Fern was the only thing keeping him from slipping.
The helicopter lurched in a hard gust.
Crew corrected automatically—hands steady but mind straining, his body doing what it had been trained to do even while the rest of him tried to flee.
Then his phone rang.
The sound was wrong in here—too normal, too civilian, too out of place in the roar of the blades and the howl of wind.
Crew’s eyes flicked down instinctively, a brief pulse of panic at the idea of taking a hand off the controls.
Church leaned across him without hesitation. “Stay steady. Let me answer.”
Crew didn’t argue. He couldn’t afford to.
Church yanked the phone from Crew’s pocket, thumbed the screen and slapped it on speaker so Crew wouldn’t have to turn his head.
“This is Upchurch.”
There was a pause. Static. Wind.
Then a voice filtered through, unfamiliar and too calm.
“Put Crew Diaz on.”
Something in Crew’s chest turned to ice.
Church’s eyes sharpened. “Who is this?”
A soft laugh came through the speaker. “Doesn’t matter. He’s going to hear me.”
Crew’s grip tightened until his knuckles ached. His pulse spiked so hard he tasted metal.
“Crew,” the voice purred. “You there?”
His mind performed a sick, sinking roll.
The cadence of the voice, something about the tone…it reminded him of Conner.
Church’s gaze snapped to Crew’s profile. “You know him.”
Crew stared at the horizon, fighting the tremor that wanted to crawl into his hands. “It’s Reed.”
The static crackled, then Reed’s voice morphed into something ugly.
“I’ve got her,” Reed said in a sing-song, almost delighted. “Come and get her. Come and get her if you can. Come and get her, Wolf.”
The nickname hit like a punch.
Crew’s vision narrowed. His ears rang around the sound of his own breathing.
“Where is she?” His voice came out rough, scraping, like it had to claw its way free.
Reed laughed again. “Oh, now you want to talk. Now you want to be a hero.”
Crew forced the helicopter through another gust, correcting with controlled movements that didn’t match the violence inside him.
“Tell…me…where…she…is.”Each word cut like a blade.
