Page 53 of Echo: Line

"Tell me I should disappear into witness protection. That I'd be safer away from you." Shifting in my seat to face him. "Kane already planted the idea. Now you're building the argument in your head."

"It's the smart play."

"I don't want the smart play. I want the truth."

Silence. The road unspools ahead.

"Truth is you're safer away from me. Committee wants me dead. Anyone who gets near me becomes a target."

"Or dead."

The bluntness of it lands like a punch.

"So you'd rather be alone. Carrying everything by yourself because that's safer than risking someone else getting hurt."

"You don't understand?—"

"I understand perfectly." My profiler training kicks in. "You're terrified. Not of the Committee. Not of getting killed. Of letting someone in and watching them die because of choices you made. That's the real fear. That I'll become another name on the list of people you couldn't save."

His knuckles go whiter on the wheel. "Stop profiling me."

"I'm not profiling you. I'm seeing you." Leaning towards him. "I'm not running. I'm not disappearing. I'm not becoming another person who left you to fight alone."

"You might die."

"We all die eventually. Question is whether we live first." Touching his arm. "I'd rather die fighting beside you than stay safe and feel empty."

He doesn't respond. Just drives.

An hour later, we turn onto an unmarked dirt road. Follow it deep into forest. The truck ahead disappears around a bend, and when we follow, concrete barriers disguised as natural rock formations appear. A tunnel entrance hidden so well I'd drive right past without knowing.

"Echo Base."

He pulls in behind Kane's truck. Stops. Kills the engine.

For a moment we just sit there.

"Last chance. You can still walk away. Kane will arrange transport. New identity. Safe location. You could have a normal life."

"Don't kid yourself. Any shot I had at normal was left behind in that cabin where I found you."

"Delaney—"

"I want you." The words hang between us. Raw. Honest. Terrifying. "And I want to help take down the Committee. And I'm not backing down from either."

He turns to face me. The vulnerability is there again. Buried under operator training, but visible if you know where to look.

"You're going to get hurt."

"Probably. But I'd rather get hurt fighting than stay safe and feel empty." Holding his gaze. "Let's go inside."

He nods slowly. Acceptance.

We get out. Kane and Willa are already at the entrance—a heavy steel door built into the rock face. Kane punches in a code. The door unseals with a hydraulic hiss.

"Welcome to Echo Ridge."

Following them inside, down a long tunnel cut into the mountain, emergency lights cast everything in harsh angles. Alex walks behind me. Not touching, but present.