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A slow, incredulous grin spread across his battered face.
"Hoo-yah! Fucking SEALs," Baxter rasped before they could say a word. His voice was rough, but the attitude was still intact. "I knew something was going down when I heard all that lead flying."
He let out a wheezing laugh, his teeth flashing white against bruised skin. "Fucking A. Now I can cross ‘SEAL rescue’ off my bucket list."
Flash snorted, stepping closer. “Man, you should’ve put ‘Win the Lottery’ on there instead. Would’ve had better odds.”
Baxter snorted, shaking his head. Even beaten to hell, the kid had swagger. “Nah. This?Waymore fun.”
Tex motioned. “Can you walk?”
Baxter cracked his neck, rolling his shoulders, the movement stiff but determined. “Might be ugly, but I ain’t dead yet.”
“Good,” Dagger said, stepping up and slinging the guy’s arm over his shoulder. Baxter didn’t resist, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to lean too much.
The kid still had pride.
“One down, one to go. Let’s find that CIA operative,” Tex ordered.
Supporting Baxter, Dagger’s teammates cleared the rest of the ICU methodically, silent takedowns, clean kills, minimal noise.
Then they reached the last door.Lechuza’s cell.The only one with a padlock.Fucking animals, Dagger thought, bracing himself for the elite assassin’s condition.
Brawler stepped forward, his body coiling for an explosive breach, his combat instincts driving him to kick in the door and tear through whatever hell was on the other side.
Flash grabbed the back of his vest and yanked him back. Hard.
Brawler staggered, his head snapping toward Flash, surprised as hell, not because of the resistance, but because of who it was coming from.
Gone was the humor and the snark.
The weight of that silence hit like a punch, stopping the whole damn team in their tracks.
Even Tex blinked, caught off guard.
Flash stood rigid, his jaw locked tight, hands steady, but his eyes burned with something close to rage. Not reckless but controlled. Cold.
That wasn’t just SEAL discipline.
That was personal.
Brawler frowned. Flash wasn’t just stopping him. He stopped all of them. It was crystal clear to Dagger. The unspoken line in the sand that Flash had just drawn crackled with tension.
When he spoke, Flash’s voice was low, firm, and edged in something raw. “This isn’t like Baxter,” he said quietly, but there was no mistaking the steel in his tone. “She’s been brutalized. I’ll take care of this. I know what to do.”
As the silence stretched, Dagger’s gut twisted. Flash was right. He knew exactly what they were about to find, there was no hesitation. No uncertainty.Hadhe seen this before?No.Had helivedit? Dagger studied him, something sharp lodging in his ribs. Flash had always been the smart-ass, the guy who never took anything seriously unless it was taxes and combat. But there was nothing light in his eyes now. Flash wasn’t just making a battlefield call. It was personal knowledge.
Something in his past had prepared him for this exact moment.
Tex watched Flash as time ticked. Their leader was as sharp as hell, and he knew when to give them rope and when to pull them back. All of them had relationships with women, and all of them cherished each one. Dagger gritted his teeth. Whether Quinn liked it or not, he was hanging heavily in her corner, but he wasn’t going to disappear. Anger surged through him, building with each beat of his heart. His nephews needed his support. Then, slowly, their LT nodded and stepped back.
“You take the lead, Jae.”
Flash had seena lot of shit in his time. War zones, torture cells, cartel pits, blood-soaked hellholes where the strong died just as easily as the innocent.
Butthiswoman?
She wasdifferent. He registered her stillness first, no trembling, no shrinking, and she grabbed him by the balls.