Jug sworeas he read the executive summary. “This is damning.”
“It is.”
“But it isn’t enough, is it?”
“Nope.”
“The convoy?”
“The SRF team needs a training mission, don’t they?” Talon handed the summary to Jug and gathered all the supporting documentation. First, he’d talk to Riley, and then they’d intercept that convoy.
“Skipper?”
He stopped stacking the paper. “Yeah?”
“You didn’t get this from Guardian, did you?”
“Nope.” He wouldn’t lie.
Jug looked down at the papers he was gathering. “How do you know you can trust this information?”
“It came from family. I trust the source with my life.”
Jug handed him the summary. “That’s good enough for me.”
CHAPTER 21
The buzz of her phone against the nightstand cut through Riley's restless sleep. She'd been caught in that space between dreams and waking, where the sound of falling drums still echoed in her ears and Mauro Delgado's watching eyes followed her through corridors that stretched into infinity.
Her hand fumbled for the device in the pre-dawn darkness, squinting at the screen's harsh glow.
Talon:We need to talk. Meet at the edge of compound, southeast corner.Ten minutes.
Riley stared at the message,her pulse immediately shifting from the sluggish rhythm of interrupted sleep to wide awake and worried. The text wasn't phrased as a request.
Riley:I’ll be there.
She glancedat the digital clock on her nightstand: 5:47 a.m. The sun wouldn't clear the eastern ridgeline for half an hour, but she knew it would already be hot outside. Another scorching day in a landscape that seemed designed to melt anyone who worked outside.
Riley rolled out of bed, her body protesting with the dull aches of yesterday's drop, flop, and roll. Every muscle felt like it had been wrung out and left to dry in the abysmal heat. Wrinkled with the need to stretch and find a way to become normal again. She'd replayed the forklift incident obsessively through the night. Damn, the metallicpingof failing hydraulics, the slow-motion ballet of three hundred pounds of steel doing the gravity drop, and the bone-deep vibration when the drum hit concrete. Shit, she needed to stop this constant replay. Maybeshe’d call her therapist in the States to talk about it. Still …
If I hadn't moved …
But she had moved. Reflexes had saved her life.
She dressed quickly in the practical clothes that had become her uniform when doing inspections. Khakis that wouldn't show dust, a button-down shirt that looked professional but wouldn't restrict movement, and boots with enough grip to handle industrial terrain.
The morning air carried the scent of the grind of industrial operations that never quite shut down. Riley made her way across the dusty stretch between the mining camp and the south and east corner of the compound. Her footsteps were muffled by the packed earth that had been ground to powder by countless boots and vehicle tires.
Talon was waiting exactly where he'd said he'd be. Even in the dim pre-dawn light, his presence was unmistakable. She knew the warmth of the man. The love he possessed and the gentleness he kept hidden. She’d fallen in love with the man over text messages, but that love was only the beginning. A starting point of commonality, friendship, and compatibility. She knew who he was when he wasn’t on a mission. That was a gift he’d given her and one she’d alwaystreasure. Still, this morning, he looked like he was a coiled snake ready to strike.
"You're up early," she said, stopping directly in front of him. Close enough to read his expression. “What’s wrong?”
He wrapped his arms around her but didn't smile. "You've got a logistics leak," he informed her without preamble.
"You talked to Delgado." That wasn’t a question.
Talon's expression didn't change, but he nodded. “It was necessary.” He dropped down for a kiss.
