THE ENEMY WITHIN
1505 Words
The motorcycles raced down the highway.
Wind howled past Ryder's ears as he pushed his bike faster than ever before. The engine screamed beneath him, but his thoughts were even louder.
Someone had infiltrated Iron Haven.
Victor's attack on the clubhouse.
The perfectly timed ambush at the warehouse.
The tracker on Ava's boot.
None of it was random.
Someone was feeding information to the enemy.
And that realization terrified him more than the gunfire.
Beside him, Mason accelerated until their motorcycles rode side by side.
"You think Claire and Ava are okay?"
Ryder's jaw tightened.
"They have to be."
Mason noticed the look in his eyes.
For the first time in years...
The president of Iron Haven looked afraid.
Back at Iron Haven, Claire locked the medical room door.
Her hands trembled as she stared at the photograph.
Ava sleeping peacefully.
Taken from inside the clubhouse.
Someone had stood only a few feet away from her.
Watching.
Waiting.
Claire immediately grabbed her phone.
No signal.
"What?"
She checked again.
Nothing.
The entire network was down.
A knot formed in her stomach.
She rushed upstairs.
Ava was sitting on the balcony reading through Lucas's notes.
She looked up as Claire burst into the room.
"What's wrong?"
Claire handed her the photograph.
Ava's face drained of color.
"Who took this?"
"I don't know."
"But whoever it was..."
Claire swallowed.
"They're already inside Iron Haven."
Silence filled the room.
Ava looked toward the window.
The compound seemed normal.
Mechanics worked in the garage.
Members repaired damaged buildings.
Children played near the dining hall.
Everything looked safe.
But now she knew better.
The danger wasn't outside the walls.
It was already among them.
Meanwhile, several miles away, Victor Bennett stood inside his penthouse office.
Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the city skyline.
Damien entered the room.
"They escaped."
Victor didn't seem surprised.
"They always do."
Damien frowned.
"Then why let them go?"
Victor poured himself a drink.
"Because Ryder is predictable."
"He'll return to Iron Haven."
"And when he does..."
A slow smile crossed Victor's face.
"...he'll bring me exactly what I want."
Damien folded his arms.
"The journal?"
"No."
Victor looked toward a framed photograph on his desk.
It showed a much younger Emily Carter.
Ava's mother.
"I want the girl."
His smile disappeared.
"Everything depends on the girl."
Back at Iron Haven, Ava and Claire sat inside Ryder's office.
The photograph lay on the desk between them.
Claire rubbed her temples.
"We need to tell Samuel."
"We need to tell everyone."
"No."
Ava surprised herself with the answer.
Claire blinked.
"What?"
"If there's a traitor..."
Ava looked at the photograph.
"...warning everyone could alert them."
Claire thought about it.
Unfortunately, Ava was right.
Whoever had taken the picture was smart.
Careful.
Patient.
If they felt threatened, they might disappear before anyone could identify them.
"So what do we do?"
Ava stared at Lucas's journal.
Then an idea struck her.
"We find out who had access to this room."
Claire frowned.
"That could be dozens of people."
"Not recently."
Ava opened the journal.
Several loose papers slipped onto the desk.
One of them caught her eye.
A maintenance schedule.
Another.
A security checklist.
Then she found something unusual.
A folded receipt.
Dated three nights earlier.
For a hardware store in Black Ridge.
Purchased by...
A name was written at the bottom.
Ava's eyes widened.
"What is it?" Claire asked.
Without answering, Ava handed her the paper.
Claire read the name.
Her expression changed instantly.
"No."
"You think it's them?"
"I don't know."
Ava looked toward the window.
"But I think Lucas suspected them."
The office door suddenly creaked open.
Both women jumped.
A young club member stood there.
Breathing heavily.
"Claire."
"What happened?"
"The front gate."
His face had gone pale.
"Someone's here asking for Ava."
Claire stood immediately.
"Who?"
The young man swallowed hard.
"He says..."
"...he's her father.
Claire and Ava looked at each other in stunned silence.
"My... father?" Ava whispered.
The words felt foreign on her tongue.
Her biological father had disappeared when she was only five years old. Her mother had always told her that he had gone abroad for work and never returned. As she grew older, Ava stopped asking questions. After her mother married Victor Bennett, the subject became forbidden.
Now, after nearly twenty years...
A man was standing outside Iron Haven claiming to be him.
Claire immediately stepped in front of Ava.
"You stay here."
"No."
"I'm coming with you."
