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Nick heard Roxie’s barking becoming more frantic as they followed her trail. She was highly stressed, and he had a feeling she was trying to hold off Medina from wherever Pepper might be hiding. Lord, he hoped she was hiding and not hurt from that thug.

“Where you guys at?” James' voice came across the radio in Ace’s hand.

“Two kilometres west of the cabin, follow our tracks. Roxie’s barking like crazy, and we’re coming up on her,” Ace told him.

“Ten-four,” James answered back. “Any cliffs out that way?” he asked. No laughter in his voice, silently telling them it wouldn’t be so bad if the man met his fate in these mountains.

Nick tended to agree. The man was a disgrace to the human race. He didn’t deserve the shitty fucking sentence the Canadian Justice System would give him.

“I mean, I wouldn’t be too upset.” Ace did laugh.

“I took a vow, Ace,” Nick reminded the other man.

“I know.”

“Doesn’t mean I won’t turn my back,” he smirked. Basically giving permission without saying the words.

While Ace was unofficially his deputy, the man hadn’t made the same vows and promises as Nick. He was sworn to God and country, sure. He was fated to be a savior in a war that was endless. But he owed nothing to a failing system.

A blur of light brown caught his eye a few hundred feet ahead of them. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered, knowing exactly what, or rather who, was out there.

“You saw it, too?” his cousin asked.

“She’ll be safe.” His vow was more of a promise. In his gut, he knew those cougars were going to be her saving grace that night.

Sirens could be heard in the distance just as three rapid shots rang out, and Roxie’s barking ceased. “If that son of a bitch shot my dog, I’ll skin him alive,” Nick growled.

Coming upon more movement in the trees at the base of the incline in the mountain, they saw Roxie struggling to get up.

“Motherfucker!” The pussy had shot his dog.

Seeing two Cougars on either side of the treeline, they watched as Medina began the hike up the mountainside. “She headed for the caves,” he told Ace.

“That good or bad?”

“Depends on how far up she went and how deep into the cavern.” Some had endless pits at the bottom of them, and some went miles deep into the mountain. If she went out of the range of light the sun offered, she could easily get lost, and for some reason, that scared him more than if Medina got his hands on her. Which he was nearly one hundred percent positive would no longer be the case.

“What the fuck?” the interloper yelled.

“Must have found a cougar.” Ace snickered. Actually snickered. Like a vengeful schoolgirl.

Rapid-fire shots rang past their ears as he trailed behind Alex, making sure to stay under cover of the trees so as not to get hit by a stray bullet.

“Call James, tell him to take cover,” Nick told Ace before taking off further up the mountain and to the side of where he saw one of the cougars lying in wait. It was a dangerous and potentially deadly tactic, but for Pepper, he would try anything.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are, Pepper. Your protectors are gone now. You’re mine.” Medina taunted her, and Nick so badly wanted to pop a round in the man’s skull right there.

“Don’t come out, Pepper,” he said to himself as he met up with the wild beast. It looked at him assessingly before continuing its vigil.

Of course, she wouldn’t listen.

“You’re such an idiot, Alex,” she snapped at him.

Their girl—so fucking brave.

Such a pain in the ass.

She just had to find her damn backbone now, figure out she had a stubborn streak a damn mile wide when she was in fucking danger.