Cornered and out of options, Marissa finally offered Wade a trade, telling him she would release his vehicles if he released hers. It was her third and most damaging mistake of the morning, made directly in front of a law enforcement investigator who was still actively documenting the situation. Mason heard every word of the offer, and its implications were impossible to walk back once spoken aloud.
Wade turned to face her and said simply that this meant she knew exactly where his 22 vehicles were being held that entire time. Marissa had no answer for that. And for the first time that morning, she said nothing at all.
At 6:24 in the morning, the very last executive SUV belonging to the association was lifted onto a flatbed and hauled away from the property. 29 out of 29 vehicles were now gone, every single one of them removed from the exact ground where Marissa had insisted she held authority just hours before. Wade watched the sun break over the tree line as the last truck pulled out of sight down the long gravel driveway.
Barely four hours earlier, his own yard had been stripped completely bare while he slept, unaware that anything was happening at all. Now, the entire operational fleet of Blackridge Estates sat behind a fence at a licensed impound facility that Calvin Roark controlled under full legal authority. Marissa stood staring at the empty gravel where her convoy had been parked only minutes before, saying nothing as the reality of the morning settled over her.
Wade finally spoke, telling her plainly that she had towed 22 vehicles from him overnight. He checked his watch one last time and added that he had gotten her entire fleet back before sunrise.