Chapter Five
They didn’t stop after the kiss.
There was no space for it, no room to stand in what had just shifted between them, because the building still breathed danger around them, thick and wrong, and until it was cleared, nothing else mattered.
Victor had made the call before they’d even reached the site—split the team, cut the lines, contain the movement.
The Gorillas had peeled off to lock down transport routes before Chimera could relocate assets, while the Tigers stayed on comms, feeding live intel as it came in.
The rest of the unit had been redirected to secondary targets lighting up across the grid.
Which left this—fast, quiet, surgical.
Jarek rolled his shoulders once as he moved forward, forcing his focus back into place, locking everything down into instinct and control. The corridor ahead stretched long and narrow, shadows pooling in the corners where the overhead lighting flickered just enough to be unreliable.
Aleksy followed behind him, steady and unshaken despite the weight in his arms, Naomi held securely against him as if nothing in this environment could touch her. Jarek trusted that. If Aleksy had her, she was safe.
Tamsin moved at his side without being told, slipping into position like it had always been hers. Her steps were light, deliberate, her blade already in her hand, angled low and ready. She didn’t hesitate, didn’t question, didn’t look to either of them for direction.
She simply moved with them.
And God, she was something to watch.
Even now, when everything in him should have been locked on the threat ahead, his awareness kept circling back to her.
Her hair had come loose during the fight, the dark magenta strands falling free around her face, catching the dim light as she turned her head, tracking movement he hadn’t even registered yet.
Her blue eyes were sharp, focused, alive with the kind of intensity that didn’t flicker under pressure.
Her body didn’t move like it should have, not for someone built the way a woman should be.
She had curves where angles would have been easier, but she didn’t work around them.
She used them. Every shift of her hips, every turn of her shoulders, every strike carried a fluidity that made her harder to read, harder to predict.
Jarek exhaled slowly through his nose, dragging his attention back where it belonged.
Yeah. That’s going to get me killed.
A sound ahead cut through the moment, soft enough that it would have gone unnoticed if they hadn’t already been keyed into everything around them.
Jarek’s hand came up instinctively, stopping them both. Tamsin stilled immediately beside him, her body going quiet in a way that spoke of control. Behind them, Aleksy adjusted his stance without shifting his footing, keeping Naomi secure while opening his line of attack.
Movement hit from the shadows, fast and coordinated, three forms separating from the dark as they came at them from different angles.
Jarek moved first, because he always did.
The first hybrid came straight for him, and he met it with force, driving forward instead of back, his strike landing hard enough to disrupt its momentum before it could fully commit.
Bone gave under the impact, the crack sharp and final as he finished it with a blade to the hybrid’s eye without slowing.
To his right, Tamsin was already inside the second one’s guard. She didn’t retreat, didn’t give it space to recover. She stepped into it, her body turning close, both sai sliding in with precision that made the kill look effortless.
On his left, the third aimed for Aleksy, drawn by the vulnerability of what he carried. It didn’t get far. Aleksy shifted just enough to protect Naomi, his free hand coming up in a controlled, brutal motion, throwing a knife with deadly accuracy that ended the threat before it could reach them.
Silence followed again, thicker this time, the aftermath of movement settling back into stillness.
Jarek scanned the corridor slowly, not trusting the quiet, letting his gaze track every shadow, every corner, every place something could still be hiding.
Nothing moved.
“Clear,” he said, his voice low but certain.
Tamsin didn’t relax. She didn’t lower her weapons, didn’t ease the tension in her stance.
“Then we move,” she said, already stepping forward.
They pushed deeper, faster now, the exit drawing closer with every step. Jarek could feel the shift in the air before he saw it, the faint change that came with open space ahead, with air that hadn’t been trapped inside concrete walls.
The sound came from above, metal giving way under weight, and Jarek’s head snapped up just as the hybrid dropped from the overhead structure, its trajectory aimed directly at Tamsin.
“Down!”
He moved at the same time Aleksy did, both of them closing distance fast, but they were a fraction too far.
Tamsin didn’t drop.
Her sai came up in one clean, decisive motion, the strike angled perfectly as she took it through the throat before it could land. The body fell behind her, her momentum carrying her through the movement without breaking stride.
