Page 3 of Raven's Claw
“I won’t just send a squad.I’ll come for you, myself.Because you didn’t just betray the program — you betrayed me.And I can’t let that go unanswered.”
She straightened, pushing down the hurt and the pain.The absolute emptiness gathering in the pit of her stomach as she drew herself up.“Then, I guess this isn’t goodbye.”
A pause, as if he was still processing all the words.Coming to terms with the fact she’d defied him.Again.“Ember…”
“I’m the one giving the orders now.So, watch your back.I intend to stick a knife in it.”
She tossed the earpiece on the ground, crushed it beneath her boot then struck off.There was a questionable diner not too far down the old state highway.She could hitch a ride.Regroup.Head west.Gather the intel.
One more target.
One last mission.
And she’d live by Rook’s decree.She’d either burn him and Scythe to the ground or die trying.
ChapterOne
“Seriously, Sinclair?I can’t let you go down there.It’s a one-way trip.”
Kash Sinclair glanced at Raven Watch’s newest recruit — Tucker Grant.Ex-Army medic, and the man Kash was trying hard not to throttle.The guy had been twitchy all day, stopping randomly to scour the tree line.Staring at the forest as if he expected something or someone to come barreling out.What Kash and his buddy Zain had done a thousand times in the field when they’d been hiking through hostile territory with roving bands of mercenaries on their asses.
Kash had brushed it off.New job.New crew.Extreme weather hampering their every move.Until Tucker had flat out yelled someone’s name.Brook.Or Cook.Acting as if he knew some deep dark secret Kash wasn’t privy to.He’d finally decided to send his canine partner, Nyx, to scout the perimeter — just in case — when they’d stumbled upon five missing kids.Miles off the search grid.Little hope of a chopper reaching them before it all went sideways,
Not that Tucker’s assessment of the situation was wrong.The cliff was sheer and slick, with water pissing out of cracks and fissures.The narrow ledge where the boys were huddled was nothing more than a postage stamp — the adjoining trail now a heap of rocks at the edge of the surf.
Kash held the man’s gaze.“Easy, buddy.We’ve got this.All I need you to do is hold down the fort and pull those kids over once I’ve got them tied on the rope so we can get them safely home.”
Tucker looked at the crumbling ledge, a shiver working through him.“I want that, too, I’m not a monster.But you know as well as I do, we don’t trade lives.No matter how much we want to.”He shook his head, water spraying off the ends of his hair.“I can’t do another Kabul.I just can’t.”
He’d been in Afghanistan?
Kash gave the man a light pat on the back.“I hear ya.But the chopper’s a good thirty minutes out, and I don’t think that ledge is gonna hold that long.”
“Neither do I, but what the hell am I gonna tell your team if I can’t get you back?”He leaned in.“Isn’t there someone you want to live for?Someone special?”
Kash coughed.It killed him that the answer was no because he wanted one.Had the perfect girl in mind.One that haunted his dreams even when he wasn’t sleeping.Jordan Archer — sweet on the surface, sharp underneath.Like she’d survived something no one else could see.He’d been manufacturing reasons to see her for the past few months — had drank more designer coffee from the trendy little café where she worked than he could stomach.He’d intended on asking her out to dinner a hundred times over, but she’d always had that look.As if she saw shadows in the forest, too.And he’d been too chicken to push.
He gathered his supplies, throwing the answer over his shoulder.“Not.Yet.”
“Kash…”
“I get it.We’re out here alone.There’s a freaking cyclone bearing down on us.My buddy likely won’t reach us in time.And if I thought there was another way — an option I could live with — that wouldn’t make me want to punch my fist through the mirror every time I gazed at my own damn reflection, I’d take it.But there isn’t.And I can’t just stand here and watch them fall into the fucking ocean.”
Kash looked at the ledge, the kids, the bloody chasm between them and success then grabbed Tucker by the shoulders.“So, I need you to pull it together and help me save these kids, because I can’t do this without you, and I’d rather not die today.”
Tucker pursed his lips, looking as if he was working through some complicated theorem before giving Kash a curt nod.“I’ve got your back.”
Kash slapped him on the shoulder.“Hooyah.”
Tucker rolled his eyes, anchoring the rope then giving Kash the thumb’s up.“Before you go, what’s her name?”
Kash looked back.“Who’s name?”
“Your not-yet?”
He chuckled.“Jordan.”
Tucker’s left eye twitched, a hint of a smug smile curving one corner of his mouth before it faded.“The waitress at the diner downtown?”
