Chapter 7: What Dex Told Them
The chapter house was full by the time he got back.
Eight men around the big table.
Diane had taken Lila upstairs.
The room smelled like coffee and engine oil and the particular tension of men who knew something serious was coming and were waiting for it.
Dex stood at the end of the table.
He didn't sit.
He told them everything.
The bracelet.
Nora.
Grace's findings about the property and the LLC and the retired sheriff's deputy.
Marsh's call.
The words *the people above me.*
Nobody interrupted.
When he finished, the room was quiet for a moment.
Then a man named Briggs — the oldest one there, a former Army mechanic with a hearing aid in his left ear and hands like shovels — said: "How long has this been running?"
"I don't know.
At least seven years.
Probably longer."
"And the girl — Lila — she's one of how many?"
"I don't know that either.
Grace said the placement records will take a day or two to pull."
Briggs nodded slowly.
"And Nora."
"She's connected to this.
Marsh as good as confirmed she's alive.
But he made it clear that her situation depends on what I do next."
Another silence.
Rourke leaned forward.
"So he's using her.
As leverage."
"Yes."
"Then going at him directly puts her at risk."
"Yes."
Colt had been quiet through all of it.
Now he spoke.
"What do you want to do?"
Dex looked around the table.
These were not complicated men in the way that people who'd never met them might assume.
They were men who had a clear sense of what was right and what wasn't, and who had spent most of their lives operating in the space between the law and justice when those two things failed to overlap.
"I want to find Nora," he said.
"I want to get every child out of whatever system Marsh is running.
And I want Marsh to face something he can't talk his way out of." He paused.
"But I need to do it in the right order.
If we move too fast, he hides her.
If we move too slow, he moves everything and disappears."
"So what's the order?" Briggs asked.
"First: Grace gets us the placement records.
Names, dates, locations.
We find out how many children and where they are now." He looked at Colt.
"Second: I need someone who can get into that outbuilding at the property without tripping whatever Marsh has watching it."
Colt nodded.
"I know someone."
"Third: I need to find the people above Marsh.
Because Marsh is scared of them.
And scared men follow orders.
If I can find out who's giving the orders, I can find Nora."
"That's the hard part," Rourke said.
"I know."
Briggs set both hands flat on the table.
"And the girl upstairs?
What happens to her while all this is moving?"
"She stays here," Dex said.
"She doesn't go back.
Not to Marsh, not to Clearview, not to anyone connected to any of this.
If someone comes with paperwork, we deal with it.
But she doesn't leave."
Briggs looked at him for a long moment.
Then he nodded once.
The rest of the table followed.
Dex pulled out a chair and finally sat down.
Colt slid a mug of coffee in front of him without being asked.
"One more thing," Dex said.
He looked at the table, not at any one person.
"Nora — if she's alive — she's been gone seven years.
She may not be the same person.
Whatever happened to her in that time, it wasn't good." He paused.
"I'm not going into this expecting anything except to get her out.
Whatever comes after that is her choice."
Nobody said anything to that.
Nobody needed to.
Upstairs, a floorboard creaked.
Lila was moving around in the room above them.
Small footsteps.
Then stillness.
Briggs looked at the ceiling for a moment.
May you like
Then back at Dex.
"Let's get to work," he said.
