Chapter 7 - The Colonel’s Ledger
Jax’s gun hand didn't drop an inch. "Explain. Right now."
Eleanor set the scanner on the table, crossing her arms over her chest. "My name is Colonel Eleanor Vance. I spent thirty-four years in military intelligence. This house isn't just a family farm, Jax. It’s a secure safehouse holding three decades of unredacted operational ledgers from the San Juan Land Trust scandal."
Knox lowered his knife slightly, looking at the stacks of black leather binders lining the metal shelves along the concrete wall. "The diner. The crying. That was a performance?"
"It was a recruitment drive," Eleanor replied smoothly. "Julian Sterling isn't a county auditor. He's an asset for a private security firm called Vanguard Strategic. He brought four armed operators with him to this valley. I needed two men with combat experience and no official record to hold the perimeter while I transferred the encrypted files to the federal prosecutor in Seattle."
Jax’s eyes narrowed into slits. "You used us as sandbags."
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"I used family," Eleanor corrected, her blue eyes turning as cold as arctic ice. "Your father was my younger brother, Jax. He died because Julian Sterling’s father ran a land-grab ring in this county twenty years ago. I spent two decades building this trap. Tomorrow morning at dawn, Sterling’s team comes to burn this house to the ground. I intend to let them try."
She looked at the two bikers, her jaw set like concrete. "Are you going to walk away, or are you going to finish your father's fight?"
