Bit & Barrel

DEAD HAND
Love is a liability. Loyalty gets people killed. And some debts come wearing claws.

Ren was just a thief with charm to spare and bad luck for days. A failed job left him scarred, hunted, and reluctantly partnered with the very man sent to kill him-Caelian, an elite assassin from Division C. Their bond is tenuous, their missions bloody, and their chemistry a fire neither will name.

But their uneasy alliance gets messier when it crosses paths with Dead Hand-a crew of outlaws led by the cold-eyed, gun-sure Adel Valor. Her people don't run with saints. They run with survivors. And if she knows Ren's name, it's not from the wanted posters.

As Ren scrambles to stay one step ahead of betrayal, another threat slinks from the shadows. A woman called Claw. She doesn't talk much, but her steel boots speak loud-and the clawed gloves say the rest. To some, she's a mystery. To others, a myth. But to Dozer-Adel's heavy-hitter with a name he buried long ago-she might be someone he lost. Someone who vanished after a funeral that never healed.

Secrets rise. Blood spills. And with each step deeper into the game, every crew-Dead Hand, Division C, and the ghosts in between-must face what they've run from.

Because in this world, names change. People don't.

And vengeance always remembers.