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“Sanchez?”

Dec let out his breath. “Captain.”

“You okay?”

“Fine, sir.”

“And the princess?”

Dec reached for Annie’s hand. “She’s fine too, sir.”

“What the fuck happened? Why didn’t you make it to the bird?”

Okay. So his guys hadn’t said he and Annie could have made it, only that they hadn’t. He owed them—but then, that was what SEALS and STUDs were all about. They had the loyalty of brothers.

“Sanchez? You hear the question?”

“Yessir. We didn’t make it to the Black Hawk because it wasn’t safe for the princess.” True enough. “I’ll explain more when I see you.”

“Yes. You will.” A tiny pause before Black spoke again. “Right now, we need to get you evacuated. We’ve been trying to raise you—we had some kind of satellite failure… Hang on, Sanchez. We’re picking up your coordinates.”

“Good to hear, sir. We need to get out ASAP.”

“I’ll contact you again in three minutes.”

The line went dead. Dec glanced at his watch as he shut off the phone. Annie squeezed his hand.

“What did he say?”

“They’re figuring out exactly where we are and where to extract us.”

“Oh.”

It was a very subdued oh. Dec put his thumb under her chin and gently tilted her face up to his.

“Anoushka. We’re going to be fine.”

She gave him a little smile. “I’m glad we’re going to get out of here. The thing is, I know this is going to sound crazy, but—”

“These last days have been wonderful.”

She nodded. “Yes. Despite everything, they’ve been—they’ve been the best days of my life.”

Dec leaned in and kissed her. “This is only the beginning, honey. We have years and years ahead of us.”

“Yes.”

The word was barely a whisper. Dec drew Annie close.

“We do, sweetheart. You’ll see. I know we have a lot to work out.” Man, talk about understatements… “But we’ll do it. I know we will.”

She nodded again. “Just don’t let them send me back, Declan. They can’t do that… Can they?”

“No. Not once I tell them…” The phone buzzed. Dec pushed a button and put it to his ear. “Sanchez,” he said crisply.

“Lieutenant. Do you have your GPS?”

“No sir. It’s gone.”