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“I’ve got another one down,” Nolan whispered into his ‘doo-hickey’. Six had gotten out of the Nissan Armada and the Chevy Suburban that Michael had clocked when they had parked two klicks back. With Nolan’s capture and Beau’s and Jase’s, that meant we had three left. They hadn’t made it to the cabin yet. They were communicating via cell phone, which was making them extremely vulnerable.

Simon was inside the cabin, along with Kai, but I was determined not to let them get that far. I didn’t have one of the tranq guns, but I didn’t need it. I had my knife, zip ties, and duct tape. I was set.

I heard a noise to my left. It sounded like a damn gorilla stomping through the woods.

“I’ve got four, forty meters east of the road, approximately half a klick from the cabin,” I whispered into the mic.

I moved fast and quiet, ahead of the man, finding a perfect thicket of shrubs to hide in. This guy kept moving forward in a straight line. Not even bothering to move in a zigzag. Of course he did think that he was kidnapping two women who were vacationing in a cabin, but still…

I’d already cut into the roll of duct tape so I had just the right size strips to slap over any target’s mouth, first thing. I peered through the shrubs, and I could see him. Pearl had not been wrong; this guy was bigger than Jace.

I'd have to cut him down to size—literally. Hamstring slice, drop him to the ground, slap the tape over his mouth before his brain registered what happened. Zip ties on wrists and ankles while he was still trying to figure out why his leg wouldn't work. Cold, efficient, and my ribs wouldn't have to take a beating.

He lumbered to the right of my hiding place and I leaped. My knife found the back of his left knee in one smooth motion—tendon severed, precise. He started to drop with a grunt of confusion, and I was already moving, my hand clamping over his mouth as I rode him down to the forest floor.

The duct tape slapped across his lips before he could process what was happening. His hands came up instinctively, reaching back to grab at me, but I'd already shifted my weight, knee pressing into his spine between his shoulder blades.

My ribs screamed in protest. I ignored them.

"Fight me and I cut the other leg," I whispered in Russian against his ear. "Nod if you understand."

He went still. Smart.

I grabbed his right wrist, yanked it behind his back. Then the left. The zip tie cinched tight around his wrists with a plastic zipping sound. His breathing was coming fast through his nose now—panic starting to set in as the pain registered and he realized he was completely immobilized.

Ankles next. I worked fast, efficiently. Twenty seconds from leap to fully secured.

The Russian made a muffled sound behind the tape. His eyes were wide when I moved around to look at him, rolling him slightly so I could see his face. Not fear exactly. More like disbelief that someone had just taken him down that fast.

"You're out of the game," I told him quietly in Russian. "Stay quiet, you live. Make noise, you don't. Clear?"

He nodded.

I grabbed a handful of leaves and dirt, scattered them over the blood trail. Not perfect, but it would do. Dragged him deeper into the thicket where he wouldn't be easily spotted.

"Another tango down," I breathed into the mic. "Two still mobile, heading to the cabin."

“For fuck’s sake, leave them to us,” Kai practically whined. “This isn’t any fun.”

My lip twitched.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something coming toward me, fast.

Fuck. I’d been too busy congratulating myself for the takedown to notice another Russian coming my way.

Rookie mistake.

He brought up his gun, and I dove back into the thicket of scrub brush, just barely missing the bullet. Another bullet shot into the bushes, then another. I yanked out my gun, grabbed the Russian I’d just tied up, and pulled him in front of me. I needed the cover.

His body jerked as a bullet hit him. I peeked over his shoulder, took aim, and took a head shot, then torso. The Russian went down.

“One more down. Dead.” I said into the mic.

“Last one is on the run, making a frontal assault,” Simon said.

I knew they didn’t have a tranq gun, but they had a plan once they penetrated the cabin. I tuned them out, knowing they would take out the last Russian. I focused on the man who had taken the bullet for me. I turned him over. The bullet had hit him in the shoulder. Hit the bone, lucky for me. And lucky for him—not immediately fatal, but he was bleeding steady. His eyes had gone glassy with shock, breathing shallow and rapid.