Page 66 of Rescued By the Alpha SEAL

"Sloane." Logan takes a step closer. "Max died because someone wanted to silence him. Not because you failed him."

"Didn't I?" The words taste bitter. "I let him dig too deep. I encouraged him. If I had just?—"

"Stop." His voice is gentle but firm. He crosses the space between us, close enough that I can feel the heat radiating from his body. "You can't carry that weight forever."

"Watch me try." It comes out sharper than intended.

But Logan doesn't flinch. Instead, he reaches out—slow, telegraphed—and brushes a strand of hair from my face. The touch is light, barely there, but it unravels something inside me.

"Tell me," he murmurs. "What was on the drive?"

I close my eyes. Take a shaky breath. "Everything. Mission logs. Kill orders. A civilian marked for termination because he knew too much." I look up at him.

Pain flashes across his features before he can mask it. His hand drops to his side, fingers curling into a loose fist.

"Blackout," he says, the word heavy between us.

I nod. "The thumb drive... it had details about what really happened. About Granger."

Logan's jaw ticks. He turns away, pacing to the window. His reflection stares back, ghostlike against the glass.

"Thomas Granger," he says finally, voice low and controlled, "was my brother in arms. We served together for years. Trained together. Bled together." He exhales slowly. "I trusted him with my life."

The admission costs him—I can see it in the rigid set of his spine, the way his shoulders bunch with tension.

"What happened?"

He's quiet for a long moment, just staring into the darkness beyond the glass. When he speaks again, his voice carries the weight of years of buried pain.

"We were Navy SEALs. Elite unit. Clean record. Then came Echo-13—codename Blackout." He turns back to me, eyes haunted. "The mission brief said we were extracting a high-value target. Someone running an international weapons pipeline. But when we got there..."

He trails off, running a hand down his face. I want to go to him, to offer comfort, but something tells me he needs space to get through this.

"It wasn't a weapons dealer," I say softly. "It was a whistleblower."

Logan nods once, sharp. "Civilian. No training. No threat. Just... evidence. The kind that could bring down careers. Implicate people in power." His voice turns bitter. "We weren't sent to extract him. We were sent to silence him."

The fire crackles in the silence that follows. Outside, wind moans through the trees like a wounded animal.

"I refused the kill order," Logan continues. "Tried to get him out instead. That's when everything went sideways. Support teamspulled out. Comms went dark. We were surrounded, outgunned, with a civilian to protect."

He starts pacing, energy thrumming beneath his skin. "Granger... he followed orders. While I was trying to clear an escape route, he—" His voice catches. "He executed the civilian. Clean shot. Professional."

My heart twists at the raw pain in his voice. At the way his hands shake slightly before he clenches them.

"But he didn't stop there," Logan says. "He turned on us. Shot me first. Then Caleb. Ryker. Eli. Knox. Asa." His laugh is hollow. "Could've killed us all. Should have. But he didn't. Left us bleeding in the sand instead."

I take a step toward him, unable to stay back any longer. "Logan..."

He shakes his head. "We survived. Somehow. Local villagers found us, patched us up. But by then, the damage was done. The mission was classified clean. Records sealed. Media blackout."

"And Granger?"

"Promoted." The word drops like stone. "Last I heard, he was embedded in the SEAL Team One. Deep cover. Making sure Echo-13 stays buried."

Understanding dawns cold and clear. "That's why he's after me now. The thumb drive... it could expose everything."

Logan turns to face me fully, his expression raw. "He won't stop, Sloane. Not until every loose end is tied off. Not until every threat is neutralized."