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Leila heard them coming a good ten minutes before the intruders reached her location. She was lying prone, her belly stretched across the ground, allowing her to not only hear Whitney’s soldiers coming but to feel them as they jogged along the trail. The path they took wasn’t a common one. It was located on the Campos property and wasn’t a proper road but a game trail used regularly by animals.

She counted five of them and she rechecked her weapons. A calm descended, the way it always did when she went into battle. She was used to fighting alone and relying only on herself. She wasn’t counting on Diego to return, although she knew he would. She trusted him. He would never leave her alone unless it couldn’t be helped. He was that kind of man.

A part of her was grateful Diego wasn’t with her. She knew if he was, her attention would be divided, and that was always a risk. With just herself to look after, she felt more confident. She did wish she was a strong telepath. She knew Diego was, but she couldn’t reach him. He had to initiate. She wanted to warn him so when he made his way back to her, he wouldn’t run into an ambush. The thought made her more determined than ever to hunt and kill the approaching enemy.

She heard them when they were a mile out. They had stopped on the trail, presumably looking for tracks.

“Alex, you need to pick up the trail,” one said. He had the voice of someone used to issuing orders.

“Devin is the sniffer, Cooper, not me,” Alex protested.

She knew a sniffer had bear in him, and bears were the best at finding food, even miles away. Their sense of smell was up to three thousand times better than a human’s. She knew he would find her. How could he not? She was a human being, and no matter how many times she showered, she would still smell like a human being.

“You’re our tracker,” Cooper snapped, impatience coming through. “You can’t always leave everything up to Devin. You’re so lazy, Alex. Pull it together.”

“It’s not my fault that my DNA causes me to tire easily. You try having sloth, lion and owl monkey in you. All of them need to sleep sixteen or seventeen hours a day.” Alex sounded whiny.

Leila rolled her eyes. What had Whitney been thinking to put together a concoction like that? It was ridiculous.

“You were lazy before Whitney ever offered to have you in the program. They were going to toss your ass out because you couldn’t complete the requirements no matter how many chances they gave you.” Cooper’s voice was filled with contempt. “Did you think I wouldn’t read the evals on any soldier under me? I take my job seriously. You start looking for tracks, and you’d better find something that points us in the direction we need to go.”

“Come on, Alex,” another voice said. “We don’t want Russ’s team to find the girl before we do. They’ll get all the rewards if they bring her in.”

“All you think about is fucking some bitch,” Alex said. “Sheesh, Dillan, you can’t keep it in your pants for five minutes.”

“At least he’s thinking, not sleeping,” Cooper said. “Get moving, Alex. And don’t follow Devin. He wants to have access to those women as well.”

“More than one,” Dillan said. “Devin’s like me.”

“Lying, saying whatever you think the bitch wants to hear so you can fuck her,” Alex said. “Yeah, you two are a real winning pair.”

“Just because you can’t get it up doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t men,” Dillan snapped.

Leila shook her head. They didn’t sound like a cohesive unit. Conquer and divide. The sniffer would find her first. If he liked women, he might very well not tell the others he had found her. He might decide to take her for his own. She went over a bear’s anatomy in her mind. The placement of her shot was important. Once she fired, she would have to move quickly. The others would hear the shot. She’d have to kill the sniffer with her first shot, even if it took him a little while to die.

“What are you implying?” Alex bristled. “I’ve been married and had a kid.”

“That you abandoned,” Cooper said. “Get the hell onto the trail and find the bitch. She’s injured, so you should be able to handle it if you run across her.”

Alex let out a roar, a fairly good mimic of a lion, proving he did have that DNA in him. There was a long silence, giving Leila the opportunity to check the whereabouts of Devin, the sniffer. He was much closer than she’d anticipated. Alex was heading into the forest, clearly attempting to follow Devin’s tracks, but he was moving slow.

“I’m going to put a bullet in that moron’s head someday,” Cooper groused. “He’s just about useless. I don’t know why I got stuck with him.”

“Whitney was pissed at you.”

Leila noted immediately that the voice was calm, matter-of-fact. That man didn’t seem to be someone who would rile easily. She found it interesting that Cooper was in charge, not the one who seemed the more logical choice.

