Chapter 21
Russ
She moves before I can stop her.
Of course she does.
One second she’s beside me—
The next she’s launching herself toward the threat like her own safety never even crossed her mind.
“OLIVIA!”
The shout rips out of me.
I fire immediately—
Too late.
The man catches her hard around the waist and jerks her backward.
“No!”
Olivia fights instantly.
Elbow driving backward.
Boots kicking.
Twisting violently in his grip.
Doesn’t matter.
He’s bigger.
And now another man is closing in behind him.
Then another.
My vision tunnels instantly.
Everything narrows down to her struggling in their hands.
Something inside me snaps clean in half.
No strategy.
No discipline.
Gone.
I move before anybody can stop me.
Bullets crack around me.
Don’t care.
Someone shouts my name.
Don’t hear it.
All I see is her.
“LET HER GO!”
The roar tears out of my chest raw enough to hurt.
The man drags Olivia backward toward the vehicles anyway.
Her eyes lock onto mine.
And there’s no panic there.
No surrender.
Just trust.
Like she already believes I’m coming for her.
That destroys whatever control I had left.
I fire.
One man drops instantly.
Shift.
Fire again.
Another slams backward into the dirt.
Not enough.
Still not enough.
There are too damn many of them.
“Russ!” Lucas shouts somewhere behind me. “Move!”
No.
Absolutely not.
I surge forward again.
Olivia twists violently in the man’s grip and drives her elbow into his throat hard enough to stagger him.
For one second she almost breaks free.
Then another set of hands grabs her.
“No—!”
The sound tears straight through me.
I fire again.
Too close now.
Too dangerous.
Doesn’t matter.
“I’m coming!” I shout.
I don’t even know if she hears me over the gunfire.
I say it anyway.
Then suddenly hands slam into me from behind.
Lucas.
He yanks me hard back behind cover as bullets tear across the open ground where I was standing seconds earlier.
“NO!” I shove against him violently.
“You go now, you die!” he snaps back.
“I’m not leaving her!”
His grip tightens harder. “You rush them now, you lose everybody!”
“I don’t care!”
Lie.
I care.
That’s the problem.
Lucas grabs my vest hard enough to force me to look at him.
“You die here,” he growls, “and you never get her back.”
That stops me cold.
Just long enough.
Just one second too long.
Because behind him—
Vehicle doors slam shut.
Engines roar.
“No.”
The word leaves me quietly.
Disbelieving.
I break free instantly and sprint forward again, firing toward the convoy as the tires spin across the dirt.
Too late.
Way too late.
The vehicles tear out of the canyon fast, dust exploding behind them while bullets from Clay and Miles spark uselessly off metal.
Gone.
Taking her with them.
Silence crashes down afterward so hard it feels violent.
I stop moving.
Breathing rough.
Chest burning.
My hands shake once before I force them still.
No.
No, this is not happening.
Miles steps closer carefully. “Russ…”
I don’t look at him.
Can’t.
Because if I do, I might actually lose control.
“She’s gone,” he says quietly.
The words settle across the canyon like a death sentence.
And something inside me goes ice cold.
I slowly turn back toward the road where the convoy disappeared.
Dust still hangs in the air.
That’s all they left behind.
“She’s not gone.”
My voice comes out calm.
Too calm.
The kind of calm that scares people.
Clay studies me carefully from a few feet away. “Then what is she?”
I finally look at them.
Lucas.
Clay.
Miles.
Every face waiting for me to break.
Instead, something else settles into place inside me.
Sharp.
Certain.
Deadly.
“Target.”
Silence.
Then I chamber another round into my rifle and start walking.
“We get her back.”
Not hope.
Not strategy.
Promise.