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“I will,” Maya said with a smirk. “That’ll give you a front-row seat when I take that bitch down.”

“Me too,” Xander added. “I’ll wear one. This could make for our new favorite Sunday night movie.” He threw a grin at Aria.

After Cobra raced off to get the body cams with Charlie chasing him and Yasmin hustling after him, Xander used the computer mouse to display different angles of Beatrice’s house.

I swallowed hard. Aria, Maya, Xander, and Ryder didn’t seem at all worried about Beatrice rigging that house to blow sky high.

I would take my job in the sky over that any day, but my stomach twisted as I thought of Ladybeetle upside down on the bottom of the ocean.

After Thomas Wexler had riddled our patrol boat with bullets, it took the government months to replace Coral Guardian with our fancy new boat.

But an amphibious plane was as rare as hen's teeth in Australia.

Who knew how long I would be grounded before they secured another plane for me.

“I’ll go get changed,” Maya said, sliding back on her chair. “Don’t want to get my favorite jeans dirty.”

She practically skipped from the room.

Her wedding was just four weeks away. While most brides would be obsessing over flower arrangements and menu items, Maya was gearing up for a raid on a mass murderer’s hideout.

“I’ll go help her,” Zac said, grinning like a lovestruck teenager .

Jaxson sat beside me, his hand twitching like he was still frustrated that he wasn’t chosen to go with them. I wasn’t surprised that he’d volunteered. That was who he was, a hero, ready to jump into danger, no matter the risk.

But I was glad he wasn’t picked. We’d had enough danger in the last couple of days to last a lifetime.

I reached for his hand, squeezing it enough to say I’m glad you’re staying .

He looked down at me, and a sad smile tugged at his lips as he squeezed my palm to his.

Aria’s phone rang, and she rolled her eyes. “It’s Blade.” She answered.

We all went quiet, straining to hear his voice on the other end.

“No,” Aria said. “You’re supposed to be resting.”

Through the phone, I couldn’t make out Blade’s words, but his furious tone was loud and clear.

Aria huffed, then sighed. “We found out who B is.” She pulled the phone away from her ear as Blade launched into a string of curses that would’ve made my stepmom furious. “Beatrice Holloway, Roger Newton’s secretary.”

The swearing grew louder.

“Calm down before you burst your bloody stitches.” Aria shook her head. “We’ve got her address. It’s a house at the edge of the Everglades. Yes, I know I can’t stop you. Don’t make me regret this, Blade. Just meet us at Border Force HQ, okay?”

She ended the call and dialed again. “Tyler Kingsley, please,” she said when someone picked up. “Tyler, it’s Aria. Listen, we’ve got a situation.”

She summarized what we knew about Beatrice Holloway and that she suspected the house could be rigged. She paused, and the anguish on her face told me what she was going to say next.

“And, Tyler? We think Watts might be dirty.”

The silence that followed felt damn heavy.

“I wish I was,” Aria replied, to whatever he’d said. “Let Lacey know, and I need you and Lacey to keep an eye on Watts. I’m curious to see if he learns of our raid before it becomes public knowledge. ”

“I’ll dig into Watts’ family history,” Piper whispered. “There has to be something.”

Cobra bounded into the room with Charlie nipping at his prosthetic leg and Onyx chasing after Charlie.

“Okay, Maya, step up here, madam.” He pointed at an empty table and tipped out the contents of a box, spilling out all sorts of surveillance equipment.

As Cobra showed her how to fit the body cam, a screech of tires outside added to the madness.

“That will be Levi,” Aria said, ending the call. “Someone go tell him we’re in here.”

“I will,” Ryder said, marching out of the room.

Levi’s voice boomed down the hallway. “Where is everyone?”

“Jesus,” Yasmin cried. “If that won’t wake Jayden, nothing will.”

Levi strode into the gymnasium, and Billie raced to keep up with him, pushing the pram.

“Come on, guys, I thought you lot would be ready by now.” Levi grinned like a kid at Christmas. “We got an evil bitch to catch. Time to fly.”

“Hang on, Wasp,” Aria said, using Levi’s codename. “I wanted to show you the target. Cobra, can you . . .?”

Cobra bounded over and brought the satellite image back up on the wall-mounted monitor.

