Chapter 25
RAIDEN
“Run.”
The word leaves my mouth, and I’m already moving.
They’ve boxed us in tight, completely surrounded from every angle. I’m trapped inside this fortress of a warehouse, and Kiara is up on the ridge. We’re not hunters out here, we’re bait in a glass bowl, lit up from every side.
Breaking from cover, I sprint along the warehouse wall, rifle snapping up as I fire into the ridgeline, and bright flashes answer immediately, the bullets ricocheting off the corrugated steel walls.
They lured her out here, and they knew I would come.
Through the scope, I catch Kiara scrambling across the dusty terrain, gravel exploding around her as rounds leave craters in the ground. I adjust, fire again, deliberately stepping into view to drag their attention.
If they want a target, I’ll give them one.
There’s nothing I wouldn’t take for her. A blade, a beating, or even a bullet right to the chest.
They take the bait, not hesitating for even a second, and as they shoot at me, I watch Kiara make it to her car, her engine roaring to life and echoing through the valley.
She hits the gas, and her tires spit gravel as she tears across the hard earth, fishtailing onto the only access road that leads up the ridge.
Relief pounds through my veins, and I let out a breath as I focus on me now, because if Kiara got out of here, and our cover is now blown, then this is only the start, and I’m not about to let her face whatever fresh hell is coming her way.
Staying exposed longer than I should, I send one more controlled burst of bullets into the ridgeline, and just as another crack from a gun sounds through the air, I let my body go slack, dropping hard to the ground.
The impact knocks the air from my lungs, but I don’t dare move. The desert fills with silence, Kiara’s retreating engine the only sound.
Silence creeps in, slow and cautious, and I watch through half-lidded eyes as the shadows detach from the ridge. They shift fast now, abandoning positions, rifles slung over shoulders as they scramble toward vehicles, assuming they had a clean hit.
I scoff. It’s sloppy and impatient, and not only that, it’s a lethal error. You never turn your back on a target unless you’re positive they’re dead, and these assholes are just cocky enough to think they’re good enough to take me out.
Un-fucking-likely.
They weren’t planning for resistance. They were planning for an execution, and they’ll sure get one, only it won’t be Kiara or me in a shallow grave for the vultures to circle. It’ll be every last one of them.
They want her, but unfortunately for them, so do I. And nothing is about to take her away from me. And if they intend to take her right out of my hands, they’re going to have to earn it.
I stay down until engines roar in the distance, and once I’m certain all eyes are off me, and I’ve pulled off the perfect faked death, I roll and set my rifle straight, bringing the scope up just enough to catch the road through the warehouse’s broken paneling.
Headlights shine in the distance, and for just a moment, I’m grateful that she managed to get out of here, only as a second turns into two, it dawns on me that those headlights aren’t heading away, they’re moving toward the industrial road that I’d taken only an hour ago.
Horror slams through my chest.
Stupid girl. What the fuck is she doing?
I know she says I’m the one who’s intolerable, but shit. Sometimes I just want to rattle her.
Headlights race toward me, eating up the distance in no time.
Her car fishtails again, the engine screaming as gravel sprays, then she shoots forward toward the twelve-foot fenceline, and I realize this will have to be fast. There’s no waiting around to welcome her to the fishbowl of death and give a guided tour.
She’s coming in hot, and I better be fucking ready.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I mutter to myself, grabbing hold of my rifle and flying up, my feet already pounding against the cracked concrete flooring of the warehouse.
My arms pump, trying to time this just right as I screech to a halt by the blacked-out SUV and dive for the bag of weapons I’d brought with me. I keep my feet moving toward the massive security fence that blocks my access to the road.
Kiara doesn’t slow down, and as I run, I yank a grenade from my vest, pull the pin mid-stride, and hurl it toward the base of the fence, my hand raised in a pathetic attempt to shield myself from the incoming fire.
The blast splits the night, white-hot for a single brutal second before the darkness slams back in.
Heat punches through me as the fence buckles under the force, steel shrieking as it caves inward.
I don’t wait. I hit the opening at full speed just as Kiara skids hard, the car whipping sideways in a savage arc, the door already flying open before the tires finish screaming.
