Blood tasted like metal.
Day wiped it from his lip with the back of his hand, glaring down the corridor lined with men who used to call him Boss.
Now they called him target.
Kwon was down. Not dead, but out cold.
They'd moved fast—too fast for Day to react.
An ambush.
Inside the old warehouse where Lucien's loyalists had called for a "peace talk."
The only peace was in the silence after the first ten gunshots.
Day ducked behind a stack of crates, breathing hard.
He was good. Trained. Ruthless.But even he couldn't shoot through betrayal that thick.
He had five bullets left.
And the next man to turn the corner knew it.
"Come on, Daewon," a voice sneered. "Your father says we can bring you in warm or cold. I vote cold."
Day raised his gun—
CRACK.
A single shot rang out.
The man dropped.
Everyone froze.
And from the far end of the warehouse…
Sky walked in.
Wearing black. A gun in his hand. Eyes calm.
Day blinked."…Sky?"
Sky kept moving.
One shot.Two.A third to the shoulder of a man who tried to flank Day.
Not panicked. Not guessing.
Trained. Precise. Controlled.
He reached Day, dropped beside him behind cover.
"You shouldn't be here," Day hissed, eyes wide.
"I know," Sky said, checking the clip on a second gun. "But you didn't come home, and someone left a photo of me with a death sentence written on the back. So."
Day stared at him like the world had gone off-script.
"You're supposed to be safe."
"I was," Sky said, cocking the weapon. "Until I realized safety was just a cage you built to keep me out of this."
Day didn't speak.
Not because he disagreed.
But because he had never been so in love and so terrified in the same breath.
Another volley of gunfire slammed into their crate.
"Sky—"
"You trained me," Sky said, fierce. "Now let me fight with you."
Day hesitated.
Just for a second.
Then handed Sky his last clip.
Together, they rose.
Two shadows in sync.
And hell followed them both.