Page 38

Cyclone

I barely remembered closing the front door.

One second River was gone, the next I was pacing the living room like a caged animal, my mind running hotter than it had in years.

A ghost op.

Targeting Jude.

Sitting out there in a car, waiting like it was nothing.

No plan yet. No demand.

Just watching.

Hunting.

She stood near the fireplace, silent, arms crossed, wrapped in my shirt. But her jaw was locked, her shoulders tight. She was thinking, calculating. Already halfway back in the field.

I didn’t want her there.

Not anymore.

I stopped in front of her and cupped her cheek. “You’re staying here. With River or someone I trust.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t start.”

“I’m not asking,” I said. “You saw what he is. I know what he is.”

“So do I,” she snapped. “That’s the point. I know how they move. I know how they think. You go in blind, and you’re dead before you open your mouth.”

“Then give me the intel,” I said, lowering my voice. “Give me everything. Every location. Every contact. Every pattern. And then let me go after him.”

“I’m not some asset that needs protecting, Cyclone.”

“No,” I said softly. “You’re not. You’re the only thing in this whole damn world I can’t lose.”

She froze.

I hadn’t meant to say it like that. Not yet. Not when everything was coming undone.

But hell if I was going to take it back.

“You’ve been surviving alone for too long,” I said. “But this— this —you don’t have to do alone anymore.”

Her throat bobbed. Her fingers dug into the hem of the shirt like she needed something to hold onto.

After a beat, she nodded once.

Not a surrender.

A trust fall.

“I’ll tell you everything,” she whispered. “But if something goes wrong—if you get hurt—”

“Then you come drag my ass out,” I said, brushing a kiss across her forehead. “Just like I’d do for you.”

She gave me a watery smile. “Deal.”

I exhaled, finally letting the mission mode click in behind my ribs.

This wasn’t just a recon op.

This was personal.

Whoever that bastard was out there, whatever he thought he could pull—

He had no idea what was coming for him.