53. Felicity
FELICITY
The chain rattled hard outside the barn doors.
Then came the heavy scrape of metal locking into place.
Every person inside went deadly still.
Trigger’s voice dropped from the loft above us.
“We’ve got movement outside.”
Rook’s eyes narrowed instantly.
“How many?”
“Too many.”
Gunfire erupted seconds later.
Not random.
Controlled.
Strategic.
The cleanup crew had stopped hunting Mercer’s convoy.
Now they were hunting us.
Hersh shoved me behind him immediately while Wolf killed the remaining flashlight beam near the stalls.
Darkness swallowed the barn again.
Only lightning flashed through the cracks in the old wood now.
Quick white bursts.
Quick enough to see shadows moving outside.
Circling us.
My pulse slammed harder.
“They locked us in.”
A bullet tore through the barn wall beside Trigger’s head.
Wood exploded outward.
Trigger fired back instantly from the loft.
Two suppressed shots answered him from outside.
Professional.
Coordinated.
Military.
Hersh’s hand found mine behind his back for one quick second.
One squeeze.
I’m here.
Always.
Then he let go and raised his rifle again.
Rook crouched beside the lockbox near Midnight’s stall.
“Open it,” Wolf urged.
Rook shook his head once.
“Not yet.”
Another round blasted through the barn wall.
Eddie flinched hard from where he lay bleeding beside the hay bales.
“They know about the list,” he rasped painfully. “If Mercer sent the Hollow Men?—”
Rook’s head snapped toward him instantly.
“The what?”
Eddie looked terrified he’d said it out loud.
Thunder cracked overhead.
“The Hollow Men,” he whispered. “Mercer’s private cleaners. Former military. Black-site operators. Assassins.” His breathing turned ragged. “When people became problems… they disappeared them.”
A chill crawled down my spine.
Wolf muttered darkly, “That’s comforting.”
“They don’t leave witnesses,” Eddie continued weakly. “Ever.”
Another impact slammed against the barn doors from outside.
BOOM.
Dust rained from the rafters.
Whoever was out there was trying to breach the entrance now.
Trigger checked his ammo quickly above us.
“They brought charges.”
My heart dropped.
Hersh moved closer to me instinctively.
His body shielding mine again.
Always shielding mine.
Rook finally slid the brass key into the lockbox.
The click echoed loudly inside the barn.
Everybody watched.
Even the gunfire outside seemed farther away for one suspended second.
Rook lifted the lid slowly.
Inside sat:
A thick black ledger.
Several flash drives sealed in plastic.
And photographs.
So many photographs.
Rook picked one up first.
Lightning flashed through the cracks again?—
illuminating his face.
And for the first time since I’d met him?—
Commander James “Rook” Callahan looked shaken.
“What is it?” Blaze asked.
Rook handed him the photograph silently.
Hersh stared at it.
Then his entire body went rigid.
“What the hell…”
Fear curled through me instantly.
“What?”
Slowly—
Hersh turned the picture toward me.
And my stomach dropped.
It was old.
Maybe fifteen years old.
Taken somewhere underground.
Men stood around a long table.
Senator Mercer.
Several armed men I didn’t recognize.
My father.
And—
Rook.
Younger.
Harder.
Standing beside my father wearing the same raven symbol.
The entire barn went silent.
I looked at Rook in shock.
“You knew my father?”
Rook didn’t answer immediately.
Outside—
another explosive charge slammed against the doors.
The entire barn shook violently.
But inside?
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Because Rook was staring at the photograph like it was a ghost.
Then finally?—
his voice came low and rough.
“Your father saved my life.”