71. Blaze
BLAZE
Something inside me snapped.
Cleanly.
Violently.
Not loud.
Not dramatic.
Just—
gone.
Every survival instinct.
Every rule.
Every piece of restraint I’d spent years building.
“Shepherd,” I said quietly.
Wolf immediately muttered behind me, “Oh hell.”
Because he heard it too.
That tone.
The one that meant I was seconds away from killing somebody.
Rain poured off the porch roof in heavy sheets.
Shepherd kept walking slowly toward the house like he didn’t have a rifle pointed directly at his chest.
Like he wanted this.
Maybe he did.
“You should’ve stayed buried in that canyon,” he called calmly.
I stepped off the porch.
“Hersh!” Flick grabbed my arm instantly.
The fear in her voice hit me hard enough I stopped.
Barely.
I looked back at her.
Tears mixed with rain on her cheeks now.
Not weak tears.
Terrified ones.
The kind that came from realizing I was going to destroy this monster or die.
“Please,” she whispered.
That one word reached somewhere nothing else could.
I exhaled slowly.
Forced my breathing steady.
Then Shepherd laughed softly out in the rain.
“There he is,” he murmured. “Still choosing her.”
Wolf came down the porch steps beside me.
“You want the shot?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
Honestly?
It surprised me too.
Because I absolutely wanted Shepherd dead.
But not like this.
Not while Flick watched.
Not while Shepherd still thought he controlled the board.
Shepherd tilted his head slightly.
“You think this ends at the ranch?”
His eyes shifted toward Flick standing behind me.
“I know where she was born.”
Ice flooded through my veins.
Flick went pale instantly.
The sheriff stepped onto the porch hard.
“What the hell does that mean?”
But Shepherd ignored him completely.
All his focus stayed locked on Flick.
“You ever wonder why your father kept moving you?” he asked softly.
“No,” I said sharply. “You talk to me.”
A small smile touched his mouth.
“There’s the problem, Blaze.” His gaze returned to mine. “You think this was ever about you.”
The storm cracked violently overhead.
Lightning flashed across the ranch?—
and suddenly I saw movement near the fence line behind Shepherd.
Two shadows.
Armed.
Damn it.
“CONTACT LEFT!” Wolf roared instantly.
Gunfire exploded.
Everybody moved at once.
I spun fast?—
grabbing Flick against me as bullets ripped across the porch railing.
Wood shattered everywhere.
The sheriff returned fire from the doorway.
Trigger came around the side of the house like an absolute maniac already shooting.
One of the Hollow Men dropped instantly.
The second disappeared into the darkness.
But Shepherd?
Gone.
Vanished.
Like he’d dissolved into the storm itself.
“Damn it!” Wolf shouted.
I scanned the ranch wildly.
Tree line.
Fence.
Barn.
Nothing.
Then Flick suddenly froze against me.
Completely froze.
“Hersh…”
Her voice sounded wrong.
I looked down fast.
She was staring toward the upstairs bedroom window.
My bedroom window.
And slowly?—
through the rain-streaked glass?—
a single light turned on by itself.