Warm tears slid down her cheeks. Why was she crying? Porter betrayed her.
Her attention was quickly diverted to the woods at the sound of two more shots popping. Then a loud, crackling sound, followed by a boom. Smoke filled the air in the distance on the south side of the property. A.J.’s bike. No, no, no!
Three more snaps.
Static over her comm.
“A.J.?” she cried out, not giving a damn about his call sign. “You okay? What happened?”
She had no choice but to leave Porter if A.J. was in trouble. She snatched her 9mm and forced her wobbly legs to move, darting in the direction of the fire, doing her best not to stumble and fall in the dark.
“Echo Two, do you copy?” Roman’s voice filled the line. He was breathing hard, running. “Echo Two, do you copy?”
“I have eyes on the bike,” Finn said, his tone fatigued as well. “The bike’s on fire. Ivan must’ve shot the gas tank.”
“Any signs of Echo Two?” Harper interjected.
“I have Anthony,” Chris said over the line a moment later. “What’s the status on Echo Two?”
“I think I have a visual,” Roman announced. “Two bodies are down near the fire.”
“On my way,” Finn yelled.
Please, God. Please, let him be okay. Her shoe hit a small, fallen tree, and she nearly lost her balance from running so fast without much visibility. The fire was the only light guiding her path to him.
“I’m okay, fucking hell, that hurt, though.” A.J.’s words had Ana slowing, her heart shattering into a thousand fragments for a brief moment before piecing back together. “My helmet came off, and I lost my signal for a sec. Motherfucker shot my engine, and I got tossed. But I got him. He’s down.”
“You scared us, Two,” Harper quickly said as Ana remained shocked with relief.
“Echo One . . . Ana, are you okay?” A.J. asked.
“Yes, and I’m almost to you,” she said, her voice hoarse. “Is Ivan alive?”
“Thank God,” A.J. answered, winded. “I’m dragging my ass over to Ivan now to see if he still has a pulse.”
Ana was twenty feet away when she caught sight of movement on the east and west sides, flanking A.J., but her sight was impaired by the dim lighting. “A.J.!” She squinted, catching A.J. on his knees next to Ivan, the fire illuminating his location. They’d need to put out that fire before acres of forest burned down.
“We don’t have much time to get out of here,” Harper quickly announced. “Police and the fire department are on their way. Told them we have an assassin and an FBI agent down.”
“Can someone get back to Porter and pack his wound, so he has a chance at surviving?” Ana asked over comms, and Finn responded by nodding and taking off toward the cabin.
“We got a live one!” A.J. tossed a gloved hand in the air, motioning them to his position.
Ana leaped over a log like she was an Olympic hurdle jumper and ate up the last few feet of space. She dropped to the ground next to A.J. and flung her arms around his neck. “I thought I lost you,” she rasped.
He circled his arms around her and held her tight. “No way.” He pressed a kiss to her temple before releasing her since they were dealing with a time-sensitive issue.
“Ivan.” Ana brought her palms to the hitman’s chest and clutched the vest he was wearing. A bullet had entered through his side from what she could tell based on the blood. Another bullet had struck Ivan’s chest plate, not piercing flesh like it had with Porter since the ammo was from a Glock 19. “Ivan, please, talk to me.”
Ivan groaned, and she pushed the night-vision goggles away from Ivan’s face to see his eyes. “Why were you here? Who is calling the shots?” she asked, confused as to why he killed Porter. “Please, the SVR is secretly footing your bill. You were working for them. But who was the middleman?”
“What?” Ivan choked out, possibly more horrified by that truth than the fact he might die. “No, it cannot be.”
“It’s true. And I’m being set up by the Russians now, the same way they set up your brother before killing him.” Maybe the hitman didn’t have a soul, but he loved his brother. It was her only hope to get him to open up before he died. “What was next in the plan? Why did you kill Porter? Are the sources still alive?” she rattled off her questions, not sure if he