Page 38 of Carter
“I won’t let them touch you again,” I said finally, my voice raw. “But you’re right. This isn’t just mine to carry anymore. You deserve to know what we’re walking into.”
Her breath caught, and for the first time since the warehouse, I saw something in her gaze that made me believe maybe—just maybe—she wasn’t just surviving anymore. She was ready to stand with me.
And that terrified me more than any gunfire.
52
Harper
Carter’s words sank into me—you deserve to know what we’re walking into.
For days, he’d carried this weight like it was his cross alone. But tonight, I saw the crack in his armor, the part of him that finally let me in. It should have scared me, but instead it steadied me. Because if I were in this storm, no matter what, I wanted to be in it with him.
“I don’t need every detail sugar-coated,” I whispered, threading my fingers through his. “I just need the truth. And I need you to trust that I’m stronger than I look.”
His eyes darkened, conflict swirling in their depths. But he didn’t pull away. He held my hand tighter, thumb tracing the back like a silent apology.
Before he could answer, the door opened and River and Gideon stepped back inside. The hum of electronics filled the silence, but their faces told me everything. Whatever they’d found, it wasn’t good.
River dropped into the chair at the table, sliding the phone across the wood like it weighed a hundred pounds. “We cracked it.”
Gideon leaned forward, his voice flat. “The messages weren’t just about moving leverage. They were assignments. Contracts.” His eyes flicked to me, sharp but not cruel. “Harper, your name isn’t just on a list. It’s on the top.”
The room tilted, my stomach dropping. “Contracts?” I managed.
River nodded grimly. “Hired guns. Not just one crew. Multiple. Which means no matter how many we drop, someone else will come.”
My hand clenched tighter around Carter’s, and I felt the way his body went taut, like a live wire about to snap.
“So what do we do?” I asked, my voice steadier than I felt.
River’s gaze flicked to Carter, then back to me. “We hunt the one holding the leash. Cut him off, and the contracts lose their teeth.”
The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the sound of Carter’s breath rough in my ear. He turned his head toward me, his lips brushing my temple, and spoke low enough that only I heard.
“This ends now. I swear it.”
And for the first time since the nightmare began, I felt not just like a target, but like part of the fight.
53
Carter
Her name. At the top of the damn list.
The words burned through me like acid, searing hotter than the gunfire in that stairwell, hotter than any battlefield I’d ever crawled through.
River laid out the intel across the table, his voice steady. “The orders came from one source. Codename Luthor. He’s pulling the strings, financing the contracts. We cut him out, the network collapses.”
“Where do we find him?” I growled, already leaning forward.
“Encrypted routes point to an old shipping yard outside the city,” Gideon said, tapping the screen. “Remote. Secure. He’ll think it’s untouchable.”
Perfect. Let him think that.
I forced my shoulders to ease, but it was like holding back a storm with bare hands. Because all I could see was Harper’s face when she heard those words.Contracts. Your name is on the top.She hadn’t crumbled. She’d looked me in the eye and asked what we were going to do.
Damn woman was braver than she knew.
