Page 12

Nate

I was out the door before the second scream faded.

Siena was right behind me.

“I’m coming with you,” she said, breathless.

“No. Stay put.”

“She’s my sister .”

I turned, grabbed her shoulders, and locked eyes. “I need you to be alive for her. If something happens to you, she has no one. You want to help? Stay safe. Guard the others. I will bring her back.”

Her eyes filled with tears, but she nodded. “Please find her.”

“I will.”

Axel handed me his backup Glock. “You want backup?”

“Not yet. If I’m not back in twenty, you come after me with hell in your hands.”

He nodded once.

Then I vanished into the trees.

The forest swallowed me whole. Moonlight filtered through the canopy in broken streaks, but I didn’t need it. My eyes were locked on the direction the scream came from. My ears tuned to every sound. My pulse had slowed—SEAL calm. Predator still.

Something moved ahead.

Soft. Quick. Darting.

I followed.

Branches whipped against my arms. A root nearly took my ankle, but I kept going. Breathing steady. Quiet as death.

Another cry echoed through the night—closer now.

I paused beside a thick tree trunk, crouching low. That’s when I heard it.

Voices.

Men. Two of them. One laughing, the other cursing.

“She keeps fighting me,” one said in Italian-accented English. “Little brat scratched me.”

“You want me to hit her again?” the other asked.

My vision narrowed.

Rage, pure and cold, slid through my veins.

Not on my watch.

I crept closer, inch by inch. The girl was tied to a tree, hands bound, blood on her lip. She looked like Siena, but younger. Fiercer. Her eyes blazed even as her whole body shook.

One of the men turned, a cigarette dangling from his lips. That was his last mistake.

I surged out of the dark like a ghost.

Two shots.

One in the knee. The other in the shoulder.

The man dropped like a stone, screaming.

His buddy spun, raising his weapon—but I was already there. I slammed into him, drove my elbow into his throat, twisted his wrist, and disarmed him in one smooth move. He went down gasping, and I left him that way.

I dropped to my knees beside the girl. “Hey—hey, it’s okay. I’m Nate. I’m a Navy SEAL. Your sister sent me.”

Her eyes widened. “Siena?”

“She’s safe. Waiting for you.”

I cut the ropes with my knife and pulled her into my arms.

“I got you,” I whispered.

And I meant it.

I carried her through the forest, the adrenaline still thick in my blood. She clung to me like a lifeline, whispering over and over, “You really came.”

“Damn right I did.”

Axel met us halfway, gun raised, eyes scanning the trees. When he saw the girl, he nodded. “Told you. Predator mode.”

“Let’s get her inside.”

Back at the lodge, Siena ran to her sister and broke down. The reunion gutted me in the best way. It reminded me why we do this—why we fight.

And why I have to get back home.

Because one day, I want someone to run to me like that.