“I’ve got your six.” Tox held out his hand.
Finn set Charlotte next to him, took his brother’s hand, and stood. Charlotte scrambled to her feet. “I’m going with you.”
Finn started to protest, then looked at Tox, who gave him a brief nod.
“Let’s go.” Finn took off at a run with Charlotte on his heels.
At the top of the hill, Finn spoke into the comm. “Talk to me, Herc. Any visual on Samir?”
“Negative, but he was heading northeast, and he wasn’t quiet about it. Didn’t seem like he knew where he was going.”
“Copy that,” Finn said without breaking stride.
Twenty minutes later, he and Charlotte came to a drop-off. Finn stepped forward and looked over the edge. “Well, unless he fell off the cliff, he changed direction. Probably headed—” Finn turned to see Samir. He held Charlotte around the waist and had a gun to her head. Finn saw red.
Samir looked unnerved. The gun at Charlotte’s temple was trembling. ”Step out into the clearing,” he ordered.
Finn took deliberate steps, stopping twenty feet in front of them. He held his hands up in surrender. The last thing he wanted was Samir accidentally shooting Charlotte with a shaking hand.
“She won’t have you to help her cheat this time.” Samir bellowed. “Now I’m going to kill you both!”
Finn didn’t speak. Didn’t move. He simply stared. Even Charlotte seemed rattled by this unflinching show of power.
“Charlotte,” Finn spoke, his voice clear, calm. “There’s nothing you can do. You’re just a tiny girl.”
Finn saw the moment she recalled their self-defense training. Her eyes sparked and with a shaky nod, she straightened.
Samir shifted and extended his arm, pointing the gun at Finn. Charlotte turned her head, bit his bicep, and stomped on his foot as she slid out of his grasp to the ground. Samir fired a wild shot, her movements disrupting his aim.
Finn started to come forward, but Samir steadied his gun. “What are you going to do now, you big, bad SEAL? You’re all alone. You don’t have a gun, and you don’t have any more tricks.”
Finn raised his arm straight up toward the sky, and, out of the trees, a gun flew end over end through the air. Finn caught the Sig and fired. Samir fell backward, a bullet hole dead center in his forehead.
“I have one more trick.”
Charlotte jumped up and ran into his arms just as Tox emerged from the trees. “The Music City Miracle, motherfucker!!!” Tox shoved his friend good-naturedly, but Finn’s attention was solely on Charlotte. He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “Well, like you said, the spy can’t shoot, so I brought back the SEAL.”