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But her determination won out. I managed to grab her arm and together we climbed the ladder, other soldiers following.

“Benito, toss squibs onto the enemy boats,” she called out. “It looks like a stick of dynamite.”

The woman had no fear.

Once on board, in a matter of seconds we were faced with enemy fire.

I dropped and rolled, yelling at her to do the same. I shouldn’t have bothered. She’d obviously been trained very well.

There was shouting. More gunfire.

Navarro and his men appeared, rushing toward us.

Suddenly, there was a massive explosion off to the side as one of the enemy cigarette boats went up in flames.

I backed her against the boat’s hull, glancing to make certain she was okay before motioning to my men. “You’re brilliant, baby. Your squib worked.”

“Told you.”

Navarro took his soldiers in the other direction.

We took off running the other way. When a soldier jumped from the shadows, Genevieve immediately reacted, yanking out her handgun and shooting the man before he had a chance to put a bullet in my head.

Laughing, we continued as I mentally took count of the number of soldiers we’d hit. Minutes ticked by.

More gunfire.

More yelling.

We were close to the bridge.

Pop! Pop!

Two more went down who were trying to break in. The captain had kept them from doing so.

Suddenly, the gunfire stopped. Now only the sound of the engine could be heard.

We both leaned against the hull, glancing at the water.

“We got nine,” I told her.

“Six left,” she said.

“One left,” Navarro corrected. “We exterminated five.”

“We hunt until we find him.” I pulled her hand, forcing her behind me. We moved into the first of two cargo holds, fanning out.

Three minutes later we’d determined the soldier wasn’t hiding. Very cautiously we moved to the second, this one containing at least forty percent more crates than the first.

As we moved around the containers, we remained silent.

There was no mistaking the whispered sound of a gun being cocked. It was just enough I located the direction. With no time to wait, I spun a full one hundred and eighty degrees, pulling both Genevieve and myself to the deck just as I took a single shot.

And hit the enemy soldier right between the eyes.

Exhaling, Navarro and the others raced around a line of crates, flanking us on both sides.

Her breathing was heavy and I peered down at her. “Are you okay?”