“She’s covering bruises,” Lisa said quietly, her voice barely a whisper. “I saw them when I stopped by her apartment yesterday. Finger marks on her upper arm.”
Shane’s knuckles whitened around his fork.
“She denied it,” Lisa’s voice cracked. “Said she bumped into a door frame during a workout. Shane, I’ve seen enough domestic violence victims to know the difference between an accident and an assault.”
The old warrior in Shane wanted to drive to Dustin’s gym right then and there. But fifteen years of tactical training had taught him patience.
You didn’t win fights by charging in blind. You gathered intelligence. You waited for the right moment. You struck when your enemy’s guard was down.
“I’ll handle it,” Shane said, his voice a low growl.
“Legally, Shane. Promise me.”
He met his wife’s pleading eyes and said nothing. Some promises he couldn’t make
Two weeks crawled by. Shane watched and waited, his surveillance training from Force Recon kicking in with an old, familiar hum. He drove past Titan’s Forge three times, memorizing the layout, the patterns, the faces. Dustin’s coach was a loudmouth named Perry Cox, a man in his forties with a shaved head and neck tattoos, the kind of trainer who confused brutality with discipline.
Shane also made calls. His old Marine buddy, Gabriel Stevenson, now a private investigator in San Diego, ran background checks.
“Your daughter’s boyfriend is dirty, brother,” Gabriel reported over the phone, his voice grim. “Three assault charges that got pleaded down to misdemeanors. A restraining order from an ex-girlfriend. And here’s the kicker: his uncle is Royce Clark.”
Shane’s blood ran cold. Royce Clark ran the Southside Vipers, an organization that controlled illicit markets and underground fighting circuits across three counties. They weren’t street-level punks; they were organized criminals with legitimate business fronts and dirty cops on their payroll.
“Freeman is their prize fighter,” Gabriel continued. “They use him in illegal prize fights, betting hundreds of thousands. If he loses, people get hurt. He’s a monster in the ring, Shane. Three opponents hospitalized, one with permanent brain damage.”