Aria pointed at Beatrice’s house. “Check out the location. I need you to tell us if you can land?”

“I can land anywhere, you know that,” he said, but as he leaned in, the cockiness faded from his face.

Ryder snapped his fingers. "What about Indiana's boat? She's got a helipad and a Zodiac we could use to slip in by water."

Alpha Tactical Ops had given Indiana an old Border Force vessel a few months back, after her salvage boat Rhino was riddled with bullets and sank.

Last I'd heard, she and Tyler had made the new boat their home, living aboard full-time.

With any luck, they would be anchored somewhere along the coast.

"Perfect," Aria said, lifting her phone. "I'll get Tyler to track her down. "

While Aria made the call, Maya, Ryder, Levi, and Xander loaded up with weapons and body cams. They wore the calm focus of people who'd done this a hundred times before.

This was what they lived for.

"Indiana's bringing her boat in closer," Aria said, pocketing her phone. "The rest of you keep digging through those boxes. We need more intel on Beatrice, and we have to figure out if Watts is dirty."

She nodded at her team. "Let's roll."

Levi caught Billie's face between his hands. "Love you, babe."

She leaned into his touch. "Be careful."

"You know me . . . careful is my middle name."

Billie gave him an exasperated look that said she knew better. He just smiled and kissed her forehead before leaning over the pram.

"Daddy's gotta go catch some bad guys. Be good, buddy." He pressed his kiss-touched fingers to his sleeping baby's cheek, then straightened. "Time to move."

The group headed down the hallway and out to the side paddock, where the chopper had landed the day before.

Maya and Zac paused to share a quick, fierce hug while the others strode to the helicopter and climbed in. The rotors began to spin, their rhythmic thrum cutting a frantic beat through the afternoon stillness.

"Wait for me!" Maya shouted, bolting toward the chopper like a kid chasing an ice-cream truck. She leapt aboard just as the blades reached full speed.

As the chopper lifted off, its downdraft kicked up a flurry of dust and dry grass. I reached for Jaxson’s hand, and he pulled me closer.

"They’ll be fine," I said, leaning into him.

He nodded as his gaze remained fixed on the rising chopper.

"I know. They’re a damn good team." He turned us toward the front steps again. "And I’m certain Beatrice didn’t risk taking that body from Angelsong just to take it to her known residence."

"Come on, guys. We’ve got work to do," Parker called, striding up the front steps. As the rest of us followed, the lingering hum of the helicopter faded into the distance.

As the hours slipped by, everyone seemed to be on edge, though I couldn’t decide if it was because of the evidence we were sifting through, or the unsettling silence from Aria and the team.

"Is it just me,” I said, breaking the silence, “or is it weird that we haven’t found anything more about Beatrice in all these boxes?"

"Not just the boxes," Cobra said, his frustration evident. "There’s nothing on the web either. Other than her employee records at the wharf, I’ve found nothing, not even tax returns."

"She probably destroyed any trace of herself from the orphanage forty years ago," Parker said, leaning back in his chair. “Especially as she was an employee. She could have had access to any rooms.”

"And she’s done a hell of a job erasing any more recent evidence, too," Cobra added, shaking his head. "No driver’s license, no passport, no car, nothing."

"She’d have fake documents," Piper said, shrugging. "Just like the ones she used for those trafficking victims. Remember that passport for Alice Turnur we found in the shipping container with the bodies? It was fake."

"Yeah, and a damn good one," Cobra said, his tone grudgingly impressed.

"Speaking of Alice Turnur," Whitney said, looking at Jaxson, "maybe I should process the samples I took from that body you found. It might give us some clue as to who she really is. She could be Alice."

He was probably right. My mind had been constantly circling back to Beatrice’s strange obsession with that body. Whoever the victim had been, she’d clearly meant something to Beatrice. Maybe she was related to Beatrice? A sister maybe.

Whitney ran a hand through his hair. "I could take Eddie’s cruiser and drive the samples to the morgue, rather than wait for the chopper to return. What do you think?"

Jaxson nodded. "Good idea."

"I’ll go with you," Parker offered, pushing his chair back.

"Give me a sec," Whitney said, striding toward the hallway. "I’ll grab the skull and pack it into my evidence kit. Don’t want it rolling around in the trunk."

