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Rose kept her gaze trained on the rotating hologram, the cave’s glowing labyrinthine maze searing itself into her retinas. Tiny tunnels bled off into nothingness, their paths disappearing into an inky void that promised endless possibilities for getting lost. A shiver raced down her spine, the chill of the unknown settling deep in her bones. She had only ever dived in the open ocean.

This was an entirely different ball game.

She glanced up at the men surrounding the blue-white image. She could have sworn the air around the Wolves crackled with lethal competence. They’d made her feel welcome, but each of them radiated contained violence, the power that came from knowing exactly how deadly you were and never needing to prove it.

And then there was Finn Jones.

He stood apart from the others, his arms folded across his chest, muscles straining against the confines of his t-shirt like steel cables under tension. She traced the lines of his body with an unwilling fascination, hating herself for noticing how his tactical pants hugged his thighs, how his shoulders bunched with latent strength. The universe had a sense of humor, giving the most annoying team member a rock-hard body and the best ass she’d ever laid eyes on.

Ethan’s voice dragged her back to the here and now. “Dragon’s Breath is the world’s largest subglacial lake. It’s not extensively documented, so we’ll be relying on our wits. I want everyone to stay sharp.”

He indicated a pulsing red dot buried in the deepest depths of the cave’s convoluted structure. “The Io habitat is here. As we are all aware, the habitat has been dark for almost seventy-two hours now. There was no emergency transmission or alert. All attempts to reestablish communication have failed, and the shuttle access from the ground is inoperable for reasons unknown.”

Ethan pointed to a slanting line that lead from the surface to the research base buried at the bottom of the lake. A cold knot of dread formed in the pit of her belly. She knew the risks, but hearing Ethan lay it out in such stark terms made it all too real.

Harris fumbled in his pockets, his fingers finally emerging with a pair of half-moon glasses he perched precariously on the end of his nose. He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing as he studied the electronic representation of the Io.

He scratched the side of his nose. “The access shuttle is malfunctioning?”

Ethan nodded, his expression grim. “Power is off and even rerouting emergency power on the surface to the shuttle hasn’t gotten it up and running again.” He gestured toward the hologram, the image rippling under his touch. “The shuttle is locked down within the base. Whatever is causing the problem is within the Io itself.”

Harris’s eyebrows mashed together, his forehead wrinkling as he stuffed his hands deep into his pockets, his shoulders hunching forward. “That shouldn’t happen.”

“Fucking typical. Beakers.” Luca, the one who’d given her the bedroom eyes, harrumphed and folded his arms, his long fingers rattling against his forearms, restless energy pouring off him in waves. He eyed Harris with a narrowed gaze, but Harris, despite the evident softness in his body and the several inches Luca had on him in height, met Luca’s stare head-on.

“Just as well we have all this science to get you down there.” Harris arched an eyebrow at Luca’s scowling face.

Rose suppressed a smirk, a flicker of respect sparking in her chest. There was more to Harris than met the eye, a hard core beneath the unassuming exterior.

Harris tapped his lip with one finger, his brow furrowed in thought. “There must have been a failure in the mainframe, which is statistically impossible, but...” He shrugged, the movement somehow conveying both uncertainty and unease. “Worrying.”

Rose’s mind raced, the word worrying echoing in her head. She had studied the Io's plans obsessively during her journey. The habitat had triple backup systems in place, redundancies upon redundancies designed to prevent exactly this kind of catastrophic failure. There was no scientific reason the shuttle should be inoperable or the comms silent.

Harris leaned forward, his finger tracing a path along Io’s holographic representation. “There are emergency access hatches here and here.” He indicated the lower levels of the habitat, the areas shaded a deep cobalt blue. “As well as a moon pool on the lower level, but that may have been sealed off in an emergency.”

“We can’t tell if they’re operational, but that’s our Plan A.” Ethan’s voice was steady, but an undercurrent of tension simmered beneath the surface. “Our mission is to get access to the habitat, locate and attend to any medical needs of the crew before restoring comms and evacuating the crew and essential data through the repaired shuttle. We are hopeful they are alive.” Ethan’s words hung in the air.

Rose took a deep breath, the scent of sweat and testosterone filling her nostrils. She could do this. She had to do this. Her entire career depended on it.

“What about life support?” Duke steepled his fingers on the edge of the table, his dark skin reflecting the hologram’s blue light.

“Scans show life support is running on backup power.” Cade’s jaw tightened, a muscle twitching beneath the surface. “All crew are electronically tagged, but scans have worryingly come up blank so far.”

