"You don't have to?—"
"I know I don't have to." He rolls us so I'm beneath him, his weight pressing me into the rock, his mouth finding my throat. "I want to. I want to taste you while the sun comes up. I want to make you scream loud enough to scare every bird in this canyon."
"Jon—"
"Five minutes." He's already working his way down my body, lips, teeth, and tongue leaving trails of fire.
It’s less. He’s true to his word, his focus absolute, his mouth a devastating mix of heat and precision that has me gripping the cold granite until my knuckles turn white. I shatter in the morning light, a quiet, broken sound escaping me that he catches with a kiss.
But the moment the tremors stop, the operator is back. The golden light isn't just beautiful; it's a spotlight.
"We’re burning daylight, sweetheart," Jon murmurs against my skin, his voice already losing its velvet edge to something sharper. Tactical. "Sun’s hitting the ridge. If they have spotters on the opposite rim, we’re sitting ducks."
The haze of pleasure evaporates, replaced by the cool, hard logic of survival. We dress in silence, the rustle of clothes and the snap of his holster the only sounds in the crevice. The world feels new and possible, but the sun is fully up now, the canyon bathed in golden light that reveals exactly where we are.
"Ready for the last eighty feet?" I ask.
Jon grins. His hair is a disaster, his clothes are rumpled, and there's a mark on his neck that I definitely put there. He looks thoroughly debauched, but his eyes are serious again. Lethal.
"Ready to follow you anywhere." He says it lightly, but he's already scanning the rim above. "Lead the way, sweetheart."
I turn to the rock above us, find my holds, and start to climb.
This time, I'm not alone.
THIRTEEN
Intel Drop
RIOT
The last eightyfeet of the climb pass in a blur.
Evie leads, and I follow, and somewhere between the crevice and the top, the world shifts back into focus. The soft edges of what we just shared harden into tactical reality: we're still being hunted, still miles from safety, still running on borrowed time.
But the weight of it feels different now. Lighter. Like I'm not carrying it alone.
We crest the top of the cliff and collapse onto flat ground, both of us breathing hard. The sun is past its peak—we were in that crevice longer than I realized. Long enough for the search to move on. Long enough for everything to change.
"Mitzy." I tap my earpiece, still catching my breath. "You there?"
"Always."Her voice crackles through, sharp with relief."Jesus, Riot, I was starting to think you'd fallen off a cliff."
"Almost. Evie saved my ass." I glance at the woman beside me—flushed, disheveled, more beautiful than anyone has a right to be after climbing two hundred feet of granite. "We're on top. What's our status?"
"Search teams have pulled back to the main road. They're setting up checkpoints on every route back to Sacramento."Keys clicking in the background."But I've got good news and bad news."
"Good news first. I could use some good news."
"Extraction bird is fueled and ready. I can have it at your position in ninety minutes once you reach the clearing."
"And the bad news?"
Pause. The kind of pause that makes my stomach drop.
"The intel came through on that license plate. The one the witness remembered from the hit."
I sit up straighter. Beside me, Evie goes still—she can hear the shift in Mitzy's tone even if she can't hear the words.
