Chapter 24 · Not Collateral Anymore

"Put the gun down, Gabriel. If you shoot him, every miner in this room will call me your pet."

Gabriel's pistol stayed against Thomas Vale's temple.

The foreman stood on his knees in the center of the council hall, one cheek split open, his hands tied behind him with black cord. He had been Elena's safest pair of hands in the Blackstone mine. The man who knew every tunnel, every weak support, every family name on the payroll.

Now three dead guards lay near the west doors, and a pouch of blasting caps sat on the table in front of him.

Gabriel looked at Elena over the barrel.

"Let them call you whatever they want."

"Easy for you to say. They already call you a butcher." Elena stepped between him and the council benches. "I need them alive, not terrified into signing whatever you put in front of them."

His jaw tightened. The hall smelled like coal dust, blood, and hot metal from the lamps. Dozens of miners watched them from behind overturned benches. Some held knives. A few had rifles, though none were aimed at Gabriel yet.

That part mattered.

They were scared of him.