Ethan stepped back from the table, his gaze sweeping over each of his men, the weight of his words hanging heavy in the air. “We have to prepare ourselves that there may be casualties. Or worse.”

Thea. Was her sister alive? A maelstrom of emotion surged through Rose. The last time she spoke to Thea they had fought. A wretched argument with no conclusion. Rose closed her eyes briefly. Thea had betrayed her, but still, it had been far from Rose’s finest moment. She sucked in a breath, swaying onto the balls of her feet. Margaret had stipulated that her connection to the base—to Thea—remain classified. The retrieval team didn’t need any complications or distractions from their mission, she’d said.

But looking at this assembled team of formidable men, Rose couldn’t imagine anything short of an apocalyptic catastrophe pulling their focus from the mission at hand. So, what was Margaret’s real end game ?

Her gaze drifted again to Finn. His eyes narrowed as he studied the hologram. Even in the dim light, she could make out the sharp planes of his face, the hard lines of his body. Her teeth pressed against each other. Now, he was a distraction, all right.

“Key tasks will be power restoration, fixing the shuttle, and medical care of the crew.” Ethan nodded in Rose’s direction, his expression unreadable. “Dr. Wyndham is an engineer and will assist us in getting comms and access reestablished, but her primary objective is to secure all research data and ensure it is brought to the surface safely.”

A prickle of awareness danced along her skin. She didn’t need to look to know Finn was watching her. His gaze assessing.

Focus Rose.

She kept her eyes fixed on the hologram, on the pulsing red dot that represented her sister’s last known location. She tried to recall the layout of the habitat, the details she had studied so intently over the last twenty-four hours. Science and engineering labs on the upper floor, residential and supplies on the lower level. But looking at the holographic representation, the whole thing seemed so impossibly far from the surface, a tiny bubble of life suspended in a vast, dark void.

“So we access the cave here?” She gestured at the small notch in the rock poised above the vastness of the lake underneath.

The entrance.

A clipped nod from Ethan. “At the access point, it slants down for almost five feet before terminating in a choke point.” His fingers skimmed where the access thinned to an impossibly narrow line on the hologram, a fragile thread connecting the surface world to the depths below. “Through the choke point, there’s a vertical drop of seven feet to a ledge before there’s another drop of almost fifty feet to the lake itself.”

Fifty feet. Rose feigned disinterest, but her skin was suddenly clammy. She had never been afraid of heights, but the thought of descending into that dark, unknown space made her stomach twist.

“This is not an easy access, and people have died in this cave.” Ethan’s voice was low, almost reverent. “Safety is our number one priority. We will rappel down to the water where we will set up base camp with inflatable rafts and submersible lighting. From there, we will dive to the Io. Liev estimates the dive will be around an hour and a half minimum. He will calibrate the tanks.” He paused, his gaze sweeping the room. “Any questions?”

Ethan looked pointedly at Rose and Harris, his eyes flinty. “My team will have final say on all safety aspects. No discussion. Am I clear?”

Rose nodded in agreement along with Harris, adrenaline pumping through her veins, a heady mix of fear and excitement.

Ethan’s head bobbed with approval. “Good. I like it when everyone completes the mission alive. I’ll be running this op along with Finn, Luca, and Liev. We’ll have medic support from Duke. Nik will be our point man on the surface along with Cade.” He surveyed his team, his expression serious. “As an extra precaution, since we have civilians on this mission, Dr. Wyndham and Professor Harris will each be paired. Luca, you’ll be looking after Professor Harris.”

Luca nodded, his eyes flicking to Harris with a glimmer of something that might have been amusement.

“Finn, you will be responsible for Dr. Wyndham. ”

Whoa. What?

They were pairing her with Finn Jones? She opened her mouth to protest, but the words died on her lips as she caught Finn’s gaze, challenge glinting in his eyes.

“Guess we’re working together, Doc.” Finn’s voice was rough, a velvet rasp that teased at something deep within her, something she didn’t want to acknowledge. He walked around the hologram to face her, his movements athletic and graceful.

“Guess we are.” Rose bristled, her jaw tightening as she forced a polite smile onto her face. Of all the people she could have been paired with. It was him, the man who pushed all her buttons.

“How wonderful.” Finn shot her a lazy grin that made her blood pressure spike.

“Dr. Wyndham?” Harris beckoned her from the tent entrance.

Rose seized the distraction like a lifeline, relief flooding through her as she abandoned Finn at the table. “Excuse me.” She pushed her shoulders back, drawing herself up to her full height as she walked away. She released a trembling breath, her heart pounding as if she’d just narrowly escaped the clutches of a lethal predator.

She repeated a mantra in her head as she left. I am a professional. I can handle Finn Jones.