Page 96 of Zorro

Everly swallowed hard, her eyes stinging with unexpected tears. Their words had pierced straight through her guarded heart. She felt suddenly transparent, vulnerable, and profoundly grateful.

“God, I’m starved. What do you say we get some lunch?”

She’d thought she was alone in her grief and her guilt, alone in her carefully managed wounds. But these women, these quiet warriors, carried love like lanterns through the same dark she walked. Their stories, their strength, were proof that joy and pain could coexist, that healing was complicated but real.

Everly drew a long, quiet breath. “That sounds fantastic, wanting to spend more time with them, something in her finally, gently shifting into place.”

Suddenly, it wasn’t so hard to imagine her own path forward.

Bailee Thunderhawk stood in the back corner of the command suite, arms crossed, gaze sweeping the bank of monitors like she owned the air between them. For the moment, she did. This room hummed on her frequencies, satellite uplinks, encrypted pings, footage cycling from elevators, stairwells, the lower lobby, the rooftop pool. It was all hers to read.

None of it steadied her.

She could still feel him.

Dakota “Bear” Locklear. She almost bowed out of the assignment but realized that avoiding him didn’t really help.

Seduction carved into silence. Muscle wrapped in stillness. That tall, unshakable wall of a man with beads now braided into his dark, glossy hair, with a voice like mountain shadow. He hadn’t said much when he suggested dinner, just that quiet, grounded cadence.

Bear wasn’t a flirt, but she bet he’d be a devastating one if he ever allowed himself the leeway.

He’d simply looked at her and said, “Dinner one night?”

Hell, no. Her excuse was completely valid, if a lie. She couldn’t imagine sitting in some dim restaurant with him, that intimacy, that temptation, something about him made her bones hum. Like someone had struck a tuning fork against her soul and it hadn’t stopped vibrating since. That soft resonance? It terrified her.

He wasn’t dangerous because of his size. Or his discipline. Or that voice that moved through her like smoke in her lungs. He was dangerous because he looked at her too closely. She’d always felt safe on the outside of the rez, manipulating other people’s lives and feelings but keeping her own hidden away. She’d never felt threatened that someone might realize her ploy, and that Bear might have the ability made her feel too vulnerable. Her scars were buried deep, and she had no desire to allow anyone close enough to unearth them. She wouldn’t allow it with him either.

She’d spent years exiling herself from anything that looked like belief, faith, or sacred ground. Bear’s feet were planted in all three. He belonged to something she’d walked away from. As a result, her relationships were mostly with neutral men, short-lived, with her ending things before they got too serious.

The urge was almost overwhelming, powerful. To touch such a man…but if she got too close? If she reached for him? What she left in the past would be the least of her worries.

Her jaw tightened. Focus, wí?ya?.

Her gaze flicked to camera twelve. Lobby entrance. Then camera four. Elevators. Normal traffic.

Wait—

She froze. Two men. Civilian casual. But it wasn’t their clothes that caught her eye. It was the way they moved. Tactical. Shoulders squared. Eyes scanning. Feet light. One luggage case each. Rolling, nondescript. Too small for tourists. Too precise for accidents.

Every instinct screamed. Something was wrong.

She straightened, voice clipped but calm. “Elevator group. Cameras four and twelve. The two with cases.”

Her security liaison, Ricardo Lopez, BOPE attached, turned his head. “You see something?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Those two.” She tapped keys fast, pulled the angles wide.

Ricardo narrowed his eyes. “Good instincts. You want to intercept?”

“Yes. Now. Quietly. Detain, don’t confront. Call the floor leads and alert their teams. I want BOPE on standby at the service entrances.”

The other analysts shifted, tension crackling.

Zorro stood near the hotel’s lobby entrance, leaning casually against the polished marble wall. The briefing had been predictably tedious, and he was eager to get back to the BOPE compound in about three hours, gear up, and kick ass with his team. He felt the need to reconnect, to feel anchored. Pulling out his phone, he grinned faintly as he tapped out a quick message to Everly.

Survived Joker’s endless briefing. I think I deserve a medal just for staying awake. He waited briefly, picturing the slight upward curve of her mouth as she read it. Another thought came, playful and just provocative enough to make her roll her eyes. So, have you decided what you’re wearing to our date tonight? Nothing…or nothing?

He chuckled softly, shaking his head at his own audacity. She’d definitely have something to say about that. He could practically hear her voice, gently exasperated yet quietly pleased.