Page 10 of Peak’s Code

Peak’s mouth dropped open. "You know the name of the company?"

"I've known it for months,” she said.

Captain slapped the palms of his hands on the metal table, causing her to jump. "You could've led with that."

"You would've assumed I made it up,” she said. She knew that she wasn't wrong. Captain didn't deny it either.

Peak finally spoke. "We also found a federal investigation tied to the company."

Maeve closed her eyes. "So they didn't bury all of it."

Captain leaned forward. "Who are they?"

She opened her eyes. "The Iron Serpents." The room fell silent.

Peak watched her carefully. "You know them personally?"

"I know enough about them,” she said.

"How about you explain to us what you know about them?" Captain said. Maeve looked between the three men. This was the moment she’d been dreading, because once she told them everything, there was no going back.

"They're not just moving women,” she said, “they're selling them." Nobody spoke. "My sister wasn't a random abduction."

Captain frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Wren hacked into one of their financial accounts."

Peak looked at her. "What?"

Maeve met his gaze. "My sister was a programmer, and so am I."

The realization hit Peak instantly. "You were hunting them online."

"Yes,” she said.

"You found something,” he said, not really asking her a question. "And they found you."

She nodded. "They couldn't catch me." Her voice became almost a whisper. "So they took Wren instead." The words settled over the room like a funeral shroud. She felt something twist in her chest. She wasn't chasing strangers because she wanted revenge. She was chasing them because her little sister had paid the price for something Maeve had started.

Peak slowly lowered himself into the empty chair beside Captain, and for the first time since meeting her, he stopped looking at her like a suspect. Instead, he looked at her like someone who had been fighting a war completely alone.

Captain finally broke the silence. "If everything you've told us is true⁠—”

Maeve looked him squarely in the eye. "It is."

Captain nodded. “Then the Grave Prowlers have a problem."

Maeve shook her head. "No."

Captain frowned. "Why don’t you think so?"

Her voice was steady. "You don’t have a problem. You have a choice."

"What’s the choice?" Captain asked.

"You can turn me over to the Iron Serpents, or you can help me burn their empire to the ground."

Maeve wasn’t sure if Peak believed her until he said, "They took the wrong sister." Every eye in the room turned toward him, and Peak's jaw tightened. "They just made this club an enemy." And for the first time in eighteen long months, Maeve allowed herself to believe she might not have to fight alone anymore.