Page 160 of Revenge Saints
“Please,” Aspen whimpers, cradling Knox like he’s already gone. She is broken, desperate, but her hands don’t stop moving.
“He’s still breathing,” I growl. “Knox doesn’t go out like this. Not like this.”
I press harder. My fingers dig into his skin like I can anchor his soul in place.
“He’s fighting,and we’re gonna fight too.”
I push off the ground and grab my gun. This isn’t over.
Ryker steps beside me, his face pale, jaw set.
I turn and hold out my hand to Max. he hesitates just a second, then he grabs it and pulls himself up, planting his feet beside us.
I crouch again, leaning close to Knox’s ear.
“You hear me, Reaper?” I snarl. “You fight, you stubborn fuck. You fight.”
“Look,” Ryker breathes.
Knox’s chest twitches.
A slow, shallow inhale. Then another.
We all freeze.
“He heard you,” Ryker says. “He’s… he’s trying.”
Aspen sobs again, but I see hope in her eyes.
“Keep talking to him,” I tell her, kneeling beside her one last time. I grab her chin, lift her tear-streaked face, and press a kiss to her forehead. “He’ll fight for you. You’re the only thing that can keep him here.”
“I’ve got him,” she whispers, arms tightening around him.
“Anyone shows their face here, shoot to kill,” Ryker growls, pressing a spare gun into her hand.
She doesn’t even nod.
She just turns, shifts, and becomes a soldier. She’s a fucking BloodHawk.
One knee bent, gun raised, back against the river. Knox’s blood on her thighs, his head in her lap.
She’s ready.
We sprint toward the base, boots pounding through blood and brush. We don’t speak. We don’t breathe.
Because this isn’t about revenge anymore, it’s not even about the base; it’s about bringing him home, because if Knox dies tonight? So do we.
We reach the base fast.
Few men outside. Scattered. Rushed. Sloppy.
Almost half the number I saw last time.
Let them panic.
“Sean’s usually on the bottom floor,” I whisper. “We need him alive.”
“And we kill Roman,” Ryker says flatly.
