Chapter 48 Jase
Jase
The second wave hits fast.
Faster than the first.
No hesitation.
No warning.
Just impact.
Gunfire rips through the front of the house before the vehicles even fully stop. Bullets punch through wood, glass, drywall—turning the safehouse into shredded cover in seconds.
“Contact front!” Cal shouts.
“I see it!” Jonah fires back.
I drop behind the overturned table, ignoring the way my ribs scream in protest. Mila is already moving—low, fast, controlled—sliding in beside me with the device secured tight against her body.
“Another vehicle,” she says.
“Yeah,” I mutter. “They brought friends.”
Ethan’s voice cuts through everything.
“Hold positions! Funnel them in!”
Delta Five spreads out like a living thing, each man taking a sector, overlapping fields of fire. No panic. No wasted movement.
Just war.
And in the middle of it—
Daniel Voss.
Still pinned.
Still watched.
Still untrusted.
For now.
Another burst of gunfire tears through the wall above us. Dust rains down. Wood splinters.
“They’re not slowing down,” Mila says.
“No,” I agree. “They’re not here to slow down.”
They’re here to finish it.
A grenade clatters through the broken window.
Time stops.
“GRENADE!” I shout.
Mila reacts instantly, diving back—
But Daniel moves first.
He rips free.
Not away—
Toward it.
My brain barely keeps up as he lunges across the room, grabs the grenade mid-roll, and pivots hard—
“DOWN!”
He hurls it through the side doorway just as it detonates.
The blast shakes the entire structure, heat and pressure slamming through the open frame instead of inside.
Close.
Too damn close.
Silence follows for half a second.
Then—
Everything crashes back.
Gunfire.
Shouting.
Movement.
I stare at him.
That… wasn’t a grab for the device.
That was—
“Containment,” Mila breathes beside me.
Yeah.
Exactly that.
Daniel turns back to us, chest rising, eyes sharp.
“No more time,” he says. “You want to live? You listen.”
Ethan doesn’t argue.
That’s new.
“Talk,” he snaps.
Daniel moves fast, grabbing a marker off the counter and dragging a rough layout across the wall—angles, entry points, kill zones.
“They’re running a sweep formation,” he says. “Two teams pushing front, one circling rear, one holding perimeter. They’re not here to breach—they’re here to collapse.”
Ronan steps in beside him, eyes tracking the layout.
“You’re sure?”
Daniel doesn’t even look at him.
“Positive.”
Outside—engines shift.
Movement changes.
I feel it before I see it.
“They’re repositioning,” I mutter.
Daniel nods once.
“Because they know you’re dug in,” he says. “Next move—they compress.”
My jaw tightens.
“They box us in.”
“Yes.”
Mila glances at me.
“Then we don’t stay boxed.”
That’s my girl.
Daniel’s eyes flick to her—approval this time.
Real.
“Exactly,” he says. “You break their formation before it locks.”
Ethan looks between us.
Decision made.
“Alright,” he says. “We push.”
Jonah looks up. “Push… out there?”
“Yeah,” I say, already checking my weapon. “Out there.”
Because staying inside?
That’s how we die.
Daniel grabs a second weapon—smooth, practiced, like he’s done it a thousand times.
“Left flank is weakest,” he says. “Two-man team. Light coverage.”
Ronan studies him for half a second.
Then nods.
“Then that’s where we hit.”
Mila shifts beside me.
“You good?” she asks quietly.
I glance at her.
Rain dripping through the broken ceiling.
Firelight flickering across her face.
Alive.
Strong.
Unbreakable.
“Always,” I say.
She almost smiles.
Almost.
Ethan raises his hand.
“On my mark.”
The room stills.
Every breath.
Every heartbeat.
Locked in.
“Three…”
Outside—
Footsteps.
Closing.
“Two…”
Mila’s shoulder brushes mine.
Grounding.
“One—”
“MOVE!”
We explode out of the house.
Rain slams into us instantly, cold and brutal, turning the ground slick beneath our boots.
Gunfire erupts.
We hit hard and fast, exactly where Daniel said—the left flank.
Two men.
Caught off guard.
They don’t last.
Jase takes one down with two shots center mass.
Ronan drops the second before he can even raise his weapon.
“Clear!” Cal shouts behind us.
“Keep moving!” Ethan orders.
We push forward, breaking their line before they can adjust.
Chaos spreads through their formation.
Confusion.
Shouting.
Too late.
We’re already inside their perimeter.
Mila moves like a ghost beside me—precise, lethal, unstoppable. Every shot she takes lands.
Every move calculated.
Every breath controlled.
God help anyone in her way.
Daniel stays with us.
Not hanging back.
Not hesitating.
Right in the fight.
And when a shooter swings in from the right—
I don’t see him.
But Daniel does.
“Jase—DOWN!”
I drop without thinking.
A shot cracks past where my head was—
And Daniel fires back, taking the guy out before he can get a second round off.
I hit the ground hard, breath punching out of me.
Alive.
Because of him.
I look up.
Our eyes meet.
And in that second—
Everything shifts.
Trust.
Not complete.
Not blind.
But real.
Earned.
“Move!” Mila snaps.
Yeah.
Right.
No time for reflection.
We surge forward again, pushing through the last of them, breaking the attack before it can fully form.
Within minutes—
It’s over.
The storm keeps raging.
But the fight…
The fight is done.
Bodies litter the ground.
Silence settles again.
Heavy.
Final.
I straighten slowly, ignoring the pain, scanning the perimeter.
Clear.
For now.
Mila steps in close beside me.
“Everyone good?” she calls.
“One minor hit,” Jonah answers. “I’m good.”
“Clear,” Cal confirms.
Ronan gives a single nod.
Ethan exhales slowly.
Then looks at Daniel.
Long.
Measured.
Different now.
“You just bought yourself a seat at this table,” Ethan says.
Daniel doesn’t smile.
Doesn’t relax.
He just nods once.
“Good,” he says.
Then his gaze shifts to Mila.
To the device still in her hands.
“To finish this,” he adds.
I glance at Mila.
She looks back at me.
And yeah—
We’re not done.
Not even close.
But now?
Now we’ve got a new piece on the board.
And maybe—
Just maybe—
He’s on our side after all.