The automatic glass doors slid open with a soft hiss.

The world exploded.

Jax didn't shoot the men; he shot the briefcase mid-air. It wasn't full of codes. It was packed with C-4 and a cluster of flashbangs.

A blinding white light erupted, followed by a concussive shockwave that sent Marcus and his front line of mercenaries flying backward.

Eleanor moved like a demon unleashed. She drew her Glock and fired three times in rapid succession, dropping the two men flanking her son. She sprinted through the smoke and ringing chaos, grabbing Leo by the collar and shoving him behind a rusted shipping container.

“Snipers on the roof!” Jax roared over the comms. The distinct crack of his rifle echoed through the yard as a mercenary on the warehouse roof tumbled to the ground.

Automatic gunfire shredded the metal container Eleanor and Leo hid behind. She reloaded her weapon, her face set in stone.

"Stay low, keep your hands over your ears," she ordered Leo.

She rolled out from cover, firing blindly into the smoke. She caught one mercenary in the knee, then the shoulder. But there were too many.

Suddenly, the lights of the SUVs shattered as Jax rained suppressing fire down upon them.

Marcus was crawling through the mud, bleeding from his forehead, scrambling for a dropped assault rifle. Eleanor saw her target. She holstered her gun, drawing the combat knife Jax had given her, and charged through the crossfire.

Marcus raised the rifle, but Eleanor slammed into him before he could pull the trigger. They crashed into the muddy asphalt. Marcus backhanded her violently, splitting her lip, but Eleanor didn't feel the pain. She was a mother who had been robbed of seven years of her child’s life.

She drove her knee into his chest, pinned his arm down, and brought the knife to his throat.