“One more step,” she hisses, “and I’ll blow your fucking head off.”
“You’re bleeding out. You can barely hold that.”
“Wanna test it?”
Her arms shake. Blood is seeping through her fingers. She’s seconds from collapsing.
I lunge.
She fires—misses.
I tackle her to the ground, driving my knee into her ribs, and she screams. I rip the mask from her face, revealing striking features, her dark green eyes filled with hatred.
She spits—blood and saliva splattering across my cheek. My fist drives into her gut. Her body folds with a choked gasp, air ripped from her lungs. I wrench the Glock from her fingers before she can recover.
“Any last words?”
She coughs, blood painting her lips. Then she smiles.
“This place blows in under two minutes. I planted bombs.”
I freeze. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“Two. Minutes.”
No fucking way.“All units, evac now!” I shout into my comm, spinning away.
“Wait!” she shouts desperately behind me. “Take him! Please! He’s just a kid!”
I shove through the exit. More Sovereigns flood out with me, sprinting for cover.
“Move!” I roar.
I’m barely clear when the warehouse erupts behind us. The blast hurls me forward, heat and debris chasing us into the dirt.
“One eight-seven! One-eight-seven! Get the fuck up!”
The shout punches through the ringing in my ears, slicing straight through my skull.
No. Not now. Not fucking now.
I grit my teeth and shake my head hard, trying to dislodge the roar building behind my eyes. My hand clenches into a fist at my side until the tremor dulls, knuckles cracking with pressure.
I drag myself upright, glass crunching under my boots, metal digging into my skin. Smoke coils through the warehouse remains. Sovereign operatives stagger out; burned, bloodied, coughing up ash.
“Fucking intel,” Raze snarls, limping toward me. “I’m blowing someone’s head off for this. They hadweeksto get this right.” He swipes debris off his shoulder, face twisted with rage.
I don’t respond. Just shove a stick of mint gum between my teeth. My hand trembles slightly as I unwrap it. I bite down. Hard. Blood drips down my arm and my shoulder screams.
It wasn’t intel. It washer.
Raze keeps ranting, but I’m not listening. My eyes crawl over the wreckage—twisted metal, charred bodies half-buried in rubble. The smell is thick with blood, ash, and burning steel.
We need to get out before the cops swarm this disaster. I have zero fucking patience to deal with them.
“Boss?” Raze’s voice cuts through the ringing in my ear.
“Find Thames’s body,” I snap, eyes still sweeping the wreckage.
