Havelock laughed, brittle and forced, puffing himself up as if arrogance could armor him.“Because I’m important.You should be bowing before me, not pointing guns.You have no idea who I answer to.”
He straightened, confidence surging as he convinced himself of it, chin lifting, chest out.
Three shots hit him almost at once.
Havelock jerked violently—one impact snapping his head back, another punching through his chest, the third tearing into his throat.He collapsed backward into the desk, papers exploding into the air, blood spraying across polished wood as his body crumpled to the floor.
Silence.
Kol’s voice came over comms, clipped.“I didn’t fire.”
Dominic shook his head once.“Me, neither.”
Luca lowered his weapon.“Forehead was mine.”
Elias reholstered with precise calm.“Mine took him in the heart.”
Mateo exhaled.“Throat.Couldn’t stand to hear the fucker’s voice a minute longer.”
Luca went to Mara, knelt in front of her and picked the locks on the restraints.It did not take long before the metal clattered to the floor.She swayed when he lifted her, arms going around his neck on instinct.
He held her like he’d burn the world before he dropped her.
“You did good,” she whispered into his shoulder.
He shook his head.“You were hurt.”
“We’ve got her,” Mateo said, already checking the door.“Time to go.”
They moved fast.
Outside, the night swallowed the sound of sirens somewhere far away.Luca set Mara down only long enough for Dominic to wrap her wrists and Elias to press a bottle of water into her hand, his grip steady and reassuring.
She drank, hands trembling.
Elias stepped out of the dark like he’d been there all along rather than in the thick of things with the rest of them.Mara had seen him inside, heard him claim that the shot to the heart was his, but he looked like he’d just stepped from the cover of a magazine rather than a fire fight.
The men went still.
Mara straightened too.The man just had that aura about him.
Elias’s gaze took her in—minor injuries, posture, the way she stood.Approval flickered and vanished.
“You did what you had to,” he said.
She nodded once.
“There’s a problem,” Elias continued, voice level.“We have a mole.Until we finish cutting that cancer out, I can’t guarantee your safety inside the network the Covenant controls.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.“Then she comes with me.”
The words hit Mara like a hand at her back—steady, claiming, unmistakably Luca.Heat flared low in her chest, a rush of relief and something dangerously close to pleasure.He wanted her with him.No hedging.No conditions.
Mateo shot him a look.“No.”
The single syllable cut clean through the moment.
Luca turned.“What?”
