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“My name is Tex Keegan, and I’m trying to get a hold of Casper. Is he there?”

Edge blinked in surprise. He knew about Tex.

Everyone did. He was also aware that Casper had contacted him about the guy in Turkey—Osman, he thought his name was.

The man who had threatened Laryn. But he hadn’t thought much about her situation since arriving on the destroyer, where he assumed she was safe.

“No. He’s on a mission.”

“Fuck.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Edge asked, stopping in his tracks. He could see Chaos turning toward him with a questioning look on his face and immediately put the phone on speaker, so his friend could hear whatever it was Tex needed to tell them.

“Right, so…I suppose I should ask why you aren’t on that mission with him, but at this point it doesn’t matter.

Altan Osman? The man he asked me to look into?

That guy is bad ne ws. And to answer Casper’s question, yes, he’s a threat to Laryn Hardy.

A huge fucking threat. He has the power to get to her pretty much anywhere—including on your naval base. Where is she?”

Edge’s blood ran cold. “She’s onboard the MH-60 with Casper and Pyro.” He explained what happened, how both his and Casper’s choppers had malfunctions with their FLIR.

“That was no malfunction,” Tex said. “The man has connections. It’s how he learned Laryn might be available to hire.

How he got her phone number without her giving it to him.

He works for the highest levels of the Turkish government, and they’re very determined to get their military up to the same standards as other, more powerful countries.

“I’m positive he’s got people on his payroll who work on that destroyer.

I’ll look into money trails as soon as we hang up, but I’m guessing at this point, it’s moot.

What’s done is done. Given what you’ve told me, I’m guessing Osman paid someone for intel about Laryn and your mission.

That person probably sabotaged your choppers in a way that would necessitate Laryn jumping onboard and riding with them.

Osman isn’t stupid—he’s crazy smart, actually.

While there’s no way he could guarantee she’d insist on going, or being ordered to go with the chopper, the bottom line is that’s exactly what he wanted, and it’s what he got. This is not good. Not good at all.”

Edge had a feeling when Tex said something wasn’t good, it really meant they were royally fucked.

“You need to tell Casper not to land under any circumstances. I have no doubt Osman has boots on the ground, that he’s ready and willing to do whatever it takes to get his hands on Laryn.

Casper needs to get their asses back to the ship, and she needs to be locked down.

I mean it, Edge—no contact with anyone other than you and your team, because there’s no telling who Osman has in his pocket. ”

“That’s not going to be easy. Laryn isn’t going to want to sit on her ass when her choppers need maintenance,” Chaos said, speaking for the first time.

“Who’s that?” Tex asked impatiently.

“Chaos,” Edge said.

“Well, would Laryn prefer to be a guest of the Turkish military for the rest of her life, forced to break the oaths she’s made to keep any and all intel about our military and the technology in our birds to herself?”

“No.”

“Contact Casper. Let him know. I’ll continue to try to unravel threads on my end and find out who he’s paying for intel and to sabotage the choppers.”

“You really think someone onboard is working for him? And that they disabled the FLIR on the slim chance that Laryn would go on the mission? That’s a huge leap.

If the control tower wasn’t on their asses to get their asses moving, if the SEALs hadn’t needed an extraction ASAP, no one would’ve ever allowed Laryn to stay in that chopper. Especially Casper.”

“That’s exactly what I think happened. And is that level of pressure to take off normal?”

Edge huffed out a harsh breath. Now that Tex brought it up, he realized it wasn’t normal at all.

“Right. That’s what I thought. I don’t care what you’re interrupting—get a hold of Casper and tell him the CliffsNotes version of what I just told you. He has to protect Laryn at all costs.”

“Even at the cost of those SEALs’ lives?” Edge asked.

Tex was silent a moment, then he whispered, “Fuck. Contact him. I’ll be in touch. Keep me updated with what’s happening.”

The line went dead, and Edge put his phone back in his pocket as he looked at Chaos.

They shared a deeply concerned look between them, before Chaos turned and headed straight for the radio at the front of the room. Edge was right on his heels .

As they approached, they realized that while they’d been talking to Tex, the shit had hit the fan.

Two injured SEALs had been separated from their team, and Casper and Pyro had volunteered to extricate those men.

Buck and Obi-Wan were already on their way back to the ship with the other injured SEALs, so they could get immediate medical attention.

The entire mission, from the Night Stalkers’ perspective, had gone to hell.

They were too late. Casper and Pyro weren’t responding. They’d obviously already landed the chopper and were probably in the middle of attempting to extricate the SEALs. But the big question…what was Laryn doing?

With Tex’s words ringing in his ears, Edge held his breath, hoping against hope that he’d hear one of his friends reply any second now with the good news that the SEALs had been rescued and they were on their way back to the ship.

“Casper, this is Chaos. Come in,” his fellow pilot said, continually trying to get in touch with their friends.

Listening intently for any sign of Casper and Pyro’s return to the chopper, Edge jerked violently when the sudden sound of gunfire echoed throughout the ready room.

Then the line went dead.

Edge’s heart sank.

It seemed unlikely, and improbable that Osman would have managed to put people in place at the exact right spot to be able to snatch Laryn…but somehow, Edge knew that’s exactly what had happened.