Jarek stilled for half a second, the breath leaving him in a rough exhale that bordered on a laugh.
“Yeah,” he muttered, shaking his head slightly. “You’re never getting left behind.”
She glanced back at him over her shoulder, her expression sharp, unbothered. “Try it.”
His grin came easy this time. “Wouldn’t survive it.”
They cleared the last stretch without further resistance, pushing out into the open night air where the tension finally eased just enough to breathe.
Aleksy moved immediately toward the transport, lowering Naomi carefully as the med team closed in, their movements efficient and practiced as they took over.
Jarek hung back for a moment, his attention shifting to Tamsin again.
She stood just outside the movement, shoulders squared, her breathing steadying as the adrenaline settled. Her sai were still in her hands, her grip loose but ready.
He watched her longer than he should have.
“Tamsin.”
The voice cut through cleanly. Naomi.
Jarek’s attention snapped back as Tamsin moved immediately, crossing the distance and dropping beside her without hesitation. Whatever edge she carried into a fight shifted again, not gone, but redirected.
“Hey,” she said, her voice quieter now. “You’re safe.”
Naomi’s eyes struggled to focus at first, then settled on Tamsin’s face, something fragile and shaken breaking through before she pulled it back together. “Tams...”
“I’ve got you,” Tamsin said, steady and certain. “You’re okay.”
Naomi swallowed, her fear still there, still visible, but she fought it, forced herself to hold steady. Jarek saw it for what it was. Strength.
“They ... they were—” Naomi started.
“I know,” Tamsin said, cutting in gently. “You don’t need to go there right now.”
Naomi’s breath hitched, her gaze searching. “I didn’t think anyone would come.”
“We came,” Tamsin said simply.
Naomi nodded faintly, holding onto that. “What do I do, now?”
Tamsin didn’t hesitate. “You get well, that’s your job right now.”
Naomi nodded again, small but certain.
Then her gaze shifted, catching on Jarek and Aleksy where they stood behind Tamsin, both of them still, both of them very much present.
“And them?” she asked, her voice still unsteady but steadier than it had been moments ago. “The Viking hulks standing behind you?”
Tamsin didn’t even turn. “I’ve got them on probation.”
Jarek let out a quiet snort, the sound slipping out before he could stop it. Beside him, Aleksy exhaled, something almost like amusement breaking through his usual control.
“Temporary probation,” Aleksy said.
“About to end due to good behavior,” Jarek added.
Naomi blinked at them, then back at Tamsin, and despite everything, despite the fear still sitting in her eyes, a small, shaky smile broke through.
It was enough.
Jarek’s gaze shifted back to Tamsin, watching the way she stayed steady beside Naomi, the way she anchored her without even trying.
They had someone worth fighting for, and they wouldn’t let her go.
****
The command center was a welcome change to their night.
The hum of systems still ran beneath everything, screens still lit with data that would need to be reviewed, patterns that would need to be broken down and understood before morning, but the sharp edge of immediate threat had eased just enough to let exhaustion settle into the spaces between them.
Naomi had been transferred within minutes of arrival.
The nearest hospital had been secured before they even left the site, the arrangement already in motion through E.S.E.
channels that didn’t wait for permission when lives were involved.
Riley had gone with her, along with a rotating guard detail, ensuring that Chimera would not get a second chance at her. Not tonight. Not again.
Aleksy had watched her go without comment, tracking the steadiness of her breathing, the way her body had responded under Riley’s care, committing it all to memory before letting it go. She was alive. Stabilizing. That was enough for now.
Back in the command center, the rest of the team filtered in and out of conversation in a way that spoke of long familiarity.
Debriefs happened without structure, each unit reporting in fragments that fit together into a larger picture.
The Tigers fed in updates from the field, confirming no additional extractions in their sector.
The Gorillas checked in from transport routes, their voices steady as they confirmed Chimera movement had been cut off cleanly.
The Wolves layered in tracking patterns, already building projections for where Chimera would shift next.
Victor listened more than he spoke, absorbing everything, letting the room move until it settled on its own. When he did speak, it was brief and decisive, redirecting focus where it needed to go, cutting off lines of thought that didn’t serve the larger objective.