Luke
The convoy rolls out in under five minutes.
Gabriel's vehicles lead, sleek and bulletproof. Jake, Harper, Mandy, and I follow in two trucks, completely restocked and loaded for bear. Mason stays back with Lily and Emma, just in case.
Hendricks' voice crackles over the comms, calm and steady. "I'm already in position on the ridge overlooking the compound. Turner has maybe a dozen men inside, plus the women he's holding. Security is tight but predictable. I'll guide you in."
"How the hell did you get there?" I ask.
"I'm very good at my job."
Harper glances at me from the passenger seat. Her face is pale, her hands steady on her rifle. She hasn't said a word since we left Blackthorn.
"You good?" I ask quietly.
"No." She sighs. "But I'm here and I’m going to finish this."
Infiltrating Turner’s compound is almost anticlimactic. Hendricks meets us where he said, getting us into position.
Reyes’s team takes it from there, moving like ghosts—silent, precise, and deadly.
They breach the perimeter in under thirty seconds, neutralizing guards before they can raise an alarm.
Hendricks, Jake, and I move through the main building, clearing rooms. Harper and Mandy are right behind us, covering our six.
“Turner's office is in the basement,” Hendricks says quietly, gesturing the way.
“Of course it is,” I mutter. Men like him always hide underground.
“I’m going to secure the other rooms,” Jake says. “Hendricks, you with me?”
The man nods. “Got it.”
“Holler if you need backup,” I tell them.
Jake gives me an affirmative.
"Last door on the left," Hendricks says before jogging after Jake.
We follow Hendricks’s instructions to the closed door. I wonder if it’s locked and decide it’ll be more fun to just kick it in. “Stand back, ladies.”
“No,” Mandy says, pushing past me. “This is all me.”
And she shoots the shit out of the door. The handle falls off and the door hinges open with a creak.
Before we can move in, shots fire. I grab Harper and duck to one side. Mandy dives to the other side. I look through the doorway and see Turner behind his desk, sitting in his big leather chair, gun in hand.
"Drop the weapon," I call out.
He doesn't.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I raise my gun.
But before I get a shot off, Mandy rolls into the office and gets two shots off, hitting Turner on each shoulder.
He screams, folding over, the gun clattering to the floor. Harper rushes in and kicks it away.
Mandy pulls out zip ties and secures his hands behind his back while I cover her, wrenching his shoulders higher than necessary.
He deserves worse.
"You're done," I tell him.
Turner lets out a desperate sound that’s supposed to be a laugh. "You think this is over? You think killing me changes anything?"
"We're not killing you." Mandy smiles coldly, yanking him to his feet. "That’d be too easy, wouldn’t it?"
“We’re giving you to Gabriel Reyes.” I watch the way he goes white. I almost expect him to pass out, he gets so pale. “I hear he’s a nice guy. At least you’ll drive out of here in style. Man has a hell of a ride.”
Turner fights the restraints, panic stark on his face. “I’m not going with him.”
Harper walks up to him. “Yes, you are,” she says, and then she knocks him out with the butt of her gun.
He hits the ground like a sack of feed.
For a second no one says anything.
Then I grin at her. “Have I told you how hot you are?”
She rolls her eyes, but the corner of her mouth lifts.
Worth it.