Chapter 74
HARLAN - TO BE CHOSEN
She raised her gun like it weighed nothing, like her arm wasn’t trembling, like blood wasn’t leaking from her side in steady, damning pulses.
“She doesn’t get to leave,” Remi said, voice hoarse, guttural. “Dead or alive... she gets to burn in the fire she started.”
And then she fired.
The shot cracked the air, close, sharp.
But it missed.
It went wide, by inches, maybe less, but it was enough.
A breath. A curse. A heartbeat’s hesitation.
And Bishop moved.
He lunged forward, gun swinging up, eyes wild with fury and desperation. Aimed square at Remi’s chest.
“No!” I shouted, legs already moving, but I was too far.
Too far to stop it.
Too far to save her.
But he never got the shot off.
Because suddenly, a gun pressed to his temple.
Click.
“Try it,” a voice said, calm and deadly. “I dare you.”
Bishop froze.
Four stood beside him, too close to miss, eyes cold and flat like a switch had flipped. He didn’t blink. Didn’t breathe. Just pushed the barrel harder against Bishop’s skull like he was aching for the excuse.
“Drop it,” Four growled.
Bishop obeyed. Slowly. Gun clattering to the dirt.
And Remi... Remi swayed.
I turned in time to see her knees buckle, but she never hit the ground.
Clutch was there, arms outstretched, catching her like he’d been waiting for that moment all night. His voice dropped low and steady against her temple. “I got you. I got you, Remi. You’re okay. You’re okay now.”
She tried to shake her head, her mouth moved to protest, but the words wouldn’t come. Her body folded into him, limp and done. Eyes fluttering shut, breath shallow.
“MEDIC!” I bellowed, panic seizing my chest. “We need a medic here now!”
The Dawnbreaker brothers moved like fire through the trees, emerging from smoke, clearing the perimeter, stripping weapons, checking for signs of life.
Most of Erin’s people were already dead.
A few had dropped their weapons. They were zip-tied and shoved to their knees, faces streaked with soot and defeat.
The smoke still hung low, thick as fog. The fire still crackled at the edges, casting an orange and red glow over the clearing.
Gray limped toward us, dragging a limp body by the collar and tossing it with brutal finality into the pile. His face was streaked with blood, jaw clenched tight.
“I’ve got a count,” he said. “We’re clear.”
Four handed Bishop off to two of our men, then turned to me. “You good?”
“No,” I said, voice wrecked. “But we will be.”
Ava was leaning against a tree, one arm around her ribs, chest heaving like she couldn’t quite catch her breath. I crossed to her, “I’ve got you,” I whispered, pressing my hand over hers.
“I’m fine,” she said, but her voice was shaking. “Just… bruised.”
She didn’t push me away, so I kept her close.
And then, through the brush, stumbling and frantic, came Jack.
“Remi!”
He barreled into the clearing, shirt torn, face pale and dirty, boots skidding on twigs and ash. He spotted her cradled in Clutch’s arms and rushed forward. “Let me take her, Clutch. Let me carry her, I can help...”
He never made it past the front line.
Three men stepped forward without a word: Four, Gray, and Reid.
Reid.
The rookie who used to bring Ava coffee with too much sugar, who had stars in his eyes whenever Remi smiled at him. But not now.
Now, his uniform was torn, his face bruised, and his posture was steel.
They didn’t raise their guns.
They didn’t need to.
Their stance alone was enough.
Low, animal growls rippled through them. Not a threat.
A promise.
Clutch didn’t even glance at Jack. Just said, flat as stone, “Not your job anymore, pretty boy.”
Jack stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at Remi, bleeding, unconscious, held like something sacred, and I saw the moment it hit him.
He was too late.
“You want to help?” Reid said, voice colder than I’d ever heard it. “Go make yourself useful. Start clearing the bodies. You don’t get to touch her.”
Jack’s mouth opened. Closed. He nodded and backed away, hands shaking.
“Get Remi checked,” Reid barked, snapping into motion. “Two medics coming in on foot through the north trail. We stabilize here, then move.”
Clutch adjusted his grip, still holding her like she was weightless. “She’s a fighter,” he said softly. “She’ll make it.”
I looked around, at the smoke, the blood, the ruined trees and ruined people, and then back at Ava. She was watching Remi like she couldn’t look away.
Pride lit her face.
And heartbreak.
“She is everything,” Ava whispered.
“Yeah,” I said. “Terrifying.”
We started moving, clearing, treating, and stabilizing. Gray dropped beside Clutch and Remi, waiting to get patched up himself but not leaving her side. A medic was finally kneeling, checking Remi’s pulse, working fast.
Reid stood watch, arms crossed, daring anyone to come too close.
And Jack…
Jack tried to stay busy. Tried to help. But his eyes kept drifting back to her.
I remembered what he’d said once. “Then be ready. Because loving Remi Carter isn’t safe. It never has been. And trying to protect her is even more dangerous.”
And I saw it now, why she let him go.
I saw it in the difference.
The difference between those who said they’d die for her and those who lived like they already had. People who barely knew her but seemed to understand who she was at her core. People who walked through fire, through bullets and blood, just to stand at her side.
Jack loved her, sure. But he wasn’t strong enough to burn beside her.
And in that moment, as I looked around that smoke-wrapped hellscape, I finally understood what it meant to have a found family. To be chosen.
Not by blood or duty, but by love, loyalty, and pain.
I had brothers from the Army.
I had Ava, and now... I had Remi.
The woman who held a mirror up for me, saved me, and healed something I didn’t even know I had left. In that blood-stained clearing, I found the love of my life and the sister I never asked for but would protect with my last breath.
And I knew…
Whatever came next?
We’d survive it.
Together.