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Echo team ran through the woods beside the cabin as a gunshot rang out. Charlie team and Novak were still five minutes away. Aaron refused to think about that shot or the fact Hope might already be dead. He’d watched her attempt to flee on the monitor. Watched her try to hide. Watched an injured Colin Leighton track her down in the woods and then a figure who was probably Leech come out to meet them before heading casually back into the house.

They’d parked on the other side of the rise, as close as they could get without being seen from the cabin. It had seemed to take forever to get here, and there was no time to waste.

Hope was trapped with two very dangerous individuals.

“Alpha team take the front. Omega take the back. I’m with Omega. Let’s not be seen until we’re ready to enter the house.” He spoke quietly through the comms.

They headed into position. Chances were that Leech planned to use the helicopter that a pilot had started to warm up to escape—and that meant leaving out the back.

Seth Hopper squeezed his arm. He’d been in a similar situation a few weeks ago when Zoe had been kidnapped. “We’ve got this.”

Aaron nodded even though his mouth felt like dirt.

“Kincaid, I need you to go secure that machine. Secure the pilot in the hangar for questioning, and then get your ass back here.”

Kincaid took off without argument, and the rest of them got into their stacked formation near the back door. Seth Hopper, Cas Demarco, Ryan Sullivan, Sebastian Black and himself. Men he trusted with his own life. Men he had to trust with something far more valuable—Hope’s.