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“She can be useful to Delgado and still be trapped by him. That’s how men like Ciro work. They don’t always put women in chains. Sometimes the leash is a paycheck, a job title, a promise that everyone she loves will pay if she runs, and a future he can burn the second she steps out of line.” Her expression hardened. “Fear does a better job than locks.”

No one argued with Lacey about Delgado. Not after what he’d done to her.

Nik’s jaw tightened. He and Lucian had both once held power over the women beside them. Lacey and Scarlett understood better than the rest of us how fear and dependence could look from the outside.

“Nothing we’ve verified disproves the story she gave Lach,” Nik said. “That doesn’t make it true. But we haven’t found unexplained money, offshore activity, or communications that contradict it—nothing we can tie to her.”

He changed the image on the screen.

A photograph from Port Newark–Elizabeth appeared. Crates marked as industrial machine parts sat open, with rifle components and conversion kits packed beneath the false panels.

“She gave Lach information about a shipment we could verify,” Nik said. “My people confirmed it before Luca’s port contacts seized the cargo.”

Lucian studied the photograph. “So we took this from Delgado?”

“Yes. It proves she can give us useful intelligence. It doesn’t tell us why she gave it to us.”

“And sometimes,” Rory said quietly, “useful intelligence is bait.”

Scarlett nodded. “That’s why you verify everything. But fear and performance don’t cancel each other out.”

Her gaze shifted to me.

“Women who are trapped perform. Sometimes they’re lying. Sometimes the performance is the only reason they survived long enough to ask for help.”

Lacey looked at me too. “And sometimes the only person a trapped woman trusts is the one who had the power to hurt her and didn’t.”

That hit harder than I wanted it to.

Lucian studied me. “And you’re sure you want to do this?”

“Aye.”

I thought of Isabella in that government office, her chin high and tears clinging to her lashes, selling me a story I couldn’t fully trust but still couldn’t ignore.

“If she’s lying, we’ll deal with it. But if she’s another woman Delgado is using, leaving her with him is something I can’t live with.”

Lucian understood.

I saw it before he glanced down at Scarlett.

He would burn a country for his wife. Nik had burned half of Delgado’s world for Lacey. None of us got to pretend we were purely logical when a woman might be trapped with a monster.

Lucian looked back at me. “Then we plan for both possibilities—that she’s trapped and that she’s leading us into a trap.”

“Exactly,” Nik said. “We’re not trusting her. We’re treating her as a compromised asset under hostile surveillance.”

I hated hearing her reduced to an asset, but I knew better than to argue with the wording. Nik used cold language because it kept people alive.

Julian’s gaze swept the table. “All right. Where does she want the extraction?”

“She gave me an address near Teterboro. A small house she says she bought in December as an investment property. It’s empty enough for her to leave from without drawing Delgado’s attention.”

Nik rapped his fingertips against the table. “The property records support the purchase. The working plan is to spend the next few days securing the extraction route and choosing the best window before the end of the week.”

Rory lifted a brow. “That’s in the same area as your safe house.”

Nik’s expression darkened, and his gaze moved briefly to Julian before shifting to Lucian.