Chapter 12 · Point Blank

"Put the gun down, Kane."

Kane's pistol stayed pressed beneath the enforcer's chin.

The man wore a black Apex shell suit, a silver corporate badge, and the kind of calm that only came from knowing someone else would clean up your mess. His rifle lay on the clinic floor beside two dead drones. Kane had one knee on his chest and a pistol against his jaw.

I had my own weapon aimed at Kane's ribs.

"You first," Kane said.

"Cute. You're outnumbered."

His eyes cut toward me. Cold. Sharp. Too focused for a man with blood running down one side of his face.

"You're shaking," he said.

"Your gun is in my line of fire. That's not shaking. That's aiming."

"Vera."

"Say my name again and I'll make this a three-body problem."

The enforcer gave a low laugh. "Still entertaining the asset, Cross?"

Kane's thumb pulled the hammer back.

"Call her an asset again," he said, "and I'll remove the rest of your teeth."

"You can't kill me."

"I can."

"Not if you want back into Apex."

The clinic seemed to shrink around us.