Page 80 of Crossover

His gaze, steely and resolute, had an air of authority and certainty.

With gentle pressure, his palm found my stomach, guiding me back against the tree trunk. The rough bark pressed into my shoulders, and we stood there, breaths mingling in the fog.

He placed a finger over his lips and whispered, “Stay here. Do not move.”

But the assailant…the fog was hiding him, his footsteps fast yet methodical, becoming a metronome of peril.

“I can fight,” I whispered.

Grayson’s jaw tensed, and he shot me a hardened look of offense. He’d never let me put myself in danger for him.Evidently, risking your life for each other was only a one-way road in his world.

Almost as an afterthought, he held up his gun and shook his head—a silent warning that the guy would shoot me long before I’d ever have the chance to use my fighting skills.

But I could not let Grayson go out there alone. Maybe I could come up behind the guy. I wasn’t helpless or useless, and yet Grayson pointed to the ground, silently ordering me to lay down.

I hesitated for several seconds in a life-or-death standoff, but after another twig snapped, I realized he was right; in a gunfight, I was more of a liability than an asset. If that guy got a pistol to my head, Grayson would lay down his weapon and die for my failure. So, I draped the cold ground with my body.

Grayson melted into the fog, his silhouette fading until nothing remained but wisps of gray, and all I could do was pray that he would come back to me alive.

45

GRAYSON

My left arm burned. This asshole was going to pay with his life, but not for shooting me—for taking a shot at Ivy. That bullet might as well have been inscribed with his name, and that tree trunk it hit might as well supply the wood for his coffin.

With the element of surprise no longer on his side, I listened intently as his heavy footsteps grew more distant. He was fleeing like a coward, and I had become the hunter, stalking my prey.

Never before had my gun felt so important in my hand as I moved through the trees with resolve. The fog’s tendrils clung to my skin as I navigated the terrain with a steely calm until, finally, a dark silhouette emerged in the haze.

The man ducked beneath a low branch, but I raised my weapon, aimed at his unprotected leg, and fired.

The gunshot rang through the forest, and a handful of remaining birds squawked and took flight as the man jerked and crumpled to the earth’s floor.

Before he could even roll onto his back and lift his weapon, I lunged forward and slammed the base of my gun against his skull, wrestling his weapon from his grasp. Shoving his gun into the back of my waistband, I pressed the cold barrel of my own weapon between his eyes.

“How many men?” I demanded.

The man gritted his teeth. Ex-military maybe.

“You’re alone,” I deduced.

A lone operative? Or a scout with another carload of agents on their way?

“Are there others coming?” I pressed.

“Fuck off,” he spat.

I cocked my head. “Are you really willing to die for him?”

“You’re going to kill me, no matter what I do.”

True. No one would ever live after threatening Ivy’s life. Hell, this guy was lucky I didn’t have tools on me to skin him alive for shooting at her.

“Answer my questions, and I’ll make your death quick and painless. But if you don’t…”

The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, a flicker of doubt crossing his features. He seemed to weigh his options, perhaps questioning the depths of his loyalty to Daniel and wondering,Would Daniel be willing to endure such torment for him?

“I’m a tracker,” he said through gritted teeth. “My job was to find you.”

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