. "How bad was today."

"Long." He dropped into the chair across from her. "Reinforcements are mostly in place. Two more fence sections shored up, a few extra eyes posted where Renzo's men clocked the sedan pattern."

"And Renzo?"

"Refusing painkillers and insisting he's fine, same as always." Cade rubbed a hand over his face.

"Doctor cleared him for light duty. Lina's been hovering near him most of the day like she's personally responsible for keeping him upright."

Lyra allowed herself a small smile at that. "How's he taking the hovering?"

"Badly, according to him. Not badly at all, from what I actually saw." Cade reached for her hand across the table. "I think something's there, honestly."

"You've noticed it too."

"Hard not to. Renzo's normally sharp with everyone. He goes soft the second she's in the room." Cade's mouth twitched.

"It's almost funny, watching a man who runs perimeter security like a military operation completely lose his nerve over someone handing him water."

"Do you think anything will actually happen there?"

"I don't know," Cade admitted.

Lyra nodded slowly. "How are you holding up," she asked instead. "Really."

Cade was quiet for a moment, turning her hand over in his, studying it like the answer might be written there. "I keep running Friday through my head. Every version of it. What could go wrong, what we're not accounting for."

"That sounds exhausting."

"It is." He looked up at her. "But it's better than not thinking about it at all and getting caught flat-footed."

"There's a difference between preparing and torturing yourself," Lyra said gently. "I think you're closer to the second one right now."

Cade let out a breath, something in his shoulders finally easing at being told that plainly. "Maybe."

"Come to bed," she said, standing and pulling him up with her. "Friday will still need you tomorrow. Tonight needs you to actually rest."



The next morning brought a different kind of tension, sharper somehow, the kind that comes when a deadline stops being an abstract number and starts being a day with an actual date attached.

Lyra went to the clubhouse again, unable to sit still at the apartment, and found Rosa in the kitchen already elbow-deep in prep for something.

"You're cooking a lot for a day nobody's officially celebrating," Lyra said.

"I cook when I'm anxious," Rosa said, not looking up. "Better than the alternative, which is standing around doing nothing useful with my hands."

Lyra picked up a knife and joined her without being asked, the two of them falling into an easy rhythm.

"You scared?"

Lyra considered the question honestly. "Yes. Mostly for Cade, for Renzo, for all of them, really."

"Good," Rosa said. "Means you understand what's actually happening. The ones who aren't scared right now are the ones I'd worry about."

They worked in comfortable quiet for a while, the sound of chopping and the low radio Rosa always kept playing filling the space between them.

Mara came in partway through, looking tired in a way Lyra hadn't seen on her before. "South end's fully reinforced now," she said. "Cade and Dante just finished the last walkthrough."

"How does it look," Rosa asked.

"As ready as it's going to get." Mara sat heavily on a stool near the counter. "Renzo's pushing to be on the front line despite the shoulder. Dante's letting him, which worries me more than the shoulder does."

"Dante trusts him," Lyra said.

"Dante trusts everyone too much sometimes," Mara said, though there was no real bite in it, just tiredness. "That's not a criticism, it's just an observation."

Lina appeared in the doorway not long after, and something in her expression made both Rosa and Mara go quiet, watching her carefully.

"He asked me to come to the fence line today," Lina said, sitting down slowly. "To bring food out to the guys working the reinforcement. He specifically asked for me."

"That's not unusual," Rosa said carefully. "Someone always brings food out."

"He asked for me specifically," Lina repeated. "Not just whoever's free."

The kitchen went quiet for a moment, all of them absorbing that. "What did you say," Mara asked.

"I said yes." Lina looked down at her hands. "Obviously I said yes."

"Obviously," Rosa said, something gentle in her voice now.

Lina looked up, something raw and uncertain in her face. "I don't know what I'm doing, with any of this. It's not supposed to be anything."

Nobody said anything to that directly, the silence in the room doing more than words could have, an unspoken understanding passing between the three older women that this wasn't the moment to push Lina toward an answer she clearly hadn't found herself yet.

"Go bring the food," Rosa said finally, gentle but firm. "See what today actually looks like before you decide what it means."

Lina nodded slowly, standing, gathering herself before heading toward the door.



Cade found Lyra again that evening, later than the night before, exhaustion etched deeper into his face now that two full days of preparation sat behind him.

"One more day after tomorrow," he said, sitting heavily at the table. "Then Friday."

"How's everyone holding up."

"Tired, tense. Ready, as much as anyone can be ready for something like this." He looked at her. "Renzo asked Lina to bring food to the fence line today."

"I heard."

"Word travels fast in this club."

"It does," Lyra said, careful not to overstate it.

Cade studied her for a moment. "You think something's actually happening there."

"I think two people who've been careful around each other for a long time are running out of room to keep being careful," Lyra said.

"Especially with Friday coming, things like that have a way of clarifying what actually matters."

Cade nodded slowly, something thoughtful settling into his expression. "Maybe Friday's good for something, then. Besides all the obvious terrible reasons."

"Maybe," Lyra agreed, reaching for his hand. "One more day, then we find out."