“I’m not—”
“Stay. Down.”
She freezes.
Not because she has to.
Because she hears it.
That edge.
That line I just crossed.
Gunfire erupts again.
“They’re pushing!” Cal shouts.
“I’ve got them!” I fire back, already rising.
Every instinct I have narrows to one thing:
No one touches her again.
I step out from cover—
And I stop holding back.
Shots land faster now.
Cleaner.
More precise.
One after another.
I don’t feel the recoil.
I don’t hear anything except the threat.
And the need to eliminate it.
“Jase—” Mila’s voice cuts through behind me.
But I’m already moving forward.
Closing distance.
Ending it.
Another hostile drops.
Then another.
“They’re pulling back!” Lance calls.
“Yeah,” Ronan adds. “They’re breaking.”
Damn right they are.
