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My brain wakes up before I can open my eyes.

I can hear at least three men talking and the sound of waves crashing against the cliff’s rocks.

I feel hazy, drifting in a daze.

It feels like a dream, like I’m floating somewhere above the sea, watching a scene I don’t belong in.

I try to move, but my body hurts too fucking much, and my head is killing me.

What the hell did they hit me with?

“You didn’t fucking tell us all eight of the Harknetts were going to be there!” a man yells, sounding furious. “You said he only had one or two guards with him!”

“One, two, eight- what’s the fucking deal?” Julian scoffs. “There’s thirty of you, and I have enough C4 on me to blow up this whole cliff.”

“Yes, you fucking idiot!” another man with a deeper voice screams back. “We only brought thirty men, and that amount of C4 because we thought there were only two of them!”

Ha!

Is it weird that I want to smile?

I mean, I’m probably going to die in the next five minutes, but there’s a twisted joy in hearing a bunch of hitmen terrified of my man and his brothers.

Ah… my man.

I just wish I could see him one last time.

“Let’s just kill him now and get out of here before they find us,” one of the men suggests.

“Don’t touch him!” Julian snaps. “I want him conscious. I want to see resignation and fear in his eyes. I want him to know I’m the one ending him.”

What a fucking psycho…

My hand twitches, and my eyes flutter open, staring into the face of a man in a black ski mask illuminated by the moonlight.

“Looks like our guest of honor is finally awake,” he laughs, pressing his boot against my chest.

I glance around and see seven men here with Julian. All of them are fully armed, their faces covered with ski masks.

Terror spikes through my veins, but I don’t have time to panic.

My only chance to survive is to stall them as long as I can until a Harknett finds us.

I force myself to stay calm as my mind flashes back to the cabin where Knox taught me MMA… and even though there’s no way I could fight for more than two minutes, I might still be able to break free.

I think… maybe.

Ah, fuck it!

Here goes nothing.

I take a deep breath, twist my hips, hook my arm around the mercenary’s knee, and buck upward.

It works!

The man loses his balance and crashes sideways.

I immediately scramble out from under him, launching to my feet, but before I can take two steps, three more mercenaries tackle me back down.