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No negotiation tonight.

They were coming to kill me.

My hand clenched around the small recorder in my pocket. Would I get close enough for him to spill his guts? I doubted it, but I had the recorder anyway.

This was it.

Everything I’d lived for the last six years.

Everything I was willing to die for. I glanced at Cyclone; I was no longer ready to die for anything except him.I would die for him.

And out there in the darkness... the storm I had been waiting for finally broke.

23

Jude

The first shot shattered the night like a gunshot from God.

I ducked instinctively, adrenaline surging like lightning through my veins.

Cyclone was already moving—grabbing me by the waist, hauling me behind the heavy oak table they’d dragged into place earlier for cover.

More gunfire lit up the darkness outside.

Crack—crack—crack—

Short, controlled bursts.

Not amateurs.

Killers.

Just like she expected.

I pulled the recorder from my pocket, my hands trembling only slightly now. I shoved it deep into the hidden panel Cyclone had cut into the floorboards, snapping it shut just as more bullets punched through the walls.

“We stick to the plan!” she shouted over the chaos.

“Stick to the plan!”

Cyclone just nodded once, fierce and calm. His pistol was already in his hand, his eyes scanning the windows, the doors, and the shadows beyond.

Outside, I could hear the sharp, deadly return fire of Cyclone’s backup team.

Short bursts. Silent movements.

Ghosts in the desert.

She didn’t know some of their names. She hoped they didn’t get shot.

All she needed to know was that they were here becauseCyclonehad made damn sure she wouldn’t fight this battle alone.

Another window shattered.

Boots pounded against the porch.

“They’re coming!” she whispered.