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The iron gates of the Mercer estate did not open easily for anyone, let alone a ghost in a faded gray coat. When Prescott led her across the cobblestone courtyard, she didn’t look like an assassin, a spy, or a desperate beggar. She looked like a woman who had already died once and forgot to lie down. / Chapter 14 / 20

Chapter 14 - Breaking the GridThe concrete tunnels exploded into a deafening symphony of gunfire and flashing muzzle-flash strobes as three automated tactical drone units rounded the corner, their twin barrel submachine guns chewing up the concrete walls in a hail of lead.

"Get down!" I roared, grabbing Marcus by the tactical vest and pulling him behind a thick concrete support pillar as a wall of bullets chewed up the space we had occupied a second earlier.

"We're pinned!" Marcus yelled over the deafening roar of automatic fire. "They've got us boxed in from both ends of the subterranean access corridor!"

Elena didn't hesitate. She pulled the pin on the modified EMP-device she had been holding, cooked it for precisely two seconds, and hurled it down the corridor toward the advancing drone units.

The grenade bounced twice against the wet concrete, sliding directly beneath the lead crawler unit.

BOOM.

A blinding blue flash of electromagnetic discharge washed down the tunnel like a tidal wave. The high-pitched whine of the drones instantly cut out in a shower of sparks and smoking circuitry, their weapon systems locking up mid-firing cycle as they crashed heavily onto the floor.

"Move, move, move!" Elena ordered, sprinting out from behind the desk toward a secondary service ladder leading upward into the shadows.

We didn't hesitate. Marcus and I laid down suppressing fire toward the rear tunnel junction to discourage any human reinforcements before scrambling after her up the vertical steel rungs of the ladder.

We burst through a heavy iron manhole cover hidden behind an overgrown maintenance shed on the edge of the central station's rail yard. The cold Detroit rain was coming down harder now, washing away the soot and blood as we scrambled into the waiting cover of our tactical SUVs.

"Status!" I barked, slamming the heavy armored door shut as Marcus gunned the engine, spinning tires across the gravel lot.

"Rear guard took some shrapnel, but everyone’s mobile," Marcus reported, gripping the steering wheel as we tore out of the facility onto the highway heading west toward Ann Arbor. "Boss, if Sterling was waiting for us in Detroit, he knows we're coming for his estate. That compound is going to be locked down tighter than a military base."

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The rain tapped a frantic rhythm against the glass of Marissa’s cramped, dimly lit kitchen, but the storm outside was nothing compared to the tempest raging inside Adrian Whitmore’s mind. Standing just beyond the rotting wooden doorframe of her apartment, hidden by the heavy shadows of the crumbling stairwell, the millionaire tried to steady his breathing. His expensive wool coat was soaked through, but he didn’t care. His eyes were entirely fixed on the scene unfolding a few feet away.

The rain tapped a frantic rhythm against the glass of Marissa’s cramped,...

My hand froze inches from the cold steel of the Sig Sauer P226. Beneath the amber glow of the bedside lamp, the source of the warmth against my side wasn't an assassin, an operative from a rival syndicate, or a traitorous lieutenant.

My hand froze inches from the cold steel of the Sig Sauer P226. Beneath...

The silence in the master bedroom stretched so tight I could hear the slow, heavy drip of my own pulse in my ears. Dominic Rossi’s dark eyes locked onto mine, burning with a feverish intensity that should have sent me running back down the hallway and out into the rain

The silence in the master bedroom stretched so tight I could hear the sl...

I looked across the cabin at Elena, who was calmly reloading her submachine gun magazine in the passenger seat, her face illuminated by the flickering dashboard lights.

"Which is exactly why we aren't going in through the front gates," Elena said without looking up. "Sterling thinks he’s hunting us. Let’s show him what happens when the wolf turns the tables on the hunter."

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