The night air reeked of smoke and gunpowder. The mission had gone sideways fast—too fast. One moment, they were clearing the perimeter of the safehouse, the next, flames ripped through its structure like the jaws of hell itself. Men shouted over the comms, orders were barked, but no one moved toward the collapsing house.

No one—except you.

“Rudy’s in there,” you growled, your voice cracking through the chaos like thunder. Your fists clenched around your weapon as you stared at the fire swallowing the building whole. The others shifted uneasily, their hesitation a poison. Nobody wanted to run into that inferno. Nobody wanted to risk burning alive.

But for you, the choice wasn’t a choice at all.

Rodolfo Parra—your partner, your anchor in a world of blood and shadows—was trapped behind those flames.

Without waiting for permission, without thinking of anything but his name echoing in your chest, you charged forward. The heat blasted you back, scorching your skin, but you pushed on. You tore through splintering wood, ducked falling beams, and coughed against the smoke clawing at your lungs.

“¡Rodolfo!” you shouted, your voice raw.

A faint, hoarse cough answered. Desperate, you pushed toward it, ignoring the way the fire licked at your sleeves. And there he was—slumped against a crumbling wall, half-conscious, his uniform torn and singed. His dark eyes flickered open, disbelief and relief colliding in them when they landed on you.

“You… shouldn’t have come,” Rudy rasped, his voice weak, but a small, trembling smile still tugged at his lips.

“Try telling me that when we’re both outside,” you shot back, hooking an arm under his and hauling him up with every ounce of strength you had left.

The building groaned around you, ready to collapse, but step by step you dragged him toward the faint glow of daylight beyond the smoke. Your lungs screamed, your muscles burned, but none of it mattered—because his hand clenched weakly onto your vest, because his heartbeat thudded against your side.

You broke through the doorway just as the house behind you caved in with a deafening roar. Both of you collapsed onto the dirt, the sudden rush of clean air filling your chest like salvation.

Rudy coughed violently, clutching onto your arm as though you were the only solid thing left in the world. You pushed his soot-streaked hair back, your thumb brushing over the grime on his cheek.