Page 173 of Broken Oath

Falcon fired.

The SUV’s rear tire exploded.

It fishtailed.

Recovered.

Kept moving.

Marcus’s guards returned fire toward the harbor while he ran for the passenger door.

Sarah stepped from cover.

Rook caught her arm.

“Don’t.”

She turned toward him.

Snow swirled between them.

“If he gets away⁠—”

Her voice cracked.

Only slightly.

But it cracked.

The first break in her armor.

Rook saw the grief behind it.

The guilt.

The exhaustion.

Five years of chasing a man who controlled every answer she received.

“If he gets away, more people die.”

She believed it absolutely.

Rook tightened his hand around her arm.

“And if you run across an open dock, you die.”

“I can reach him.”

“No.”

“You don’t get to order me around.”

“No,” Rook said. “But I’m not watching another person run into a kill zone when I can stop it.”

The words landed between them.

They weren’t only about Sarah.