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Savvine exhaled, pulse thundering, tamping down her panic at the daunting new challenge ahead.

The rest of Savvine’s day was spent with Xander and the Signet strong guard, shifting from briefings to ops rooms and holosimulations designed to get her back onto her ship without being detected.

Her comm tab chimed with the latest updates from Abby, encrypted messages that Miral rerouted from her node and commtab into Signet’s network.

From her end, Abby was relentless, tracing every ghost echo and thermal ping, providing breadcrumbs that Savvine fed into the mission plan.

Zev and Mak cross-referenced the data withEterna’solder schematics, overlaid with what Signet’s black-ops scouts mapped from recent Lombardi incursions.

Boaz marked infiltration points and fallback zones, revealing the quiet genius mind behind the man’s mountain frame.

Kaal and Rigo input intel, battle calcs, breach angles, and calibrating sensors to detect synthetic facsimile bots.

Santiago was on the Sombra’s bridge, allowing Xander and Savvine to chart an infiltration route and a stealthed approach to theEterna.

Xander’s arm brushed hers now and then as they conferred, recalibrated, and discussed the best infil strategy.

He glanced at her at one point and murmured, ‘You’re holding up better than most would with a traitor within your house.’

Savvine met his gaze with a wry twist to her lips. ‘The Eugene I know is not a turncoat; he’s a careless, feckless playboy but freakishly loyal to the Bianchi family name. Whatever or whoever we saw onscreen is not him.’

Xander nodded, accepting her correction. ‘Fair enough.’

A few hours later, jacked up on too muchkahawaand adrenaline, Xander declared it was time to eat. ‘We all deserve a break.’

The long, sleek side table was soon replenished with food from the ship’s kitchens.

The flavorful dishes crafted by Signet’s resident chefs were rich with the strong guard’sespañolheritage: bowls ofpaella negra, squid ink black and fragrant with garlic;albondigasin smoky tomato sauce;crisp and golden calamares fritos; and warmempanadasstuffed with spiced beef and green olives.

They ate like warriors resting between battles, raucous and hungry.

Xander sat at the head, relaxed in his chair, trading barbs with Zev and Rigo while reaching to refill Savvine’s wine glass.

She nibbled on her plate as the brothers-in-arms ribbed each other mercilessly, going after Santiago for some incident he’d had earlier that day in engineering.

‘Did you lift that engine coil with your back, or did Boaz do all the work again?’ Zev jabbed, his grin wicked.

Santiago gave a lazy shrug. ‘Ask the coil.’

Rigo smirked. ‘Boaz lifted it on his back, while you tightened two screws and took the credit. Typical Santi.’

Santi placed a hand on his chest in mock offence. ‘I bring all the charm and flair to this operation, gentlemen.’

‘You provoke clamor and commotion,cabrón,’ Kaal muttered, biting into a slice of tortilla.

‘Tis all the love coming my way, from the ladies, that rattles the rest of you.’

Savvine found herself laughing in hearty chuckles, her troubles forgotten for a moment in time.

Xander poured her a glass oftempranillo, the bottle already sweating from the cold, and topped up her plate again.

He didn’t say much, but his presence wrapped around her like a second skin.

She welcomed the attention and the comfort it provided when his shoulder nudged hers, stroked her upper arm, and placed a calloused hand on her knee.

They weren’t overt gestures, but they counted, for he was becoming her anchor in the storm.

Other than her parents and siblings, no one had ever cared like this for her.