He nods. “It all turned out okay, though.”
I try to shove the image of Zane with a gun to his head out of my mind. Lord, please protect him. The prayer comes so easily to me that it nearly catches me off guard, but there’s a warmth that settles in my chest. A familiarity that feels an awful lot like coming home.
“Why do you guys call him Cap? Was his rank Captain?” I ask.
“Nah. But we always said that, if anyone could get promoted to captain early, it was him. Captain is equivalent to an Army colonel,” he explains. “He was a lieutenant commander, on track to be a commander.”
“Wow. Lieutenant Commander Knox. Has a good ring to it.”
He grins. “Yeah, we thought so, too. But everyone he trained with just called him Cap or Captain. Of course, only when no one higher up was around.”
“I imagine they wouldn’t have taken too kindly to you guys promoting him.”
“Nah, not at all.” He finishes the rest of his coffee. “I have to get back at it. You good with the diner for dinner? Or I can see if Anastasia minds bringing something over?”
“I don’t mind at all. The diner sounds great.”
“Awesome.” He takes my now-empty cup and heads back inside, leaving me standing on the porch overlooking the ocean.
Lieutenant Commander Zane Knox.
He’d been advancing in the Navy before one choice ripped it all away from him. I can’t help but draw similarities to the decision I made eighteen years ago, when one decision ripped my future away from me.
Then again, he’d been saving lives when he made his choice.
Was mine truly about anyone but me? About my own shame for going to that trailer and trusting my dad when I should have known better?
Chapter 25
Zane
Silently, I breach the roof entrance of the building we were sent here to watch. The sign outside still reads For Lease, but over the last twenty-four hours of monitoring this place, we saw over a dozen different people carrying boxes in but leaving with nothing in their hands.
Since they don’t look like movers or renovators, my best guess is this place is a staging facility for whatever they have planned next.
Sawyer comes forward with his tablet in hand. He sticks the long wand into the open doorway and watches the scan on his tablet. If anyone is talking on the floor just below us, we’ll know about it.
When nothing pops, he sticks it back into his bag and offers me a nod.
Weapon in hand, I move in first, with Sawyer on my heels, Weston behind him, and Ryker bringing up the rear of our breach party. Near soundlessly, we move down the steps and pause just outside the door. Even though Sawyer’s mic should have picked up any noises, I crack the door, and he listens again, just in case.
Sweet, sweet silence.
As one unit, we step out onto the top floor. The concrete ground is covered in a thin layer of dust, and there are a few painter’s tarps in one corner with some large buckets of paint beside them. Aside from that, though, the warehouse floor is completely empty.
We head toward the stairs. All the while, Sawyer is keeping an eye on the tablet in his hand. The third floor is completely vacant, too, lacking even the paint cans and painter’s tarps. One more floor down, and we find a few empty crates, a table saw, and some boards set up on sawhorses.
Nothing overly suspicious. Honestly, the farther in we get, the more my stomach begins to churn. Surely, Brenda didn’t send us off on a wild goose chase. Surely, she would have done at least some of her own research before sending us to an empty building—right?
The thought of Tessa momentarily pulls me out of the moment.
I’d checked in with Garrison right before we headed over here, and everything was fine. But this twisting in my gut says otherwise.
Focus, Knox.
We hit the doorway leading to the basement stairs, and as always, we pause a moment until Sawyer gives us the all clear. As soon as he has, I push through and move out onto the basement level.
The elevator shaft is directly to the right, and like the upper floors, this one is mostly barren. There are a few crates in the middle of the room, but no activity.