“Yeah, he was, Kyle.” Cooper immediately quieted talking to his friend. It was easy to hear that camaraderie in his tone. “Probably had good reason too.” Now there was a shared amusement. “I capped his favorite ass-kisser.”

“He’s probably hoping you’ll do the same to Alex so he doesn’t have to,” Kyle said. “You want to do it, we’ll all be looking the other way.”

“We’ll need his gun to take out her guards. Whitney said she had at least five of Chariot’s soldiers bringing her back to their compound. He wants them all dead.”

Kyle laughed. “He’s such a bloodthirsty asshole. He does like his petty revenges. He was mad that he got the flawed sister. That’s what he called her. I’m betting Bridget was just like every other kid he fucked up. He doesn’t ever want to take responsibility for what happens to them when he screws with them over and over. When he gets her sister, no matter how great she starts out, he’ll turn her into a psychotic bitch no one can stand.”

“Bridget is nearly catatonic. Can you imagine wanting to be paired with that?” Cooper asked.

“Alex would want her. He wouldn’t have to fight too hard to get some.” Kyle laughed again. “Maybe instead of capping him, we should persuade Whitney to pair him with Bridget, not Bridget with him.”

“You’re a mean son of a gun, Kyle,” Cooper said, joining in the laughter.

Leila wished she had both men in her sights, but she had to turn her attention to Devin. She could see the man casting around on the ground and lifting his nose to scent the air. He was a big man, and rather than stand upright, he employed a strange crawl using feet and hands. His knees didn’t touch the ground as he shuffled quickly over the forest floor. He stopped abruptly, remaining in that position as he looked around him.

“I know you’re here.” The voice was deep and had a rumble to it. “No one is going to harm you. Come out, and we’ll see to your wounds.”

Alex would be arriving in the next five to seven minutes. She didn’t have time to engage with Devin. She took careful aim, going for a double lung shot rather than the heart. He wouldn’t survive if she took out both lungs. She squeezed the trigger. The bullet flew true. She wasn’t a woman who missed her target, and certainly not when he presented it to her rather close.

The sound of the gunshot would alert his team and they would come running. She couldn’t remain caged in the roots of the tree. She hated giving it up when Diego had provided everything she might need for a prolonged stay, but she’d already slung her weapons around her neck and shoved the ammo into the small bag he’d left. Rolling out from the roots as soon as she fired the weapon, without even checking to see if Devin went down, she was on the move.

She could hear the labored breathing, the air escaping from the downed soldier’s lungs. She leapt for the branch of a tree and nearly fell. The movement jarred her insides to the point of excruciating pain. Diego was not going to be happy with her.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself into the crotch of the tree and waited there until the crashing pain settled. She was surprised at how weak she was. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t have exerted much energy pulling herself into a tree. She could leap high, although she had seen Diego jump at least ten feet into the air, and his forward leap was double that. He had done so effortlessly, and when he landed, he was silent, already running forward without breaking stride. She couldn’t even come close to that.

Leila knew she didn’t have a lot of time before every soldier—and Diego—would come after her. She climbed higher, where the foliage was much denser. The tree was sturdy, each branch strong, but she remained against the trunk. She used the thick bark as a backrest when she settled against it, arranging her weapons so she could use them in any direction. One of her greatest strengths was her ability to stay absolutely still if need be. She needed that skill now. She froze in place and, much like the great horned owl, blended into the trunk.

The sniffer was still making strange noises as if the air in his lungs was rushing out of a hole, but he had ceased rolling around on the ground. He was dying, each breath a strain. She found it heartbreaking and wished there had been a better way to ensure a kill. He had come after her like a bear would, so she had chosen the method she would use to slay a bear if it were attacking her.

She remained still as the tracker, Alex, parted the brush and peered around warily. He remained under cover for a few minutes, studying the scene. Finally, he crept slowly toward Devin, looking at the ground, studying every mark in the dirt and examining the nearby plants for signs of bruising.

“Dev.” Alex kept his voice low and his finger over the trigger of his semiautomatic. “Dev, talk to me. What the hell happened? Who did this?”

Devin was on his side, his body shuddering, eyes wide open in a stare of fixed horror. His mouth gaped open as he tried to find air, but it was too late. He was already dead, his heart just hadn’t realized it yet. It beat slowly and irregularly.

