“Marco!”
“Polo,” I called back dryly, already moving, slipping along the side of the house toward the rear entrance.
Another round of gunfire tore through the front.
“Marco!” Silas shouted again, louder this time.
“Polo, where are you?” I echoed, rounding the corner and positioning myself at the back door.
That was the signal.
Silas hit the front at the same moment I drove my boot into the back.
Both doors gave at once, wood splintering inward now as we breached from either side. A canister shattered through a side window a second later, hissing as smoke flooded the interior, thick and fast, swallowing the space in seconds.
We moved swiftly.
Two of Marco’s men came out of the haze first, disoriented, guns raised too slow. Silas dropped one before he could open fire. I took the other, a clean shot between the eyes, that sent him collapsing backward.
Another figure lunged from the hallway. A shot rang out behind me, and he went down hard as one of ours cleared the flank.
“Clear the left!” Silas barked.
Boots thundered through the house as our team swept room to room, securing it.
And then—
We found him.
Marco stood in the center of the living room, half-shroudedin smoke, one arm locked around an omega, dragging her tight against his chest. His gun was pressed to her head, his grip bruising and possessive.
She was crying, shaking, and barely able to stay upright in his hold.
His eyes found us through the haze.
Wild. Cornered.
But underneath it—
Fear.
“Don’t come any closer,” he snapped, tightening his grip on her. “I swear to God, I’ll kill her.”
Silas didn’t even raise his weapon.
He stepped forward calmly, before calling him on his bluff. “No, you won’t,” he said flatly. "Because if you do, you're dead."
Marco’s grip faltered for half a second, just enough to give him away.
“You don’t have the spine for it,” I added, taking another step closer. “You never did.”
Marco’s jaw clenched, his gaze flicking between us, calculating and unraveling simultaneously.
Silas tilted his head slightly, studying him.
“Go ahead. Pull the trigger."
The room went still.
