“Get Remi checked,” Reid barked, snapping into motion. “Two medics coming in on foot through the north trail. We stabilize here, then move.”
Clutch adjusted his grip, still holding her like she was weightless. “She’s a fighter,” he said softly. “She’ll make it.”
I looked around, at the smoke, the blood, the ruined trees and ruined people, and then back at Ava. She was watching Remi like she couldn’t look away.
Pride lit her face.
And heartbreak.
“She is everything,” Ava whispered.
“Yeah,” I said. “Terrifying.”
We started moving, clearing, treating, and stabilizing. Graydropped beside Clutch and Remi, waiting to get patched up himself but not leaving her side. A medic was finally kneeling, checking Remi’s pulse, working fast.
Reid stood watch, arms crossed, daring anyone to come too close.
And Jack…
Jack tried to stay busy. Tried to help. But his eyes kept drifting back to her.
I remembered what he’d said once.“Then be ready. Because loving Remi Carter isn’t safe. It never has been. And trying to protect her is even more dangerous.”
And I saw it now, why she let him go.
I saw it in the difference.
The difference between those who said they’d die for her and those who lived like they already had. People who barely knew her but seemed to understand who she was at her core. People who walked through fire, through bullets and blood, just to stand at her side.
Jack loved her, sure. But he wasn’t strong enough to burn beside her.
And in that moment, as I looked around that smoke-wrapped hellscape, I finally understood what it meant to have a found family. To be chosen.
Not by blood or duty, but by love, loyalty, and pain.
I had brothers from the Army.
I had Ava, and now... I had Remi.
The woman who held a mirror up for me, saved me, and healed something I didn’t even know I had left. In that blood-stained clearing, I found the love of my life and the sister I never asked for but would protect with my last breath.
And I knew…
Whatever came next?
We’d survive it.
Together.
CHAPTER 75
AVA - HE WAS GONE
The smoke was fading, but the smell lingered. Burnt bark, gunpowder, and blood.
We were back at the line of vehicles, bikes and black SUVs scattered across the dirt lot like some kind of makeshift military motorcycle club. I leaned against the hood of the nearest truck, arms crossed tightly. I knew I should get myself checked out, my cuts cleaned, ribs examined... but my eyes were fixed on the woman who refused to sit down.
Remi.