"Hey, I found another class photo for you," Billie said, handing a faded picture to Cobra. "Class of 1971. "

Cobra studied it as he walked over to the evidence wall. "It’s frustrating they didn’t label these photos with the kids’ names like they do now."

"Maybe they didn’t want anyone?—"

"Now don’t be mad," Whitney interrupted, his voice unsteady as he reentered the gymnasium, cradling his evidence kit like it was made of glass.

"What?" Jaxson’s tone sharpened as his eyes narrowed on his brother.

Whitney winced. "I, uh . . . I forgot I put an AirTag on that body you found near the fountain."

"You what ?" Jaxson barked.

I blinked at Whitney in disbelief.

"I forgot, okay?" Whitney raised his hands defensively. "Ever since those two bodies disappeared last year, I’ve been tagging all the bodies we find in the field."

"Jesus. Why didn’t you tell us sooner?" Jaxson’s voice was edged with irritation.

"We’ve been busy, all right?" Whitney shot back. "But I’ve got a signal. So I know where she took the body."

"Jesus Christ." Jaxson yanked his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll call Aria.”

Whitney turned to Cobra. "Can you pull up the location from these coordinates?"

Cobra’s expression lit up as his fingers flew over the keyboard. "Let’s see where this takes us."

"Shit," Jaxson muttered, his scowl deepening. "Aria’s not picking up."

"I’ll try Maya," Whisper said, dialing her phone.

As the coordinates loaded on Cobra’s screen, the map zoomed in, and a red pin dropped into place. We all leaned closer.

"Maya didn’t answer either," Whisper said, exhaling sharply. "Not surprised though. They’re busy."

I studied the map. "Stanage Bay," I read aloud. "Anyone know it?"

Everyone shook their heads as Cobra switched to a satellite view .

"It’s about a hundred miles north of here," he said, squinting at the screen. "Sixty miles off the Bruce Highway, mostly unsealed roads.”

“It’s in the middle of nowhere," Whisper added.

"Exactly the kind of place you’d bury a body," Jaxson said grimly.

"Try Aria again," I said.

Jaxson dialed, but the call ended in silence. He shook his head. "No answer."

"Looks like it’s up to us." Whisper offered a wild grin.

"I don’t think so," Cody said, attempting to put his arm over her shoulder.

"We don’t have a choice." Whisper stepped back from his embrace. "If we don’t go after her, this doesn’t end." She flicked her hand toward the evidence wall.

Jaxson tried Aria one more time, but when the call went unanswered, he pocketed his phone and turned to us. "We need to do this.” His expression turned to stone. “We need to stop her."

And just like that, the decision was made.

Between us, we had four guns, with Cobra producing two more from his seemingly endless stash. He handed out body cams, insisting that he, Parker, and Jaxson wear them. He also grabbed a couple of photos from the crime scene wall and slotted them into his back pocket.

Jaxson, Whitney, Parker, and I climbed into Eddie’s cruiser with Onyx sitting between me and Whitney in the back seat. Jaxson took the wheel without consulting anyone else.

Whisper, Cobra, Cody, Piper, and Zac loaded into Maya’s RAV4 with Whisper claiming the driver’s seat. I’d been in her souped-up Mazda before, she drove like every road was a Formula One track, almost as crazy as Jaxson.

As we pulled away, Yasmin held Charlie in her arms, and Billie wrapped Jack in a tight hug.

They stood on the schoolhouse steps with their taut faces showing their worry.

But their partners were military ops specialists.

Worry was the price of loving someone who put their lives on the line nearly every day.

As the gravel road blurred behind us and our vehicles kicked up clouds of dust in our wake, cold certainty settled in my stomach.

We were heading toward a known killer. A mass murderer .

A woman who eliminated people without hesitation or remorse.

Her isolated location may be the perfect place to bury a body . . . but it was also the perfect place to set a trap. A trap we were about to charge straight into.

In the rearview mirror, Jaxson’s face was carved from stone. Not a flicker of fear.

Meanwhile, I could barely breathe as my chest tightened with a stack of burning questions I didn’t want to voice:

What if everything we’d survived so far was just the prologue?

What if the real nightmare was still waiting for us?

Was this bravery? Or madness?

It didn’t matter.

We were already in too deep to turn back.