I crept up on the house after way too fucking long running. I’d never wished for my uniform boots more than I did in those moments when I’d been slipping and stumbling through the woods. The flat bottoms of my dress shoes simply couldn’t stand up to the demands of racing through the dark over wet leaves and grass. Should have worn fucking spikes.

The rain hadn’t stopped. It continued to drown the mountain in a deluge of water. For once, I was thankful for it, though. That downpour helped hide the sound of every footstep of mine as I moved closer to the Hansen house. As I started jogging through a perimeter check.

Keeping tucked as far into the shadows as I could, I circled Miss’ property through the tree line at the back. The deeper forest on that side meant it would be easier to hide if I came upon someone. Not that I’d want to hide, but with only a knife for a weapon, my options were limited if I had to go up against more than one guy.

The back door stood open, obviously the point of entry. Whoever had breached the building had probably kicked it in. No way had Anabeth or Gage left it unlocked and wide open like that. But the door wasn’t the only thing wrong with the picture before me—two guys guarded either corner of the house, making it nearly impossible to sneak inside. I wasn’t out of options, but I was definitely in a difficult situation.

I still needed to see what was happening around the front, though. As much as I had the urge to race inside the house like the Lone fucking Ranger, I couldn’t. I had no guns, no way to protect myself or Anabeth without getting real close to whoever had her. No way could I risk her.

Slinking farther along and heading east, I spotted a third man leaning against the house right under Miss’ bedroom window. He looked bored, his attention anywhere but on the woods where I stood. A weak link in their defense. Standing outside in the rain wasn’t any fun for sure, but Gage and I could do it for days if necessary. Water missions were our thing. That guy looked ready to bolt at any second. The other two—the ones guarding the north and south sides of the house—not so much.

Moving as quickly as I could, I continued on my way, checking for others. I even tried to get an idea of what was happening inside, but the rain obscured my vision, and the curtains over the front windows blocked my view into the house. I needed to find Gage. I needed to rescue Anabeth. I also needed to get my damn hands on a weapon. I could handle two men easily enough with a gun, especially with that guard under the windows appearing completely useless. Four was a different story. That required a little more planning. Backup would be nice, and having my partner by my side would be even better. Plus, Gage might shoot my ass if he didn’t know it was me creeping through the woods. Best to find the cranky fucker and fast.

A shadow suddenly moved toward me, causing me to jump and pull my knife. Rex, looking way too fucking happy to see me, trotted through the darkness. Wet—soaked, really—and as silent as his fucking owner, the dog came right to my feet and wagged his tail. I didn’t need to find Gage. He’d found me through his dog.

I knelt down to rub his head. “What are you doing here, boy?”

Rex turned to look behind him before taking two steps back, returning his focused gaze to mine. I’d watched enough Lassie episodes as a kid to know the jokes about that damn dog barking and making a scene to get the little boy to follow her. Rex wasn’t much of a scene-maker, but his point was clear. Follow me. So I followed a damn dog through the pitch-black woods until we reached Gage’s Jeep. I’d missed it on my first go-round because he’d buried it well beneath the trees alongside the shed on the west side of the property. Smart man.

“How’d you train Rex to come get me?” I asked once I found my friend in the dark.

“You ever watch Lassie?”

“Yeah.”

“Me too.” He went quiet, ending the conversation. Going back to staring out across the yard toward the house. I followed his gaze but saw nothing unusual. Nothing that would make us pause. Nothing standing in our way except the two guys on guard duty. But if he felt the need to wait, there would be a reason for it.

“Situation?” I asked, almost not wanting to know.

“All fucked up. Big guy from the restaurant—road name Blade—is inside with Anabeth.”

I gripped my knife harder. “She okay?”

Gage didn’t answer. There were a couple of reasons for that, I figured. Either he knew she was okay and thought that was a stupid question; he knew she wasn’t okay and didn’t want me kicking his ass for not protecting her; or he wasn’t sure and…fuck, I had no clue why he wouldn’t just say that. Knowing Gage the way I did, option two was out. The man would have given his life for Anabeth’s simply because he didn’t like bringing women into war. My connection to her would have solidified that decision. If he was allowing Blade to breathe the same air as Anabeth, it was because he had a reason. The first option was also unlikely—Gage wouldn’t waste a second telling me how stupid I was. The third…well, the third made me want to race into that house blind to get to my girl.

