Page 31 of Rogue Hope (Hope Landing: New Recruits #4)
Seven years ago, Zara had sworn never to be in the same room with Finn Novak again. Now he moved silently around the cabin’s small kitchen, clearing their dinner plates.
No wasted motion, no unnecessary words. Just another op—except it wasn’t. He’d kept his distance since helping her to the couch, circling the small space like a sentry maintaining perimeter.
She tracked him over the rim of her mug. New scar along his jawline. The slight hitch in his step—evidence of injuries poorly healed. His fingers, once steady enough to disarm explosives, now twitched occasionally when he thought she wasn’t looking.
“You’ve changed,” she said quietly.
“For sure.” No elaboration, no defensive explanation—just simple acknowledgment.
Deeper lines around his eyes suggested experiences she knew nothing about. The set of his shoulders carried a different kind of confidence—less arrogant, more grounded.
“Paris broke something in me,” Finn continued unexpectedly, his gaze fixed on some middle distance. “What I did to you ... it made me look inside. Trust me, I did not like what I saw.”
The rare vulnerability in his admission caught Zara off guard. She had spent years imagining his betrayal as calculated and remorseless—not as something that had fractured him too.
“So you’ve found the Lord,” she said cautiously, the words feeling strange on her tongue.
Finn’s expression shifted subtly, a complex mixture of surprise at her interest and uncertainty about how to respond. The comfortable silence between them stretched as he visibly considered his answer.
“It wasn’t dramatic,” he said finally. “No blinding light or voice from heaven. Just ... a moment of clarity in the absolute darkest point of my life.” He paused, seeming to search for the right words.
“After Paris, after what I’d done to you, I moved away from the dark side.
Not working for criminals … not being a criminal …
was great, but it wasn’t enough. I decided to go after Cipher myself.
I figured maybe if I took him down, I could find some kind of redemption. ”
She stared at his broad back. “You went after Cipher solo?”
Finn froze at the sink, water running over his hands. He shut it off, wiped his palms methodically on a dish towel, and turned. “You sure you want that story now?” No challenge in his voice. Just a question.
She set her mug down, ignoring the protest in her shoulders, and settled deeper into the couch. “Absolutely.”
He dropped into the chair across from her, unconsciously reaching for the wooden cross hanging from the leather cord around his neck. His thumb traced its edges—a gesture so automatic it had to be habit.
“It was two years after Paris. I’d managed to escape the Agency hit squads and Cipher’s wet work hires.
Ended up in Damascus chasing a lead. I was bleeding out in the basement of some ancient church,” he said, voice rough.
“Femoral artery. Slapped a tourniquet on it, but”—he shrugged—“clock was ticking.”
His gaze drifted to the window, seeing something far beyond the glass.
“The extraction team I hired had clearly bailed.” He grunted, smiling grimly. “I knew I shoulda hired the Nigerians, but the Egyptians worked for less. Guess that’s what I get for cheaping out.”
Zara remained silent, reading the data points written in the lines of his face.
He twisted the cross back and forth. “Anyway, I’m staring up at this old crucifix, blood pooling under me, and all I can think about is Paris.
You. Funny what blood loss does to your head.
Suddenly I’m seeing every suspect organization I’d taken money from, every compromise, every bad decision I justified as ‘necessary’. ”
He laughed—a short, humorless sound. “Started talking to the ceiling. Not praying, just ... talking. Told God if I didn’t bleed out on that floor, I’d try to undo the damage I’d done. Not just to you. To everyone.”
His thumb traced the cross again.
“Three hours later, a local man found me. By rights, he should’ve left the suspicious foreign combatant to die. Said later something made him check that particular basement that night.”
He met her eyes directly. “It wasn’t some dramatic light-from-heaven moment like you hear about. Just lying there, thinking about who I’d become. Who I wanted to be instead.”
Silence stretched between them, punctuated by night sounds filtering through the cabin walls.
“I believe you,” Zara said finally, the words coming out stronger than she expected. “Don’t know what that means yet. But I believe you.”