“Damn it, Dev.” Alex got close enough to look for wounds.

The body shuddered again, and the death rattle was loud. Alex jumped back, swearing, turning in a full circle, pointing his weapon at everything.

The wind shifted minutely, sending the branches of the surrounding trees swaying. Leaves and needles fell to the forest floor. Bullfrogs set up a chorus of protests, and lizards skittered in the thick vegetation. Alex yelled and squeezed down on the trigger, a look of terror on his face as he spun around and around, shooting at the leaping shadows.

Bullets hit the tree where Leila remained motionless. He was aiming far too low to hit her, but movement might draw his eye. Several ugly thunks told her Alex had managed to hit the dead body of his friend with his wild shooting. As he fired his weapon, he yelled at the top of his lungs. There was nothing subtle about his fear. If he had gotten any paler, he would have been a ghost.

Leila followed his movements with her eyes only. The tree shivered several times as bullets hit the trunk. From somewhere above her, she heard the call of a hawk. She was certain the sound was real and not Diego, although he was so good at imitating the raptors, she wasn’t sure why she thought he still wasn’t close.

She couldn’t feel his presence. Before she had known of Diego’s existence, back when she was fighting off soldiers with Luther, she’d felt him. She’d known he was there. She hadn’t known who he was, but she had felt him. Felt his energy. Everything in her reached for him. Knew him. The good in him and the darkness.

She had heard him signaling to Luther, using the birds to announce his presence. To let Luther know he was joining the battle. She’d known when he insisted on shooting all three of them with a tracking device. She’d made it clear she knew what he was up to, and she wanted no part of it. She’d also known he was ruthless enough to ignore what she wanted. That should have put her off him, but instead she found herself more intrigued than ever.

Leila didn’t care for men that much. She didn’t respect them. There were a few soldiers she thought were decent men who worked hard, but she stayed away from them, not trusting anyone. She had a built-in radar for the soldiers who were operating on the edge. There was a taint to them, an aura surrounding them that warned her off them. She’d known it when Leon had come to her door with his friends and forced their way in.

Diego was so certain he was dark and twisted. He thought of himself as a monster, but from the moment he’d come into her life, she had known he was different. He was a good man with a strict code of honor. Because she felt people, saw auras and could often see inside a person where no one else could, she knew the heart of him.

Since spending these few days and nights with him, not one thing he’d done or said had changed her opinion of him. He was thoughtful and kind. He listened to her and treated her with respect. He hadn’t once taken advantage when he could have. Even when a part of her wanted him to. He was a gentleman, whether he thought so or not.

The raptor let out two rapid cries, alerting her to the soldiers rushing to the battle. This would be Kyle and Cooper. Deliberately she took a breath and remained very still. If she shot Alex, the two soldiers were experienced enough to follow the trajectory of a bullet. She couldn’t move quickly through the trees as she would normally be able to. Her best bet would be to remain absolutely still and wait for a better opportunity to rid the world of Whitney’s creations.

Where was the third soldier? What kinds of genetics did he have that might enable him to spot her? She had the precise location of Alex, who finally had gone quiet, finger off the trigger, retreating into the trees and brush to hide. The hawk had warned her that two soldiers were coming toward her fast. She had guessed Kyle and Cooper, but it could be Dillan and one of the others. The bottom line was that the third man, whoever he was, was stalking her, and the hawk hadn’t yet spotted him.

A chill slid down her spine. She was far too experienced to move, but now she had a very bad feeling. In the space of a few moments, she had gone from the hunter to the hunted. Strangely, she actually thought about trying to reach out to Diego. That stray thought was nearly as disturbing to her as the fact that there was a wild card somewhere stalking her.

When had she become dependent on Diego? Was it because she wasn’t one hundred percent? A blowtorch seemed to be burning her insides. An ice pick pierced every internal organ she had, stabbing over and over. Truthfully, she felt weak and lightheaded. Diego wanted her lying prone on the ground. She realized there had been a reason for it.

Had she been operated on in the conventional way, her recovery would have taken much longer. As it was, Diego, twice a day, promoted healing. She knew it cost him in strength, but he still did it. For her. Everything he did seemed to be for her. He was a strong man, a good partner, and here she was, cowering in a tree waiting for him to come and rescue her.

