Page 57 of Rusty's Command

Soda bared her fangs in a deadly promise and remained granite-still at Wang’s flank.

Two threats! And no kill shot on Wang.

The new guy’s hands trembled so violently his flashlight beam painted frenzied streaks across the floor. He could have dropped Rusty with a bullet in the back before revealing himself, but he didn’t. Why did he hesitate? Fear? Maybe hoping to negotiate. Whatever the reason, he’d sacrificed his best chanceto kill Rusty the moment he showed himself. Rusty filed that tactical error into his raging thoughts.

“Kill him!” Wang’s desperate command ricocheted off the walls like a stray bullet.

The flashlight beam flicked across the stage again, and Rusty caught details that shifted the level of the new threat entirely. The second gunman wasn’t a man at all—just a kid, barely out of his teens. Raw terror carved deep lines into features that were too young for this kind of violence.

Rusty had seen that same look countless times in Colombia—young men drowning in deep shit, where the only exit was in a body bag. If they were lucky.

“Just put the gun down,” Rusty said to the kid. He kept his voice steady, using the same tone he reserved for training frightened dogs.

“Kill him!” Wang’s command splintered with desperation, but the kid’s weapon shook even harder, broadcasting his fear like a beacon.

“Don’t do it.” Rusty recognized the telltale signs of fight-or-flight tensing the boy’s muscles. “You’ve got one chance to walk away from this. One. Lower your weapon.”

“He’ll kill me if I don’t—” The kid’s voice cracked, raw and terrified. His gaze scooted between Wang and the dead guy sprawled across the floor with the bullet wound in his forehead.

“Tommy! Kill that bastard!” Wang’s command turned shrill. “And kill that fucking dog!”

“Wang won’t hurt you anymore.” Rusty slid authority back into his words, figuring this kid needed direction. “I guarantee that. But if you don’t drop that weapon right now, you won’t live to see sunrise.”

Sienna’s eyes locked with Rusty’s, and desperate intelligence blazed through her oxygen-deprived fog. Her legs buckled as Wang’s arm constricted like a steel trap.

She’s only got seconds before she blacks out.

The kid’s loyalty to Wang was the only thing holding this bullshit together.

Rusty’s trigger finger tingled. Everything was about to explode, and very, very fast.

“Wang!” Rusty’s voice carried the weight of every kill shot he’d ever made. “Release your grip, and I’ll heel the dog,” he lied.

The moment Wang’s arm loosened, Soda would tear his throat out.

“Bullshit!” Wang’s laugh cracked with hysteria. His eyes darted between his dead guard and Soda’s blood-streaked muzzle. “I saw what your dog did.” He dragged Sienna backward, constricting his arm around her throat even more.

Soda’s claws clicked against the wooden floor as she inched toward him like a predator heading in for the kill. Her muscles bunched under her fur.

“Back!” Wang’s voice cracked as he yanked Sienna higher, her toes barely scraping the floor. “I saidback!”

The gun at her temple trembled harder.

Through the madness, Sienna’s eyes flashed in the wild dance of the kid’s flashlight beam.

She gave a deliberate wink.

The message hit him like a lightning strike.I’m ready.

“Soda, take!” The command exploded from Rusty’s throat.

Sienna dropped like a rag doll. Wang’s grip slipped, his gun hand jerked skyward as Soda launched for his jugular.

The clean shot Rusty had prayed for materialized like divine intervention.

He squeezed the trigger before Wang’s scream could fully form and the gunshot shattered the air like thunder. Wang’s head snapped back in a spray of blood, and he flew backward, hitting the stage with the finality of a cadaver.

The kid’s weapon and flashlight clattered to the wood, and he bolted away, shrieking like a terrified animal.

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