Chapter 28 · Fortress Standoff

The red laser crawled over the windshield and locked dead center on my chest.

"Nobody move," I said.

Julian’s knuckles were already white on the door latch. "They’re not gonna fire."

"That’s five barrels pointed straight at the engine block, Julian. You really wanna bet our lives on that?"

"Six," Eli whispered from the back seat.

I checked the rearview. My six-year-old son had his chin up, little fingers locked hard into his twin sister’s. That dangerous gold flare was burning at the base of his irises again—like a match caught in a draft. Maya had her jaw set tight, small fist twisted into his sleeve, lips silently counting every muzzle. Both of them calculating kill shots before grade school.

God help me. I taught them that.

The gate speaker tore open with static. "Kill the ignition. Hands where the towers can see them. You're on Ironcrest soil now, and your border immunity died at the tree line."

Julian’s frame shifted. The slow, lethal roll of his shoulders. That tilt of his chin right before he ripped someone's throat out.

"Dorn," he muttered.

"Who’s Dorn?"

"Watch lieutenant. Garrett’s blood cousin on his mother's side." Julian twisted the key.