Page 19

Axel

T he jungle was thick with heat and silence—the kind of silence that made your spine itch.

Axel crouched behind a crumbling stone wall, sweat dripping from his temple as he scanned the compound through his rifle scope. Two guards paced near the entrance, their rifles slung loose, their movements slow and lazy. Complacent. Stupid.

Good. That made this easier.

Frasier’s voice crackled softly in his earpiece. “Two tangos by the gate. Confirm visual.”

Axel clicked once in reply. Confirmed.

The missing U.N. doctor was somewhere inside that ramshackle cluster of tin-roofed huts, possibly being held with a group of villagers taken for leverage. The warlord running this area was as unstable as the weather system Lark was probably chasing by now.

He hadn’t heard from her in two days. Not since that last text:

Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Just chasing a little wind.

I didn’t like it. Not the vagueness. Not the silence. Not the way it scraped down my spine when I was already on edge.

Focus, Martin.

I signaled to Max—go time.

In perfect sync, the Golden Team moved. Raven and Taylor flanked left, and Tag and Rush took the right. Nate and I breached the center with silent efficiency. Suppressed shots dropped the guards before they even had a chance to turn their heads.

Inside the compound, everything exploded into motion—screams, gunfire, panicked voices in a language I didn’t recognize. I moved like a ghost, clearing each hut with ruthless precision, heart pounding in time with each step.

I kicked in the door of a corrugated shelter and found her.

The doctor. Mid-thirties, bleeding from the temple, arms around two terrified kids.

“U.N. medical?” he asked.

She nodded, voice cracking. “They said they’d kill the kids if anyone came.”

My jaw tightened. “Not today.”

I slung my rifle, scooped up one of the kids, and motioned for Nate to grab the other. “We’re getting you out.”

As we ran for exfil, chaos erupted behind us—shouting, a fire, more gunshots. The warlord wasn’t going down without a fight.

But I didn’t look back. I didn’t need to.

I had a promise to keep.

Get the team out. Get the doctor and the kids to safety.

I had get home to the woman who never left my mind—not for one damn second.