The word hits something feral inside me.
I slam my foot harder on the accelerator as if I can outrun the images forming in my head—Freya unconscious, Freya taken, Freya cold on the ground. Our baby… My chest squeezes so tightly, I can barely breathe.
And then?—
My phone vibrates in the center console.
Rio quickly grabs it. “I got it. Just keep your eyes on the road.”
He’s right. I must be doing a hundred.
He reads…and stills.
“What?” I bark.
Rio’s jaw tightens. “Unknown number. Message says… ‘Go to the quarry.’”
“The quarry?” My voice is a snarl. “Why the fuck?—”
And then something inside me snaps.
Everything inside me is raw, bloody, and red fucking hot. “It’s fucking Mace?”
I slam my palm against the steering wheel so hard, my palm stings, and the truck jerks an inch under the force. Rage lances through me, blinding and electric.
“He has her,” I choke out. “He has my fucking woman—my?—”
“Anton.” Rio’s voice stays level, but there’s steel under it. “You lose your head, we lose her.”
I drag in a breath like I’m breaking the surface after too long underwater—lungs burning, chest tight. He’s right.He’s fucking right. But the terror is animal, clawing up my throat, trying to choke out every rational thought I’ve ever had.
No.
Not happening.
I clamp my hands tighter around the wheel until the leather bites into my palms. Force air into my lungs. Force my mind back into my body. Back in control.
Training kicks in.
I slow my breathing—four in, four hold, four out.
Tactical. Deliberate.
I repeat the mantra drilled into me in the SEALs, the one that carried me through hell more than once:I am never out of the fight.
Those words slam into me, pulling everything into razor-sharp clarity.
Freya means everything to me.
I fucking love her.
She’s the spark in my day, the sass that keeps me sharp, the woman who floors me just by existing. Watching her grow, watching her fight—it does something to me I can’t explain and don’t want to.
And I want more.
All of it.
I want our kid between us at night when we’re exhausted but can’t stop staring at the miracle we made. I want the life we were just beginning to build.
