Thirty-eight. Thirty-nine.Forty.
A soft metallic click ripples through the tree line. Barely audible—like whoever did it tried not to make a sound at all—but it echoes twice off the trunks.
A rifle.
A sniper settling into position.
Cold blooms under my skin. I’m crouched in a grave—bad angle, bad cover, bad everything. If he’s got a clear line, I’m done.
The Guild has no shortage of sharpshooters. But Alejandro was the best.
Below me, sure.
But still the best.
I’m not a sniper. Never pretended to be. I like my work up close, personal, firsthand.
Long-range? That was always his playground.
Which means whoever is in those trees isn’t him.
The forest that was silent suddenly fills with distant noise. Engines. Several of them. And tires crunching over gravel and roots—closing in.
Fantastic.
A fucking welcoming committee.
The two corpses flanking me are the only reason I’m not already dead; they block most sight-lines except straight overhead. I risk a glance sideways through a carved gap between their bodies and see headlights.
One vehicle leads the pack, faster, cutting through the trees like it owns the road. Window down. Arm hanging out. Driver too relaxed for someone charging into a gunfight.
Alejandro.
Driving like he’s cruisingdown Santa Monica Boulevard instead of barreling through the Japanese wilderness with a kill squad behind him.
His car skids toward me, flinging a wave of dirt at me. The rear passenger door swings open before the tires even settle.
“Need a lift?” he calls out.
Perfect.
At least now I know he’s not the sniper waiting to ventilate my skull.
My odds improve by a spectacular two percent.
I toss my pack into the back seat first. Then I climb halfway in?—
“Hold on,” I snap, making sure he doesn’t decide to be helpful by flooring it.
I grab a fistful of the dead man’s collar and heave.
“He’s coming with us.”
The corpse drops onto me as I scramble inside. The momentum sends his limp body right on top of me.
A sharp thump reverberates through him and his torso jerks.
Sniper round misses me and hits him.