Osman had done the impossible. Edge had no doubt he’d managed to follow through with his plan, and Laryn was now in the hands of the Turkish government…or at least one particular man, who seemed determined to get any and all information out of her that he could possibly get.

Chaos continued trying to get a hold of Pyro or Casper through the radio, but the line was totally dead.

They had no idea what was happening there in the mountains or if their fellow pilots, the SEALs, or Laryn were all right.

All they could do was wait for intel. From Tex.

Hopefully from Pyro and Casper. From someone. Anyone.

No, that wasn’t all they could do. They could get to their chopper, hope like hell one of Laryn’s fellow mechanics had been able to fix their FLIR, and get their asses in the air.

“I’ve got this one,” Pyro said as he lifted the obviously critical SEAL over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

Casper didn’t bother responding, simply wrapped the second SEAL’s arm over his shoulder and grabbed him around the waist.

The foursome began to hobble back toward the chopper. Unfortunately, he’d landed farther away than he would’ve liked from where the SEALs were holed up waiting for extraction.

When they heard something to their left, both the SEAL under his arm and Tate grabbed their pistols and shot in that direction.

Shit, shit, shit. Nothing about this mission was going right. From the fucking FLIR malfunctioning, to the asshole yelling in his ear to hurry up and take off, to Laryn being on the chopper, to them having to land and both him and Pyro having to get out of the chopper to extract the SEALs.

He was going to have some serious words with Laryn when they got back to the ship.

Both about how the hell the FLIR could’ve gotten fucked up and her insisting on accompanying them on the mission.

He could admit that without her there to fix the FLIR a second time, Buck and Obi-Wan would’ve been fucked.

Without their night-vision, Casper wouldn’t have been able to provide fire power from the air.

His thoughts were irrational, and he knew it.

They were a result of the panic he’d felt at having her in this situation.

Fear for her safety. He certainly didn’t want to leave her while he went to help Pyro, but didn’t feel as if he had a choice.

He couldn’t sit there and listen as one of his best friends was in danger and certainly couldn’t leave those SEALs to die.

But he’d left Laryn . Alone. In the middle of enemy territory with only his sidearm for protection. None of this fucked-up situation was her fault.

He was practically dragging the almost-unconscious SEAL back toward the chopper when he heard a sound that made his blood run cold.

Automatic gunfire.

Laryn!

While they’d been busy extracting the SEALs, someone had obviously circled around to the helicopter.

Kicking himself for being so stupid, Casper wanted to drop the man in his arms and sprint toward their landing site.

But he couldn’t leave this man behind. He might have his own wife and family back home.

Feeling torn, and more terrified than he ever remembered being before, Casper moved even faster in the direction of the chopper.

Just as he and Pyro arrived in the clearing with the SEALs, the sound of an engine starting up to the north echoed in the otherwise suddenly quiet night.

“Laryn!” Casper yelled, knowing it was stupid to bring so much attention to his location, but fuck it.

There was no response.

Casper placed the SEAL on the ground and without checking with Pyro, ran toward the helicopter, his weapon drawn, ready to kill anyone who dared touch his woman.

And yes, Laryn was his . He’d figured that out the second he’d had to take off with her sitting behind him in that chopper.

The fear he’d felt in that moment had been so out of the ordinary, it could only be because it was no longer simply his life at stake.

It was the life of the woman who’d somehow managed to burrow into his heart.

He understood Nate perfectly now. All too well. He’d known from the start that Josie was his. It had taken him longer, but now Casper had no doubt that Laryn was the woman he was meant to spend the rest of his life with. Have kids with. To laugh and argue with for as long as they both lived.

“Laryn!” he called out again, to no avail.

Without thought, he leaped into the back of the open chopper. It was a stupid thing to do. Whoever had been shooting earlier could’ve been waiting to ambush him.

But the chopper was empty…and shot to shit.

The silence fully registered then. The rotors were no longer spinning. And from the looks of the instrument panel in the beam of the pen light he held up, the MH-60 wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The chopper Laryn had worked so hard to get up to speed, to make safe to fly, to outfit with all the bells and whistles he and his fellow Night Stalkers needed to perform their dangerous missions…had been taken out in less than a minute by automatic gunfire.

“Son-of-a- bitch !” he seethed, turning. He didn’t care about the chopper, it was just a hunk of metal.

Laryn was gone.

Whoever shot up the helicopter had made it impossible to follow the vehicle that left the area—the one that had surely taken Laryn.

Grabbing the backup radio clipped to his flight suit, Casper quickly called for assistance.

He was all business while he spoke with the person on the other end, summing up the situation and letting him know the SEALs were in critical condition and needed immediate extraction.

With a lump in his throat, he also informed the person on the other end of the line that one of his staff had been taken hostage.

Laryn wasn’t a US soldier anymore, but she was working for the government.

Not only that, but she had knowledge they surely wouldn’t want getting into the wrong hands.

Getting her back was a matter of national security. But for him? It was the difference between living the rest of his life as a broken and lonely man, or living the life he truly felt he was meant to live…with Laryn at his side.