Page 56 of Rusty's Command

Sienna’s breath hitched.

She knows Rusty is alive.

Her heart stuttered as she found Rusty again in the distant shadows. He moved like liquid darkness between the columns, and she only saw him because she knew he was there. But wherewas Soda? She wasn’t at his side. The thought of something happening to his dog sent ice through her veins.

Twin shadows burst onto the stage—Rusty from the left, Soda from the right, moving like two halves of a deadly machine. Their synchronization was flawless, a force of precision and purpose.

Rusty’s shot landed squarely in the forehead of the man guarding the women. Chaos erupted. Screams tore through the air, and as the women scattered for cover, the guard’s lifeless body crumpled to the floor.

“Get down!” Sienna yelled, twisting against the fingers digging trenches into her bicep.

“¡Al suelo! ¡Ahora!” The Colombian woman’s voice cut through the bedlam as she lunged forward, sheltering Pickle against her chest. The other lingerie-clad women hit the floor in a cascade of terror.

Soda struck like lightning, launching at the guard holding Sienna. The impact cracked through the air like thunder as the guard’s spine met hardwood. His screams sliced through the darkness while he wrestled with four-legged fury, then his cries cut off with a sudden finality that made Sienna’s stomach churn.

Sienna was so focused on Rusty’s sprint across the stage toward her that she missed the shadow moving behind her until it was too late. An arm locked around her throat like a steel cable, yanking her back against a body that felt like it was carved from stone.

As she thrashed against her captor, a cry tore from her throat. Cold metal jammed against her temple, and her breath froze in her lungs.

“Don’t move!” Wang’s voice boomed in her ear, pitched high with fury. The arm around her throat constricted until darkness bloomed at the edges of her vision like spilled ink.

Soda growled so deep and savagely that it seemed to vibrate through the floorboards. Her fangs gleamed in the dim light.

“Call off your fucking dog or I’ll blow out her brains!” Wang’s words sprayed spittle against her cheek as he ground the barrel deeper into her temple.

Sienna met Rusty’s gaze across the stage.

As tears pooled in her eyes, Rusty’s military calculation gave way to raw fear.

CHAPTER 19

Rusty

“Let her go, Wang!”Rusty locked the SIG on the bastard, but his eyes skidded from the blue tinge creeping across Sienna’s lips to Wang’s forearm crushing her windpipe to the tremor in the gun barrel pressed against her temple.

He’s fucking losing it!

The silence that followed landed like a physical blow. Only Wang’s ragged breathing cut through it, each harsh exhale sending fresh rage through Rusty’s veins.

Fifteen feet of stage stretched between Rusty and them. It might as well have been a mile. Too far to tackle him, and the angle was wrong to shoot him. Wang’s head danced behind Sienna’s head like a coward, using her body to block Rusty’s kill zone.

“Call off your dog!” Wang’s voice cracked like thin ice as spittle flew from his lips. His eyes were blown wide with the kind of fear that turned men feral. Unpredictable. Deadly.

It was Soda who’d triggered his fear. Men like Wang didn’t fear clean deaths—bullets were business, quick and impersonal.But the prospect of having their throats torn out by razor fangs? That kind of death spoke to something primitive in their lizard brains, reminding them that there were worse ways to die than bullets.

Soda stalked closer, her growl building from somewhere prehistoric. Pride flared through Rusty.

Keep pushing him, girl. Show him what real fear tastes like.

A whimper escaped from the huddle of women on the floor, adding a human layer to the tension-charged air.

Sienna’s eyes fluttered, and her desperate gasps for air shredded what was left of Rusty’s patience. Each shallow breath marked another second she didn’t have.

“Last chance, Wang.” Rusty injected lethal calm into his voice that usually preceded someone’s final moments on earth. But Sienna’s body remained a perfect shield, and Wang knew it. The bastard’s arm constricted tighter, and her choked whimper hit Rusty like a sledgehammer.

Movement exploded in his peripheral vision. A flashlight beam carved wild arcs through the darkness as another bastard darted onto the stage like a demented puppy. The women cried out and huddled backward.

Rusty kept his aim locked on Wang, but his gaze darted between the new threat and the gun pressed against Sienna’s temple.

---