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I filtered out the noise through any means necessary, ensuring that every job aligned within our code and that payment was guaranteed.

We didn’t do shit for free, and I was great at seeing how we could further invest the money we made back into our business.

If a client tried to double-cross us, I made sure that they realized everything and every fucking person they loved in life were in jeopardy of being eliminated because of them mistaking my comedic nature and willingness to negotiate for weakness.

If that didn’t work, we made them disappear.

Titan and I were big guys, and tag-teaming to eradicate those who fucked us over was one of my favorite ways to blow off steam.

Titan always executed our plans with brutal efficiency.

I never knew that dude not to be calm under pressure and meticulous in his strategy to get us in and out of a job as cleanly as possible.

While Rev and I did most of the upfront work researching, scheduling, negotiating, and setting up our kills, Titan and Storm were the ones we counted on to get us out alive since they always had some sort of A, B, C, and D tactic brewing.

We were a unit, each of us possessing multiple skillsets.

Basically, we were the shit. The Paradox worked so well because we each played our role and partnered when necessary.

“Time to move closer,” Titan stated, motioning for me to go ahead as we observed Rev and Storm through the trees doing the same thing.

We moved like ghosts, our footsteps light against the frost-covered ground. Per the plan, we each had long-range rifles that were equipped with suppressors to reduce the sound of the gunshot. We had entered the Tennessee town quietly and tonight would be a quick execution.

No complications.

No mess.

Headed back home by dinner.

“Someone please let me know when you see a good shot so we can put this fool out of his misery,” Rev announced as we watched McAllister’s pathetic attempt at a good fuck once we were each in our new positions.

“Did this muthafucka just grab a goddamn drink off the nightstand?” Titan asked.

“Bet you he’s drinking whiskey,” I murmured beside me since Titan and I were positioned closer to one another now.

Storm let out a quiet scoff. “Hell nah, McAllister looks like a scotch bastard to me.”

“Get the fuck outta here. You need yo’ eyes checked ‘cause the shit in that glass is clearly dark.”

“Bruh,” Storm stated. “If you need a lesson on how light reflecting off glass makes you see different colors, then just say that shit.”

Titan smirked as he adjusted his gloves. “You two princesses done debating so we can get this job done?”

I shook my head, suppressing a grin. Titan would never admit it, but he liked that we often broke up the monotony of what we did.

This was us though. Even in the quiet moments before a kill, there was always the banter and the bullshit that made it feel less like we were walking straight into the mouth of a monster we might not walk out of alive.

“What do you think, Rev?” Storm asked. “Whiskey or scotch?

“Neither,” he said. “That’s brandy for sho’.”

“Damn,” I huffed with a quiet laugh as I peered through the scope of my rifle and spotted a bottle of brandy. “Son of a bitch may be right. It’s brandy.”

“I told y’all niggas it was brandy,” Rev taunted. “Y’all can pay me when we get home. And none of that IOU shit. Pay me my fuckin’ money by the end of the week.”

I was about to remind him that he still owed me money when Titan’s voice cut me off.

“Rev and Storm, he just moved closer to the window.”

“I’m blocked,” Storm stated.

“I’ve got a clean shot,” Rev confirmed.

A second later, McAllister’s head popped back as the bullet flew through the window, right between his eyes, and out the back of his skull.

Noticing I had a clear shot of one of the guards, I put a bullet right in his forehead, muffling a “Bullseye,” as Storm took out one who exited the lodge, while Titan eliminated two others until finally, all was quiet.

“See? Light work,” Rev said. “And we saved ol’ girl from havin’ to fuck his sorry ass.”

We all chuckled because she was the only one left alive and she was currently running around the place panicking for a minute. Then she bent down.

“What the fuck is she doin’?” Rev asked.

“Robbing him,” Titan answered.

We didn’t have to contemplate if we should kill her or leave her alive because we never killed women. For a moment, everything felt easy.

Normal.

And exactly how everything had been planned.

Then the first shot cracked through our laughter as a sharp whistle of a sniper round cut past Titan and I, burying itself into the bark of a tree inches from my head.

Inside of the lodge, the woman we were gonna let live was taken out, too.

“Get down!” Rev snarled over the comms, but Titan and I were already moving toward him and Storm, instincts kicking in before our minds caught up.

Gunfire erupted from the tree line as bullets rained down from the dark sky, shredding the playful calm we had been wrapped in just seconds ago.

“It’s an ambush!” I roared, Titan and I diving behind a fallen log to join Storm and Rev.

“Plan B,” Titan stated, nodding to the left, where we knew there was an underground bunker that led to a tunnel we had vetted hours prior.

“Shit!” Rev huffed as we all left our cover and ran toward the bunker, alternating fire as we’d practiced so many times before. “How the fuck did we miss this?”

“We cleared the area,” Titan explained.

