“We’re not done getting it wrong,” he said.
“God, no,” Ty said.
“But we don’t run now,” Oren said.“We hold.”
Dale opened his eyes and found both of them because that was the point.“That’s the job, that’s our future,” he said.He slid his palm over Oren’s hand, curled his fingers into Ty’s.“We hold the line.”
Ty kissed his shoulder again.“Forever home and a future worth fighting for.”
They’d held at the line long enough.Tonight wasn’t retreat, it was the count before go.
“Our line of departure,” Dale murmured, and Ty’s mouth curved against Oren’s temple.Three breaths.One step.Whatever came next, they crossed it as one.
He breathed in, out, in again.“Forever,” he said, and meant it.
Epilogue
The van smelled likesalt and old coffee and the copper edge of his own blood.Kai lay where the bastards had dropped him, no doubt expecting him to die, half-curled on the ribbed floor mat, cheek against cool metal, listening to the island breathe on the other side of thin sheet steel—the hush of surf, a scooter whining past, someone laughing too loud like midnight was still theirs to waste.
He’d lost too much weight in not enough weeks.Fever left a glass rattle in his chest and bones.The two knife wounds low on his right side were pooling warmth under him and he didn’t want to think about what that might mean.He pressed his hand against his shirt there for a moment, then drew in a harsh breath at the sharp pain that move brought and grimaced at the blood that came away on his hand.
Both sides of the law wanted him.The kind that wore badges and the kind that didn’t.He might be on the big island, but the place he was holed up was small, and the map of safe places he could run to in his head was even smaller.Even if he were able to escape from here, every place he might go had a danger attached to it, and a camera above the door.
Hogan was here.On island.
Kai knew it.He could feel Hogan on the island like a hand over his chest trying to set his heart back to a better count.He wanted to get to him.He’d been afraid to bring heat to Hogan’s door, but it was too late now.This particular heat was hunting all of them.Kai, the Pathfinders, Bravo, everyone.
He should have sent another encrypted packet and stayed quiet.He should have done a lot of things.
Instead, he reached for the phone that by some miracle was still in his jeans back pocket.He guessed that the guys who’d beaten the shit out of him and threw him into this fucking van figured he’d be dead before he could call for help anyway.
It trembled in his hand.He stared at the lock screen and almost opened the app that would tumble numbers and make this nothing if anyone else found it.Instead, he closed it and hit the name he’d buried where he couldn’t miss it.
“Come on,” he told the ring.“Pick up, Ace.”
The line clicked.“Kai?”Hogan’s voice carried concern.Just his name, and Kai’s chest hurt in a better way.
