CHAPTER 18: STEALTH AND DEATH.

In the enclosed room, Stinson and Jamey sat in silence, nursing their nearly empty glasses of Martelli. The flickering candlelight danced over their tense faces. Across the room, Harvey’s mutilated body still slumped in the doorway like a grotesque sentinel, his blood long dried into a dull, rust-colored halo.

Neither dared move him.

“Hey, bro… what if…” Stinson started, then trailed off. Jamey glanced at him, jaw tight. “What if… all this could’ve been avoided if we just walked away instead of waiting around like prisoners?”

Jamey let out a hard sigh, spinning his pocketknife between his fingers, the golden hilt flashing with each pass. Doing nothing felt worse than dying.

He stood, his shadow stretching across the room like a blade. “Alright, Tallest. If she won’t come to us… we’ll go to her.”