Avery snorted. “Please, no goodbye speeches before we’ve even started. It’s back luck.”
“Then, I’ll just tell you what I told Bodie?—”
“No declarations of love, either.” Nick smiled. “Some of us have sensitive stomachs.”
“I was going to say, don’t die, jackass, but now, I’m rethinking that.”
Lights.
Bouncing down the one-lane logging road leading up to the camp. Casting the fog in a bright yellow glow. Rowan nodded, and they took off, vanishing into the darkness a breath later.
Rowan followed Bodie into the lodge, took point by an open window on the east side. What gave them a clear view across the campground. She checked her vest — two extra mags and one smoke grenade. What should be overkill, except where Graves’ crew likely had more. Wouldn’t be a simple takedown.
Bodie stood beside her, a solid, deadly presence as two SUVs and a pickup rounded the far bend, crept slowly toward the gate. Twin headlights cut a line along the metal barrier, threw a long shadow across the mud as the vehicles rolled to a halt, brakes squeaking in the rain.
The rear door opened, a dim light brightening the interior, silhouetting four men in black tactical gear. One guy jumped out, ballistic vest snugged around his massive chest.
Graves.
She recognized him from the facility. The arrogance. How he walked as if the ground bowed before him.
He stopped at the gate, tested the flimsy lock, then worked it free. Under two minutes, and he had the barrier swung wide, the vehicles rolling into the clearing.
Her earpiece crackled, Nick’s voice whispering through. “They’re in. Blow it, Landry.”
A breath of silence, then a flat boom from the tree line, a massive spruce crackling like kindling. The bark exploded as the trunk gave way, dumped the tree across the road beyond the gate, effectively trapping them inside.
Regardless of the outcome, they were committed.
Doors thumped. Shapes fanned out across the clearing — three up the center, two right along the generator line, and another two left, toward the bunkhouses. All moving in well-practiced formations.
A floodlight from the pickup strobed the area.
Until the lamp shattered.
No warning. No crack, just a soft chug and the darkness folded back in on itself.
Dalton. From a nest on the camp’s water tower. No fuss. No fanfare. Just his steady hands finding their mark.
The men froze, silhouettes bent low, weapons sweeping the grounds until the group scattered, the center point man quickstepping it across the clearing. He got halfway to the lodge door when Dalton’s rifle coughed, again — dropped him into the mud.
That kicked everything into high gear.
Muzzles flashed in the misty rain, return fire lighting up the cabins and trees as Graves’ team pushed forward. Bullets thumped into the lodge’s thick walls, the window by the dim light shattering inward. A couple canisters skipped along the dirt, grey smoke billowing out. Choking off any visual references as boots pounded the ground nearby, the main door splintering inward.
Rowan fired two controlled bursts, downed the first merc before he crossed the threshold. Had the next asshole lined up until a canister clicked across the floor. Bodie shoved her beneath him as the world washed white, just like in the cannery, the sound vibrating through to her molars. The floor tipped, muffled footsteps closing in when Bodie’s weight vanished.
She managed to push onto her hands and knees before one of the assholes landed beside her, head cracking against the floor, blood splattering across the wall. She blinked, tried to focus as Bodie hooked her elbow, yanked her to her feet. He snapped his fingers in front of her face, waited until she nodded before dragging her into the next room.
He leaned in close, his breath feathering across her cheek. “You back with me?”
She managed a guttural version of, “Yeah,” ears still ringing, stomach threatening to empty. She didn’t know how he pushed through, just that she’d be dead if he hadn’t been there.
Another click on the comms, Dalton this time. “Walsh just crept from the rear SUV. He’s flanking left. I don’t have a clear shot.”
Ice sluiced through her veins.
This was her chance to take him down.
