Page 48 of Holding the Line
“Who the hell is it, Hogan!”Marsh yelled, moving toward them and Eli’s heart broke at the desperation he heard in his voice.
Hogan took a step forward, his whole body trembling with barely contained fury.He yanked his gun higher, jaw tight, emotion flaring in his eyes.“Answer him.Don’t be a fucking coward, Kai.”
Kai hesitated, Eli could feel how tense his body was, breath stuttering like he’d taken a punch to the chest.Kai pulled the mask from his face, leaving it to fall at their feet like the last shred of whatever trust they’d had in him.
Eli could practically feel the weight of that moment anchoring them all.Hogan’s expression cracked with rage and something deeper—something like grief.
“And after everything you’ve done to help us, you pull this shit?”Hogan continued.“We trusted you.Hell, I trusted you.”
Kai’s voice was low.“I didn’t have a choice.”
“The hell you didn’t!”Hogan snapped.“You had every choice.And you made this one.”
Eli could feel the tension radiating from Kai, his shoulders tight, jaw clenched.But he didn’t look away.Didn’t try to defend himself further.Whatever weight he carried—it was crushing him, too.He simply moved them, gun still pressed to Eli’s temple, and it should have scared him, and it did a little, but staring into Marsh’s wild eyes, keeping them both grounded helped.
As they reached the SUV, Dev’s voice crackled through comms.“Glenn has eyes.You want him to take the shot on the Colonel?”
Eli spoke softly in Maori.“Kaore.Me mawehe ia i konei me ahau.”No.He has to leave here with me.
Marsh spoke so quietly, that Eli couldn’t hear him in the real world, but heard him clearly in the comms piece as he translated what Eli had said.
The Colonel opened the SUV door.“If you don’t want this man shot before you, drop your weapons.”Eli watched as, with varying looks of blood lust and disgust, the Pathfinders all dropped their weapons to the ground.
“Now, you men,” the Colonelbarked to his remaining men—eight total.“Keep your weapons locked on these assholes until we have left.”
They nodded, gazes locked on the Pathfinders, fingers on their triggers as they waited.
Hogan locked eyes with Kai.Fury still burning.
The Colonel pulled Eli close, gun tight under his jaw.As they disappeared into the SUV, Eli offered one last silent prayer:
Let me see the Ridge again.Let me come back to Marsh.
****
Marsh watched, breathcaught in his throat, as the black SUV pulled away from the construction site.The Colonel’s hand lashed out inside the vehicle, cracking across Eli’s cheek with brutal force.Marsh swore violently, the sound ripping from his chest like a thunderclap.
One of the mercenaries still on-site turned, smirking.“Pathfinders ain’t shit.We just beat your best.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Hogan growled, stepping forward.
The merc tilted his head mockingly.“You talk big for a guy without a weapon.”
“Who said I don’t have a weapon, asshole?”Hogan asked calmly, raising two fingers like a mock pistol and pointing it at the man.“Glenn?”
“Go for it,” Glenn replied through comms.
“Pew,” Hogan whispered.
The merc dropped like a marionette with its strings cut—a single, clean shot between the eyes, the sound of the suppressed rifle echoing a beat after the body hit the dirt.
Chaos erupted.
Ricky, Sam, Dev, Ezra, Maddox, and Bateman fired simultaneously.The rest of the mercs barely had time to flinch before their bodies crumpled one by one.
Dale stepped out of the shadows behind, casually brushing his knuckles.“Damn, guys, you left none for me.”
“Try being faster,” Glenn replied.