2026-02-15 23:06:39
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CHAPTER 693
"We found you," Ivy said simply, tilting her head. "You and your friend were passed out in the woods, looking more like corpses than men. We couldn't just leave you to be reclaimed by the dirt, so we brought you both here."Tedmond went still. As the heir to the Washington fortune, he was used to lies, half-truths, and people weighing the cost of their words. But Ivy didn't blink."Why?" he asked, his voice hardening with suspicion. "Why would you help us? You saw the gear... the guns. People who carry those into the Black Ridge aren't the type you bring into your home."Ivy’s brow furrowed, a genuine frown marring her face. "Why wouldn't I help an injured person?" she countered, sounding almost offended. "Is that how the world works where you come from? You see someone bleeding out, and you check their ID first?"She stepped closer, looking down at him. "Tell me, if you were in my place and you found two dying men in your backyard, would you have just walked away?""I would have a
CHAPTER 692
"Nnngh..."The sound was raw, vibrating deep in Tedmond’s throat before he even realized he was conscious. His first sensation wasn't sight, but a throbbing, rhythmic pressure behind his eyes, a sledgehammer hitting an anvil with every heartbeat.He groaned again, the sound cracking in the stillness. Tedmond forced his eyelids open. The world was a blur of aggressive clinical white and soft gold. He blinked rapidly, his vision swimming.Where... where am I?Memory hit him like a physical blow: the engine’s scream, the violent tilt of the cabin, the stench of jet fuel, and the terrifying sight of the ground rushing up to meet them."Lottie... Marek..." he rasped, his voice like sandpaper.Desperation fueled a surge of adrenaline. Tedmond gripped the edge of a silk-covered mattress and heaved himself upward. He managed to sit up, but the world performed a sickening 360-degree spin. He squeezed his eyes shut and reached up to his head; his fingers met a thick layer of medical bandag
CHAPTER 691
The mechanical whine of Syndicate drones finally drifted away from the wreckage, allowing a heavy, suffocating silence to reclaim the clearing where the red flare had burned.Five men emerged from the tree line, tactical boots crunching over scorched pine needles. Leading them was a man who stood out; he wore no helmet, and a shock of messy, wind-blown white hair topped a face that was a roadmap of violence. Several wide, jagged scars, the work of a serrated knife, divided his skin.He knelt where the flare had landed, sharp eyes scanning the dirt."Thermal’s clear, sir," one man reported, sweeping his rifle across the rocky outcropping. "But the ash is fresh."The white-haired man didn't answer. He followed a dark, glistening smear on a nearby stone, touching it with a gloved finger before looking toward the sloping terrain."Blood," he rasped. "Lots of it."The team followed the trail. It wasn't a clean path; the blood was smeared in wide, frantic streaks, as if someone had been
CHAPTER 690
"Since you decided to fall out of a plane and lose your common sense," she whispered back, leaning her forehead against his for a brief, quiet moment of comfort.They sat in the dark for a few minutes, leaning on each other, two battered survivors stealing a breath while the rest of the world hunted them.Hugo pulled a small roll of medical gauze from his pocket, his last remaining supply, and began wrapping Molly’s leg as best he could in the shadows."It’s going to hurt," he warned."I told you," she said, smiling weakly and gripping his shoulder. "I’m used to it."After dodging the Syndicate patrol, Hugo and Molly had retreated deeper into the shadows of a rocky overhang. The forest hung heavy and silent, broken only by the distant, haunting crackle of the burning plane.Hugo worked quickly, breath coming in ragged hitches as he bound his ribs with strips of cloth torn from his undershirt. Every movement felt like a hot blade pressed into his side. He focused, brow furrowed, fing
CHAPTER 689
Molly looked down at her shoulder as if seeing it for the first time. She gave a small, weary shrug, her eyes softening as they met his."I'm used to it, Hugo," she said quietly, her voice small in the vast, dark woods. "It… it does hurt. But not as much as seeing you wake up. That hurt a lot more, thinking you were gone."A lump formed in Hugo’s throat. He reached out, gently taking her hand and squeezing it, despite the raw ache in his own fingers."You're too tough for your own good, you know that?" he murmured."One of us has to be," she whispered, leaning her head against his shoulder for a fleeting moment.The fragile calm shattered with a low, distant sound.THOOM.Both of them looked up. Through the thick branches to the west, a brilliant streak of bleeding red tore through the sky, exploding into a crimson star that stained the fog pink."A flare," Hugo whispered, jaw tightening. "That's Lottie's signature. She's alive.""But if we can see it," Molly said, voice trembling as
CHAPTER 688
Looking around, she tried to remember where she was.She had seen this area before, at least from the air, but she had no idea where she had actually landed, how far the wind had carried her, or how far the nearest edge of civilization might be.The survivalist in her, the part she had trained to be cold and efficient, screamed at her to move.The Syndicate would have trackers on the ground within minutes.If she stayed, she was dead.If she moved, she might find Tedmond. But her heart felt anchored to the spot.How could she leave Clara here like discarded luggage?The thought of Syndicate finders, or worse, forest scavengers reaching her firs,t sent a different kind of pain through Lottie’s chest.“I can’t leave you,” Lottie groaned, trying to slide her arms beneath Clara’s shoulders.The moment she shifted the weight, a scream of protest tore from her hip.Her legs buckled.She collapsed back into the mud, gasping for air. She was too weak.Carrying a body through miles of jagged f
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