Two down.
His breath came hard and fast now, adrenaline surging.
He didn’t wait.
He grabbed the dropped sidearm, checked the mag, and sprinted through the shallows toward higher ground. Toward the rendezvous point. Toward her.
Toward Savvy.
If Gunner laid one damn hand on her?—
No. Don’t think. Move.
The swamp blurred past, a wet mosaic of green and black and shadows that moved wrong.
He was coming.
They'd underestimated the ghost.
And Patch wasn’t just free.
He was pissed.
Savvy struck the flare.
The hiss and burn of it shattered the stillness, painting the trees in angry red light. In the same heartbeat, Gunner moved.
He lunged, grabbing her wrist, but Savvy twisted, slamming her elbow into his ribs as she dropped low and rolled. The flare flew from her hand, landing near the roots of a cypress tree, still burning bright.
Gunfire cracked from the darkness.
Cross' rifle was first, cutting down one of Gunner's hidden men near the waterline. Stone followed, pinning another in the tree line with a sharp volley of suppressive fire.
"Down!" McGuire's voice rang out as he sprinted from cover, flanking left.
Savvy ducked behind a rotted log as bullets chewed bark behind her. Her heart pounded like a war drum, but she kept her focus tight.
Gunner had disappeared into the shadows.
She scanned, eyes slicing through the chaos, until she spotted movement—a shimmer of black darting toward the dock.
"He's heading for the water!" she shouted.
Another figure broke the tree line from the far side of the clearing. Riven. What the hell was she doing here? But Savvy wasn’t about to think too hard on that. Riven moved like a phantom, deadly and silent, zeroing in on a fleeing shooter and dropping him with a clean shot to the thigh.
"You good?" Riven called.
"Go! Gunner's heading for the boat!" Savvy waved her hand. She sprinted, boots slamming into the soaked earth. McGuire joined her, rifle tight to his chest, scanning.
Gunner was almost there.
The skiff engine sputtered to life just as Patch exploded from the riverbank, bloodied but alive. He tackled Gunner hard, slamming him to the planks of the dock.
The boat drifted, unmanned.
Gunner struggled, fists flying, but Patch was fueled by rage and adrenaline. He landed a brutal punch to Gunner's jaw, knocking the man back.
"Thought you could play us?" Patch snarled.
