Keira brushed a strand of her dark hair back behind her ear. “You won’t freeze. You’re stronger than you realize.”
“How do you know?”
Keira smiled. “Because you called for help. That took more courage than any mission Viktor ever sent you on. You chose to fight back.”
Jade nodded. “You fought back, too. You got out."
Keira gave her a crooked smile. “Barely, and I've been running ever since. But now...maybe it's time to stop running and bring the fight to them."
Jade’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. It’s time.”
Keira’s heart swelled for this woman who wasn’t her biological sister but was her sister in spirit. Together, they’d overcome what was holding them back.
“Go,” Keira said. “Get some rest. We need to be ready to knock out the plan in the morning when we’re fresh.”
Jade nodded, wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks and smiled up at Keira. “Thank you for believing in me.”
“You don’t need me to believe in you. You’re a complete badass who can believe in herself. But yes, I believe in you as well.” She hugged Jade once more and stepped back.
Jade walked into the cabin.
Keira remained on the porch, staring out at the stars. Rescuing Lily had taken on so much more meaning than simply freeing Jade’s sister. She had to do it for herself as much as for Lily and Jade. She had to do it for Kit.
“Are you two good?” Rogue’s voice sounded close to her.
She’d been so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn’t heard him step out onto the deck. She nodded without looking back at him. “Yeah. We’re good.”
“We’ll make a plan that works. We should hear more from Royce to add to what we know already, and we’ll come up with a way to get inside, rescue Lily and get back out.”
Keira’s turned toward him, her lips turning up on the corners. “You’re a lot different than most of the operators I’ve worked with.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “How so?”
“You care about people and about doing the right thing. Those I’ve known are all about the mission.”
Rogue reached for her hand on the porch rail. “The mission matters, but so do the reasons behind it. If we lose sight of that, we're no better than the people we're fighting. Are you worried about going to the compound?”
Keira nodded. “I haven’t been back in three years. I swore I’d never return.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “They stripped away all sense of self and made us believe we were only Onyx. Not Keira or Jade or whoever else they’d trained. We didn’t exist except to perform our missions.”
“Are you afraid you’ll get sucked back into that life?”
She drew in a breath and let it out. “Maybe.”
“You don’t have to go. Jade and I can handle it.”
Keira laughed, though the sound held no humor. “So, instead of three to twenty, you think two against twenty would be the same?” She shook her head. “No. I’m going. I have to. If not for Jade and Lily, then for all the girls Viktor, Strickland and Kaufman have groomed to be their personal weapons. I want to face Viktor and call him out on the lives he’s ruined. I want to face him and tell him, personally, his reign of terror against girls and women is over.”
“You’re not facing him alone, Keira,” Rogue said.
Keira turned to meet his eyes. “Why are you doing this, really? You don't owe me anything. You could walk away, report back to Royce and stay safe.”
Rogue nodded. “I could. But I won’t.”
“Why?” she demanded.
