CLAIMED BY THE ROGUE PRESIDENT

THE WATCHER

POV: Ryder

I watched Evelyn leave my office, folder clutched against her chest like armor, shoulders rigid, steps too quick down the hallway toward the room we gave her. The door shut harder than necessary and I stayed until her footsteps faded. Marcus leaned against the doorframe behind me, arms crossed.

"You believe her?" He tipped his head toward the hallway.

"About what?" I didn't turn yet, eyes still on the empty hall where she'd been.

"The ten thousand. The R.V. thing." His voice was low.

"I don't know what to believe yet." I finally turned, jaw working because the numbers didn't add up and I hated numbers that didn't add up. Jace appeared from the garage, wiping grease from his hands with a rag already black.

"Boss, you really gonna let her dig through the books?" He tossed the rag onto the table.

"She already is." I pulled out the chair and sat, wood creaking.

"That isn't what I asked." Jace grinned but his eyes stayed serious.

"I know what you asked." I looked at him flat.

"She's twenty one. Cello player. Her dad does real estate or something. What does she know about our money?" He said it like a joke but there was an edge underneath.

"She balanced her family books since she was sixteen because her father made her do it. She noticed the March eleventh transfer my guys missed." My fingers tapped once against the desk.

Marcus pushed off the frame, boots scuffing concrete. "She's observant. That's a problem around here."

"She is observant, yes." I nodded.

"Observant gets people killed around here." He said it matter-of-fact, as truth we all knew.

"I know that." And I did, which was why my stomach had tightened when I saw her spreading those statements like an exam.

"Then why keep her?" He watched my face.

"Because the Vanguard think she has the ledger, and if she stayed home they'd take her from there with no cameras and no witnesses." Silence settled over the kitchen, thick. Tessa stopped stirring the pot and looked over, spoon hovering.

Jace exhaled slowly. "You think they were watching tonight."

"I think they were watching before tonight. Since Leo disappeared." My eyes went to the window, to the dark lot where rain had started again.

"And you brought her inside anyway." Marcus said it flat, no judgment.

"I brought a target inside my own walls because she walked through my door believing she was collateral for her brother. Here at least we have a chance to see them coming." My jaw working again.

Tessa set the spoon down with a soft clink. "Ryder." Her voice was softer.

I looked at her. "What."

"She's scared. And she's not eating." She wiped her hands on her towel, eyes flicking toward the ceiling.

"I know she is." I rubbed the back of my neck where the knot was getting worse.

"Maybe tell her the truth about Leo." She held my gaze.

"The truth is I don't know where he is. I know he was moved Wednesday, I know he was alive Tuesday, that's it." My hands flattened on the desk.

"Tell her that part then." Tessa said it like it was simple.

I didn't answer because it wasn't simple with Richard involved. Footsteps overhead, her pacing, back and forth, restless. Marcus followed my gaze up.

"You haven't told her about Richard." He said it quiet.

"No." My voice dropped.

"You need to. Before she finds it herself." He didn't move but his expression said he meant it.

"That's why I'm not telling her yet." Because anything I said about Richard would sound like I was protecting him or burying him, and I didn't know which yet.

Jace shifted, floor creaking. "You think the R.V. on that transfer is Richard?"

"I think it's someone who wants us to think it's me or him, someone who knows both our initials." My thumb rubbed the worn edge of the desk.

"And the ten thousand?" Jace pressed.

"Goes somewhere we haven't found. And the eighty goes somewhere bigger, and that's the one Vanguard care about." Tessa wiped her hands again.

"I'll check on her upstairs." She started toward the stairs.

"Don't crowd her." I called after her.

"I'm not going to crowd her." She disappeared, boots clanging.

Marcus watched her go. "You set a boundary tonight. Nobody touches her. Nobody threatens her."

"I did." I held his gaze.

"You know what that means in this club. It means you claimed her." He wasn't smiling now.

"I claimed responsibility for her debt, not her. There's a difference." My hands tightened on the desk.

"You ever claimed responsibility for collateral before?" Marcus studied me.

"No, I haven't." I answered without hesitation.

"That's what I thought." He nodded.

Footsteps came down too fast, uneven. Tessa reappeared, face tight, breath short.

"She's gone. Room's empty, window open, bag still there but she's not." The words rushed out.

My chair scraped back hard against concrete, screech that made Jace flinch. "What do you mean gone."

