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He didn’t know if it’d been witnessing the abuse of Raven and his mother for all those years that had instigated it. If that had been the spark of this rage and hate that drove him to do what he did.
If it’d been the first life he’d taken, that monster he’d put in the ground because he couldn’t take the chance that he could ever come back for his sister.
Maybe it’d been the woman he’d heard crying on that fateful night.
Or maybe each one had been required of the other to bring him to this place.
He sat in his chair at the round table that was hidden in the atticof the house they’d rented in LA, and he called to order the meeting of Sovereign Sanctum.
The beginnings of it had been bred that night when they’d made the decision to help Angela Burkin start a new life. Cash had gotten the documents together, Theo had kept her hidden in his apartment while he did, then Otto had driven her across the country to get her set up.
She’d kept her promise and never breathed a word about them, or at least they’d assumed so since they’d never had any blowback.
River guessed he’d known it immediately—that this was going to be the purpose of his life, and when Iron Owls had been dismantled, it became blatantly obvious he was destined for something different.
When the rest of his crew had climbed on board, sure it was their calling, too?
Sovereign Sanctum had been born.
A secret society that got women and children to safety.
Of course, they did it a whole shit-ton more careful than they had the first time. Safeguards set in place to protect themselves. Their identities. Cash did all the background checks when they were contacted to make sure it was legit.
Contacts were made through a chain of counselors at different shelters and doctors’ offices they’d come to trust throughout the country. People like them who were willing to do anything to keep the innocent safe. Plus, there was a hotline that had been set up under a different umbrella. A couple counselors who they’d taken under their wing who then got those in the most dire of situations in touch with them, though that connection remained forever untraceable.
“Melanie Castro and her son were delivered safely,” Otto said, raking his massive hands through his hair as he rocked his chair back on two legs, concern still written all over his face.
It was a rough one.
River had thought he was going to be able to slip in and get them out safely without her boyfriend any the wiser. Plan was he’d just think she had packed up her things and left him.
Only the fucker had followed her to the meeting point—thegrocery store she visited every other day—no doubt picking up the scent that she was getting ready to bail.
There’d been an altercation, and River had to make it look like the bastard had been mugged in broad daylight. It’d been messy. Hands bloodstained and dirty.
Most of the time it didn’t come to that, but he never hesitated when it did.
Kane scrubbed a tatted palm over his face. “That’s too close, man. Out in the day and in public like that. You’re skating a thin line. Worried one of these times someone is going to see.”
River clasped his fingers together where his hands rested on the table. “Did what I had to do. The way I always do.”
“A bit reckless, yeah?” Otto said, still spun up.
Thing was, it was always on River to do the reckless things.
“Who knows what would have happened to her if I’d stepped back and let her act like nothing was going on and she went back to that house. If he suspected…?”
He trailed off with the truth of it.
Theo sighed. “Only thing River could do. And it’s behind us now. We need to look toward what’s coming up in front of us.”
Everyone looked to Cash at that.
He blew out a sigh. “Got a hit last night. This one is going to be complicated. And really fucking dangerous.”
And with that, all their eyes slanted to him.
FORTY-FOUR
