Because even from here?—
I recognized the picture.
Sixteen-year-old me.
Standing outside the ranch house.
The same photo Hersh showed me earlier.
Shepherd tilted his head slightly.
“You know what your problem was, Blaze?”
The rain poured harder around us.
“You kept trying to save strangers.”
His eyes shifted to me.
“When you should’ve protected what mattered.”
60
BLAZE
The second Shepherd lifted that photograph?—
I fired.
Gunshots exploded through the storm.
The ridge erupted instantly.
Shadow Division opened fire hard from both flanks as Shepherd dove backward behind the trees.
“MOVE!” Wolf roared.
I grabbed Flick around the waist and slammed her behind the rock just as bullets ripped through branches above us.
Wood exploded.
Mud sprayed.
Thunder crashed so loud it nearly drowned out the screaming gunfire.
Flick clutched my vest hard enough to hurt.
“Hersh—”
“Stay down.”
Another round cracked past my head.
Too close.
Way too damn close.
Trigger’s voice thundered through comms.