I dive for it, hitting the frame at full speed and grabbing the door before hauling myself inside, not skipping a single beat as the car continues on its course. Fuck, she didn’t even hit the brake. She gave me one fucking shot to get it right, otherwise she was leaving my ass behind.
“Go!” I bark.
“Duh!”
Okay, she’s pissed at me. And she has every right to be after sneaking out of the hospital while she slept and ghosting her for two fucking weeks. But what choice did I have? I left to give her a chance, only if I knew this is where we’d end up, there’s no way I would have walked.
The engine roars as we blast up the access road, debris crunching under the tires, and in seconds, headlights fall into place behind us, three, then four vehicles whipping around in tight formation as they realize they’ve been played.
“Move,” I snap, already reaching for the wheel.
She shoots me a look that could bring down buildings before smacking my hand away. “Who the fuck do you think you are, asshole? I can more than manage myself.”
“I know you can,” I grit, my gaze locked on the side mirror as bullets begin racing toward us, and a fifth SUV joins the pack. “But chaos is your love language. Are you really going to pass up the chance to return the favor?”
Her mouth curves, her eyes shining with excitement.
Pride ripples through me. “That’s my girl.”
Kiara unbuckles and slides across the console as I take the wheel and slide in around her, slamming my foot on the accelerator. The car jerks but quickly steadies, tires gripping the dirt road as I push us harder.
She’s already twisting in her seat, sitting with her back pressed against the dash, as she grabs my rifle and braces it against the open window.
The wind whips through her hair, but I’ve never seen her so steady, not even when she was lying motionless up on that ridge, waiting for her chance to strike.
This is different. This isn’t just about taking out a target, something we’ve each done countless times.
This is about revenge. This is about settling the score.
As Kiara peers into the scope, cool as a fucking cucumber, I spare a second to look over her.
She’s filthy, covered head-to-toe in dirt.
Her face is smeared with dust, and she has tiny scratches along her arms from the ricocheting gravel.
But apart from that, she’s physically okay.
That doesn’t change the fact that the thought of her taking a bullet had something ugly sinking into my gut.
The convoy behind us is closing in, and I grit my teeth, knowing she’s not going to take this lightly. “Get them off our ass, Firecracker.”
“That’s a tall order coming from someone who didn’t make a direct hit out there. I heard shots from five different angles, and there are still five cars behind us, so perhaps you should shut up and let the professional work.”
My grip tightens on the steering wheel, and I bite my tongue, knowing now isn’t the time to get into it.
All that matters is the five SUVs behind us.
Kiara doesn’t waste time.
The first SUV closes in fast, and as it gains on us, she braces against the door frame, breath steady despite the speed, and fires. One clean shot. That’s all she needed.
The round plunges straight through the grille with a perfect, precise angle, and it immediately detonates.
The hood erupts in flames as the vehicle veers to the side and flips from the momentum of the blast. As it rolls sideways, it takes out the SUV beside it in a massive ball of twisted metal and flames.
Any other day, she would have looked at me, grinned, and hit me with some bullshit comment about being the best. But instead, she’s already lining up the next one.
“What the hell is going on, Raiden?” she demands over the wind and gunfire, squeezing off another round that shatters a windshield. “You have two fucking seconds to explain how the fuck you ended up in that warehouse.”
I take a hard turn, dirt spraying as another vehicle swings wide to flank us. “You’re not gonna like it.”
“I don’t care.”
I let out a sigh that morphs into a quick grunt as I white-knuckle the steering wheel. “When I broke into your apartment last week, and you didn’t even clock me, I knew it was big.”
Her jaw tightens, not enjoying being called out, but she doesn’t look at me, just squeezes the trigger again and watches the chaos unfold behind us.
“You were so buried in whatever you were doing. Obsessed almost. I watched you for twenty minutes and knew that you must have been working on something substantial enough to make waves.”
Another shot. “Great. So you’re a stalker now. Wonderful. Add it to the résumé.”
I take the jab and continue, needing to get this out as I push the SUV harder.
“Curiosity got the better of me,” I admit, dodging a burst of return fire that rattles the back of the trunk.
“When I started digging, things weren’t lining up, but when that power grid report just happened to appear, it felt too easy. ”