Bob’s hands flew up.‘Don’t shoot!’
Porter pushed Bob hard against the stairwell, cuffed him, then dragged him back to kneel beside Red at the front of the truck.
Finn got a bead on the guy they called Clancy, who’d ducked out from the plane’s cargo hatch.
Big and calm, Clancy carried himself like he already knew who he was supposed to kill and where to bury them.His jacket bulged just enough to confirm he wasn’t carrying a boarding pass—he was packing.
Finn didn’t hesitate, his gun raised, ready to roll.‘Drop the weapon.Now.’
Clancy gave Finn a slow once-over.Sizing him up like this was round one of a fight he’d already counted on himself to win.
Finn didn’t flinch.He never flinched.Not in prison.Not in the yards.Not when guards ran betting pools on how many rounds he’d last without making a sound.
And not now.
Taryn shifted left, her gun’s sights locked.‘Don’t test us.’
Still nothing.
Then, behind the goon, a second figure stepped out from the jet’s underbelly.Older.Wiry.Hands already up.
‘Pilot!’he prattled like a panicked teen.‘I’m just the pilot!I’m not part of this, I swear!’
That tiny beat of distraction?It’s all Finn needed.
He surged forward, catching Clancy’s wrist mid-draw—just as that weapon cleared the jacket’s fabric—and twisted.A tight, brutal move he didn’t need to think about because he’d done it a hundred times before, sometimes for justice, and sometimes just to breathe another night, inhaling concrete and cold steel bars.
Finn slammed Clancy’s back into the side of the plane.Then let loose a crack to his ribs followed by a clock to the mouth.
The gun hit the tarmac with a heavy clatter.
Finn barely registered it.
Not when he was dancing along that edge now, barely one breath away from making it personal and letting all that fury free.
He could’ve hit Clancy again.Oh, he wanted to.All that frustrated rage inside needed an out.‘Do you wanna dance with the devil?’He said with an evil edge to his voice and a sneer that promised he’d dance to their deaths if he had to.
Clancy raised his arms, fingers wide, with his wrist swollen and lip bleeding, but the whites of his eyes showed his fear.‘I surrender, okay.Take it easy, okay.’
But Finn wanted to hit him again.
Hell yeah, he wanted to.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he shoved the guy down, slapped the cuffs on hard, and forced his breathing to level out.In.Out.
Don’t lose it now.
And when he looked up—
Taryn was there, covering him.Her eyes steady, gun still raised, legs braced like she’d hold the whole damn plane back if she had to.
She’d seen him almost let his rage bleed through his self-control.
But what got him the most was she wasn’t scared of him, knowing full well what he was capable of.She just gave him the smallest nod, like she understood the war still going on behind his ribs and still stood beside him.Again, proving she was tougher than he’d given her credit for.
When Stone’s chopper swept low behind them, blades roaring like a warning from the gods, and effectively blocked the jet.