The fronds of a large fern just behind the body of Devin parted to reveal a soldier. He surveyed the scene in front of him, his features impassive until his gaze settled on Alex. His jaw hardened and he glanced over his shoulder to speak to someone she couldn’t see.

“Devin’s dead, Cooper. I don’t know if Alex killed him, but it’s likely with all the bullets he wasted.”

“I didn’t kill him, Kyle,” Alex denied, clutching his semiautomatic to his chest, his eyes wild. “He was dying when I got here.”

“How?”

Alex gestured around him. “How the hell should I know? Something out there. It sounded like he was having trouble breathing.”

“Did you try CPR?” Kyle stepped out of the bed of ferns into the open. “Did you do anything at all to try to save him?”

“He was dying ,” Alex emphasized. “I didn’t know what killed him. I tried to hold them off to give him a chance just in case they were still around.”

Kyle gave a snort of derision. “You didn’t even get close enough to see what killed him.”

Cooper stepped to the very edge of the foliage. His weapon was pointed in Alex’s general direction. “Unless you killed him, Alex. You better not have.” He nodded toward Kyle, and the other soldier jogged across the uneven ground to crouch down beside Devin.

Leila realized Cooper was covering Kyle. Neither man trusted Alex. They really were considering that Alex might have shot Devin. Where was the loyalty with these men? Or was it just Alex they were suspicious of? She remained very still, letting the air slip silently in and out of her lungs. She couldn’t afford to become distracted and caught up in the drama happening below her. She had to always be on full alert for the missing soldier.

“He was shot multiple times,” Kyle reported, turning to glare at Alex. “Semiautomatic. If he wasn’t dead already, you sealed the deal, Alex.”

Alex shook his head frantically, fear in his expression. He was aware the other two soldiers were willing to kill him. “You should have heard the death rattles. I’m telling you, he was dying. I fired in a sweeping circle because I was certain whoever had tried to kill him was still out there, waiting to finish him off.”

“Yet you didn’t examine him,” Kyle said. “You didn’t try to help him.”

“I couldn’t,” Alex insisted. “I had to protect him.”

Cooper’s eyebrow shot up. “By shooting him multiple times?”

Alex swore and stepped closer to the cover of the forest. “You’re getting this all wrong. What did kill him, Kyle?” he added, clearly hoping to distract the other two.

Kyle took his time before answering. “A very well-placed bullet. The shot was a double lung hit. Best chance of killing a bear. His heart and lungs were in the same place a bear’s might be. Whoever shot him knew he was bear.”

He straightened slowly and took a step back. “Alex knew Devin was bear, but I don’t think he’s had any experience killing a bear. He wouldn’t have known to take that particular shot, nor do I think he’s a good enough marksman to make it.”

He began casting around for signs on the ground and then looked toward the tree with the huge root system. “The bullet was fired from that direction. Shooter was low to the ground. My guess is he was hidden in the roots of that tree.”

“Or she,” Cooper corrected. “It could have been Bridget’s sister.”

“Not if she was really in as bad a shape as the radio chatter implied,” Kyle said. “They made it sound as if she was at death’s door. In fact, they said they thought she wasn’t going to make it and to be prepared. They were ordered to bring her body back no matter what.”

Fine tremors began internally in Leila’s body. That wasn’t a good sign. It hadn’t occurred to her that weakness was going to be a factor. She’d always been in top physical condition and relied on her conditioning on any assignment she took. She couldn’t do that now. She was beginning to sweat, another bad sign. Even if she could hold out, she didn’t know what kinds of genetics these men had in them. Sweating could give her away just as easily as movement.

Cooper cursed and stalked over to the tree. “Alex, get the hell over here. You’re supposed to be the tracker. Read the tracks. Tell me who was here and where they went.”

Alex sent him a wary look and shuffled forward until he was near the tree Leila had been hiding in. She hadn’t left anything behind, but the impression of her body had to be pressed into the soft ground. If the man could read tracks at all, he should be able to find her, or at least know approximately where she was.

Her heart accelerated just a little as she watched Alex cast around on the ground and even crawl partially between the roots.