"It could be another trap."
Ava swallowed.
"What if it isn't?"
Claire hesitated. She could see the hope in Ava's eyes—a hope that had been buried for years.
Finally, she nodded.
"But you stay behind me."
Outside the clubhouse, nearly every member of Iron Haven had gathered near the front gate.
The guards stood alert, their hands resting on their weapons.
On the other side of the steel gate stood an elderly man in a worn brown coat. His gray hair was damp from the rain, and he leaned heavily on a wooden cane.
He looked nothing like one of Victor Bennett's men.
He looked... tired.
Broken.
The moment Ava saw him, something stirred deep inside her.
Not recognition.
A feeling.
As if she had seen his eyes somewhere before.
The man smiled weakly.
"Ava..."
Her name trembled on his lips.
Tears welled in his eyes.
"You've grown into someone your mother would be proud of."
Ava stopped several feet from the gate.
"Who are you?"
The man's smile faded.
"My name is Daniel Carter."
"I'm your father."
Ava's breath caught.
"No..."
"My father disappeared."
"I know."
"And I'm sorry."
"You expect me to believe that after nineteen years?"
Daniel lowered his head.
"I don't expect anything."
"I only came because you don't have much time."
The guards exchanged uneasy glances.
Claire folded her arms.
"If you have something to say, say it."
Daniel looked around nervously.
"They're watching."
"Who?"
"Victor."
"He has people everywhere."
Ava stepped closer to the gate.
"If you're really my father..."
"Tell me something only he would know."
Daniel smiled sadly.
"When you were four years old, you refused to sleep unless I read you The Little Star and the Moon Rabbit."
"You couldn't pronounce 'rabbit.'"
"You kept saying 'wabbit.'"
Ava froze.
Her mother used to tease her about that story.
She had never told anyone else.
Daniel reached into his coat pocket very slowly.
The guards immediately aimed their weapons.
"Easy," he said.
"I'm not armed."
He pulled out an old photograph.
A younger Emily stood beside Daniel, holding a little girl in a yellow dress.
The little girl was Ava.
She stared at the picture, tears blurring her vision.
"It can't be..."
"It is," Daniel whispered.
"I've carried that photograph every day since I lost you."
Before anyone could speak again...
A deafening gunshot shattered the moment.
Daniel's eyes widened.
A dark stain spread across his chest.
"Ava..."
He staggered backward.
"No!" Ava screamed.
Another shot rang out.
Chaos erupted.
"Sniper!" Samuel shouted.
"Take cover!"
The guards rushed Ava behind the steel gate as bullets slammed into the concrete around them.
Claire dropped beside Daniel, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
"I need bandages!"
"I need an ambulance!"
Daniel weakly grabbed Claire's wrist.
"No hospitals..."
"They'll finish the job..."
His breathing became shallow.
Ava knelt beside him, tears streaming down her face.
"Please don't die."
"I just found you."
Daniel smiled faintly.
"They found me years ago."
"I kept running..."
"So they couldn't find you."
He coughed painfully.
Then he slipped a small brass key into Ava's trembling hand.
"This..."
"...opens a safety deposit box."
"Everything..."
"...everything your mother left behind..."
"...is inside."
Ava clutched the key.
"What bank?"
Daniel tried to answer.
But another bullet struck the gate beside them, showering sparks across the ground.
Samuel pointed toward the nearby ridge.
"I see the shooter!"
The sniper disappeared into the trees before anyone could fire back.
Claire looked down.
Daniel's hand had fallen limp.
She checked for a pulse.
Silence.
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
She slowly closed his eyes.
Ava stared at the motionless body, unable to breathe.
She had found her father...
Only to lose him minutes later.
Just then, the roar of motorcycles echoed through the valley.
Ryder, Mason, and the others burst through the gates.
The moment Ryder saw Ava kneeling beside Daniel's body, he knew something terrible had happened.
He rushed to her side.
"Ava..."
She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.
Her voice was barely a whisper.
"I found my father..."
"...and they took him from me too."
Ryder silently wrapped his arms around her as she broke down completely.
Standing a short distance away, hidden among the trees, a masked sniper watched through the scope of his rifle.
He spoke quietly into a radio.
"The target is emotionally compromised."
Victor Bennett's calm voice answered.
"Good."
"Grief makes people careless."
The sniper smiled.
"What are your next orders?"
Victor's reply was cold enough to send chills down anyone's spine.
"Bring me the key."
- Writer