Gage spoke before I could take my first step. “Last I saw, Blade had her in the foyer and was pacing pretty intensely. I figure we’ve got about three minutes to get in there before the answer to if she’s okay moves into the probably-not range.”

Motherfucker. My heart stopped, restarting in a pounding rhythm. If he hurt her…if he killed her… I couldn’t even think it. Couldn’t allow myself to picture a world without her in it without wanting to run inside, to hell with the fact that it’d be a suicide mission. The smart thing to do was wait for the path to be clear. It was also the hardest.

I pointed to the northwest corner of the house where one of the guards stood. He’d spot us if we made a run for the front door. Even with only half-decent aim, he likely would shoot one or both of us. He’d also raise a shit-ton of noise and give away our approach.

“We need to take out the eyes around the house. Especially that guy.”

Gage didn’t even blink. “Already on it.”

“How?”

“Deacon. Called him in as soon as I texted you, but he was closer and made it up the mountain a lot quicker. You took fucking forever.”

Yeah, I did. “My truck got swamped in the creek. I had to run for it.”

“You should run more. Your time is shit.”

Someday, I’d wring his neck. Today was not that day. “Okay, jackass. Let’s get off my speed and back to the issue of some guy holding my woman hostage. What’s the plan?”

“Deacon’s in the air. He’ll take out the guy in our way. Once he’s done, we go in.” He cocked his head, his brow furrowing as he thought something through. “Well, unless we reach that three-minute mark first. Two minutes at this point.”

I tightened my hold on the knife, looking out across the yard and waiting for a sign that it was time to move. I would never forgive myself for walking out that door if anything happened to Anabeth. Never. Which meant I needed to get her the fuck out of there and away from this Blade guy.

Two minutes was too long.

“So Deacon takes out the guy on the northwest corner back there. There are two more on the east side—one parallel to that guy, and one farther up, almost to the front of the house. Plus, we’ve got Blade inside.”

“That’s on us. We take Blade out while Deacon finishes off the guys outside.”

So just one. We could handle one in our sleep, even with me only having a knife for a weapon. “Bust in and hit him hard?”

“Is there any other way?”

Yeah, there was. Sniping the fuckers before they even knew you were there. Deacon Manns was one of the best at that shit. I loved ribbing my brother—the Army Special Forces hero—about the Green Berets not being as good as us SEALs, but the truth was, Alder and Deacon were a couple of smart soldiers. In a situation like this, where stealth, subterfuge, and silent assassination were our best bets, Deacon was the first person I would have called. After Gage. Because that silent, broody motherfucker had fought by my side for a lot of years. And we were about to do the same again.

Less than a minute until go time.

“I’ve only got my knife.” I inched forward. Ready to attack. Adrenaline racing through my bloodstream. “Left my ammo bag in the house.”

Gage didn’t blink, simply pulled a gun from the holster on his hip and handed it to me before watching the house again. Intense, focused, and ready for action. I figured we had thirty seconds left before we were going in whether the guard on the northwest corner was still breathing or not.

A single pop sounded, breaking the constant drone of the rain. It wasn’t loud—most likely not even heard in the house—but there was no mistaking what had just happened. Especially when the guard in our way suddenly fell to the ground. Deacon, former Special Forces sniper and current bar owner, had just taken out our first target. Time to act before the other two figured that out.

I tucked my knife under my belt and gripped the gun Gage had given me, ready to get this over with. To get my girl out of there. Without a signal, without a fucking word, we took off for the house at a run. Gage and I moved as one silent unit, not needing to speak to know the plan. Use the darkness and the rain to cover our approach, bust the front door down, save the girl, and kill the bad guy. Easy, except the girl held my heart in her hand, and if anything happened to her—

“Bishop.”

I stopped and raised my weapon, unable to figure out why Gage had called my name when we were so close to the porch. “What?”

“If she’s down…if I was wrong about the three minutes…I’m sorry.”

Down…dead. Fuck, I’d never felt so close to a heart attack in my life.

