We kept moving, checking line after line, finding nothing. But my tension didn’t ease. If anything, it was coiling tighter in my gut.
“I don’t like it,” I muttered.
Ranger shot me a look. “You’ve been twitchy all morning.”
“Because something’s wrong,” I snapped. “I don’t know what. But it’s in the air.”
He didn’t argue. He’d been around me long enough to know that when I felt it like this, something was coming. Always.
By the time we reached the final sensor, I was seconds from calling it off. Telling Cap to flood the property with every brother we had and lock this place down until the skin stopped crawling off my fucking back.
The sensor chirped green.
Clear.
Still clear.
“Let’s head back,” I said, voice like gravel. “I want eyes on her.”
Ranger didn’t argue. He packed up his gear fast and jogged to the Rover like he could feel it too now.
We were only gone for forty minutes.
I kept thinking about the clock.
Forty minutes wasn’t enough time for a full breach. Not if they were playing it safe. Not if they were being watched.
Unless they weren’t trying to get out clean.
Unless the plan didn’t involve getting away unseen at all.
Forty fucking minutes.
And that’s all it took to change everything.
Something dropped in my gut before we even pulled up to the gates.
The gate stood open.
Not forced. Not damaged.
Just open.
My heart slammed so hard it stole my breath. Every scenario raced through my head at once. The guys distracted, someone inside hurt, Amanda alone for even a second too long.
I was already moving before the Rover stopped, boots hitting gravel hard enough to jar my knees.
I didn’t know what set it off. The wrong pitch of silence, maybe. The lack of movement. The air felt heavy. Like the moment before a storm breaks, when everything holds its breath.
Ranger noticed too.
His hands tightened on the wheel. “Feels off.”
I was already reaching for the radio. “Gate team, report.”
Static.
Ranger tried again. “East gate, come in.”
