This was a goddamned terrible moment to be sitting inches from a woman who made him feel…everything.
Blair shifted slightly, reaching forward to tap the screen, and the side of her arm brushed his, pearl-handled composure wrapped around steel, a quiet command that stirred something low in him, he should have buried years ago. His hand tightened on his knee to keep from reaching for her. His pulse hammered so hard it throbbed against the bruises on his ribs.
Men didn’t touch a woman like Blair Brown lightly or use her as a distraction. She was a turning point. They didn’t fuck her and forget her. They didn’t survive doing that. She had too much gravity, too much clarity in the way she moved, too much honesty in her eyes. She wasn’t built for half measures.
He didn’t want her to be the kind of woman a man took and walked away from.
Ayla pointed at the thermal markings. “There’s a fluid in and out at the fire pit. Two moving along the north fence, along with one K9.”
Jackie spoke up. “They favor pit bulls, and they train them to attack.”
“No eyes inside the garage bay, another fluid, but unknown pathway,” Boomer said.
Breakneck’s jaw flexed. “Roof sentry’s priority,” he said quietly. “He’s got the highest vantage. If he clocks movement on the flank, you’ll lose your breach window.”
Ice nodded without looking away from the screen. “Agreed.”
Blair shifted slightly, close enough that the faint scent of her reached him. It nearly undid every wall he’d spent a decade building.
He stared harder at the screen, exhaling through his teeth, quiet, harsh, controlled. He was terrified of needing anything. Terrified of trusting anyone. Terrified of letting someone see the damage he hid behind sarcasm, charm, and sniper calm. Terrified of letting anyone touch the abandoned boy he used to be, the one who learned early that fear was weakness and weakness got punished.
He thought he had killed that boy long ago, buried him under discipline and precision and ruthlessness. Thought becoming a Tier 1 operator meant he had scorched all softness out of his bones.
Yet one woman stood next to him and the whole lie trembled.
Ayla zoomed in on the outbuilding. Blair angled toward it, assessing, calculating, her entire body narrowing into focus. Breakneck watched her shoulders tighten, watched the intelligence harden her eyes, watched the immediate shift from suspicion to strategy.
It hit him harder than any bruise.
“Team can stack here,” she murmured to Ice. “Outbuilding gives a blind angle from the roof and the fire pit.”
He stole a glance. She was beautiful without trying. She looked like something he couldn’t afford to want.
Blair turned her head slightly. She must have felt him looking because her eyes flicked to his for a breath-long second. Calm. Steady. Curious. Not afraid of him. Not intimidated. Not blind to what he was.
That alone knocked the air out of him.
He had spent his entire life being read as danger, chaos, beautiful in a way that got him used, wanted, lusted after, but never recognized.
She looked at him like she saw something more.
He faced forward again, jaw locked to stop anything real from slipping out. He couldn’t let her see how close she was to his fault lines. He couldn’t tell her the truth, that the closer she got, the more he felt the edges of him.
Breakneck found his voice again. “West treeline gives me clean lanes,” he said, quiet but certain. “I’ll have eyes on roof, gate, fire pit, and garage.”
“Gate guards will be first,” she said. “We can hit them before they alert the roof or the fire pit.”
Breakneck nodded. “As long as the garage bay stays quiet.”
Ayla’s fingers moved in a blur. “Unpredictable.”
Breakneck’s stomach twisted. “If they exit armed, they’ll flank the breach. Need someone watching that wall.”
Ice gave a slow exhale. “Recommendations?”
Breakneck pointed to the screen. “If I take up a position here at the west side of the compound, it’ll give me complete overwatch.”
Ice nodded. “Boomer and Kodiak will handle the north perimeter tangos and the K9. Brown and Skull will hit the gate and the garage bay, then all positions will collapse inward with us once those threats are eliminated.”
