Ash felt this one. “I heard that Sierra team’s in Utah right now.”
He’d recruited every man. He’d read their files until he knew their histories better than they probably wanted. He’d given the final word. He’d put them in the field.
His jaw set.
Every day, he carried the knowledge he was responsible for sending good men into danger. But this time it struck harder.
His jaw set.
“Get me Sierra’s CO on the line.”
Dante was already reaching for the secure phone.
The room shifted, sparked like an engine turning over. These men were his brothers. The only family he had, and the only one he wanted.
And Ellory. God help him, she was his too.
* * * * *
The computer lab was quiet at this hour.
Ellory was used to working late and under whatever conditions presented themselves.
Right now, those conditions involved one cold cup of coffee, three open data windows and a case of tunnel vision that always set in when she was chasing something just out of reach.
She didn’t hear the door. Didn’t hear Angelo enter—shefelthim.
His voice carried through the space that hummed with equipment, low and deep. “It’s me.”
The sound of his voice unknotted every muscle in her body in one second flat.
She turned in her seat to find him in the doorway, watching her with that intensity that made her stomach flutter and her senses go haywire.
He pulled out a chair from the neighboring station. He sat—close.
Then he braced his elbows on his knees and looked at her directly.
What she saw in his eyes made her close the data window.
“I talked to Con. About your brother.”
The cold rushed in so fast she felt it in her fingertips. She’d known this was coming—but she’d been dreading it.
Her throat tightened.
“Okay.” The word sounded steadier than she felt.
“I told him everything you shared with me. About your brother going undercover. The thirteen months of silence.”
She blanched.
He didn’t look away from her pain. He stared it in the eye and made her realize it was okay, not because it reallywas…but because she could lean on him.
He drew a breath. “I needed him to have the full picture.”
She nodded. She didn’t fault him. She even respected it—he’d done exactly what the chain of command required.
But the fear that was coiled, just waiting to strike, and it felt like a cold fist closed around her sternum. If she was pulled from the op, she lost her only real tie to her brother. She lost the team. She lost Opal and the other ladies she was beginning to feel were the first friends she’d had in a long time.
