Ronan shook his head and settled his gun back beneath his jacket. “No, but he’s not the best about checking in.” He clipped his knife back at his thigh. He looked at the backpack. “You and Benny just store millions in your lair?”

“Stop calling it a lair, and yes, we store millions. Sometimes it comes in handy.” Adare lengthened his strides, wanting to get back to Grace. “Do you believe in love?”

“Sure. It’s fundamental.”

Adare frowned. “I don’t see you skipping through meadows and singing sonnets.”

Ronan chuckled. “Love hurts a lot more than that, my friend.”

The breeze lifted, tossing powdery snow over the walkway. And the scent of moldy lemons. Adare’s head jerked up, and he looked around. Forest on one side, rushing river on the other. Good place for an ambush. But the sun shone down, bright and brilliant.

The breeze came off the water again.

Ronan halted. “I smell—”

The Kurjans attacked from the forest first, and then a squad rose from the river, having hidden in its depths just under the ice. Adare immediately pivoted, putting his back to Ronan’s and whipping out his gun. He hit the first Kurjan in the neck and the second in the eye, but took several bullets to his torso. The lasers turned to metal and dropped harmlessly on the ground. Then a round hit his arm, and he winced as pain flew along his bicep and blood spurted out.

What the hell? The Kurjans weren’t wearing protective gear. The sun glinted off the nearest Kurjan’s skin, turning him pink but not burning him to death.

“I’ve got two down and six coming,” Ronan hissed.

“Two down and two coming,” Adare said, looking for a way out. How was this happening? “Forest or river?”

Ronan’s shoulder jerked, hitting Adare’s arm, and he groaned. “Fuck. The river. On three.”

“Three,” Adare bellowed, ducking his head and running full bore for the first soldier as Ronan turned and ran for the other. Bullets struck his back and legs, but he kept going, tackling the asshole into the ice and through to the freezing depths.

He slashed and diced with his knife, finally plunging it in the Kurjan’s neck and sticking him to a rock at the bottom. Ronan crashed into him, and Adare turned them both, staying under the surface and letting the current take over.

The Kurjans ran along the river, firing wildly.

Bullets pierced the ice, several impacting Adare’s other leg. Blood flowed around him, but they kept going. The water punished them, smashing them against rocks, but they stayed under until they reached a large pool where the water slowed.

He shoved himself up, along with Ronan, and they both gasped air into their lungs.