But it didn't feel like an ending. It felt like a pause. Like the space between missions when you caught your breath and prepared for what came next.
Because he'd find her. She believed that. Had seen it in his eyes when he'd said it. Had felt it in the way he'd held her hand like letting go hurt more than his injuries.
Louisiana. When he was ready. When he could walk. When he'd recovered enough to track down the woman who'd left him behind and then come back for him.
She'd be waiting.
Nadia appeared at her shoulder. "You okay?"
"Yeah."
"You sure? Because you're standing in the middle of Iraq watching Delta Force drive away and you look like you just lost something important."
"Not lost," Mara said. "Just postponed."
"He's going to come looking for you."
"I know."
"And when he does?"
"Then we figure out what this is." Mara turned and headed back toward the Shadow Veil vehicle. "But right now we need to get out of Iraq before Nazari's people figure out where we are."
The team loaded up. Winter put the vehicle in motion. They headed toward the Turkish border and the flight back to Louisiana. Back to L'Abri Sûr and the work that never stopped. Back to the life Mara had built over nine years.
But something had changed. Something had shifted in that compound four days ago and solidified in that basement tonight. Something that made the future feel different. Complicated. Worth exploring.
Logan Reed. Delta Force operator. The man who'd stayed behind so she could escape. The man who'd looked at her and seen someone worth dying for.
And Mara Lennox. Shadow Veil team lead. The woman who'd come back for him. The woman who'd admitted she couldn't stop seeing his face.
They'd figure out what that meant. Eventually.
But first they had to survive the extraction. Had to get back to their separate worlds. Had to heal and recover and process what had happened.
And then, when the time was right, when Logan showed up in Louisiana looking for answers, they'd deal with it.
Together.
The vehicle rolled through the Iraqi night. Behind them, Mosul was disappearing into darkness. Behind them, the operation was ending. Behind them, everything was changing.
Ahead, the road stretched toward Turkey and home and a future that suddenly felt a lot more complicated than it had five days ago.
But Mara had never been afraid of complicated.
And something told her that whatever came next with Logan Reed was going to be worth every difficult moment.
The stars overhead were bright. The air was cold. And somewhere ahead, Louisiana was waiting.
Along with whatever came after.
RECOVERY
L'Abri Sûr, Louisiana Three Days Later
Mara stood on the dock watching the sun come up over the bayou. The cypress trees cast long shadows across the water, and somewhere in the distance an egret called. Peaceful. Quiet. Like the last seventy-two hours hadn't happened at all.
But they had happened. Her body remembered even if the compound didn't show the evidence. Bruised ribs from the RPG blast. Scraped knuckles from the breach. The bone-deep exhaustion that came after running on adrenaline for thirty-six hours straight. She'd slept for sixteen hours after they'd landed, woke up disoriented in her own bed, and spent the last two days debriefing with Sloane and trying not to think about a Delta operator with dark eyes and a voice that had gone rough when he thanked her for coming back.