“And we took out most of his guards quietly,” Storm added.

“They aren’t wearing the McAllister emblem on their backs, but they are wearing dark green. So those bastards must have been McAllister’s backup,” I pointed out, my Glock in one hand and my rifle in the other as I took out two men to the left and right of us.

When we reached the bunker, Titan and Storm removed the snow that was concealing its location and worked to get the security latch open while Rev and I took point continuing to fire.

With the ease of years of fighting together, Rev and I alternated reloading and covering each other’s back for only a minute, but what felt like an hour.

“I’m out,” I announced.

“Me too,” Rev said.

“We got the door open,” Titan directed. “Switch places.”

I slid through the slightly ajar steel door that Storm and Titan had only opened wide enough for us to get through, then pulled Rev down with me, my pulse slamming against my ribs.

We were barely in the bunker when shots from inside began firing in our direction.

“Titan, toss me one of your guns,” Rev yelled, as I caught some ammo that Storm tossed my way and reloaded.

My breath came in sharp spurts as my vision narrowed to adjust to the darkness while I tried to assess where the hell they were shooting from. Seconds later, Titan and Storm joined us, closing the steel door behind them, locking out whomever was still outside of it.

This is wrong . It wasn’t our first ambush, but all of this felt different somehow.

In our line of work, we were supposed to be invisible and get in and out before anyone knew we were here.

When we took out the guards, we were careful like always, and with the rotation schedule, it should have taken another couple of hours before McAllister’s head security detail discovered that several of his men were missing.

I trusted The Paradox, but with all of us having different careers, it was possible that someone we trusted knew about this hit and had tipped off the enemy.

Each bullet that shot toward us felt like a whisper of impending death.

My mind was reeling over what we may have missed, but then Rev grunted, stumbled, and released a groan I had never heard him make before.

I turned just in time to see him drop to his knees, one hand pressed to the right side of his stomach, while the other was pressed onto his left abdomen.

“Fuck! Rev!” I yelled, rushing to him and pressing the top of one of his hands while Storm joined me and pressed against the other as Titan stood guard, making sure we didn’t get any more surprise ambushes.

His breathing was ragged and uneven, and when his glassy eyes found mine, my world blurred at the edges because of the fear I saw in his.

“You’re fine,” I lied. “We’re getting out of this and getting you to a hospital even though you hate seeing the doctor.”

He gave me that familiar smirk. The one that usually meant he had some genius plan to fix everything, but this time, he was expecting me, Storm, and Titan to fix it.

There was way too much fucking blood as red waves soaked through his jacket and pooled beneath his feet. He was bleeding out fast and nothing we were doin’ seemed to slow it down.

“Rev, hang in there,” I encouraged. “Storm and I are about to lift you up, but you better not die on us here.”

His fingers gripped my wrist, weaker than I ever thought they could be. When his lips parted like he wanted to say something, I held my breath as he choked on his own blood.

“Nah. Bruh, you ain’t doin’ this to us today,” I hissed, tapping his cheek as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

When he finally came back to, his eyes met mine, and not in a fleeting way.

The startled gaze of my best friend really met mine.

And in that last look, I saw everything in his gaze.

Regret. Pain. The wish that he could tell his family that he loved them and an apology he shouldn’t have to give me and the fellas for leaving this earth quicker than we expected.

And then … there was nothing. His body sagged, his fingers slipped from mine, and his next breath didn’t come again.

For the first time in my life, I forgot how to breathe, and in that instant, I knew in my mind what my heart refused to believe.

This wasn’t a simple fuckin’ mission anymore.

This was the worst-case scenario and a goddamn nightmare.

I vaguely recalled both Storm and Titan checking to see if Rev was still alive. I barely noticed whatever they were saying about the man we all loved like a brother.

I went into shock, and I couldn’t stop shaking Rev’s lifeless body.

This ain’t it. This can’t be how he’s taken out.

I wasn’t sure if Storm or Titan pulled me off of him and slapped me until I calmed the fuck down enough to lift Rev’s body onto my back and continue through the tunnel as they took lead to shoot any enemy that stood in our way of getting home.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. I owed my life to Rev, and we were always careful about the jobs we took.

Or at least, as careful as one could be in our line of work.

Our private contracts were whispered through encrypted channels and our methods left no trace except for the certainty that death was inevitable.

It was just never supposed to be one of us who caught the bullet.

We did the killing.

We didn’t get killed.

It wasn’t until we were in the clear that I laid his body on the ground and noticed that my face was wet with my tears and his blood. Titan told us we had to keep moving, but I felt like I wasn’t even inside of my body as darkness began taking residence in my mind.

I knew then that a part of my soul would forever be in the Smoky Mountains, where I lost my best friend. All of my life I’d been a fighter. Yet, like Rev always said, we couldn’t fight death the same way we fought everything else.

In the end, death would always win.