Page 135 of Sinful

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Shadow pulls out his phone, snaps pictures of Sebastián's face, the body, the scene.

Evidence. Documentation. Proof that this is over.

Then we move.

The compound is still erupting in gunfire outside.

We fight our way back down, through the main floor, out into the dawn light.

The Raiders of Valhalla have secured the back exit.

Bodies scattered everywhere—Los Coyotes soldiers who tried to run and didn't make it.

Reapers are at the warehouse, smoke already rising.

They're burning the drugs, the money, everything Los Coyotes stored here.

But there are still pockets of resistance. Men who haven't gotten the message that this is over.

Who are fighting anyway because surrender means death and dying fighting is better than dying on your knees.

I respect that even as I shoot them.

A Los Coyotes soldier comes at me with a knife.

We grapple and fall to the ground.

He's younger than me, maybe twenty-five, fighting with the desperation of someone who knows this is his last stand.

I get my knife out and we struggle.

He's strong but I'm fighting for something more than survival.

I'm fighting to get back to Helle.

That makes the difference.

My knife finds his throat and he makes a gurgling sound, eyes going wide, then empty.

I roll off him, breathing hard, covered in his blood.

Shadow appears, pulls me up. "You good?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Living the dream."

It takes another forty minutes to clear the compound completely.

Room by room. Building by building. Making sure no one's hiding, no one's left to retaliate later.

We find more evidence of Los Coyotes operations. Ledgers. Names. Distribution networks.

Phantom takes photos of everything before we burn it.

The bodies pile up.

I lose count after thirty.

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