“Contact!”Kol shouted.
Rafael dragged the chair back as rounds chewed into the doorframe.He shoved an earpiece into the woman’s good hand.
“This is Mara,” Mara said quickly, voice firm and steady.“And Eliza.Stay still.Hold on.They’re going to get you out.”
The woman huffed a breathless laugh.“Name’s Sofía,” she said.“If I die, haunt them for me, will you?”
Rafael grunted as he fired one-handed, hauling her upright.A man burst through the doorway—and Rafael put him down before Sofía could finish another insult.
Eliza listened to his breathing through the comms.Controlled, but strained.
“Rafael, left,” she said.“Another one coming.”
He pivoted just in time.
When another attacker broke through the smoke and lunged for Sofía, Rafael took the hit meant for her.He wrapped her injured arm against her body with brutal efficiency and lifted her anyway, ignoring her protests.
“I can walk!”she snarled.
“Yeah, but I can walk faster,” he shot back.
She cursed him in two languages the entire way.
Eliza watched it all with aching clarity.
This woman was not broken.
Hurt, yes.Furious.Defiant.Dangerous in her own way.
“Extraction route is clear,” Eliza said, fingers flying across the controls.“Heading you to the south landing zone.”
A new voice cut across the channel—calm, precise, stripped of anything unnecessary.Rotor noise sat low beneath it.
“Bird is in position,” the pilot said.Above them, another helicopter swept past on a tight arc, its presence felt more than seen as it laid down cover fire to keep the approach clear.
No name.No preamble.
Just fact.
They burst into open air moments later.
Sofía was loaded into the helicopter as gunfire cracked behind them.Rafael shoved her into a seat and snapped a harness into place.
“Watch her,” Rafael told the pilot.
“Already am,” the man replied, calm as stone.“Air’s covered.Roof team standing by.”
The rotors roared to life.
Eliza leaned back, heart hammering—not with fear, but realization.
This wasn’t just about her anymore.
It never had been.
****
Kol moved through thehouse with lethal speed.
