“No.” Tears mixed with rain down my cheeks. “Not to me.”
Something in his expression cracked.
Just slightly.
Then voices shouted deeper in the woods.
“Hollow Men east side!”
“Movement!”
Hersh instantly pulled me behind him again.
Always protecting me.
A flashlight beam suddenly cut through the trees nearby.
Wolf emerged first with two Shadow Division operators behind him.
The second Wolf spotted me?—
his expression turned murderous.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“She followed me,” Hersh muttered.
“You let her follow you into an active kill zone?”
“I didn’t exactly schedule it!”
Another voice drifted through the darkness then.
Calm.
Closer.
“Touching reunion.”
Every weapon snapped toward the ridge instantly.
And there?—
standing between the trees in black tactical gear?—
was Shepherd.
Tall.
Broad.
Face partially shadowed beneath the rain.
But his eyes?—
cold almost black eyes fixed directly on Hersh.
No emotion in them at all.
