With my shirt over my mouth, I pressed on, running,stumbling, running, stumbling, aimlessly, until finally, I burst out of the trees onto the riverbank. I propelled myself into the water, the shock of cold nearly paralyzing me. I gulped, splashed it into my open eyes, snorting it to clear the smoke from my nose.
When I pulled myself out of the water, I was face to face with a pair of silver eyes.
53
JAGG
“Brute. Oh my God, Brutus.” I fell to my knees, gripping the dog’s head. He licked my nose. I looked over at the cages, his door off the hinges. The bastard had busted out. Hell yeah, he did.
“We need to find Sunny. I lost the other dogs. Did they come by here?” The panic was almost overwhelming—and I was talking to adog. But I didn’t care.“Brute, I need you. Sunny needs you.” I grabbed the baseball cap I’d chucked when diving into the water and shoved it against his nose. “Search. Go. Search.” He didn’t move. I pulled his face to my jeans where the dogs had jumped all over not five minutes earlier. “Follow their scent. Go.Search!”
Brute spun around and took off like the others, but because of his shoulder injury, his sprint was slow enough for me to keep up. There we were, two injured former fighters, with the world burning around us, risking their lives for their master.
“Thank you.” I blurted out to him, so freaking grateful I could keep up with him.
We sprinted down the riverbank—best we could. I hadno clue if we were going the right way, but I decided to trust Brute. He was all I had, and all I had was blind faith.
Trust your instincts…
“Faster, Brute!” Adrenaline burst through my veins. “Let’s go. Faster. You can do it. I can do it.Faster, Brute.”
The creek grew narrower and narrower, the woods beginning to close in around us. I swiped the tears from my eyes and focused on the black fur just ahead of me. A line of flames outlined the top of the bluff that marked the end of the cove. The creek stopped. Tall bluffs enclosed around us. A dead end.
There was nowhere else to go.
We’d reached Devil’s Cove.
Frantic barks came into earshot.
Sunny.
Brute’s speed suddenly tripled, as did mine.
The firelight shimmered across slick rocks as we rounded the final bend. At the base of the bluff: three dogs—pacing, barking, panicked. Midway up the jagged wall, a swirl of black curls clawed desperately upward.
Sunny.
And below her—six feet, maybe less—shaved scalp, inked skin, pale sneakers catching the firelight.
Kenzo Rees.
My heart stopped. Then detonated.
All sound dropped away—except for the pound of blood in my ears. I didn’t think. Didn’t plan. Didn’t hesitate.
I ran.
Charging the bluff, I launched upward, hands clawing at the moss-slicked rock. Foot, hand, foot, hand. The world narrowed to each slick hold and the teeth-gritting rage driving me higher. I didn’t dare look down—didn’t have to. I knew what waited if we fell.
Sunny was high enough that one slip meant death.
And that bastard was climbing after her.
Embers spun around Rees’s head like sparks from hell. My fingers curled into the rock, white-knuckled.
I'm coming for you, Sunny. And I'm going to rip him apart.
My foot slipped, my body falling a few feet before I caught myself on another rock, ripping my fingernails off. Blood ran down my hand, my arm, the pain igniting a fresh blow of adrenaline.
