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"Go, Vex. I'll be fine."

I watch her disappear down the hallway.

Fuck, leaving my own damn home feels wrong.

Lock's sitting at the clubhouse table when I walk in, laptop open and a cup of coffee beside him.

Grim's behind his desk. Ash occupies a chair near the window, looking through something on his phone. Hound's standing beside Lock, studying the screen.

"Where's your girl?" Ash asks.

"Home."

"So you admit it, huh?"

I flip him off.

He grins.

Grim doesn't bother hiding his amusement.

"Sit down, Vex."

I take the chair opposite Lock.

"What've we got?"

"Start with Mercado," Grim says.

Lock turns the laptop toward me.

A grainy security image fills the screen. A gas station outside Blissmont County. Dark sedan at one of the pumps. A man standing beside it, his face partly turned away.

"Three nights ago," Lock says. "Mercado's car was picked up on a traffic camera heading south. I tracked it to this station about forty miles farther down the highway."

I lean closer.

"That him?"

"Could be. Height and build fit. Camera's shit."

"Plate?"

"Matches Mercado's car."

"Car reported stolen?"

"Nope."

I study the figure.

Three nights ago. Five days after Aaron Mercado disappeared.

"You got anything after this?"

"Nothing. Car drops off the cameras about twenty miles south."

"Could've taken one of the smaller roads," Ash says.