Chapter 59 Carter
Carter
The SUV rolled to a stop a block from the yard, its engine rumbling low before Cyclone cut it. The night was heavy, damp with fog rolling off the docks, the stench of salt and rust thick in the air.
Through the windshield, the shipping yard loomed—rows of containers stacked like tombstones, floodlights sweeping in slow arcs, shadows moving between them. Armed guards, at least a dozen. Maybe more.
River’s voice was calm, steady, as he laid it out. “Graves will be in the control tower. Top floor. He’ll have eyes on everything. We clear the perimeter and breach through the south entrance. Gideon, Cyclone—you take high ground and cut the lights. Carter and I move straight in.”
I nodded once, my jaw set. My finger tapped the side of my rifle, itching for the fight. But it wasn’t just combat humming in my blood. It was Harper’s face, her voice in my head—Don’t die for me. Live with me.
That was the vow I carried into the dark.
We slipped out of the SUV, boots silent on asphalt. The air was damp, every breath tasting like iron and seawater. I scanned the yard, counting angles, calculating lines of fire.
River signaled. Gideon and Cyclone peeled off, shadows vanishing into the stacks. A minute later, the floodlights blinked and died, plunging the yard into jagged dark.
The first guard didn’t even see me coming. My knife slid quick and clean, his body hitting the ground without a sound. River dropped the next. The rest scattered, confused in the blackout, and that was all the opening we needed.
We moved fast, silent, weaving through containers. My pulse was steady, my vision sharp. Every step was one closer to Graves. One closer to ending this.
The control tower loomed ahead, a narrow spine of steel and glass against the night. I could see movement inside—shadows pacing, one broader than the rest.
Graves.
Rage burned low and steady in my chest, controlled but lethal. This was the man who had marked Harper. Who had tried to make her a pawn in his game.
And tonight, I was going to end him.