"Yeah. I'm not deploying again for at least two months. Which means I can visit more. We can actually see each other instead of just talking through screens." He turned to look at her. "I want more of this. More time together. More moments that aren't stolen or rushed."
"Me too." Mara laced her fingers through his. "We'll make it work. However we have to."
"Even when it's hard?"
"Especially when it's hard."
Logan pulled her close and they lay there watching the stars, both of them knowing that tomorrow he'd fly back to North Carolina and she'd return to L'Abri Sûr. That it would be weeks before they saw each other again. That the distance and the deployments and the complications weren't going away.
But for tonight, they had this. Had each other. Had the promise that they'd keep trying.
And for now, that was enough.
Mara drove Logan to the airstrip Monday morning. They said goodbye the way they always did now. Long kiss. Promises to call. Plans for the next visit. Then watching him walk away until he disappeared into the small terminal building.
She drove back to L'Abri Sûr with a full heart and an empty passenger seat. Quinn was waiting with new intelligence. Dallas target was heating up. They needed to move within the week.
Mara looked at the files and felt the familiar shift inside herself. The operator coming forward. The woman who'd built L'Abri Sûr from nothing and who wouldn't stop until every person who needed help got it.
But now there was another part of her too. The part that thought about Logan's laugh and his hands and the way he understood her. The part that counted down days until the next visit. The part that had learned to love someone despite knowing how hard it would be.
Both parts could exist. Both parts did exist. The operator and the woman in love. The leader and the girlfriend. The mission and the relationship.
It wasn't easy. But it was real.
And real was worth fighting for.
THE SALE
L'Abri Sûr, Louisiana
Quinn found Mara in the training facility working through target practice with Winter. The way Quinn hovered in the doorway instead of just walking in meant she had something big. Something that couldn't wait but that she wasn't sure how Mara would react to.
Mara lowered her weapon and pulled off her ear protection. "What's up?"
"Got something. You're going to want to see this." Quinn held up her tablet. "G.I.D.E.O.N. flagged a communications intercept. Large-scale trafficking sale. Multiple women being moved through the region."
"Where?" Winter asked, moving closer.
"Iraq. Erbil area, actually. Not Mosul but close." Quinn pulled up the intelligence data. "Intercept suggests ten to fifteen women. Eastern European, based on the chatter. Being sold to buyers from multiple countries. The sale is happening in eight days at a location about forty kilometers from Erbil."
Mara felt something tighten in her chest. Iraq. Not just Iraq but the same region where they'd rescued Amira and Karim.Where she'd met Logan. Where Nazari had held Steele before they'd pulled him out. "How solid is the intel?"
"Seventy-eight percent confidence. G.I.D.E.O.N. cross-referenced multiple sources. Communications intercepts, financial transactions, movement patterns. This is real, Mara. And the window is tight. Eight days until the sale. After that, these women scatter to whoever bought them and we lose any chance of coordinated extraction."
Winter was already thinking tactically. "Ten to fifteen women. That's bigger than our usual operations. We'd need the whole team."
"Agreed," Quinn said. "This isn't a small grab-and-go. This is a full operation. Planning, logistics, coordination. We'd need everyone."
Mara walked to the bench and sat down, her mind already running through the variables. Full team deployment meant leaving L'Abri Sûr with minimal coverage. Meant risking everyone on one operation. Meant going back to a region where they'd already operated and where exposure was a real possibility. But fifteen women. Fifteen lives that would be destroyed if they didn't act.
"Pull everyone together," Mara said. "Full briefing in thirty minutes. I want to see everything we have."
Quinn nodded and left. Winter sat down beside Mara. "You okay with this? Going back there?"
"Have to be. Those women need help." Mara looked at Winter. "But yeah, going back to Iraq feels complicated."
"Because of what happened with Steele?"
