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I move around the trees far enough to see the front window.

A woman crosses the room. Blonde hair. A pale sleeve. She turns, and I see her face.

My hand closes around the phone so hard the edge bites into my palm.

“Liv is here.”

“Are you certain?” Grayson asks.

“Yes.”

She moves out of sight before I can see anything else. No blood. No restraints that I could make out. That tells me almost nothing.

“Ari. Listen to me. Wait for backup.”

I know what he is going to say. We need numbers. We need the perimeter checked. We need to know how many men Jax has inside.

He is right.

I keep watching the window.

At the masquerade, I told her to run. I could barely stand, and I told her to run as though that would be enough. They took her while I was fighting to stay conscious.

I have replayed it every night since.

“I’m not leaving her here.”

“Nobody is asking you to leave. We’re asking you to wait.”

I look toward the narrow road. Every minute I wait is another minute in which a vehicle could arrive. Another chance for Jax to move her somewhere I will never find.

“Send them to the coordinates.”

“Ari—”

“I’m going in.”

I end the call before he can talk me out of it.

Then I silence the phone and put it away.

Olivia Harrison. Derek’s daughter. The woman everyone had expected Hunter to marry, while Hunter was finding reasons to be with Aurora and I was finding reasons to be with Liv.

We let everyone see what suited them. I told myself there would be time to make the rest honest.

Now I have to get her out before we can have any future at all.

I draw my sidearm and move toward the cabin.

The woods are quiet. I stop beside a tree and watch the windows again.

I have known Jax since Westlake. I helped build what the Vipers became. I have seen him take a room apart without raising his voice and watched men agree with him because disagreeing cost more than they could bear.

I know what he is.

I also know the sound of his laugh when nothing is at stake. The way he looks at someone who has surprised him. The attention I have caught myself paying to him when I should have been listening to somebody else.

None of that makes him safe.