“You have to see this, Kyle, or you’re not going to believe it,” Alex eventually called out. He sounded intrigued. Something had captured his attention.

Kyle crossed over to crouch beside him. He let out a low whistle and then threw a look over his shoulder to Cooper. “There are no tracks, just a carpet of beetles. Thousands of them. They’re not only beneath the tree but surrounding it, obliterating any tracks that might have been in the dirt.”

He stood up slowly and turned to the other soldier. “We’re dealing with someone who is enhanced. We have to be. No way did these beetles just coincidentally show up in this exact spot. Why aren’t they swarming over Devin’s carcass if they’re looking for food? Someone arranged this, and that person is powerful enough to take command of insects.”

Kyle’s voice was leery. For the first time he appeared shaken, and both Cooper and Alex recognized the shift in his demeanor.

“What are you thinking, Kyle?” Cooper demanded. “Spit it out.”

Kyle sighed. “Whitney has a bad habit of sending out his soldiers to pit them against GhostWalker teams. He doesn’t tell anyone what they’re going up against; he just sends them. As soon as we were given this assignment, even though we were going up against Chariot’s soldiers, it occurred to me to do a little research so we didn’t walk into a trap.”

Cooper cursed under his breath. “Are you telling me you think Whitney sent us up against the GhostWalkers and Chariot’s soldiers?”

“I think he should have been a little more forthcoming about who owns the land we’re traveling through. You ever hear of the Campos brothers? Rubin and Diego Campos?”

There was silence after Kyle’s question. Leila could have sworn Alex looked pale enough to faint.

“Don’t know much about Rubin,” Cooper finally conceded, “but even though he supposedly flies under the radar, rumors have turned Diego into a legend.”

“Rumors aren’t always true,” Alex contributed.

“I think in this case,” Kyle said, “we’d better treat them as if they’re gospel. Rubin and Diego Campos were born right here. They still maintain the property and come up a couple of times a year to help out the locals.”

“I’m going to kill Whitney myself,” Cooper declared. “He sent us here to get us killed.”

Kyle shook his head. “Maybe not. I checked how often and when the brothers come to this area, and they aren’t scheduled for a few weeks.” He pushed his hand through his hair, another display of nerves. “Having said that, it doesn’t mean they haven’t arrived early. Something or someone took charge of those insects. I believe it has to be a GhostWalker.”

Cooper swore again. “One of them could easily have made that shot.”

“Rubin plays doctor to his neighbors. He’s a doctor in their unit, and they send him out on rescue missions. Diego goes along as the big gun protecting his brother and the rest of the crew,” Kyle said. “If I had to guess who made that shot, I think it would have to be Diego.”

Alex backed away from the tree, realized he was getting closer to the fallen Devin, and swung around and hurried across the small clearing, putting distance between the other two soldiers and himself. “We should leave. Get the hell out of here. I heard he was a damn ghost in the woods.”

“Rumor, Alex, remember?” Kyle taunted.

“Don’t be such an ass, Alex,” Cooper added. “This is all speculation. We just have to find Bridget’s sister and bring her back with us. We’ll avoid any confrontation with GhostWalkers. If we’re not a threat to them, they won’t hunt us.” There was the tiniest sneer in his voice, as if he looked down on the GhostWalkers for having a code.

Off to the left, in deeper forest, the sound of a twig snapping was muted but loud enough that all three soldiers froze. Cooper reacted first, indicating with silent hand signals for the other two to separate by several feet and enter the forest. He took up a position several feet from Kyle, so Kyle was in the middle between the two other soldiers.

Leila watched them until they were swallowed by the dense trees. The wind touched her face with wet drops. Mist. The fog that often appeared in the Appalachian Mountains was creeping in. It would provide more cover for both sides. It muffled sound and distorted sight. Diego had cautioned her about getting lost in the mountains due to the heavy forest and the shroud of dense fog.

She had a good sense of direction, and she didn’t panic. It didn’t occur to her that she could get turned around as many hikers had. The myths surrounding frequent disappearances usually had to do with legendary creatures, not the complexity of the land or the debilitating fog, the real reason for those disappearances. She didn’t believe she would become a statistic. But she was weak.

