Carter reacted fast, faster than Kai had given him credit for.He grabbed Kai’s hair, jerking his head back, pistol jammed hard against his temple.“One more step and he dies!”
The gun dug into his skin.Kai felt his pulse thundering.He could hear Hogan breathing through the comms, steady but deadly.
“I mean it!”Carter barked.“Back up!”
Kai’s heart pounded.He thought briefly of Hilo, of sunlight on the water, of Hogan’s laugh, of the promise of a life they had never really gotten to have, of their time in the van out at their waterfall.He refused to let Carter see fear.
“You’re already dead, Carter,” he said, voice low enough for Hogan to hear through the bead.“You just haven’t hit the ground yet.”
Carter snarled, pressing the gun harder into his temple.“Big words for a man in cuffs.Back the fuck o—!”
Hogan didn’t pause, didn’t blink.He lifted his pistol in one clean motion and fired as he continued to walk toward Kai, face like thunder.The shot cracked like a hammer blow.Carter’s head snapped sideways, red spray painting the wall, and his body crumpled before his words were done.He was no doubt dead before he even hit the ground.
The two guards still standing in the room didn’t last either.One went down to Bateman’s round, the other to a knife thrown with lethal precision by Surge from the doorway.Silence slammed down as hard as the shot itself.
Kai exhaled slowly, head dropping forward, relief a tidal wave through him.Hogan was there in an instant, yanking Carter’s dead weight away, snapping the cuffs free with a key ripped from the corpse’s pocket.His hands were on Kai’s shoulders, steady, grounding.
“You okay?”Hogan rasped, eyes searching his face like he was memorizing every line.
Kai gave him a bloody smile.“Took you long enough.”
Hogan huffed, half a laugh, half a growl.“Never again.”He pulled Kai to his feet, arm around his waist as if he’d never let go.
Bateman’s voice was already snapping orders, clearing the site, checking exits, but Hogan didn’t look away from Kai.Not once.
Kai leaned into him, letting the warmth of Hogan’s hold chase away the cold steel of the chair.His ribs hurt, his wrists were raw, but none of it mattered with Hogan anchoring him.For a moment, Kai felt weightless.
“You kept talking to me,” Kai muttered, voice hoarse.“Even when I couldn’t answer.You don’t know what that did.How that helped.”
Hogan’s jaw flexed, his voice low.“Yeah, I do.Kept me breathing, too.”He squeezed Kai’s shoulder.“Next time, we don’t get separated.I’m done letting you walk into hell without me.”
Kai’s laugh cracked in his throat, part sob, part joy.“You always were bossy.”
“Damn right,” Hogan said, softer now, but his eyes still burned.“And you’re mine to be bossy with.”
****
The van was parkedback on the patch of land Hogan was starting to think of as theirs, the rain easing into a soft drizzle outside, waterfall echoing like a lullaby through the trees.Inside, shadows pooling in the corners, the scent of clean sheets, sweat, and Kai thick in the air.Hogan had Kai beneath him, pressed into the mattress, handcuffs traded for his grip, every thrust grounding him, every gasp from Kai anchoring him to the only place he wanted to be—buried deep, holding him close.
It was quick, intense, but threaded with laughter and love.Hogan slid his hands down, coaxing Kai into release with a mix of practiced touches and whispered words that had Kai shuddering apart beneath him.Hogan followed, the rush crashing over him like the waterfall outside, heat and light and the certainty that this—this man—was his forever.
Afterward, Hogan cleaned them up, not caring how clumsy or tender it made him look.Then he pulled Kai against his side, his lover’s heartbeat a steady rhythm beneath his palm.The rain tapped the van’s roof, the falls roared nearby, and for a moment, there was peace.
“They’re sending this van to Wyoming for us,” Hogan said quietly.“Surge offered it.I told him I’d pay.He told me to shut the hell up.”
Kai chuckled, lazy and sated.“Sounds like him.”
Hogan brushed his lips over Kai’s hair.“I remember it all now.Everything.Us.”
Kai shifted to look at him, eyes dark in the low light.“You sure?”
“Yeah,” Hogan said.“Before Chechnya ...that little apartment here you had by the water, the time we camped here at the waterfall but no campervan, just a tent, the way you laughed when you pretended soy milk was better than the real thing.The fights.The kisses.Every damn second.And the way you used to steal my shirts and claim they looked better on you.The sunrise runs where you always beat me but let me think I was close.All of it, Rip—I remember it.I remember you.I remember us.”
Kai’s throat worked.“I didn’t feel fear today, Hogan.Not once.Even with Carter’s gun on me, even when it looked like it might be over—I knew you’d come.You.All of you.Your code, our code ...it’s what we all live by.It’s what kept me alive.”
Hogan swallowed hard.He hadn’t cried in years, but the burn behind his eyes was there.“Our code kept you alive.Because you’re mine, Rip.Always have been.”
They lay in silence for a while, the sound of water and rain filling the space.Eventually, Kai broke it.“You’re flying the Pathfinders and Bravo back to Wyoming tomorrow.Black Tide has to figure out what’s next.”
