I type with deliberate precision. “How’s he connected to Arseny Kozlov?”
“Brother,” Noland says. “Former Russian Special Forces. After that, he moved through intelligence circles and private networks. Not a desk guy. Not just a threat on paper.”
I look up at the ceiling for one hard second before I answer. “What does he want?”
“No clue. All I know is he was asking about your old team and Tyler specifically. Quietly, but enough that it tripped notice.”
Tyler specifically. Not Buck, who’d been our officer, or me or Weston.
Noland sends another message before I can answer. “Take it seriously.”
I let out a humorless laugh.No shit.
I spot Weston near the medic cabinet and jerk my chin at him. He drops whatever he’s doing and follows me to Buck’s office.
“What’d you get?” Buck asks, instantly reading my face.
“The Russian angle is real. Noland had old intel on a former Spetsnaz operative looking into our old team. My text gave him enough to connect it.”
Both of them go still.
“Tyler’s name came up,” I say. “The man asking questions is Anton Kozlov.”
Buck’s expression hardens. Weston swipes a hand over his jaw.
“Kozlov,” Buck says. “As in Arseny.”
I nod once. “Brother.”
None of us says anything for a second. It’s the mission that haunts us. The one the Navy called a success and filed away, while we never could do either of those things. Not when four didn’t come home.
Weston is the one who breaks the silence. “What else?”
“Former Russian Special Forces, same as Arseny. Noland didn’t have a full file on him, but enough to say this isn’t some random asshole with an old grudge and a passport.”
“He’s been working this since San Diego,” Buck reminds us. “Looks like revenge.”
Weston looks out the window, where the sky is darkening. “We thought the worst of it stayed behind us, but it tracked her here.”
I follow his gaze to where he’s staring out at nothing, and a moment later, headlights appear. Elena’s SUV slows at the corner, then turns into our lot.
“I nearly forgot,” Weston says. “That’ll be Elena and T.J. She texted earlier about a school project.”
Buck nods. “The career interview. I heard about that. Hell ofa time for it, though.”
What stings almost as much as the timing is the fact that both of them knew about it, and I didn’t. It shouldn’t matter, but it does.
CHAPTER 28
CALDER
Sure enough, T.J. climbs out of the back seat with a notebook in one hand and a pencil in the other. Elena’s shoulders look tight, even from a distance. She’s worn thin in ways most people wouldn’t notice, but I notice too much where she’s concerned.
Weston lets out a breath, and Buck’s expression shifts just enough to pass for normal as he gets up from behind his desk.
I follow the two of them out to the bay, where T.J. is approaching at a jog and Elena’s reminding him to slow down.
“Hi.” T.J. sounds half breathless as he looks between the three of us. “Mom said I could come do my interview project if you weren’t busy.”
