“Motherfucker,” Luca growled.“We got no fucking heat signatures, nothing that warned me they were there.”
“Switch to image intensifying night vision,” Marsh growled, “It will use the light spill light, we need to know how many and where they are.”
“Copy that,” Luca answered, and there was no missing the tension in his voice.“I count twenty surrounding you, behind the four fucking spotlights they turned on, groups of five.Back far enough that you won’t see them.Fuck, I’m coming in, even the odds.
“Hold your line,” Marsh barked, though his voice was tighter than usual.“We need your eyes.”
“Don’t fucking move, Niko,” Surge ordered over their comms, and despite cursing at the world, Kai knew his brother did as he was told.
But no one dropped their weapons—Bratya pointing weapons into the lit area, and the Pathfinders and Black Tide, aiming beyond, they didn’t have specific targets, but if everyone started shooting, it would be ugly, and both sides would take significant loses.Not yet.The air was razor wire, stretched taut.One wrong move and it would snap.
Footsteps cut through the tension.A man stepped out of the SUV, uniform crisp, posture practiced.Bateman’s face twisted, shock bleeding into rage.
“Son of a bitch,” Bateman hissed.“That’s my contact.”
The man smiled faintly and lifted his hand, circling his finer in the air.A signal.Antonov emerged from the opposite side, smug as a wolf, a Bratya thug dragging a half-conscious man behind him.Blood soaked his thigh, face pale and slack.
Bateman’s voice cut easily and unconcerned through the air.“Thanks, Agent Carter, it looks like you’ve brought us a present.I’m sorry we didn’t bring you and your Bratya pals anything.”
Dev smirked.“We’re impolite assholes like that.”
“You are outgunned, Bateman,” Carter said smugly.“Better put your weapons down.”
Bateman’s rifle did not waver.“Won’t matter much to you, Carter, because you’ll be the first motherfucker I drop.”
The DEA agent’s voice was smooth, practiced.“We want Kai.You hand him over, and the rest of you will have a chance at least.”
Kai felt the weight of every eye land on him.Cold crept up his spine.Hogan shifted closer, his entire body a wall.“Not.Fucking.Happening,” Hogan growled.
Antonov nodded once.The henchman’s knife punched into the hostage’s other thigh.The man screamed, raw and jagged, head snapping back.
Niko’s voice broke out, harsh and furious.“Ethan?”His rifle rose, teeth bared.
The hostage groaned, hand twitching.Then, with deliberate effort, he pushed his right hand out to the side.His index and middle fingers extended, pressed tight together, and he jerked them twice to the right.Slowly, painfully, he curled his hand into a fist and shook it once more to the right.
Niko cried out.“Fuck, it is him!”He stepped forward, voice ragged.“It’s Ghost.”
“Niko!Fucking hold there!”Surge roared, and it was a sign of the respect Kael had that despite his obvious distress at wanting to get to Ghost, Niko stopped.
Kai’s chest tightened.Ghost.Alive.Battered, bleeding, but alive.And now bait.His gut flipped cold.“Put him on the ground and walk away from him, and I will come over to you.”He forced a grin and looked straight at Hogan as he started to move slowly toward Carter.“You better come get me.”
“Put the man down,” Carter yelled, and with reluctance Antonov nodded his head.They placed Ghost on the ground and stepped back.As soon as there was space, Niko and Tane ran in and dropped down to their knees.Tane in the classic cover position, rifle to his shoulder, and Niko with both hands wrapped around the wounds on Ghost’s leg.That man screamed at the pressure, Nicko apologizing over and over and telling him to stay with him, that he’ll take care of everything, to trust him.Kai could see his brother really felt something for Ghost.
Hogan’s face twisted into fury, eyes blazing as he jerked forward a step, rifle locked dead on Carter.His voice dropped into a lethal growl, hard enough to rattle bone.“Don’t fucking do this, Kai, I can’t survive losing you twice.”
Kai smiled at him as he walked backwards towards Carter, hands out at his side.“I told you our code, baby.”
“Fuck the damn code!”Surge growled as he surged beside Hogan, spitting curses that echoed off the concrete, his body straining like a leash-torn dog as his teammates shoved in fast, hands gripping arms and shoulders, holding both men back before the lot dissolved into a full shootout.
The Bratya shouted threats in broken English, weapons clattering as safeties clicked off.Every breath came sharp, every trigger finger trembling on a hairline edge.Steel nerves straining, the night hung balanced on the knife of a single wrong move.
Kai stepped toward Carter, chin lifted.The agent’s smirk spread, obscene with satisfaction.“Two years, Kealoha.Two fucking years I’ve been hiding right under your nose.You never saw me coming.You never even sniffed my trail.”
Kai tilted his head, gave him a slow smile sharp as broken glass.“Or maybe you were too pathetic to be worth the hunt.”
The blow came fast—Carter’s fist cracking across his jaw.Kai rocked but kept his feet, spit blood to the side with deliberate contempt.Hogan roared, thrashing against the hands holding him back, curses ripped raw from his throat.“You’re dead, Carter!You fucking hear me?I’ll take you apart slow, piece by fucking piece!”
Carter only chuckled, savoring the fury.Rough hands seized Kai’s arms, metal cuffs biting cold against his wrists, and the Bratya dragged him backward.He was marched toward the waiting SUV, Hogan’s voice still ripping through the night, promising fire and death as Kai was shoved into the dark maw of the vehicle.
