Page 101 of Rafe’s Future

Rather than answer her husband and team leader, Alice looked directly at Rafe. “You want to tell them, or should I?”

His heart kicked as he stared deep into his daughter’s eyes. She was so strong. Damn smart. And so incredibly capable.

She’s also standing between you and a mistake neither you nor Lena will survive.

“You remind me so much of your mother.” He inched closer, placing his hands on Alice’s shoulders.

“And what would Mom tell you if she were here this very minute?”

The question took him off guard, but he immediately knew the correct answer.

“She’d say, ‘Listen to your daughter, Rafe. She’s smarter than the two of us put together’.”

Alice’s soft giggle took him back to when she was little. “She’d be right, you know?”

“Always was.”

The two hugged before Alice turned toward her spouse.

“Dad got a message.” She took the phone from Rafe’s hand and showed Digger. “So he thought he’d go traipsing off after Lena without us.”

“Not the way things work around here, Boss.” Digger handed him back his cell. “You taught us that, remember?”

Alice sidled up beside his son-in-law with a wide, smug grin.

They’re right. You just don’t want to admit it.

“We’ll get her back, Rafe.” Digger gave Rafe’s shoulder a tight squeeze. “You can count on us.”

“I know I can.”

Fear clawed at his chest, but beneath it, something stronger began to take shape. Acceptance and resolve.

He’d survived all these years because he’d learned to trust his training, his instincts, and the people beside him.

Trust them now.

It would be the most important mission of his life. This was a mission to save his future.

He looked at Alice. “Go get the others and meet me back in the conference room.”

“What do I say?”

Rafe held her stare a moment longer before sliding his gaze to Digger. “Tell them we’re going hunting.”

And Henry Stanton was their prey.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Pain woke Lena again. Not the sharp, immediate kind that came with being shot or cut with a knife. This ran deeper. A collection of aches that seemed to have settled into every inch of her body.

Lena opened her eyes—correction, eye—and stared at the stained, metal door. Her head throbbed worse than before, and her jaw ached where Henry’s guard had struck her. Her ribs screamed, and the strain from having her hands bound behind her back pulled at her shoulders.

But hey, at least I’m still alive.

The sarcastic thought nearly made her chuckle, but she didn’t dare put that kind of pressure on her tender ribs. Almost instantly, she felt remorse.

She shouldn’t be laughing. Not when Rafe was out there somewhere, dealing with his own set of problems. Her kidnapping, for one. And then there was the looming threat that awaited him.