His foot found the brake before his brain caught up.
She'd been working nonstop. Barely eating unless he put food in front of her. When was the last time she'd had something just for pleasure, not fuel?
He parked and climbed those wooden steps he'd watched her navigate so many times. Usually with Chantal bouncing ahead, both of them laughing. The memory made his chest tight with the unfairness of it all—a six-year-old in hiding because someone wanted to hurt her mother.
The shop smelled like waffle cones and happiness. But when faced with the tousled teen behind the counter, he froze. He and Izzy had shared danger…but not ice cream preferences. Realizing there was no such thing as too much ice cream, he ordered six different pints.
He was smiling when he texted her to raise the hangar door. Inside, he found Izzy exactly where he'd left her, except now she'd built a wall of manila folders around her laptop like a papery fortress.
"Do I need to post bail for Eugene?" she asked without looking up.
"Released on his own recognizance. Banned from motorized vehicles for a week." He set the bag on the table beside her, careful not to disturb her organization system. "Thought you could use a break."
She peeked inside, blinking at the ice cream, then up at him, surprise softening her features. "You got one of everything. Oooh. Mint Chip."
He felt like he’d struck gold. "I have nieces. I learned a long time ago that ice cream preferences are serious business."
“Wise man. That’s no joke.” She hauled out the container, holding it out. “Do I need to share?”
He shook his head. “I’m strictly a butter pecan guy.”
She shuddered. “Seriously?”
Before he could defend himself, her phone erupted in buzzes. She glanced at it and burst out laughing.
"What?"
She tapped a quick response and turned the screen toward him, scrolling through the texts. "My team."
Zara:Why is there a moose in our trailer?
Izzy:...what?
Kenji:Axel fed it. Now it won't leave.
Axel:His name is Kevin.
Ronan:We're NOT keeping the moose.
Cory grinned. "Kevin the moose?"
"Apparently." She shook her head, but her smile was fond. "Axel has a thing about wildlife. Last deployment, he adopted six stray dogs and a goat named Henderson."
She typed back quickly, then set the phone aside and headed into the kitchen, his ice cream haul in hand. “Follow me if you want any.”
Ten minutes later, sated and happier than they’d been since the Unicorn pancakes, Izzy motioned to him to head back to the situation room.
"Okay, you need to see what I found while you were wrangling Eugene. I’m not Kenji or Zara, but I can work my way around the internet."
She shifted her laptop so he could see, her shoulder brushing his as he leaned in. The screen showed a complex web of companies, lines connecting them like a conspiracy theorist's dream board.
"I dug deeper into those seven med-evac operations that went under," she said. “You’re not gonna like this.” She pulled up another screen. "Every single case had two things in common. Tom Morrison did the insurance evaluation, and Reed Osgood handled the FAA investigation."
Cory studied the data. "That's a lot of coincidences."
"You think?" She switched screens again. "Look at the timeline. The sabotage started three years ago, small stuff. The technique's evolved, gotten more sophisticated. Zara tracked the shell companies through about fifteen layers of ownership. They're good at hiding, but not Zara-good."
Her phone rang—video call from Kenji. She accepted, and Cory could see the team's medic lounging in what looked like a luxury resort lobby. Mountains visible through massive windows behind him, a fire crackling in a stone fireplace that belonged in a ski magazine.
