Her Obsession (by Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 43

Under The Weight Of It All.

The rubble scraped my arms raw as 1 clawed through it, a twisted mess of rebar and concrete refusing to give an inch. Matten was beside me, just as desperate, both of us covered in dust and blood and still pushing forward. Every groan of shifting debris was a warning and a promise, either they were alive under there, or we were too late.

“Sage!” I shouted again, coughing as my voice kicked up more dust. No answer. Just more silence and smoke.

Then I heard footsteps. Not from under the rubble. From behind us. Matteo froze, back straightening. I turned, slow, my gut already coiling. The kind of dread you only feel when you know, really know you’re about to be outgunned. Mirov. Clean-cut suit, not a single speck of ash on him, flanked by a squad of heavily armed bastards like they were walking a red carpet instead of stepping over bodies. His smile was cold and measured, a goddamn viper in human skin.

“Well, well,” Mirov drawled in that thick, condescending accent. “Digging graves already?”

I didn’t hesitate. I pulled my sidearm and fired first. The air shattered with gunfire. Concrete exploded. Matteo tackled into cover, dragging me with him as bullets rained down. It was chaos, raw, brutal, bloody. I caught sight of Mirov ducking behind a collapsed column, barking orders. Two of his men flanked left. I popped out and took one down with a clean headshot. Matteo clipped the other with a burst from his rifle, sending the bastard tumbling.

“You got a plan?” Matteo shouted over the gunfire.

“Yeah,” I snapped, firing again. “Kill him before he kills us.”

Another grenade hit close, blew a crater three feet from where we’d just been. I lost hearing in one ear again. The world narrowed to flashes and instincts. This wasn’t a standoff. It was a war and we were already in the middle of it. We were pinned, bullets biting chunks out of the wall over our heads, the sharp tang of blood and smoke clogging every breath. Matteo was reloading beside me, face grim, and I was half a second from burning through my last mag when a new volley erupted. But not from the front. From behind them. Shouts, gunfire, chaos. I looked up just in time to see the tide turn. My men. They came in hard and fast, bloodied, battered, and furious. A couple were limping, one dragging a torn-up leg behind him, another’s face half-covered in blood. But they didn’t hesitate. They charged like demons, catching Mirov’s men from behind and boxing them in tight.

“Jesus,” Matteo muttered, relief and rage blending into one. “They made it.”

The crossfire drove Mirov’s men closer to us, the last of them scrambling for cover that didn’t exist. The ambush became a vice, squeezing the bastards straight into our kill box. Then I saw him. Mirov. Still moving through it like he was untouchable. He turned, one of his men taking a bullet meant for him. He ducked and rolled behind the debris, popping up again with his rifle raised….straight at Matteo. I didn’t think. I moved. Tackled him before he could get the shot off. We crashed to the ground, the rifle skittering away across broken concrete. He snarled, tried to reach for his sidearm, but I was already there, kicking it from his hand, then pressing my own gun to his head. We locked eyes and I saw it, that flash of smugness, like he thought I’d be the type to just pull the trigger and end it clean. I wasn’t. Not with him. I stood slowly. Backed up. Then tossed my own gun aside, letting it clatter uselessly to the ground.

He looked up at me, confused at first. Then his grin spread, sick and sharp. “You think you can beat me with your hands?” he sneered in Russian-accented English.

1 cracked my knuckles. “I don’t think, Mirov. I know.”

He surged to his feet, and we went at it. Fists met flesh. Bone cracked. He was strong, trained, but I was stronger. Angrier. Every punch I landed was for the people he’d hurt, for the kids he’d trafficked, for the woman he put a bounty on. For Sage. He landed a hit that split my hip. I broke his nose with the next one. The world narrowed, just me, him, blood, and rage. Until finally I caught him across the jaw with a brutal right hook and felt him crumple beneath me. He hit the ground hard, unmoving. I stood over bim, chest heaving, fists still clenched.

Matten jogged up, gun still raised, eyes scanning the battlefield. “You done?”

I spit blood. “With him? Yeah.”

I turned and walked back toward my gun, ignoring the pain burning through my knuckles as I pressed it right between Mirov’s eyes and pulled the trigger. One shot. Done. The bastard’s head splattered the concrete with a finality that echoed through my bones. No grand last words. No struggle. Just the end. I didn’t flinch. Didn’t even feel it, really. Not when they were still trapped under a mountain of twisted steel and stone. Sage. Naomi. Liam. My girl. Her best friend. My best friend. I shoved the gun back into its holster, turned on my heel, and jogged toward the blast site where Matteo and a few of the others were already clearing debris. Blood soaked through Matteo’s sleeve, but he wasn’t slowing down. None of us were. Not now. Then I hear it…Static. My earpiece

hissed. I froze.

1/2

8:10 pm P PD D.

Under The Weight Of It All.

Conner? Hello? Does anyone read me?” Nico, fucking finally.

I slammed my finger against the side of the comm, praying it wasn’t just a glitch. “I hear you,” I barked, breath ragged. “Nico, talk to me. You see them?”

A pause. Some static. Then, “Yeah, I’ve got partial visuals through thermal. Barely. The satellite angle’s shit from this side of the compound, but they’re there. All three of them. Heat signatures are clustered together in a hollow pocket about ten meters beneath where the roof collapsed.”

My heart punched my ribs so hard it hurt. I glanced at the rubble. Ten meters down felt like ten miles.

“They alive?” I asked, already knowing I wouldn’t breathe right until he said the words.

“They’re alive,” Nico confirmed. “Probably stunned. They landed in some kind of structural gap, looks like a reinforced corridor that didn’t cave. That blast was precise, like it was meant to bring the ceiling down without torching the whole place.”

“It was a trap,” Matteo muttered beside me, wiping sweat and soot from his brow. “Sons of bitches planned it to bury them alive.”

I grit my teeth. “Can we get to them?”

That’s when Nico’s tone shifted.

“Here’s the problem,” he said, voice low and taut. “They’re in a structurally suspended section, steel frame still intact, but everything around it? Compromised. Load-bearing walls are toast. If you keep clearing debris or trigger another blast trying to make an opening, the weight redistribution could collapse the entire pocket.”

I stared at the wreckage, throat tightening. The thought of her, Sage, crushed or suffocating because we made the wrong move…

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2/2

8:10 pm P PDD.

Her Obsession.