Benji’s already beating his hands against his knees.“Give me a name and a place to put the first one down.”He’s all edge, like a coiled wire.
We move like a machine.
Me and my boys have the only exit from the north side cut off.
Micah’s been busy the last few seconds, rerouting traffic cams.One blink and the highway goes from a river of taillights to a still pool of opportunity.
I don’t want lights, sirens, or witnesses.
I want the three of them gone from the timeline, from the fucking face of the earth, and I want Lil Bit back in my arms.
We slow off the shoulder and tuck the SUV behind a stand of pines.I can taste ozone and diesel.
My hands are steady on the wheel because the part of me that learned to do this when sleep was a rumor does not shake.
“Ready?”I ask.
Alex looks green, but he nods.
Benji’s grin is two teeth and a promise.
“Always.”
Micah’s drone dips low, a silent bird painting heat signatures on my HUD.
There—Roach’s shape steps back from the convenience door, lighting a cigarette like a man with nothing left to lose.
Then he’s grabbing something?A key tied to something big.Probably for the bathroom.
The other two guys tilt toward Benji’s weight and Micah’s shadow to the east.
They think they have control.They don’t.
We hit them in a seam — quiet and fast.Benji comes in on the flank like a ghost, Micah drives in bumping the trash can to cause a distraction for the attendant and any wayward customers.
I go for Roach.
Everything narrows to the sound of my boots on concrete and the slap of leather.
He sees me, and the laugh he gives is too small to fill the space.He reaches.I move first.
Soldier memory takes over.
Step, balance, close, and close some more.
“She was mine first,” he grunts.
Then, my hand lands on his throat not as a lover but as a judge.
I don’t want him to look away from me when I break him.
I want him to hear everything he took echo off the inside of his skull.
He scrabbles and slaps, clutching for breath, for leverage.
Benji takes the second guy down in three precise strikes.
Micah leaves the storefront, comes around back and is likely disabling the bikes.The other guy goes down, trying to run away, but he don’t make it.
