No hesitation. No fear.
Just purpose.
But the moment breaks as a roar echoes from above.
Footsteps thunder on the metal, heavy, and fast.
“Stairs!” Turbo shouts.
Three men rush down the steps with rifles raised.
We fire in controlled bursts. Mav drops the first, Steel the second. The third dives behind a crate, firing wildly.
Londyn moves before any of us do, sliding low across the floor, popping up just long enough to put a round straight through the crate edge and into the guy’s skull.
He drops instantly.
“Clear the right!” I bark, adrenaline punching through me, while trying to keep eyes on her.
Steel and Turbo push through the hallway doors. Two more cartel soldiers jump out, guns blazing. The room shreds with gunfire. Turbo takes one out with a clean shot to the throat. Steel finishes the other.
But I’m not watching the fight.
I’m watching her.
Or I was.
Because just like at the other warehouse, she’s gone.
“Londyn!” I shout, whipping around the room. Nothing. Just bodies, dust, and shadows.
Mav fires a round into a man trying to get up, then looks at me. “Where the hell is she?”
“I… I had her…” My chest tightens. “She was right here.”
“Night, eyes UP,” Turbo snaps, nodding toward the stairs.
More running. More yelling. A door slams somewhere above.
“She went after Herrera,” Mav says, face going hard. “Dammit… she went alone.”
Sprinting toward the stairs, my heart pounds so loud it drowns out everything else.
Not again.
I’m not losing her in this place.
Not to this fucker.
Not after everything she’s already bled for.
“Londyn” I shout up the stairwell.
No answer.
Just the cold echo of her boots, fading deeper into the dark.
And God knows what’s waiting at the top.
