Tane leaned against the wall, crossing his tattooed arms.“Then we need to find out what kind of bad it is, and make it disappear.The way he said it, it sounded like a countdown.”
“I know.”Kael rubbed his temples.“I just don’t know where to start.”
“You know people,” Tane said.“Start there.”
Kael lifted his gaze.“Yeah.I do.”He turned toward the desk in the corner, pulling his secure phone from the drawer.His thumb hovered over the encrypted messaging app before he started typing.A single message, copied to two recipients.Dev Roberts and Anton Bateman.
Two men he trusted.Two legends in their own right—the leaders of Sniper Team Bravo and the Pathfinders.If anyone knew what Drew—what Wraith—was hinting at, it would be them.
He sent the message and got a near-instant reply from both.Call in twenty.Secure channel Beta 7.
Kael nodded to himself.“All right, then.”
He made another pot of coffee while the warehouse fell silent again.The steady drip of rain outside filled the air.He stared into the black surface of his mug, Drew’s face flashing again in his mind—those impossible blue eyes, the scar along his jaw, the quiet intensity that had always pulled Kael in like a riptide.
He’d never moved on.Not really.He’d never looked at anyone else after Drew and hadn’t wanted to.Once he’d given his heart, even if it had only been forty-eight hours of real time, that was it.Drew had been it.The one.His only.
A man who had left him pacing the floor at night because he couldn’t get their voice out of his head.
“Damn you, Wraith,” Kael muttered.“Even dead, you were under my skin.Just fucking hovering beneath the surface.”
And now alive,he thought,do I have to find a way to truly let you go?
He took a long breath, settling himself before the secure tablet pinged.Connection established.
Two faces appeared in the holo-screen—Devon Roberts and Anton Bateman.
Dev leaned back in his chair, black t-shirt and tactical pants, the smirk of a man who’d stared down death so many times he’d started to find it boring.His dark hair was shorter than Kael remembered, but the edge in his gray eyes hadn’t dulled.
Bateman sat beside him in his office at the Ridge, calm and composed, wearing a dark collar-less shirt with three buttons at the neck that did nothing to hide the power in his frame.His sharp blue eyes narrowed in concern as the screen stabilized.
“Kael,” Bateman greeted him.“This is unexpected.You calling for social hour or are we putting out fires?”
Dev snorted.“With Kael?It’s always fires.He doesn’t do social.”
Kael rolled his eyes.“Good to see you too, Dev.I’m surprised your ego fit in the frame.”
Dev grinned.“It’s a wide-angle lens, brother.”
Bateman shook his head.“Children, can we get to the part where you tell us why you dragged us into an emergency conference call?Black Tide have cut that particular Bratya head off at this stage, as far as I can tell, a little more housekeeping there and we’re good to go, so this has to be something more than that.”
Kael leaned forward, elbows on his knees.“I found someone.Or rather, he found me.Wraith.”
Bateman’s expression sharpened instantly.“You meantheWraith?”
Kael nodded slowly.“Yeah.Except I didn’t know it was Drew Hawkins until tonight.”
Bateman frowned slightly.“Hawkins?That his real name?”
Kael nodded again.“Yeah.Real name.Wraith is apparently his call sign now.”
Bateman leaned forward.“How do you know him?”
Kael took a slow breath.“Six years ago, we worked together on a joint op in the Pacific.It should have been a month op, but all we got together was two days.He was undercover, I was assigned to extract him at the end.But something clicked between us—fast, hard.We had those forty-eight hours and then all hell broke loose.We barely made it out alive, when the mission went sideways.I was evacuated and he stayed.He disappeared in the chaos that occurred a week later, listed KIA before I could even confirm it myself.I spent months looking for a body.Never found one.”
Bateman’s eyebrow lifted.“And now he just strolls back into your world?”
Dev gave a low whistle.“Well, shit.I’ve seen that before.Man dies, comes back, wrecks your whole damn equilibrium.”He threw a sidelong look at Bateman.“You’ve heard of that story, right, Bateman?”