Something shifted in his expression—a loosening around the eyes, a tension released. He nodded once.
“Thanks,” he said simply. “More than I expected.”
Zara straightened, grimacing as her muscles protested. “We need to go deeper on Harrison. Fast. Even if he’s not involved, someone’s clearly dangling him as bait. Either way, he’s the lead we need to follow.”
“Agreed.” Finn leaned forward, instantly switching gears. “I’ve got a couple thoughts on that. Hear me out.”
She nodded for him to go on.
“Singapore’s our play,” he said.
She raised her eyebrows. “That’s out of left field. Explain.”
“Shen Feng.”
Right.
She pressed a hand to her cheek. She definitely wasn’t firing on all cylinders if she’d forgotten about Feng. The legendary asset knew Harrison. And the rest of the old-guard at the Agency.
“If Reynold’s got skeletons, Feng knows where they’re buried. Or who buried the ones intended to frame him,” Finn added.
“But Singapore.” She shook her head. Taking off halfway around the world wasn’t the smartest move at the moment. She calculated contingencies. None of them appealed. “Bringing the team would blow everything.”
“I’m with you on that. Cipher could penetrate your system again,” Finn agreed. “We loop them in, we could expose Feng and telegraph our next move.”
“Plus put my team at risk. You’re right. We have to assume all channels are compromised.” The weight of isolation settled on her shoulders. Seven years with her team—her foundation, her family—and now she had to go it alone.
Finn’s voice dropped. “Your peeps won’t like it.”
“Understatement.”
She reached for her secure phone. Not a convo she was looking forward to. Might as well get the fireworks over with now. She dialed.
Ronan answered immediately. “What’s the plan? You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “No huge breakthroughs yet. I just wanted to tell you Finn and I are chasing down a lead. Solo.”
The silence stretched long enough that she checked the connection.
“Nope,” Ronan finally said. “That’s not how we operate, and you know it.”
“Cipher could penetrate Knight Tactical’s systems again, Ro. I’m not dragging you all into a trap.” She kept her voice even, authoritative.
“And you’re not diving in alone. We’re already in this, Z. All the way in.”
“We’ll maintain phone contact. That’s the one system Cipher can’t hack. I’ll keep you informed at every step. Besides, I’m counting on you to save the day if I need it.”
“So we’ll go small. Just me and Axel. That leaves the rest of the team to pull our fat out of the fire. Plus the OG crew. They’re due back from Dubai in ten hours.”
“That’s a great backup plan. But Finn and I need to check this out first.”
“Negative, Khoury.”
“Ro, either you agree, or I leave my locator at the safe house.”
Another simmering silence, then: “Timeline?”
“Seventy-two hours max. After that, full response.”
“Keep your beacon active,” he ordered, professional despite the obvious tension. “And Z—watch your six. You’re not alone, no matter what you’re pulling.”
The call ended. When she looked up, Finn was watching her, understanding written in the set of his shoulders.
“All good. Now it’s on us,” she said, pushing herself to her feet, unable to hide the wince as her knees protested.
Finn nodded once. “Then we make it count.”
Zara crossed to the cabin’s small bedroom, pausing at the doorway. “0500 wake-up. We’ll finalize prep before transport.”
She hesitated, one hand on the door frame. A dozen statements formed and died before she settled on a simple nod. “Night, Finn.”
In the dim bedroom, she eased onto the mattress without bothering to change. Her body demanded rest, but her mind raced through operational variables—Singapore routes, contact protocols, extraction contingencies. Anything to avoid the truth lurking beneath her calculations.
She stared at the ceiling, listening to Finn moving quietly in the other room. The steady, methodical sounds of a professional preparing for deployment. Familiar. Unsettling.
The truth waited somewhere in Singapore with Shen Feng.
She rolled onto her side, curling around the hollow ache in her chest that had nothing to do with her disease. What terrified her wasn’t the potential danger ahead, but the realization that her heart was once again in play where Finn was concerned.