Chapter 19
Russ
We don’t make it ten feet.
“CONTACT LEFT!”
Clay’s warning explodes through the canyon.
Gunfire erupts instantly from above and below, bullets tearing into the rocks around us before I can even fully react.
Ambush.
They knew exactly where we’d come out.
“MOVE!” I roar.
Everything detonates into chaos.
I shove Olivia ahead of me hard enough to keep her moving uphill while bullets hammer the canyon walls around us.
Stone explodes inches from my face.
Too damn close.
“Get them behind cover!” Lucas shouts from above.
The civilians scramble through the narrow passage while Miles and Clay fire downslope.
Olivia twists slightly toward the gunfire. “I can help—”
“Move.”
My hand tightens hard around her arm.
No room for argument.
Not now.
She sees something in my face that makes her stop fighting me immediately.
Good.
Because I don’t have enough attention left to fight her and keep everybody alive at the same time.
I pivot and fire toward movement breaking through the rocks below.
One man drops instantly.
Another disappears behind cover.
More shadows move behind him.
Too many.
“They’re spreading again!” Miles yells.
Of course they are.
“Clay!” I bark. “Smoke!”
“Already on it!”
Canisters bounce off the rocks seconds later.
Then the canyon explodes into thick gray clouds.
Visibility vanishes instantly.
Perfect.
Gunfire turns wild behind us as smoke swallows the pass.
“Push through!” Lucas shouts.
The group surges forward.
Children coughing.
Mothers stumbling through the haze.
I stay at the rear automatically, firing blind suppression rounds toward flashes of movement inside the smoke.
Because that’s where the threat is.
Because that’s where she is.
I glance back through the haze.
Olivia’s still moving uphill beside Hannah.
Slower than everyone else.
One hand pressed against her side.
But moving.
Alive.
That’s enough.
A figure bursts suddenly through the smoke straight toward us.
Too close.
I fire once.
The man collapses immediately.
Another appears behind him—
Clay drops him before I can even raise my weapon again.
“Keep moving!” he snaps.
We break out of the smoke cloud hard and fast—
Straight into open terrain.
And my stomach drops instantly.
Engines roar ahead.
Not distant anymore.
Close.
Very close.
“Russ!”
Lucas points toward the canyon opening.
Vehicles block the path ahead.
Three of them.
Men already climbing out with rifles raised.
Damn it.
Behind us, gunfire still tears through the smoke-filled pass.
Ahead, engines idle across our escape route.
To the left?
Straight drop into the canyon.
To the right?
Solid rock wall.
Perfect.
Exactly perfect.
Miles looks at me sharply. “Options?”
Adrenaline floods cold through my veins.
No hesitation.
No time.
“We go through.”
Clay grins grimly beside me. “Knew you were gonna say that.”
Of course I was.
Because there’s nowhere else left to run.