“Don’t you dare bench me—”
“I’m not. Just buy me ten seconds.”
She narrowed her eyes, then popped up and laid down fire like ten seconds was her favorite currency.
I sprinted, hit the water’s edge, and slid into the lake. Cold swallowed me whole. The world muted, bullets fizzing above the surface like angry hornets. I came up chest-deep, rifle braced, and opened fire across the line of men fanning out.
They staggered, shouting, scrambling for cover that didn’t exist. Jason’s voice came cool over comms: “Nice distraction. Adjusting—”
Then Lane’s shot rang out, clean and final. One of North’s lieutenants dropped, red blossoming across his chest.
Zoe was suddenly at my side in the water, soaked, eyes blazing. “Next time you go swimming without me, I’m tasing you.”
I almost laughed. Almost. But North was moving.
He lifted a hand, calm, and the surviving men fell back toward the vans. Retreating, not panicked—disciplined. His eyes met mine across the dark stretch of the lake. Cold. Assessing.
And then he smiled.
Something beeped. A sharp, rapid warning from the vans.
“Back!” I roared, shoving Zoe toward shore. “They’re wired—”
The first van erupted in a fireball, heat searing across the water, shockwave knocking me to my knees. The second went a heartbeat later, a chain of flame ripping the night wide open.
Lane’s voice cracked over comms. “Forest! Zoe!”
“We’re good,” I coughed, hauling Zoe against me as smoke boiled up. “We’re—”
But when I looked across the lake again, North was gone. Just rippling shadows and the hiss of burning metal.
Zoe spat lake water, hair plastered to her face. “Tell me we at least singed his fancy suit.”
“Not even close,” I said, scanning the treeline. My gut twisted cold. “He wanted us here. He wanted us to watch.”
Jason’s voice came in, grim. “Then what’s he really after?”
I didn’t answer. Because deep down, I knew. North hadn’t just been running guns or testing us.
He’d just declared war.
And Zoe Brewer was at the center of it.
15
Zoe
The flames at Mirror Lake hissed like they were mocking us, reflections dancing on the water as deputies scrambled down the ridge. Sirens wailed somewhere far behind, carried thin by the wind. Smoke stung my nose, bitter with burned metal and rubber.
Lane was already on the scene, boots hitting the dirt like thunder. She tore off her headset and went straight for me, eyes blazing.
“Are youout of your mind?” she snapped, grabbing my arm and yanking me around like we were twelve again. “You came up here chasing a ghost, and now I’ve got burned-out vans, half a dozen suspects trussed in nets, and a lakefront crime scene that looks like a war zone! There are at least four dead men.”
I winced. “Technically, the nets were our idea. You should thank me.”
Lane’s eyes narrowed. “Thank you? Zoe, I amthis closeto cuffing you myself.”
Jason appeared behind her, calm as always, one hand brushing her back in silent support. His gaze flicked from meto Forest, assessing, sharp. He bent and kissed my cheek. “She’s alive,” he said evenly. “That counts for something.”
