"Good." I check the tourniquet one last time. Holding. "Because we can't stay here. They're sweeping east."
"Ivan." Kade's voice sharpens. "The patrol was following blood trail. But Ivan won't. He'll predict the destination."
"The extraction point."
"He'll be waiting. Between us and the ridge."
"So we go around?"
"No time." He checks the Glock—the last magazine is already seated. "We go through him."
He looks at me. Not the protector looking at the principal. A partner looking at a partner.
"Do you still have the shotgun?"
It's in the dirt beside me. I dragged it without thinking, the way my hands found the safety in the dark.
"Yes."
"Seven rounds. Make them count."
"I will."
He nods. "Help me up, little bird. Let's go finish this."
I haul him to his feet. He sways, but stays upright. We stumble out of the deadfall and back into the exposed night. The wind has picked up, howling through the trees.
We move east. Toward the ridge. Toward the extraction.
Toward the killer waiting in the dark.
THIRTEEN
Kade
The last mileis a blur of agony and gray static.
My world has narrowed to the sound of Wren's breathing and the rhythmic, pounding torture of my own pulse in my left arm. Every step sends a fresh spike of fire through my shoulder, radiating to my fingertips and up into my neck.
Not running on fumes. Running on the stubborn refusal to die in front of the woman who just told me she loves me.
We save each other.
The words rattle around in my skull, keeping me upright when gravity tries to drag me down.
"Kade." Wren's voice is tight. "The ridge. I see it."
Through the breaks in the canopy, the granite spine of the ridge is silhouetted against the moonlit sky. Beyond it, the landing zone and the extraction team. Freedom. Safety.
Between us and that ridge, a depression in the terrain—a shallow ravine choked with dense brush and shadows. A natural choke point.
I stop, boots skidding in pine needles. I pull Wren back behind a thick spruce with my good hand.
"Wait."
"What? It's right there."
"Too easy." I lean against the rough bark, blinking away the black spots crowding my vision. "If I were hunting us, that's where I'd be. The ravine is the only path that doesn't require scaling the cliff face."
