"There are others like you. Girls trapped in houses like Vivienne's. Girls being sold at auctions. Girls who need someone to come for them the way I came for you." Tallie's eyes were serious. "What if you could be the person who comes for them?"
Mara had stared at her, something clicking into place in her chest. All the pain. All the survival. All the years of enduring what she'd thought would kill her.
What if it had all been preparing her for this?
"I want to," Mara said. "I want to be that person."
"Then I'll help you become her," Tallie said. "But it's not going to be easy. It's going to take real training. The kind that hurts. The kind that pushes you past what you think you can handle."
"I can handle it."
Tallie smiled. "Yeah. I think you can."
And just like that, her life really began.
PROLOGUE 2
PROLOGUE 2
Outside Mosul, Iraq
The Blackhawk's rotors beat the night air into submission as Steele watched the compound materialize through the dust. Three hundred meters out, good position, clean approach angle from the south. This was supposed to be simple. Breach the compound, capture Nazari, exfil before anyone knew they'd been there. The kind of operation Delta had run a hundred times in a dozen different countries.
The pilot's voice cut through his headset. "Two minutes."
Steele's world narrowed to sequence and timing. Landing zone three hundred meters from the compound, soft dirt with no obstacles, approach angle from the south to hit the blind side of most guard positions. Ingress through the north gate after Bulldog blew it, clear the main residence room by room, secure Nazari, exfil the way they came. Simple, clean, precise, the way operations were supposed to go before reality introduced variables that no briefing could cover.
The Blackhawk flared hard and Steele hit the ground running, boots sinking into soft dirt, rifle up and scanning even though he couldn't see anything through the dust. Musclememory and training, the thing you did because not doing it got you killed.
Three hundred meters away, Mara lay prone on overwatch with her scope tracking heat signatures inside Nazari's compound. The operation was running clean so far. Nadia's team was positioned at the south breach point, Winter had the vehicles ready, and Kira was prepped for medical extraction. They were here for the wife and son, Amira and Karim Nazari, hostages to a monster who was about to sell his own child to cover debts and save face with his business partners.
Then Quinn's voice crackled through the comms, tight with alarm. "Mara, we've got company. Helicopter inbound from the north. Fast movers. Single bird."
Mara's finger tensed beside the trigger. "How many?"
"One bird. Can't see inside yet. They're landing three hundred meters north of the compound."
Through her scope, Mara watched the helicopter touch down and saw operators spill out with the efficiency of a team that had done this a thousand times. American military based on the gear and movement patterns, SEALs maybe, Delta, Rangers, didn't matter which unit. What mattered was they were here now at Nazari's compound, which meant they were after Nazari. Had to be. Two teams, same compound, different objectives.
Mara made the call without hesitation. "Mission is still a go. Shadow Veil moves on Amira and Karim. Military takes Nazari. We stay out of each other's way. Move fast before this gets complicated."
"Copy that," Nadia responded.
Thirty seconds later, an explosion turned the north gate into shrapnel and everything went to hell.
Steele moved through the smoke with his rifle up, clearing angles as he went. He found Nazari in the hallway coming out of the western office like he'd been working late and heard a noise he didn't understand. The arms dealer saw them and ran, not toward the stairs or toward an exit, just away in the panicked flight of a man who'd spent his whole life thinking walls and money kept him safe. Bulldog tackled him before he cleared the turn, brought him down hard, three hundred pounds of Delta operator landing on top of an arms dealer who'd never expected to face consequences.
Risk was there in half a second with zip ties already in hand. He rolled Nazari over, wrenched his arms behind his back, secured him with the efficient brutality of a man who'd done this a hundred times before.
"Target secured," Risk reported.
Steele felt a moment of satisfaction. Clean capture, minimal resistance, exactly the way operations were supposed to go when planning met execution. Then Ghost's voice cut through the comm, tight with controlled alarm. "Comms spike. He just triggered something. Silent alarm maybe. Someone knows we're here."
The south wall detonated. Not one of their charges, different signature, professional and controlled. Someone else was in the compound and they sure as hell weren't Nazari's guards.
Gunfire erupted from three directions at once. Nazari's guards were flooding in from the eastern barracks, coordinating their response, turning the compound into a kill zone. In thechaos, in that split second of distraction, Nazari twisted free from Bulldog's grip. Scrambled toward the western office on hands and knees until he got his feet under him and bolted.
"Tunnel!" Hawk shouted from overwatch. "Heat signature moving. Western office. He's running!"
