Chapter 102
Adam
The dock lights burned harsh against the gulf night, throwing long shadows over steel containers stacked high like a graveyard of secrets. I crouched low behind a forklift, Raine pressed at my side, her breath steady, her pistol already up.
“Three guards,” Hawk whispered into my radio. “Dockside. Two more by the cab.”
Blade’s voice cut in, low and sharp. “Easy kills.”
“Hold,” I ordered. My gaze swept the line of refrigerated trucks. Their trailers vibrated with the hum of cooling units. Boone had been right—human cargo.
Raine’s hand brushed mine, not trembling, not searching—anchoring. The steel in her eyes told me she wasn’t waiting for orders. She was here. My partner.
The guard by the cab lit a cigarette. That flare was all I needed.
“Now,” I growled.
Hawk moved first, a shadow turned to fire as his rifle coughed suppressed rounds. One guard dropped, then another, bodies hitting concrete before the echo even carried. Blade was next, knife flashing once in the dark, silent and final.
But the cab driver shouted—too loud, too fast. An alarm wailed, lights blazed, and suddenly the dock erupted into chaos.
Gunfire tore the night apart. Sparks lit the steel walls. I shoved Raine behind cover as bullets chewed into the forklift.
She cursed, rolled to the other side, and snapped off two shots clean and fast. A grunt, then a body fell. No hesitation. No fear. Just fire.
“Left flank!” Logan shouted. He laid down cover, rounds sparking off the container walls.
I leaned around the cab, squeezed off three shots. Two targets down. My blood burned hot, vision narrowing to the fight.
But it wasn’t the bullets that twisted my gut.
It was the pounding from inside the nearest trailer. Fists. Weak voices, muffled screams.
“Adam!” Raine’s voice cut sharp through the chaos. She’d heard it too.
I spun to her, and in that instant, she wasn’t just a soldier. She was the reason I didn’t walk away from this war.
“Cover me,” I barked.
Her chin lifted, fire blazing. “Always.”
We moved together, side by side through the storm of bullets, straight toward the trucks.