15. Felicity
FELICITY
Darkness swallowed the tavern instantly.
One second light.
The next?—
Nothing.
Isabel gasped sharply beside me.
Every instinct in my body detonated at once.
Run.
Hide.
Move.
But before panic could fully take hold, Hersh’s hand tightened gently against the back of my neck.
Grounding me.
Keeping me here.
“Everybody stay still,” he said calmly into the darkness.
Calm.
God, how was he calm?
Outside, rain hammered the streets of Eagle River while tires screeched hard enough to echo through the building.
A vehicle door slammed.
Then another.
Trigger’s voice came low somewhere near the windows.
“Three exits from the SUV.”
Wolf swore quietly.
Ava moved instantly beside Isabel.
“Get down.”
The girl obeyed immediately, crouching beside the bar with shaking hands over her head.
My pulse thundered so hard I could barely hear.
Hersh’s hand slid from my neck down to my wrist.
Firm.
Steady.
“I need you upstairs,” he murmured close to my ear.
“No.”
Absolutely not.
I felt him exhale once.
Like he expected that answer.
“Flick—”
“I’m not leaving you down here.”
Another vehicle door slammed outside.
Too close.
Way too close.
Wolf moved toward the side wall carefully. “Nobody fire unless we have confirmation.”
Ava already had her weapon drawn.
Trigger did too.
And somewhere in the darkness, Hersh shifted slightly in front of me again.
Protective.
Always protective.
Fear clawed up my throat.
Because suddenly this was real in a whole new way.
Not warnings.
Not running.
Not hidden packages.
Men were outside.
Right now.
Coming here.
A flashlight beam suddenly cut across the front tavern windows.
Isabel whimpered softly.
Hersh’s fingers tightened once around mine.
“Easy,” he whispered.
Easy?
Easy?!
My entire body shook with adrenaline.
Another flashlight beam swept across the glass.
Then—
A hard knock rattled the tavern door.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Another knock came.
Louder this time.
A male voice shouted through the storm.
“Sheriff’s department!”
The room went completely still.
Wolf frowned instantly.
Trigger muttered, “That’s not Tate.”
No.
It wasn’t.
Even I knew that.
Ava’s expression hardened in the dark.
“How many deputies know about this location?”
“Not many,” Wolf answered.
My stomach dropped.
Oh God.
The leak.
Another knock slammed against the door.
“Open up!”
Wrong.
Everything about it felt wrong.
Sheriff Tate would never pound on a door like that.
Would never sound aggressive.
Hersh’s body had gone terrifyingly still beside me.
Hunter stillness.
The kind that came before violence.
Then quietly?—
Too quietly?—
He spoke near my ear.
“Back upstairs. Now.”
This time I heard something different in his voice.
Not control.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For me.
And somehow that scared me more than the men outside.
Ava looked toward Wolf.
“You trust your sheriff?”
“With my life.”
“Then that’s not one of his men.”
Ice flooded my veins.
Outside, the voice shouted again.
“We know you’re in there!”
Isabel made a terrified sound beside the bar.
Oh God.
Oh God.
They found us.
Hersh moved instantly then.
One hand pulling me behind him while the other reached for the gun at his back.
Fast.
Controlled.
Deadly.
The tavern door suddenly SHOOK beneath another violent hit.
Wood cracked.
Trigger raised his weapon toward the entrance.
Wolf moved left.
Ava crouched protectively beside Isabel.
And Hersh?—
Hersh looked over his shoulder at me one time.
Just once.
But the look in his eyes hit me like a freight train.
Because it said everything he couldn’t say out loud.
If this goes bad…
I’m dying before they touch you.
The door shuddered again beneath another brutal impact.
Then—
A familiar voice roared from outside the storm:
“THE HELL YOU ARE!”
Gunfire exploded across the street.