Truly Theirs

Chapter 10

Evelyn’s POV

Smoke curled behind her like a phantom.

Evelyn didn’t run, running drew attention. She moved with purpose, weaving through the trees with the ease of someone who’d mapped every root and slope of this land in her bones.

The decoy charges she’d rigged inside the cabin still hissed and sparked behind her, just enough chaos to slow them down.

“Ten more minutes,” she muttered under her breath, adjusting the rifle slung across her back. “That’s all he needed.”

She reached the ridge line and dropped to one knee, lifting binoculars. Through the branches, she spotted movement: heat signatures, flashlights cutting through the dark, tactical formations fanning out from the cabin.

Liam. Nadyia. Noah.

Closer than she’d planned.

Evelyn didn’t panic. Panic was for people who got caught. She tapped her earpiece encrypted low-band, their mole’s last transmission still holding the perimeter open another four minutes.

“Eyes on the extraction route. Tunnel is clear. Birdwatcher is flying.”

A coded update. No names. No emotion.

She tucked the earpiece away and reached her cache hidden in the hollow of an old tree. Backpack. Thermal cloak. Satellite map with three exfiltration routes marked in red.

Always plan three exits. Rule number one.

Evelyn slung the pack over her shoulder, pulled up her hood, and moved into the trees like smoke dispersing in the wind.

Behind her, faintly shouting.

The cabin had been breached.

But she was already gone.

And Michael…

Michael’s almost safe now.

She smirked to herself, blending deeper into the dark.

Let them think they’re winning. That’s when they bleed the most.

Team POV – Alternating between Liam, Nadyia, and Noah

“Hold up,” Liam barked, eyes scanning the disturbed soil beneath his boots. He dropped into a crouch and brushed aside a thick layer of pine needles, revealing a heavy wooden hatch half-buried beneath the forest floor.

“Trapdoor,” he muttered. “Still warm. Recently opened.”

Noah came up behind him, a flashlight beam sweeping over the area. “And footprints. One adult. One small. Still fresh.”

Nadyia’s breath caught in her throat. She surged forward, eyes locking on the tiny set of prints alongside the larger ones. “Ethan.”

Liam gritted his teeth and yanked the hatch fully open. A gust of musty air hissed up at them. The tunnel gaped below dirt walls, root-veined, just wide enough to crawl through. The kind of passage built by someone who didn’t expect to be found… but had planned everything in case they were.

“Michael took him through here,” Liam said. “There’s no question.”

Noah leaned in, shining the light along the packed dirt. “Still damp. They came through fast

just missed him.”

“Damn it,” Liam growled, slamming the hatch back. “They’re gone. Again.”

Nadyia knelt beside the prints, hand hovering over the smallest indentation. “He carried him the whole way,” she said softly. Her voice was tight. Controlled. But her eyes burned. “He’s still protecting him in his own twisted way.”

“Which means he won’t risk slowing down,” Noah said. “He’s on the move. Evelyn too.”

Liam rose, scanning the forest’s edge with military precision. “They’ll have a rendezvous point. A fallback plan. We need to be thinking two steps ahead.”

Nadyia straightened, her jaw set. “Then we stop playing catch-up.”

“Agreed,” Liam said, already tapping into the GPS tracker overlay. “We’ll canvas every route out of here, every safehouse Evelyn’s ever touched. No sleep. No breaks. He’s slipping but not again.”

“We finish this,” Noah said.

Nadyia stared into the dark, the cold wind tugging at the torn scrap of Ethan’s onesie in her fingers.

“We bring him home.”

Michael’s POV

The old ranger station was crumbling at the edges, overtaken by vines and rot, but Evelyn had declared it “clean” hours ago. No heat signatures, no cell towers within reach. A dead zone.

Michael rocked gently on the edge of the cot, cradling Ethan close. The baby stirred in his sleep, breath soft against his father’s chest.

“He’s tired,” Michael muttered. “We can’t keep running him like this.”

Evelyn, crouched near the boarded-up window, snapped her satellite phone shut. “Then maybe you should’ve thought twice about taking him mid-day with your name flagged in every state system.”

“You told me it was now or never,” Michael hissed.

She stood, brushing dust from her jeans. “And you listened. That’s the problem with boys raised by the state. Still waiting for permission.”

Michael opened his mouth, but a sudden click outside froze them both.

Not an animal. Not the wind.

Evelyn was moving before he could blink. “Go. Take him. Back exit.”

“You said we were clear”

“Now, Michael!”

But it was already too late.

The back wall exploded inward as a tactical team breached, flashbangs igniting the room in a storm of white and sound.

Michael curled around Ethan, dropping low, shielding him with his body.

Evelyn reached for her weapon

“Drop it!”

A dozen lasers painted at her chest. She didn’t flinch.

“We’ve got the baby!” a voice called. “Alive and secure!”

Michael looked up, disoriented, ears ringing. Nadyia was standing over him, rifle still lowered but her face carved from fury and heartbreak.

“Give him to me,” she said, voice shaking. “Right now.”

Michael didn’t move. He couldn’t.

Liam stepped in next, cuffs in hand. “Don’t make this worse.”

Evelyn, hands raised, gave Michael one last look sharp, proud, and utterly cold.

“They never deserved him,” she said.

“And you do?” Nadyia spat.

Ethan let out a small cry and Michael finally let go. Nadyia snatched him up, her body crumpling with the weight of relief.

“He’s okay,” she whispered, over and over. “You’re okay. We’ve got you.”

Michael’s arms fell to his sides.

The war was over.

For now.