Gage looked pained, almost unsure of himself. Not like the Gage I knew at all. Neither was apologizing. The man had never apologized for shit. I knew he understood how much Anabeth meant to me, knew he’d do anything for her, but he’d waited for me. He’d done exactly what I would have in the same situation. If he’d rushed in there without clearing the guards, he’d be dead. And so would she.

She might be anyway.

“Get me in the fucking door, man. We’ll deal with the rest once we’re inside.”

She’d better be alive.

I slipped the rest of the way to the door, taking my spot on the right side as Gage stepped squarely in front of it. We’d broken down doors before—we’d probably do it again at some point. This was the easy part.

Not getting shot once we’d made it inside was harder.

Gage gave me a look—making sure I was ready—before he raised his foot and kicked forward. The wood frame didn’t stand a chance against his assault. The door busted through the jamb and swung open, wood and glass flying all around and scattering across the floor. I was inside before the useless piece of wood hit the wall behind it, stomping my way through the foyer.

Blade had turned when the boom of Gage’s foot hitting the door sounded, but he was slow to react. He was also not prepared for us, because he froze for just a second as I hurried toward him with my gun pointed at his face. That’s when his knife hit the floor, and my world went red. He was going to cut her? To slice into her skin and make her bleed?

Out of my peripheral vision, I could see Anabeth huddled against the stairs behind him, could almost sense the fear radiating off her. That, along with the image of that knife slicing through her pale, soft flesh did me in.

This fucker had to go.

But he wasn’t slow or stupid, though he was suddenly unarmed. A fact he came to realize just in time. Before I could reach him, he grabbed Anabeth and pulled her to her feet. Using her as a shield, hiding like a coward behind her body.

Motherfucker. “You’ve got five seconds to decide if you’re ready to die.”

“You shoot, and you hit the girl.”

He wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t completely right either. I could have taken a shot. Could have aimed slightly wide of her to hit him in the neck, face, or shoulder. Hell, when I’d been in the military, I had taken that shot. More than once. I could hit my target.

But Anabeth’s eyes met mine, so wide and blue and scared that I couldn’t risk her. Couldn’t take that chance. Another color caught my attention, though. A deep red quickly turning purple on the side of her face. A bruise. Blade had hit her.

I was going to gut him like a motherfucking fish.

“You’re going to regret ever stepping into this house,” I said, keeping my eyes on his. Gage grunted behind me, probably with his gun still drawn on the two. A situation I needed to deal with. I took my finger off the trigger, widened my arms and pointed my gun to the ceiling, then moved to set it down. “Disarm, Gage.”

Another grunt, but he followed my lead, setting his handgun next to mine on the foyer table. Far enough away that Blade couldn’t get to them before us.

The jackass hiding behind Anabeth grinned as if he’d won something. “You the big, bad military guys we keep hearing about? Don’t seem so tough to me.” He pulled Anabeth closer, nuzzling her neck and breathing his last breaths against her skin. “This is your hero, Firecrotch? Because if you were pinning all your hopes on him, you picked the wrong guy.”

Anabeth looked right at me, still so obviously scared but also fierce. Brave in the face of her fear. Refusing to back down. “He’s never been the wrong guy.”

I stayed quiet, watching. Waiting him out. He’d make a mistake—the guy was too twitchy not to. He probably assumed his team of guards would back him up. The way he kept darting his eyes toward the open door behind me, I could guess he expected them to come barreling in to deal with Gage and me any second now.

The thought made me smirk. “You waiting on someone?”

He flicked his eyes to meet mine, looking more nervous with every second that passed. “I’m not alone here.”

Gage leaned a shoulder against the wall, pulling out his hunting knife to calmly, patiently clean the dirt out from under his thumbnail. “I’m pretty sure you are at this point. Wouldn’t you agree, Bishop?”

I nodded, refusing to release Blade from my stare. “Totally. See, you made the mistake of coming to Justice with bikers. You can’t win against the firepower we have here with that sort of crew.”

“What, you got some sort of killing machine out in the woods?”

“Nah, just a sniper up in the trees.”

