“Eventually,” Colt said. “Figured I’d grab clean gear first, pretend I didn’t get chewed up as bad as I did.”
“Well, you still look better than you did in Kandahar,” Eli said.
“That’s not a high bar,” Colt replied.
The two men shared a quick look that carried more history than either needed to say out loud. Then Colt gave Delaney a short nod and startedback toward the exit. “Good luck out there,” he added as he passed.
“Thanks,” she replied.
They finished checking their gear in silence. Delaney clipped the final strap on her duffel and gave one last glance at the weapons wall, running through mental checklists she’d been drilled on for months. She felt steady. Not fearless, but ready enough.
Eli tossed a second comm unit into the bag and zipped it closed. “We’ll hit the road in ten,” he said.
Delaney nodded, rolling her shoulders to ease the tightness building there.
Then the door opened behind them again, brisk footsteps cutting through the quiet. She turned as Noah entered the room, his expression locked down, his pace urgent.
“Change of plans,” he said without preamble. “You move now.”
Delaney straightened, adrenaline kicking before she even asked. “What happened?”
“The safe house where Olivia’s staying just sent a silent alarm. No response from the security team,” Noah explained. “Everything points to it being under attack.”
----- ? ----
Chapter Two
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Eli threw open the garage bay door and jogged toward the nearest Crossfire Ops SUV, a blacked-out Suburban already prepped for deployment. Delaney was right behind him, her duffel slung over her shoulder, eyes sharp but tense. Neither of them said a word.
He tossed his gear into the back, climbed behind the wheel, and fired up the engine. The headlights cut through the fog curling low over the gravel lot as he shifted into drive and punched it out of the compound.
The SUV ate up the road as they left the security gate and turned onto the two-lane highway, asphalt winding through hills and stretches of open pasture. The Texas Hill Country rolled by in dark green swells and limestone bluffs. Fence lines blurred. Road signs flashed past like warnings.
Eli’s jaw clenched, hands steady on the wheel. He pushed the speed well past the limit. Quiet roads, no traffic, just the long strip of highway andthe knot growing in his chest.
Delaney was already on the phone, her voice low but urgent. “Noah, talk to me. Do we have eyes on the team? Anything from external cameras?”
A pause. Eli glanced over, saw her listening hard, brows drawn tight.
She glanced at him and shook her head. “Still nothing. The house went dark seven minutes ago. No signal from either guard. Olivia’s secure phone, the one she’s been using to talk to her mom, is now offline.”
Eli’s grip tightened. He didn’t like walking into a blackout. Too many unknowns. Too many ways it could be a setup.
His mind drifted, unbidden, to a mission years back. Dust choking the air. He and his team had dropped into a combat zone to extract a pinned-down medevac crew. Every variable had been stacked against them. Bad intel. Incoming fire. Nightfall closing in.
And yet, everything had gone right.
He remembered pulling the wounded flight nurse out of the wreckage, the way her fingers clenched around his vest like she couldn’t believe she was still alive. That feeling, knowing he’d made it in time—that was what kept him going.
Eli brought himself back to the road, eyes scanning the horizon. He needed that ending this time. Needed it to go right. For Olivia. For Delaney. For himself.
Because the last thing he wanted was anotherrescue turning into a body recovery.
As the SUV crested a hill, he spotted his turn ahead. The safe house was a modest ranch-style home tucked between tall oaks, barely visible from the road. His gut told him they were already too late.
And that someone wanted to make sure they stayed that way.
