We hadn’t tried to hide my first name from him, but he’d never once called me by it. He was making a point.
“I have to admit, I admire your commitment.” Oliver moved closer, smile still firm on his face.
“Is that so?” My hand inched toward my Glock.
“Six weeks.” He moved closer, and I tracked his men shifting positions around us. Tightening. Closing off exits. “I talked to Diesel and Tommy—that little dumbass still defended you. They said you never broke character once.”
Maybe he was fishing. “I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.”
He ignored me. “It was true at the compound as well. You played it almost perfectly—rebellious enough to be both interesting and keep my natural suspicious nature at bay. Winning that shooting contest was particularly well-played. Anyone else would’ve let me win.”
My hand drifted toward the Glock at my hip once more. “We can have another shooting contest right now if you want.”
Oliver’s smile widened. “Oh, I wouldn’t. My men have orders. You so much as touch that weapon, and you’ll have six holes in you before it clears the holster.”
I held still. Calculating. Beckett was forty feet away. Hunter closer to sixty. Aiden had the best position, but he’d have to move through three militia men to reach me.
I dropped the pretense, buying the team time to move into whatever final positions they needed. There was going to be no talking my way out of this one. “What gave me away?”
“Nothing you did.” Oliver reached into his jacket, and every muscle in my body tensed. But he only pulled out a photograph. Worn a little at the edges.
He held it up, and my heart stopped.
Mia. Younger. Smiling. Her arms wrapped around me from behind, her chin resting on my shoulder. Both of us laughing at something the camera had caught. Happy. In love. A lifetime ago.
“Imagine my surprise,” Oliver said, “when Bishop brought me this last week. A whole box of your history with my escapedprey.” His pale eyes glittered. “Ryan Cooper. Former Marine. Not actually a disgraced arms dealer at all.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Your girlfriend kept quite a bit of useful information. Letters, photographs, little mementos. Very sentimental.” He tucked the photo back into his jacket.
“Where did you?—”
“Mia’s apartment, of course.” Oliver’s smile turned sharp. “I had Bishop do a little backtracking for me from the barn. There was something that never felt right about your story, even after talking to Diesel and Tommy. You know, I’ve thought about her every day since she slipped through my fingers. My little prey that got away.”
His voice dropped, intimate. Almost reverent.
“Most of them break within the first hour. Sobbing. Stumbling. Begging. But not our Mia.” His pale eyes went distant, savoring. “She ran like she meant it. Tore that pretty dress to rags and kept climbing. Smeared herself in mud like some kind of wild thing. Even wore the right shoes—clever girl, hiding those sneakers under that gown.”
My hands curled into fists.
“Twelve miles of cliff faces and river gorges, and she never stopped fighting. Broke Bishop’s nose when he caught up to her.” Oliver’s smile turned sharp. “Do you know how rare that is? A woman who doesn’t shatter? I so desperately want to see what it takes to make her shatter.”
“You stay the fuck away from her.”
“Oh, I intend to get very, very close.” He stepped toward me, pale eyes bright. “I’ll have my hunt again. I deserve it. And this time, you won’t be around, so there won’t be any cheating. No secret signals. No team waiting to extract her. Just me and my little prey, alone in the dark, finishing what we started.”
The world went red.
I moved. Didn’t care if my team was in position or not. I could still kill this motherfucker.
I drew my weapon in one fluid motion, bringing it up toward Oliver’s center mass.
He’d expected it. His men were already raising their rifles, fingers on triggers, ready to cut me down.
Then Oliver’s man closest to me dropped without a sound. No gunshot—tranq round.
Another went down near the east exit. Then two more by the north wall, crumpling like puppets with cut strings. Diesel and Tommy fell too.