His face went pale, and his arms dropped from Anabeth’s. I saw my chance, and I wasn’t letting him get his hands on her again. I dove for them, grabbing Anabeth and tossing her behind me toward Gage. He’d keep her safe, get her the fuck out of the house if she needed to escape. My focus stayed locked on Blade.

“You never should have touched her,” I said, crouching low and prepping for a little hand-to-hand combat. “I wouldn’t have let you live either way, but that bruise on her cheek means I’m going to make it hurt.”

He didn’t seem impressed. “Fuck you.”

“No thanks. My dick belongs to her.” I lunged and struck, my fist connecting with his jaw in a way that nearly knocked him off his feet. I took the opportunity to pull my knife, wrapping my fingers around the thick, black handle. I liked guns. I liked explosives too. But I excelled at knife fighting. Silent, sneaky, and able to be finished with an enemy in seconds right under the nose of their partners—something about that spoke to me.

And something about my knife in my hand made Blade’s eyes go big.

“Gage, move,” I called as I went in for the kill. I really hoped he shielded Anabeth, that he covered her eyes or took her outside or…something. Anything. I didn’t want her to see this, but it had to be done.

My first strike landed almost exactly as I’d planned—hard and deep, just to the side of the man’s abdomen. He spun and swung his fist, but I won the battle in terms of speed. Ducking low, I pulled my knife and struck again before the blood had time to soak his shirt. Again before the first red drops hit the floor. And I just kept moving—staying out of his reach until I had a good shot at making contact, moving with him when he tried to bulldoze me and knock me down, stabbing in the good spots every chance I could find.

Though they were only the good spots if you wanted someone to bleed to death…quickly.

Blade wasn’t going down without a fight, but he had no weapon, no real skills, and a brute force that exhausted quickly. In the end, I knelt over his body, his blood pooling on the floor and splattered across my chest. His eyes blank and staring. And my knife—the same one I’d been given as a newbie SEAL recruit—sticking out of his chest where I’d plunged it into his heart.

Mission accomplished.

I yanked the knife out of Blade’s chest and rose to my feet just as Deacon came strolling in from the kitchen with what looked like a bag of chips in his hands. Eating. The man had just killed three people, walked in on another body on the floor, and he was eating. He didn’t even blink as he took in the room.

“We’re gonna need some serious disposal,” he said before shoving another handful of chips into his mouth.

I grunted and backed up, shaky as the adrenaline wore off. Anabeth…my sweet, beautiful girl…stood just behind Gage. Her eyes locked on me. Looking absolutely terrified. Fuck.

“I say we use a chipper at the mill,” Gage said, stepping away from Anabeth and frowning down at Blade’s body. “We can burn the pieces after.”

“So long as it’s done,” I said, still staring at Anabeth. Unable to look away. Scared to death that the fear on her face when she looked at me would never leave. But something about my voice or my words seemed to bring her out of herself. He face pinked up a little, and her eyes calmed. Her body settling slightly. Still uncomfortable, but no longer terrified. I’d take that.

“We should move,” Gage said, bending to grab Blade’s arms. “Deacon can stay as guard. My Jeep might be the only vehicle capable of crossing the road at this point. I really don’t want to get stuck in a flooded creek while sitting on four bodies.”

No doubt, and no need to worry about my truck. The vehicle could be replaced. The girl watching me couldn’t. She never had been replaceable. I wanted to ask Anabeth if she was okay, but I knew that answer would have to be no. How could she be after seeing what we’d done? I wanted to soothe her, to wrap my arms around her and pull her close. To protect her. But I was covered in blood, and there were bodies to deal with.

Soothing would have to wait, and I had no idea what her mind would come up with about me during that time. Other than that I’d failed at one simple task—keep her safe. The bruise on her cheek proved that.

As the guilt of failing her flowed through me, as Deacon and Gage scuttled out the front door with Blade’s body hanging between them, I approached the one woman I knew I could never live without. The one who now might not ever be able to see me as anything other than a killer.

“We’ll handle this mess. You go make some tea—it’s going to be a long night.”

She stared up at me, silent, her eyes so damn wary. But then she nodded. A simple head movement that brought her fiery red hair over her shoulder. I reached out, unable not to, and wrapped a single lock around my finger before tugging lightly.

“Be safe, Firefly. I’m coming back for you.”