Chapter 195

Mason POV

The old lumber mill is rotted to shit—rusted metal bones and splintered timber swallowed by pine, the kind of place that still stinks of blood even if you can’t see it.

Fitting.

I’m holed up in the foreman’s office, or what’s left of it—three walls, half a roof, and enough cover to run surveillance without being seen. The floor’s slick with oil and rat piss, but I’ve got the high ground and the view’s perfect.

My laptop hums against the silence, three live feeds running—a drone overhead, thermal in the trees, perimeter motion sensors ringing the clearing. All clear.

For now.

Above me, King and Niko are perched on a steel catwalk, overlooking the entire drop zone. King’s got the rifle, his scope fixed on the road. Niko’s beside him, unarmed for long-range, but close enough to talk him off the ledge if he starts getting twitchy.

It’s not that we don’t trust King to stay professional. We just know the second he sees Silas, he m