I zip the bag and walk to the center of the lobby as headlights flood the space, harsh and blinding, pouring through the wrecked doors and reflectingoff marble and glass.
Men rush in.
Lots of them.
Tactical. Clean. Efficient. Not assassins, but they work for one.
Kade Mercer’s people.
Black uniforms. Bulletproof vests. Assault rifles raised, stocks snug to shoulders, muzzles trained on me like I’m a problem they’ve been paid to erase.
They fan out, professional, disciplined, forming a perfect circle.
I stand there and chew my gum.
I let my gaze drift from face to face. No masks. No flair. Just men who think numbers equal certainty.
“All right, boys,” I say.
I roll my shoulders, stretch my neck, feel the familiar hum settle into my bones.
“Let’s have some fun.”
I move first.
Not forward.
Up.
I throw myself backward into a handspring, boots leaving the floor as rifles crack in surprise. Muzzles jerk. Fingers tighten. Bullets tear through the air where my head used to be, ricocheting off marble and glass and each other’s bad decisions.
Men shout.
Someone yellshold firea half-second too late.
I land low and roll, sliding across the lobby floor as rounds punch through pillars and decorative nonsense some architect got paid too much to imagine. Stone explodes. Shardsrain down. Someone screams when friendly fire finds a spine.
Stupid men.
I come up inside the circle before it can close again.
I grab the closest one by his vest and yank him into me, his rifle barking wildly as I turn him into a human shield. Bullets tear through his back. One finds his throat.
I put one more into his neck for good measure.
He drops.
I don’t pause.
I pivot, steal his rifle on the way down, and fire from the hip. Two go down. One staggers, clutching his leg, screaming like this wasn’t always going to end badly.
They finally realize the problem isn’t numbers.
They spread.
Wrong again.
I sprint, slide across a desk, kick off the wall, and send a chair flying. It takes one man in the face hard enough to snap his head back. I shoot him before gravity finishes the job.
