Kai laughed, broken and hurting.“You always say that like it’s easy.Here’s the thing, Ace.”Hogan’s heart stuttered as Kai exhaled, ragged.“Before—before you lost pieces of yourself.We had ...a run.Short, but we burned hot, brighter than we were careful for.You don’t remember and that’s on me.I didn’t come to you to help you find it, or let you keep it.”
Hogan’s grip tightened until his hand shook.“Tell me anyway.”
“You called me trouble and I called you a liar.You taught me a breathing count that silenced the voices in my head for a spell.I taught you how to disappear in a city that didn’t want to let you.We didn’t fix each other.We just—fit together.For a minute.I think about it when I’m trying not to do stupid shit.I’m failing at that part tonight.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t fail at shit,” Hogan said.“You’re going to do exactly what I tell you and then you’re going to keep breathing until I find you.That’s the job.”
There was a silence that pressed against Hogan’s ribs.Then Kai’s voice, softer, giving up ground Hogan refused to let him give.“Maybe we’ll meet in my next life.We can meet where the ground is even and nothing’s hunting us.”
“No next life,” Hogan snapped.“This one.I’m not finished with you in this one, Kai, so you shut that shit down.”
“My Ace,” Kai whispered, and Hogan’s heart ached.“Always so bossy.”
He swallowed hard, forced control.“Open the side door of the van.Keep the phone on.Throw something out, leave me something bright to find you.If you can’t, breathe and talk to me, and I’ll find you anyway.I’m on island, Kai.I’m close to you.I can fucking feel it.”
Hogan listened as Kai fumbled then opened the door.“Good,” Hogan said quickly, seizing the thread.Softer now.“Now keep talking.”
“I should’ve encrypted this,” Kai whispered.“I didn’t.I wanted your voice.”
“You have it,” Hogan said, fierce.“You’ll have the rest of me when I get there.”
Hogan could hear Kai’s breathing, and it did not sound good.And his voice kept slipping.“Hey ...if I go quiet—”
“You won’t,” Hogan cut him off.“Hold the fuck on.”
Kai’s reply was faint.“Copy that.”
The line went thin with silence, then the sound of his breathing.Hogan clung to it, forcing the van faster through Hilo’s wet streets.His voice chased Kai as he felt him slipping away.“Stay with me, Kai.I’m coming.This life.Don’t you fucking leave me.”
The Sprinter rolled down a narrower road, the kind where streetlamps flickered like they were too tired to fight the dark.Hogan killed the lights, letting the van glide.Instinct screamed.The hair on his arms rose.
There.An old, beat-up van listing half onto the curb, sliding door on the side of the van hanging open.Figures in the rain, trying to drag something heavy from the van.
Not something.
Someone.
Hogan was out the door before his brain could catch up.Sig raised, suppressor whispering as two quick squeezes punched holes in the night.The first man spun, chest blooming red.The second stumbled back, choking on his last breath.Both crumpled into the gutter.
“Should’ve stayed home tonight,” Hogan muttered, sarcasm sharp and bitter as he stalked forward, gun still raised, ready to drop any and all threats coming their way.“Could’ve played cards, watched TV.But no—you had to fuck with a man I’m not letting go.”
He reached the van.
Kai.
Knowing time was not on their side, he sent up a silent prayer and pulled Kai into his arms.Blood slicked his shirt almost immediately, Kai’s body slack and cold against Hogan’s chest.And he felt too light.Too damn light.
“No, you don’t,” Hogan growled, voice breaking as he hauled him close.“Not here.Not like this.”
Hogan carried Kai back toward the Sprinter, heart hammering, rage and fear twisting like knives in his ribs.Rain sheeted over them both, washing blood into the gutter.The van loomed like salvation, as he managed to open the sliding door.
He shoved Kai inside, slammed the door, and covered him with his body as if sheer will could hold him together.The stench of cordite and blood filled the air, thick and undeniable.
“Stay with me, Kai,” Hogan whispered, his name rough in his throat.“Stay with me.”
He had to get them somewhere safe.He stood up, stepped into the cab, started the van and drove.
****
