Hunter, Rink, and Jason Mercer take a small charter boat into the Gulf to give Sue Bouchard a secret burial at sea. Mercer delivers the eulogy, and Hunter and Rink salute Sue before her weighted shroud is lowered into the water. The farewell is deliberately hidden from authorities, both because of the circumstances of Sue’s death and because the group cannot safely expose themselves.

Afterward, the three men return to Port St. Joe and drive back toward Harvey’s ranch, intending to drink a few beers in Sue’s memory. A violent Florida storm rolls in as they arrive. When Rink tries to unlock the front door, Hunter and Rink notice damage at the lock just before a shotgun blasts through the door, revealing that armed men are already inside the house and waiting for them.

Hunter throws Mercer down and dives clear while Rink spins away, narrowly avoiding the first shots. In the chaos outside, Hunter is forced off the porch, glass and buckshot tear around him, and he realizes there are multiple attackers positioned around the property. A gunman near the garage shoots Hunter in the thigh, and more attackers arrive in a gray SUV carrying M4 carbines. Unable to help Rink or Mercer directly, Hunter limps around the house, reaches the back entrance, bursts inside, and kills the shotgun-wielding attacker in the kitchen. Hunter takes the dead man’s Mossberg shotgun and extra shells, then uses the house as cover while trying to turn the fight back on the ambushers.

From inside the ranch, Hunter fires on the SUV and the men using it for cover, but the attackers answer with heavy rifle fire that tears through the house. Hunter takes cover in the fireplace area, worries about Rink and Mercer because he can still hear only scattered return fire, and then kills the skinny gunman who had shot his leg when the man appears at the back window. That shot exposes Hunter’s position, and the attackers close in from both front and back. Hunter manages to kill another gunman on the porch only because someone outside shoots the attacker first and throws off his aim. Before Hunter can recover, another assailant comes in through the kitchen and tosses a grenade into the room, leaving Hunter trapped at the chapter’s end.