Chapter 5 Chapter five

"He fed the Dealers the blueprints. He helped them destroy your father because my father Dutch promised him a seat at the high table for his silence. It was a business merger built on your father's ashes, Mia."

The world seemed to tilt. The hatred I’d carried for three years was cracking. I wanted to scream at him, to tell him he was a liar, but the proof was screaming louder from the monitors.

"Why are you telling me this, Dax?" I asked, my voice trembling. "If your father authorized this, why betray your own blood for me?"

"Because loyalty to a lie isn't loyalty at all. It's a cage." He reached out, his hand hovering before his calloused thumb grazed my jawline. The touch was light, but it felt like a brand of fire on my skin. It was a mechanic's hand rough, strong, and steady. "And because I've watched you race, Mia. You don't just have his skills; you have his fire. You're the only one fast enough to help me burn this corruption to the ground."

My heart hammered against my ribs. I should have pushed him away. But the air in the room had grown thick, charged with a dangerous electricity. For a heartbeat, the revenge and the debt vanished. There was only the heat of his skin and the way his gaze dropped to my lips. He leaned in, his breath warm against my cheek, and for the first time, I wanted to close the distance with the enemy.

Then, the heavy oak door exploded inward, hitting the stopper with a bang that shook the foundations of the building.

"Dax!" a gravelly, smoke-ruined voice roared from the threshold.

I spun around, my hand instinctively reaching for the steel wrench I kept in my back pocket. Standing in the doorway was Marcus "Dutch" Steele. The President. He looked like an older, more cynical version of Dax, his face weathered by decades of violence. In his right hand, he held a heavy chrome revolver, the barrel pointed at the floor, but his knuckles were white against the trigger.

"What the hell is Chen's brat doing in the inner sanctum?" Dutch's eyes moved from me to the monitors, still frozen on the image of the fire. His face went from a mottled, angry red to a ghostly white.

Dax stepped in front of me, his large frame shielding me from his father’s sight. The transition from the man who had almost kissed me to the cold Vice President was instantaneous.

"She's the rider for the Championship, Dutch," Dax said, his voice like grinding stones. "And she was just leaving."

"She isn't going anywhere," Dutch growled, raising the revolver until the barrel was leveled directly at Dax’s chest. "Not after what she’s seen in this room."

Behind Dutch, I saw Snake slip into the room like a shadow, a jagged grin twisting his lips. He wasn't just here to collect a debt anymore. He was here to bury the witness.

Dax didn't flinch. He reached behind his back, his fingers brushing mine for a fraction of a second a silent command to stay still.

"If you pull that trigger," Dax said quietly, "you lose the only person who can win the territory back. You kill the club to save your own skin. Is that the deal you made, old man?"

The standoff stretched into eternity. Dutch’s hand trembled. He looked at his son, then at me, then at the traitorous snake at his shoulder.

"Take her to the basement," Dutch finally rasped. "Lock her in the cage. If she’s as good as you say, Dax, she’ll race. But she’ll do it with a collar around her neck."

Snake stepped forward, pulling heavy zip-ties from his belt. I looked at Dax, waiting for him to fight. But he stood there, his face a mask of cold stone, as Snake grabbed my arms and yanked them behind my back.

"Dax?" I whispered, my voice breaking.

He didn't look at me. He didn't say a word as they dragged me toward the door. But as I passed him, I felt something small, cold, and hard pressed into my palm the emergency override key to the biometric lock.

"Don't make me regret this, Ghost," he muttered, so low that even Snake couldn't hear.

Then the door slammed shut, and I was plunged into the darkness of the hallway, heading for the one place in the clubhouse no one ever walked out of alive.