It was necessary to decide if she was going to climb down and try to make her way back to the cabin. She’d torn something when she’d made the leap for the tree branch. All along, Diego had said she was fragile. She hadn’t felt that fragile in comparison to what she had been, so she’d overestimated her abilities. She had to ask herself if she was bleeding internally. That would definitely contribute to her feeling of severe weakness.

Unease slid through her. Her body reacted to the unknown threat with a surge of adrenaline, providing the necessary strength to steady herself. The internal tremors ceased, and she very slowly slipped her knife from the scabbard at her waist. Keeping the blade tight against her wrist, she held the hilt concealed in her fist.

Listening with her acute sense of hearing, she detected something large sliding along the tree trunk above her. The tree shivered ever so slightly, alerting her, letting her know she wasn’t alone in that tree. Her attacker was above her, making his way down. Slithering like a snake. This was a soldier, and he had snake in him, enough that his sense of smell had been alerted. Why hadn’t he called back the others?

Leila remained still, as if frozen in place, hoping to portray a woman too frightened to move. This was the missing Dillan. Probably her sweat and heat, if he saw through heat sensors, had drawn him to her hiding place. She waited, breathing steadily. Ready.

He dropped down to the same branch, his arm circling her neck with tremendous force, pulling her sideways, away from the tree trunk. The knotted muscles in his arm locked against her throat, cutting off air.

“You stay quiet, girl. Don’t make a sound. Don’t fight me. Do you understand?”

She tried to nod, but he kept her immobile. She tapped his arm with her fist and let out a muffled choking sound as she slumped back into him.

“I said stay quiet,” he reiterated. “We don’t want company, do we?” As he reminded her, Dillan loosened his hold the tiniest bit, allowing her to draw air into her lungs. “Are you injured?”

Again, she started to answer, muffled a cough and reached up to tap his arm with her closed fist, alerting him to the fact that she was hurt.

“Can you walk?”

Once again, she raised her fist to tap his arm, only this time, her fist rose fast from his forearm. She drove her fist straight to his neck, the blade of the knife penetrating deep, severing the artery. Slamming her other elbow into his ribs, she continued the motion with her knife, stabbing deep under the armpit, cutting that artery. His arm dropped away from her, and she leapt from the tree to the forest floor. Blood poured from his wounds, and he tried to shout, to warn his companions.

The sound was somewhat muffled by the fog, but she was certain Dillan’s voice carried through the trees. They would come to check on him, and she had to be ready.

Ignoring the agony radiating through her body, she ran deeper into the forest, the fog a thick gray cover. As she ran, she shoved the bloody knife back into the leather sheath. She would need it soon enough, but she wasn’t taking chances. She was weaker than she liked, and she wasn’t about to fall on her own blade. The soldiers would be coming, and she wasn’t going to be taken to Whitney. The man was mad. Totally insane. She saw what he did to her sister, and going to Whitney’s compound as a prisoner wasn’t going to happen.

The moment the forest swallowed her completely, she stopped moving. Movement produced sounds. If she was going to ensure those men didn’t take her to Whitney, she would have to hunt them. One at a time. There was no way, in her condition, that she could take on all three at once.

Leila considered her options. If she waited, hoping Diego would show up so she didn’t have to move around, she feared the three soldiers would eventually find her. No, it was far better to hunt them. Once she made up her mind, she didn’t hesitate. Ignoring her protesting body, she hurried toward the tree where Dillan’s body was sprawled in the branches.

The sight was macabre, blood running in rivers down the trunk of the tree. The body hung partially upside down, swaying, caught only by one arm and one leg. The fog concealed the hideous sight one moment and then revealed it the next when the wind drew the veil of gray back.

Cooper burst from the trees, swearing loudly, spinning around in a circle and then staring up at his teammate. “Kyle, that son of a bitch killed Dillan.”

Leila could see Kyle crouched close to the ground, examining the dirt and plants for tracks, for anything that might tell him who or what had managed to kill Dillan.

“If I didn’t know better, Cooper,” Kyle said, straightening, “I’d say the woman did this. If it was Campos, he’s got the smallest feet imaginable. But no woman would get the drop on Dillan. It just wouldn’t happen.”

