Page 178 of The ARC Unit: Breach

I ran past the line Bear had cleared anyway and went through the steel door. The rear loading floor opened wide around me, twice the size of the front corridor and cluttered with abandoned pallet racks, old refrigeration equipment and two parked vans. Sunlight cut through broken sections of high glass along the roof, turning dust into pale columns above the concrete.

Kade was already across the room.

“Stop!”

I shouted without knowing what I expected him to do. He looked back and found me immediately as Wolf swore through my headset.

“Viper, cover Mercer. Jackal east. Bear, medical corridor stays yours.”

I realized Wolf just had to move people because of me. Jackal left the southern road he was supposed to hold, and Viper broke from the east route Wolf had given him. I heard both redirects over comms and knew exactly what my decision was costing them, but Kade was still in sight and I kept going.

Viper appeared through a side doorway and crossed behind a stack of pallets to get an angle on me.

“Mercer, back!” Viper shouted.

Kade moved through the rear exit and I followed. Cold air hit my face as I came into the open lot, followed by rotor noise rolling over the warehouse.

A helicopter was descending beyond the east edge of the property, dark against the low sun, its wash already kicking dust and loose debris across an old concrete freight apron. The private fuel window Keller had called about made sense now. The aircraft had been waiting to pull Kade out.

He ran toward it with the black case banging against his leg.

“Stop!” I repeated.

He turned near the freight apron with the MAC-10 low in his right hand as the helicopter dropped behind him. The wind from the blades whipped his hair across his face and jacket while he stared at me a short distance away. Keller was bleeding inside because of him, and I was still running toward him.

Wolf’s voice came through my headset hard enough to cut through the rotors.

“Mercer, back the fuck away from him. Now. That is a direct fucking order!”

Kade’s attention flicked toward the sound in my ear, then back to me.

I took another step.

“Don’t!” Viper yelled from somewhere behind me.

Kade lifted the black case and started toward me. I should have backed up the moment he turned with a gun in his right hand. I knew that, and I stayed where I was. Keller’s blood was still on my hands when Kade stopped close enough that I could see the tension in his jaw.

Then he shoved the case hard into my chest.

I caught it automatically. The weight nearly pulled it out of my hands.

“What the fuck are you doing?” The question came out rough beneath the rotors.

Kade looked at me. A little while ago, we had been standing across from each other at a pool party, and I found myself wondering if he remembered me as clearly as I remembered him. Up close again, he was still unfairly handsome, freckles scattered across the bridge of his nose and a strong jaw softened by green eyes catching gold in the late light.

I tightened both hands around the handle.

Wolf’s boots hit the concrete behind me. Kade stepped backward and I moved after him. Wolf caught the back of my vest and hauled me hard enough that my boots skidded.

“That’s fucking enough!”

His words blasted against my ear. Kade ran and I fought Wolf’s grip on instinct.

“Let me go!”

“No.”

“Look at this!” I shouted, holding the case up.