Isla stood still, head tilted slightly as if listening for movement from inside the bunker. The clearing remained dead quiet.
Avery’s grip tightened on her gun. “Come on,” she whispered under her breath.
Isla knocked again. Three sharp, deliberate raps that cracked through the downpour.
This time, there was movement. But not from the bunker.
A branch snapped off to the right. Jackson turned first, weapon swinging toward the sound. Avery followed, pulse spiking, Noah just a heartbeat behind her.
A figure stepped out from behind the trees, his hands raised high in the dim light.
“Don’t shoot,” he whispered hoarsely. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
Darian.
Even through the rain, Avery could see the gauntness in his face, the dirt streaked across his jaw, the wildness in his eyes.
“Jesus,” Jackson muttered, his gun leveled squarely at him.
Darian took a cautious step closer. “Please. I just…there’s something you need to know.”
“Stay right where you are,” Noah snapped, his voice low but sharp. “Hands up. Don’t move.”
Avery kept her sights trained on him, her finger just brushing the trigger. She didn’t believe for a second that he’d come alone.
Every instinct screamedtrap.
Darian looked half-crazed, soaked through and shivering, but there was calculation behind his eyes, a flicker of something dangerous.
“Listen to me,” he said, his voice shaking. “You don’t understand what’s happening. The Brotherhood—”
“Save it,” Jackson cut in. “You show up here now, when we’re about to breach the bunker? You expect us to believe you’re just here to talk?”
“I’m not lying,” Darian hissed, his voice rising slightly before he caught himself. “You think I want to die out here? They’re not following orders anymore. It’s chaos in there—”
“Drop it,” Noah barked. “Hands where I can see them.”
Darian froze, his breath coming fast. The rain had soaked through his jacket, plastering it to his frame. His eyes darted toward the bunker, then back to them.
Avery’s pulse didn’t slow. If he’d come out of the trees, it meant he knew where they were hiding, and that meant someone else could, too.
She scanned the shadows, sweeping her gaze through the dripping undergrowth. Her gut twisted.
Darian could be a distraction.
Hewasa distraction.
Every second they spent on him was one more second for someone else to reposition, to aim, to fire.
Rain whispered through the trees, the sound deceptively soft against the pulse pounding in Avery’s ears.
Isla stood at the concrete slab, motionless but for the small turn of her head, just enough for Avery to see the quick flash of her eyes when she spotted Darian in the shadows.
Noah lifted two fingers, a sharp signal for her to stay put. Isla gave the slightest nod and turned back to the slab. Her hand rose, steady despite the tension cutting through the air, and she knocked again.
Three dull thuds.
The sound rolled across the clearing like a heartbeat, then faded into the hiss of rain.