One of Alpha John’s loyalists, Darren, folded his arms and looked toward the opposite tree line with the kind of expression that said he did not like hearing restraint called strength.
Ezra saw him. He saw all of them.
“This is not retreat.” Ezra continued, and now he was addressing the whisper before it could spread any farther. “This is border control and tactical withdrawal from enemy ground we were not meant to occupy in the first place.”
Silence followed. Sharp and attentive. Because that was exactly what it had been. They had not chased us off our territory.
We had crossed into a hidden observation point, been detected, and come back with the information we needed.
It was ugly and dangerous and too f*****g close, but it was not weakness.
And Ezra was not letting anyone else def
