Page 47 of Ground Zero (Lantern Beach Blackout: Detonation #3)

M averick heard the car before he saw it—the careful crunch of tires on the access road, the engine cutting off well before the parking area.

He prayed it was Sheridan and not the FBI or Sigma.

Just through the trees, he saw movement.

It was Sheridan, he confirmed. He could barely see her emerging from her vehicle.

She checked her surroundings, her hand near her weapon. Even from a distance, Maverick could see the tension in her shoulders, the worry etched on her face.

The sight of her caused something to shift in his chest—something that had nothing to do with his injured ribs.

Sheridan moved through the woods quickly but cautiously.

When she finally spotted him, she dropped to her knees in front of him. Her hand went to his face, checking his temperature. The touch was professional, medical, but her eyes . . .

Her eyes held something else entirely.

“You’re hypothermic.” Her voice sounded carefully controlled, but he heard the emotion underneath.

“I’m alive.” He caught her hand before she could pull it away.

For a moment, they just looked at each other.

There were no words for what they’d each risked, what they’d chosen, what was building between them despite the impossible circumstances.

Then professionalism reasserted itself.

Sheridan pulled off her blazer and wrapped it around his shoulders. “Tell me what happened.”

As she helped him toward her car, Maverick filled her in.

“This woman is connected to this somehow, to Sigma. She was in her late thirties, auburn hair, expensive suit. Cold. She knew about my parents, said my father could have chosen differently.” He slumped against the car, exhaustion hitting him.

“She enjoyed telling me how they’re going to frame me for what’s going to happen in Norfolk. ”

Sheridan’s eyes widened. “William found files on Project Election. Your parents were murdered because your father discovered military contractors were creating false threats. The same thing Sigma’s doing now, just bigger.”

“Project Election,” Maverick repeated, the name tasting bitter. “So it’s all connected. Twenty years of lies, and they picked me to take the fall because of what my father knew.”

“We’re going to stop them.” The skin around Sheridan’s eyes wrinkled with both compassion and conviction.

He looked at her—this FBI agent who’d arrested him, who’d risked everything to help him, who was now as much a fugitive as he was.

“Cook knows about Norfolk,” she continued.

“Can we trust him?” Maverick’s voice sounded gravelly, even to his own ears.

“I don’t know. Maybe.” She helped him into the passenger seat. “But right now, we don’t have many options.”

Maverick grabbed her arm before she closed the door. “Sheridan, that woman in the helicopter—she was somebody. Somebody important. I just don’t know who.”

“We’ll figure it out.” She squeezed his hand. “But, Maverick . . .”

“What?”

“What are we going to do? We can’t go back to Blackout. The FBI thinks I’m helping a terrorist. Sigma’s hunting us both. And the attack is happening in less than twenty-four hours.”

He didn’t have an answer.

For the first time since this started, Maverick truly didn’t know what their next move should be.

Sheridan climbed into the driver’s seat and cranked up the heat for Maverick’s sake.

His lips were still tinged blue, and his whole body shook despite her jacket.

She reached into her backseat and grabbed an oversized sweatshirt. “Why don’t you take your shirt off and put this on?”

He didn’t argue. She looked away as he changed.

The sweatshirt was snug but otherwise fit.

“Cook has teams in Norfolk,” Sheridan told him as she pulled onto the road. “But they’re not finding anything because nothing’s happened yet. He thinks I lied to help you escape.”

“You did help me escape.”

“That’s not the point.” She checked the mirrors, watching for pursuit. “The point is they’re not taking the threat seriously enough. They’re looking for the wrong things.”

“I was afraid of that.”

She paused. “There’s something else also. There are kill orders out on you. You’re considered a serious threat right now.”

He drew in a sharp breath. “If you’re with me, they’ll kill you too.”

Something in his voice made her glance over. The way he said it—his words weren’t a warning. They were a plea.

Maverick was giving her an out, a chance to walk away and save herself.

“Sheridan—”

“I know what I’m risking.” She took a turn harder than necessary, emotion making her aggressive. “My career’s already gone. Cook will have my badge by nightfall. But that’s not what this is about anymore.”

“What is it about?”

She felt him watching her, waiting. The truth sat heavy on her tongue.

The truth that somewhere between that tackle on the beach and this moment, she’d started caring about Maverick in ways that had nothing to do with the case. That the thought of him dying made her chest tight with panic.

That she was falling for him, and it didn’t make any sense at all.

But this wasn’t the time. Not when they were running for their lives, not when hundreds of people were depending on them to stop an attack.

“It’s about doing what’s right,” she said instead. “It’s about stopping Sigma and clearing your name.”

“Is that all?”

She gripped the steering wheel tighter. “That has to be all. At least for now.”

“For now,” he repeated.

Sheridan heard the understanding in his voice. He felt it too, this impossible thing growing between them.

Another turn, another empty road.

They were two fugitives on a fairly remote island trying to stop a terrorist attack that no one else seemed to believe was coming.

“We need help,” she admitted. “Real help. Someone with resources, authority.”

“Someone who believes us.”

“Yeah.” She glanced at him again, saw him fighting to stay conscious as his body warmed up. “Any ideas?”

Sheridan hoped he had some since she was fresh out of escape plans.