Men ran toward them from the woods, surrounding the plane. So that’s where his men had been—pulled back, waiting for this moment. As one, they went to their knees and began firing.
Ella dodged, zigzagging her steps and knowing sheer luck prevented a bullet from finding her body. She kept her eyes on her target, that depression where her teammates were, and noticed a woman in between them cowering, her body shivering. Ella reached the depression and went to her knees beside the woman, unzipping her blue coveralls, pulling the material down, and unstrapping her bulletproof vest.
“Is she hurt?” she asked Rook.
“No,” he answered and settled down to reload his weapon. Both he and Knight were firing, but Ella couldn’t tell if they were even making a dent in the wall of men surrounding the plane. Chase dove into the slight depression and asked for a sitrep.
“FUBAR,” Knight replied.
Chase nodded, wedged into position, and began firing.
“Here,” Ella told Anna Beth Caine.
The woman glanced at her, eyes blank, as if there was absolutely nothing going on upstairs. “Anna Beth,” Ella said firmly. “Look at me. I told you I’d come for you, right? Here I am. Put this on.”
Her tone must have gotten through to the woman, because her gaze cleared and she reached for the vest. Ella strapped her in it. “Stay down,” she ordered.
Ella wiggled out of the cumbersome coveralls while searching for Jude. From the opposite side of the airfield, a car pulled up and Abrafo Nadege exited. Gunfire continued to pepper the air around them.
“Son of a bitch,” Chase whispered. “I kinda feel like we brought a knife to a gunfight.”
“Been in worse places,” Knight warned. “Remember Syria last year?”
“Been trying to forget,” Chase replied with a grin.
“Where’s Dresden?” Rook questioned.
“Vivi, I need eyes,” King demanded.
“I’m searching,” Vivi responded in their ears.
Ella lifted her rifle, hunting for Jude and Brody but not finding them.
In the distance, the sound of helicopter blades splitting the winter air bounced off the low-hanging clouds.
“Who is that?” King demanded. “Vivi, who’s in the chopper?”
“On it, Your Highness,” she replied, her voice more harried than Ella had ever heard it.
The helicopter swung down from the clouds, flying low over the trees and raining hellfire on Dresden’s line of men. Nadege ducked behind the car and dropped to the ground. Ella pushed Anna Beth down and began firing.
“No clue who’s in the chopper, Your Highness, but they’re cutting Dresden’s men down,” Vivi reported.
“Let’s move,” King ordered.
As one, they stood and—still firing—began moving forward in the same zigzag pattern Ella had used. Knight grabbed Anna Beth Caine and put her hand on his waist. “Run with me,” he commanded her. The woman nodded and immediately did as he’d ordered. She was holding her own, considering moments ago she’d been Dresden’s prisoner.
He hadn’t broken her, which gave Ella hope for the woman.
Ella fired, and when her rifle ran out of bullets, she pulled her handguns from their holsters and used them. From the air, the helicopter continued to fire, and still there was no Jude or Brody.
King, Rook, and Chase were now engaging men hand to hand. A couple of Dresden’s men were running for the woods, while others fell under the barrage of machine-gun fire from the helicopter. They simply didn’t have a place to hide from the chopper.
The wind whipped Ella’s hair as she ducked and spun under a roundhouse punch from one of Dresden’s goons. She pulled her KA-BAR from its sheath at her boot and came up punching the blade into the man’s chest. He fell, a look of stunned disbelief his final act.
She turned and took a fist to the shoulder before she could duck. She stumbled and shook out her arm before she grabbed her final knife from its scabbard, flipped it, and tossed it directly into the man’s throat.
“Ella, move!”
Jude’s voice. She turned and started to run, but an arm snuck around her throat and hauled her back against a hard body.
“Did you really think I’d let you go, Banning?”
Dresden.
Her heart stopped, then kicked into overdrive. She went deadweight, hoping to catch him off guard, but he laughed and clamped down on her throat harder.
“Take the shot,” she heard King call over the comm units.
“No!” Jude protested.
“Take the shot, Brody,” King ordered.
Dresden lowered his head, tucking his chin between her neck and shoulder and pressing down until he knew no one had a shot without going through Ella’s head first. “Tell them to stand down,” he whispered in her ear.
All around her, action ceased. The helicopter hovered and turned right, disappearing back over the trees.
Ella couldn’t breathe, spots swimming in front of her eyes. But in between the spots was Jude, walking toward them, rifle held at the ready, face promising death.
“Stop, Keeper,” Dresden called out when Jude was about fifteen feet away. The pressure on her throat eased, but a gun pressed into her temple now. “I don’t want to kill her, you know?”
“Let her go, Dresden,” Jude said, his voice low and cajoling. He wouldn’t meet her gaze. He knew. He knew damn well this was it for Ella.
“I don’t want to kill her, Keeper,” Dresden said as he began moving backward, pulling Ella with him. “But I will.”
The plane was only yards away. If he got her on it, she was dead.
“Take the shot, Brody,” Ella said softly.
“Shut your mouth, Banning,” Dresden demanded, and though his words were spoken softly, they were loud in Ella’s ears.
“Don’t,” Jude pleaded. His voice was still low, but it was filled with fear now.
One of them wasn’t making it home today. Ella accepted that and determined it would be her. She’d known this was her probable outcome, and she’d signed on anyway because keeping Jude alive was everything to her.
“Take the goddamn shot, Brody,” she said easily, almost conversationally.
“There is no shot. Stand down, Brody,” King ordered.
Behind Jude, her teammates stood, weapons raised, all aimed at Horace Dresden. She saw Chase,
