Marcus watched, satisfied.“Good.Now, Hawkins, let’s have a chat about loyalty.”
Kael’s vision tunneled, the edges of the world going white.He could hear the soft hum of the comm in his ear, his team waiting for orders.He gave none.Not yet.
Then he smiled.Cold.Deadly.“You’ll regret this,” he said.“Every one of you.”
Marcus tilted his head.“We’ll see.”
Kael’s gaze locked on him.“No,youwill.For the entire three minutes you’ve got left to live.”
Marcus’s expression flickered—confusion, then anger—but before he could speak, Kael barked into his comm.“Torch.Now.”
The explosion hit like thunder, and it seemed to be right around them, so close that the ground shuddered beneath his feet.
Chaos erupted—gunfire, shouting, smoke.Kael twisted, driving his elbow back into the man next to him, knocking the rifle away.Drew moved simultaneously, firing low and fast.The first volley cut two men down.Aunty dropped flat, rolling clear as bullets tore the air above her.Kael’s shoulder screamed, but he kept firing, each shot finding home.Marcus stumbled back, eyes wide, disbelief twisting into rage.
Kael advanced, every motion fueled by fury.“You shouldn’t have come here to my home.”Marcus raised his pistol, but Kael was faster.“And you sure as hell shouldn’t have threatened my family.”The final shot was point-blank.
The bullet hit, and Marcus staggered, blood blooming across his chest.He fell to his knees, gasping, a wild smile ghosting across his face.“You think you’ve won?”he rasped.“This isn’t over.Something’s coming for you, Makani.My vengeance will find you.”
Kael leveled his pistol at the man.“No, it won’t.”He pulled the trigger a third time.
Marcus fell onto his back.The echo of the shot merged with the roar of the flames, swallowed by the chaos.
“Reef,” Kael shouted into the comm, breath ragged.“Status!”
Silence.Then a faint reply.“Still alive, and still in fucking pain.And I want to learn how to fucking reanimate a dead bastard so I can kill the son of a bitch again.”
Kael exhaled shakily.He really was a potty mouth when he was hurt.Around him, the team’s voices cut through the smoke—Torch laughing, Mano swearing, Breaker confirming the perimeter.
But Kael wasn’t listening.He was staring at Drew, alive and breathing beside him, and the woman they’d just saved rising to her feet like the island queen she was amid the ruin.
The world burned around them, and Kael thought—three minutes?Hell, that hadn’t even been one.
Chapter Twelve
Smoke curled throughthe humid air, the scent of gunpowder and salt still thick in Kael’s lungs.Marcus’s body lay at his feet, eyes open, a faint curl of that same smug grin frozen on his face.Kael wanted to feel satisfaction—but all he felt was exhaustion and the dull, ragged ache of his shoulder.