Leila rolled her eyes, but her attention was on Alex. The man hadn’t gone near the body. He was still in the forest, not setting foot into the clearing. She circled around to get behind him, working slowly and carefully through the brush. A thousand ice picks stabbed at her insides with every step she took. Her body felt a little like lead. She was going to have to end this fast if she was going to prevail.

She smelled fear when she came up behind Alex. The wind blew steadily now, taking the fog with it, spreading that gray veil through the trees. She went to the ground, propelling herself forward using toes and elbows to get close to Alex. The noises he made were annoying, a whining hiccup as he rocked himself and stroked his finger over the trigger of his semiautomatic.

Leila rose up behind him fast, slamming the blade of her knife, all the way to the hilt, into the back of his neck, severing the spinal cord. She didn’t bother to retrieve the knife; she didn’t have that kind of time. She turned and sprinted into deeper forest. Kyle had already shown he was adept at reading tracks. She didn’t want to give him an easy trail to her. There was no running a distance, not when her strength was fading. She took to the trees, turning back, circling around, using the branches to move from one tree to the next until she found one close to Alex’s body that was dense with foliage.

“He fuckin’ killed Alex right under our noses,” Cooper snapped. “Which way did he go?”

Kyle nodded toward the interior. “Took off running to the west.”

Cooper knelt beside Alex, removing his weapon and ammo belt before slinging it around his neck. “You still think it was the woman?”

“I said no woman could have done this,” Kyle corrected. Already, he was following the tracks leading him deeper into the forest.

Cooper stayed beside Alex’s body, going through his pockets. He even took money from the wallet Alex had on him. He pocketed the cell phone and one bracelet and then sat back, holding his head in his hands as if grieving. Leila knew he disliked Alex, but he must have felt responsible for him. He looked stricken—and he wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings.

She waited, once more completely still, fading into the tree, not moving a muscle. Time ticked by—time she didn’t have. Kyle would discover she’d taken to the trees. She hadn’t laid too long of a trail on the ground. Cooper finally sighed and stood up, facing her, presenting several targets. She was fast and accurate with a knife, and she didn’t hesitate. She threw one into his heart, burying the blade deep. A second followed to sink into his lower abdomen. As he turned, the third knife severed the carotid artery. Cooper went to his knees, blood pouring from the three wounds, the rifle hitting the ground as he dropped it.

“Not bad.” Kyle’s voice came out of the fog. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist the bait.” He stayed hidden, not taking chances. “You may as well show yourself, Campos.”

He had set up his friend to die so he could double back and catch his opponent.

She wasn’t the best at throwing her voice, but with the fog and dense foliage, she decided to take the chance. She wouldn’t be using a knife. This required a gun, and if there was one thing she was very skilled in, it was hitting a target, close up or far away.

“Not Diego,” she said, keeping her voice low. Still, it carried on the wind to him.

His head jerked up and he narrowed his eyes. “You want me to believe you bested Dillan? And then Cooper?”

“And your bear and the coward. Four of the five of you. Little old me. A woman.” She poured a taunt into her voice. Contempt. Amusement. Kyle was the type of man she’d run across so many times. He believed men were far superior to women. He couldn’t conceive of Leila wiping out his entire team.

She studied her target carefully. He had an idea of where she was and was careful to turn sideways, presenting the least amount of targets to her. She took aim. Gave a slow exhale. She pulled the trigger. One shot. One. The bullet flew true, just as she’d known it would. She’d practiced enough. When she aimed at something, she hit it.

Leila jumped from the branch to the ground, inhaling sharply as her insides jarred her. For a moment, darkness swirled around her, but she fought it off and made her way to where Kyle lay on the ground, writhing, desperate for air. The sucking sound was audible.

She kicked his rifle away and squatted beside him. “I killed the bear with this shot. You saw it for yourself and yet were so certain you didn’t have to be afraid of a woman. You should have been. You had the evidence right in front of your eyes, but you refused to believe.”

She didn’t end him mercifully. She walked away, leaving him fighting for every breath, knowing he wouldn’t last long, but he’d have time to think about sacrificing his friend and colleague just to die himself.

She put as much distance between them as possible, heading in the direction of the cabin. She knew she wasn’t going to make it back to the safety of Diego’s home, but she tried.