CHAPTER 135
HARRY'S POV
The federal holding cell was exactly what I'd expected - concrete walls, steel bars, and the constant smell of industrial disinfectant that couldn't quite mask the underlying scent of fear and desperation. What I hadn't expected was the silence.
In the six hours since our arrest, none of us had been questioned. No lawyers had appeared. No phone calls had been offered. We were just sitting in limbo while somewhere above us, deals were being made that would determine the rest of our lives.
"This is wrong," Jax said from the cell next to mine. "Federal procedure requires..."
"Federal procedure doesn't mean shit when William Kane is involved," Lucas interrupted from across the corridor. "He's buying time for something."
I pressed my face against the bars, trying to see down the hallway toward the entrance. "Any word on Skylar?"
"Nothing. They separated her immediately." Lucas's voice was tight with barely controlled panic. "She could be anywhere."
That was what terrified me most. Skylar was brilliant, resourceful, and absolutely lethal when she needed to be. But she was also driven by an overwhelming need to protect innocent people, even at the cost of her own safety. If William was playing on that need...
"He's going to try to make a deal with her," I said, voicing what we were all thinking.
"She won't take it," Jax said immediately. "Not after everything we've been through."
"Won't she?" Lucas asked quietly. "If he shows her evidence that our actions made things worse for the victims we were trying to save? If he offers her a way to actually fix the system instead of just fighting it?"
I wanted to argue, to insist that Skylar would never willingly work with the man who'd manipulated all of us for years. But the truth was, I wasn't sure anymore. The woman who'd walked out of that warehouse wasn't the same person who'd walked in. Something fundamental had shifted in her when she'd made the choice to sacrifice those girls to stop her father.
"She's changing," I admitted. "Becoming something harder, more calculating. What if William can offer her something we can't?"
"Like what?"
"Like the power to actually win this war instead of just surviving it."
The sound of footsteps echoing down the corridor cut off our conversation. A federal marshal appeared, his expression neutral as he unlocked my cell.
"Kane. You've got a visitor."
I followed him through a maze of corridors to a small room that looked more like a lawyer's office than a typical federal interview space. Expensive furniture, legal books lining the walls, even a coffee service set up on a side table.
William sat behind the desk like he owned the place. Which, considering his connections, he probably did.
"Harry," he said, gesturing to the chair across from him. "Thank you for coming."
"Like I had a choice."
"You always have choices. The question is whether you're smart enough to make the right ones." He poured himself coffee, not offering me any. "Your situation is... complicated."
"Cut the bullshit, William. What do you want?"
"I want to offer you a way out of this mess. A way to save your friends and the woman you love."
He slid a folder across the desk. Inside were photographs that made my stomach turn - children in situations that were somehow worse than anything I'd seen in William's facilities. Scenes of abuse and torture that looked like they belonged in hell rather than anywhere on Earth.
"Recognize the locations?" William asked.
I studied the photos more carefully, my training kicking in despite my revulsion. The backgrounds, the lighting, the architectural details... "These are facilities we hit. Warehouses we shut down."
"Warehouses that were taken over by new management within hours of your raids. Management that lacks my commitment to... quality control."
"You're lying."
"Am I? Check the timestamps, Harry. These photos were taken yesterday. The children you thought you'd saved? They're back in captivity, in the hands of people who make your girlfriend's father look like a humanitarian."
I forced myself to keep looking at the images, even though each one felt like a physical blow. If William was telling the truth, then everything we'd fought for had been meaningless. Worse than meaningless - we'd made things actively worse for the people we'd tried to protect.
"Why are you showing me this?"
"Because I want you to understand what's at stake. Skylar has already agreed to work with me. The question is whether you'll join her or watch her descend into darkness alone."
My blood ran cold. "Skylar would never..."
"Skylar is a pragmatist, Harry. She's realized that the only way to truly protect innocent people is to take control of the systems that exploit them. She's agreed to become my partner in rebuilding the network - this time with proper oversight and humanitarian standards."
"You're full of shit."
"Am I?" He pulled out his phone and showed me a text message: "Deal accepted. Start the paperwork. - S"
The phone number was Skylar's. The timestamp was twenty minutes ago.
"She's playing you," I said, but my voice lacked conviction.
"Perhaps. Or perhaps she's finally grown up enough to realize that righteous indignation is no substitute for actual power." William leaned back in his chair, studying my face. "The offer extends to you, of course. And to Lucas and Jax. Work with me, help me build something better than what came before, and those federal charges disappear. Refuse, and spend the rest of your lives in prison while Skylar learns to operate without you."
"And if we accept?"
"Then we begin the work of actually making a difference. No more reactive strikes against symptoms while the disease spreads. No more half-measures that create more problems than they solve. Real, systematic change that saves real lives."
I stared at the photographs spread across the desk, thinking about the children suffering in those images. Thinking about Skylar, alone with William, possibly already being corrupted by his promises of power and effectiveness.
"I need to talk to the others."
"Of course. But don't take too long to decide, Harry. Every hour you spend in deliberation is another hour those children spend in hell."
As the marshal led me back to my cell, I couldn't shake the feeling that William had just played his strongest card. Not the threat of prison, not the promise of power, but the simple, devastating possibility that working with him might be the only way to actually save the people we cared about.
And if Skylar had already made that choice...
I looked at Jax and Lucas as my cell door clanged shut, seeing my own uncertainty reflected in their faces.
"Well?" Jax asked quietly.
"We've got a problem," I said. "A big fucking problem."
Because the worst part wasn't that William might be lying about Skylar's defection. The worst part was that he might be telling the truth.
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