"Window open, phone on the bed." She moved aside as I pushed past her.

"Check the cameras now." I was already taking the stairs two at a time, Marcus moving toward the monitor and Jace running for the back door.

Her room door stood open, bed made too neatly, folder on the mattress, phone with no service. The window bars had a gap just wide enough for her size and cold air poured through with rain mist. "Dammit." Low under my breath as I leaned out.

Alley below black, dumpster slick, footprints in mud leading toward street. She didn't run because she was scared of us, she ran because she found something and thought she could handle it alone. Downstairs Marcus called out.

"Camera caught her ten minutes ago. West side, toward the parking lot, pale sweater, moving fast." I was already turning.

"Get a bike." I was moving before he finished, through the kitchen, hitting the parking lot at a run, rain cold on my face and soaking my shirt in seconds.

Street beyond empty except for a single figure halfway down the block, pale sweater dark with rain, moving fast with head down and receipt clutched like it would keep her dry. "Evelyn." I shouted over rain.

She stopped mid-step but didn't turn, shoulders hunching like bracing.

"Evelyn, stop right there." I closed distance fast, boots splashing puddles.

She turned then, rain on cheeks, receipt white-knuckled. "Where are you going?" I stopped a few feet from her, breathing hard.

"To find the pawn shop. West Port." She held up the receipt like evidence.

"In the rain? At midnight? Alone with a receipt that says ledger on it?" My voice rose despite trying to keep level.

"I have the address." She tapped the paper and water beaded off it.

"Give me the receipt, Evelyn." I held out my hand, palm up.

"No, it's my brother's." She stepped back, mud sucking at her shoes.

"You think walking into West Port at midnight is going to get you answers? They'll think you're Vanguard." My hands curled into fists to keep from grabbing her.

"I think waiting here while my brother is tied to a chair isn't getting answers either." Her voice broke a little but eyes didn't leave mine.

I closed the last distance, close enough to see rain tracking down her neck. "You were told not to wander."

"I wasn't wandering, I was looking for answers." She threw it back.

"You went out a window with bars on it." My voice dropped lower.

"There was no service and you locked me in a room with bars, what did you expect?" Her hands shook hard around the paper, knuckles white.

"I gave you a room to keep you safe, not contained, there's a difference." We stared at each other, rain falling hard between us.

"Do you know what the Vanguard do to people who ask about that ledger?" I asked, quieter now.

"No." She swallowed, throat moving.

"Do you want to know?" I watched her face.

"No." She said it fast but didn't look away.

"Then get back inside with me right now." I tipped my head toward the clubhouse where light glowed warm.

"I can find the pawn shop myself." She held the receipt out again.

"I know exactly where it is, I've been there a hundred times." My voice was rough from rain and running.

"Then take me there tomorrow." Her eyes searched mine.

"West Port opens at nine. I'll take you at nine sharp. You stay inside until then. You eat something real. You sleep. You don't go out windows ever again. Do we have an agreement, Evelyn?" I looked at her soaked sweater and shivering shoulders.

After a long second where rain filled the silence, she nodded once, sharp. "We have an agreement, nine o'clock."

"Give me the receipt so it doesn't dissolve." I held out my hand again.

She hesitated, then handed it over and our fingers brushed, cold and wet and brief. "Come on." I tipped my head and she walked beside me, not behind, keeping pace despite shivering hard.

At the door she stopped, water dripping from her hair. "Is Leo really alive? Like you actually know for sure, not just think?"

"Yes, he really is alive, I know for sure." I met her eyes.

"How do you know?" Her voice small now.

"Because I have a photograph from Tuesday with a timestamp and a source who confirmed he was moved Wednesday morning." I kept my voice steady.

Her eyes closed and relief flooded her face despite rain still running down it. "Okay, I believe you."

Inside, Tessa waited with a towel. Evelyn took it without a word and went upstairs, leaving wet footprints on concrete. I stood in the doorway watching the alley where she'd run, receipt damp and curling in my hand. Brown leather ledger, March tenth, three hundred dollars.

Tomorrow at nine I would take her to West Port Pawn, and somewhere between there and the clubhouse I would have to tell her about my father, because if R.V. was Richard Vance, then her brother hadn't just stumbled into a club debt. He'd stumbled into a war between father and son that started long before Leo ever placed his first bet.