Chapter 103 Jase
Jase
Location: Adriatic Coast — Somewhere Unfriendly
Time: Night
The boat is burning.
That’s not a metaphor.
That’s a very real, very expensive fire on very dark water.
I crouch behind a half-shattered crate on a dock that doesn’t exist on any map and watch men with bad posture and worse intentions run in directions they didn’t plan on running.
Ronan’s voice is in my ear. “Convoy asset was transferred here. Then vanished.”
“Yeah,” I say. “That tracks.”
Gunfire cracks.
Someone screams.
I pop up, put two rounds into the engine block of a fleeing SUV, and drop back down.
“Any sign of her?” I ask.
“Negative,” Ronan replies. “But this was the handoff point.”
I scan the chaos.
And then I see her.
Dark hair pulled back. Blood on her temple. Moving like she’s not running from something — she’s navigating through it.
Of course she is.
“Mila,” I breathe.
A year ago, Prague. One night. No names.
Big mistake.
She ducks behind a shipping container as two men peel off after her.
I don’t think.
I move.
One of them goes down before he realizes he’s in a fight.
The second gets clever.
He never gets to finish.
I grab Mila’s arm and pull her behind cover.
She spins, already holding a gun she definitely didn’t have in Prague.
We stare at each other.
Then she says, “You’re not supposed to be here.”
I grin. “I get that a lot.”
More footsteps.
She swears in at least three languages.
“You brought friends,” she says.
“Nope,” I reply. “But you definitely did.”
I haul her toward the water as bullets chew the steel behind us.
“Let go of me!” she snaps.
“Not happening.”
“You don’t understand—”
“I understand you’re about to get killed,” I say. “And I’m about to ruin several people’s night.”
We dive off the dock together as the boat behind us explodes.
The water is cold.
Dark.
And full of problems. I see a couple of them float past us.