The hours passed in a blur of highway miles and rest stop coffees, stolen kisses at red lights when he couldn’t resist pulling her close, and the quiet rhythm of their breathing filling the spaces between heartbeats. She dozed off somewhere around the Maryland border, her head tipped against the window and her features finally relaxed in a way they never were when she was awake and hyper-vigilant.
When they finally pulled up to a small house on a quiet residential street in a neighborhood that looked like it had seenbetter days but was holding on with stubborn determination, Sinner killed the engine and turned to look at her.
She was already awake, her gaze fixed on the house with an expression he couldn’t quite read. “What is this?”
Her voice was cautious, guarded, like she was bracing for another blow because life taught her to expect it.
Before he could answer, the front door opened and a woman stepped out onto the porch. She was in her late fifties with dark hair streaked with gray and pulled back in a practical ponytail, wearing jeans and a faded sweatshirt that had seen too many washes. But it was her eyes that gave her away—the same black as Opal’s, filled with the same wariness and strength that came from surviving things that should have broken her.
Opal sucked in a ragged breath, her hand flying to her mouth as recognition slammed into her with the force of a freight train. “Mom?”
The single word came out broken, disbelieving, like she couldn’t trust what she was seeing.
The woman’s face crumpled, tears streaming down her cheeks as she took a stumbling step forward.
Opal was out of the car before Sinner could blink, moving with the kind of desperate speed that came from years of longing compressed into a single moment. She ran up the cracked walkway with complete abandon, all the careful composure she usually maintained shattering like glass.
Her mother met her halfway down the path, and they collided in a tangle of arms and sobs that made Sinner’s chest ache with an emotion too big and raw to name.
He stayed in the car, giving them the space and privacy they needed for a reunion that was years overdue. He watched as Opal buried her face in her mother’s shoulder and finally—finally—let herself fall completely apart, her body shaking with sobs that seemed to come from somewhere deep and ancient.
Her mother held her tight, one hand stroking her hair the way she probably had when Opal was small and the world hadn’t yet taught her that showing weakness could get her killed.
His throat felt tight, his eyes burning with emotion he hadn’t expected to feel this strongly.
He’d spent his entire adult life as a ghost, a man with no past worth remembering and no future beyond the next mission. He’d been bound to a team and oaths that consumed everything, requiring him to surrender every piece of himself to a cause that came first.
He’d been dead to the world, erased from every record, living in the shadows between heartbeats.
But now? Now he had a reason worth fighting for that had nothing to do with duty or honor or patriotism.
He had someone worth living for…building a future with.
And he wasn’t letting go, not for anything in this world or the next.
* * * * *
Opal had never known happiness could feel like this—huge and overwhelming, filling every empty space inside her that she’d spent years pretending didn’t exist.
The days with her mother hadn’t been enough. They could never be enough after all the years they’d lost, all the birthdays and holidays and ordinary moments that had slipped through their fingers.
But now they had each other again, and they could stay in touch. Her mother had Opal’s number saved under a different name, and Opal had already programmed in the burner phone number her mom would use to contact her.
It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t normal. But it was theirs, and that was more than Opal had ever dared to hope for.
Last and most important, she had Sinner. Each minute she spent with him felt like a precious gift. She shot him a sideways glance, taking in his rugged profile, and a shiver of want rolled through her from the memory of how he’d made her feel in bed last night.
He’d given her back some pieces of herself she thought were lost forever: her ability to express herself, her power to go after what she wanted… her mom.
She didn’t have words big enough to thank him for those things.
They were about an hour outside of Charlie base when Sinner broke the comfortable silence that had stretched between them for miles.
“I have more news.”
Opal’s head snapped toward him, her eyes widening as her heart kicked up a notch. More news could mean anything, and her brain immediately started sorting through possibilities—good ones, bad ones, catastrophic ones that would rip away everything she’d just gotten back.
“Your transfer came through.” His voice was casual, but she caught the hint of satisfaction underneath. “You’re part of Blackout Charlie—if you choose to be.”
