The old tricks weren’t going to work here, and I knew that when I started planning my rescue mission. I’d been blind to the truth, stupidly following old habits.

When I took emotion out of the equation, I remembered the way to get in, get out, and get away was to put my quick thinking and special skills to use. Hunter didn’t call on me to handle delicate matters for nothing.

My usual trick was diplomacy, but I already knew better than to even bother with that card. So, I played another one.

A military extraction.

Cold. Clean. Efficient.

Superior firepower and surprise might work for Hunter and the rest of us when we had to mobilize against one of the real bad guys, but I needed to play things smart if I was going to fly solo.

Riding out to the meeting spot with a plan, I came prepared to knock skulls on my terms.

Given the age of the building, it was easy enough to find what I was looking for. With a pocket flashlight gripped between my teeth, I threw open the panel box, yanked fuses, and disabled the power.

The entire building quickly went dark.

And that’s all that I needed…

I could already hear the commotion as I walked confidently around to the front, pulling the night vision monocle down over my eye. A dim green view of my surroundings poured in as I checked the bandana stretched tightly over my face. It wasn’t much protection, but it would have to do.

Thank you, John… I thought to myself. I’d owe that man a beer when this was all over.

Everyone inside sounded like they were panicking. I took advantage of the chaos by letting myself in right through the front, slamming the door shut behind me.

Hand against my vest, I ducked to the side before their instincts kicked in. I unpinned my secret weapon, ready for action.

Rattled and armed, they fired a few shots at the door, hitting only weak metal walls.

All that did was give cover to the sound of my movements.

My night vision gave me a clear view of the bikers.

Not a drop of blood spilled.

Not a single corpse was going to hit the floor.

Nobody had to die today.

A smile faintly crossed my lips as lifted my secret weapon. I pulled the red ring free and pulled the trigger, a thick blast of spray pouring forth into the confined space.

“What the fuck,” someone shouted before firing off another handful of rounds in my general direction. “I can’t breathe! I can’t fucking breathe!”

Now the whole place was in chaos. Screaming and shouts and gagging coughs filled the air as everyone scrambled toward the walls looking for an exit. John wasn’t kidding around about this shit. My own lungs were burning almost as soon as I’d pulled the trigger. I couldn’t even imagine the hell I’d just unleashed on someone hit in the face with this shit. One biker was rolling around clawing at himself trying to wipe it off while vomiting on the floor.

But they’d live.

I was just eager to find my woman and get the hell out of dodge.

This was the way to go. No letting my bloodlust for revenge get the best of me. None of this typical Devil’s Dragons, both guns blazing bullshit.

It also meant that there was no need to try and fight my way past the cops on my way out of town…

Treading lightly, I slipped into the lobby corridor. A couple of bikers in the distance were panicking, so I kept a wide berth, slipped past them and firing off another blast of pepper spray in my wake before I continued on.

There was no telling where they were keeping Kate, but I wagered that I had some time before the air in here cleared up enough to give chase.

But I realized soon enough that they weren’t about to get their shit together. The panic rolling through the building wasn’t going away anytime soon. These idiots were yammering away in a blind frenzy, and it saved my ass on a few of my louder footsteps.

The train station was small. It was only five or ten minutes before I’d surveyed the area, noting where the train tracks and obstacles were while gassing out another couple of bikers in the locker rooms and barring the door with the leg of a metal chair.

As I swept the building, I found what looked to be a couple of drug labs in the back of the station. Things were in disarray, and none of these morons looked smart enough to pass ninth-grade chemistry. I almost felt bad for anyone who came to these assholes for their filthy fix.

I rounded back and found the man in charge. He was a stocky fucker with a rifle, clutching onto it like it gave him some kind of authority.

The lights were off and I was here.

I had the motherfucking authority.

“Shut the fuck up, you idiots! He’s in here somewhere!”

The man who I assumed to be the Bayou Boys biker president was barking orders in the dark, but none of his men were listening. He was a little smarter than the rest of them, but it didn’t help him now.

When I lifted the canister of bear spray to fire a stream in his direction, I swear that he turned and looked me right in the eyes.

Aw, shit.

Instinctively, I dodged before he fired a few shots in my general direction. He tried to hear where I was going, but the idiots around him were still covering my tracks with their panicking.

He tried to back away from the fog of pepper spray, but he was already positioned in a corner…

That gave me the opening to hit him again, a long stream exhausting the can as I filled the room with a noxious cloud. In his confusion, he fired a few more shot, grazing one of his boys in the shoulder.

“Jesus! Fuck!”

The Bayou Boy slumped to the wall, clutching his shoulder and cursing up a goddamn storm.

The president tried to stagger forward, gagging and coughing with his leather sleeve covering his face, but I took the chance and slipped forward.

One solid punch to the side of the head later, and the asshole dropped into the mist and didn’t get back up.

After a few minutes of scouring the building, I came across a room in the back where my old pal Mudflap was out cold on the floor. A quick glance brought a half-empty dish and a bundle of blankets in the corner to my attention.

It was pretty clear to me what had happened here, and I couldn’t have been prouder. I left the fucker to his nap as I tried to trace Kate’s footsteps. I found her behind some crates, a crowbar in her hands. Defiant to the goddamn end, I grinned.

Unfortunately, she was already coughing and trying to breathe through what was left of her tattered shirt. I came up up on her from the side and firmly grabbed the crowbar from above her hands. Surprised and defensive, she tried to rip it free, but I used my spare hand to cover her mouth.

Kate tried to bite my fingers, but when I remained persistent without making any more threatening moves, she paused.

I slowly relinquished my grip on both.

Her voice came as a whisper.

“Grizz?”

I placed a finger against her lips.

I gave her some help, pushed the crowbar back into her palm, and took her free hand. Almost all of the Bayou Boys were already cleared out of the building, but I knew that there were still a few around. I just needed to get us out the back door.

With pissed off bikers still shouting and cussing up a storm in our wake, I led us out through an old rusted exit and into the warm, humid night. With the moonlight to guide us, I led her along the warehouses and back to the bike.

“I knew you’d come,” she finally said as we reached the motorcycle.

Time was slipping away. The Bayou Boys were probably gathering out in front of the station trying to catch their breath, and it wouldn’t take them long to realize I might have gone out the back.

They were going to be pissed.

“You know, I had things under control,” she observed, climbing behind me onto my bike. “I don’t really do the damsel in distress thing. It’s not my style.”

“And I suppose you were going to take them all out with that crowbar?” I chuckled, turning the ignition.

“Grizz, you of all people should know I’m damn good with a hard rod in my hands.”

I pulled the kickstand up.

“When we get where we’re going, I’m fucking the shit out of you, and that’s all there is to it.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” Kate said, her arms wrapping around me.

I revved the engine and pulled us onto the main road.