Page 46

Zorro, Migs, and Sanchez stood out of sight near the banks of elevators. Guests screamed, ducked, scrambled for exits until the exits vanished.

Men in black tactical gear swept in from every entrance, automatic weapons raised, precision drills executed with sickening speed. They stopped the fleeing crowds cold, barking orders in Portuguese, Arabic, English.

He wanted to take the fight to them, but there were way too many men, and he was still unarmed. The BOPE guys looked at him, and he could see the same impulse in their eyes. The mean herded everyone toward the ballroom.

His mouth went dry. “Fuck,” he muttered. His eyes swept the far wall and froze. Metal chains clamped tight across the doors. Devices, small, rectangular, wired with too much purpose , had already been attached to the hinges. Explosives.

A hotel full of hostages. Every exit sealed and rigged to blow.

Everly .

No. He shut that down hard. Focus.

He looked down at the DS agents, bent and checked pulses.

Regret filled him—there was nothing he could have done to save them.

Everything happened so fast, and they were dead where they fell, blood pooling into the polished stone.

With practiced efficiency, he stripped both their sidearms and ammo, tucking one of the Glocks into the waistband of his jeans, slipping the ammo into his pockets. He gripped the other one.

“We’re outgunned here,” Zorro said. “Regroup with us.”

Sanchez gave a single nod, jaw tight. “We’ve got your six.

” Migs had already pushed the elevator button.

Zorro kept his eyes everywhere, tense for any sign they’d been detected, watching the way the insurgents moved, how they secured the perimeter, where they’d set up observation. He didn’t like how precise it was.

The elevator doors opened miraculously untouched. They piled in.

Zorro hit the button for the eighth floor. The doors slid shut. The momentary silence inside felt surreal. Zorro exhaled through his nose, releasing and checking the clip, every second pounding with one thought.

Everly. Family. Get to the team. Move. Ding . They reached the floor. The hallway was quiet. Zorro led the way, clearing with the pistol up, methodical, professional. Migs and Sanchez flanked him, rifles high and tight, scanning both directions.

He stopped at Everly’s door and knocked. Waited. Nothing. No answer. No footsteps. Just silence, and the thud of his own pulse. Everly’s silence had never scared him before. Now? His inside felt like torn flesh.

Joker’s door was propped open.

Zorro burst through and found Joker standing in the center of the room, calm, waiting.

“You’re the first,” Joker said simply. “We’ll wait for the rest of them.” He nodded to the two BOPE guys.

Another ding down the hall.

D-Day emerged, eyes sharp, immediately searching for Helen. He looked around the room, spotted Zorro, gave a curt nod. “Lobby’s crawling. I took the service stairs up.”

Blitz stepped inside, hand tight around Bree’s hand. Seconds later, Buck stepped in, panting, eyes wild. His voice cracked. “Maritza?”

Joker shook his head. “Not yet.”

Then came Professor, quiet, deadly, unreadable, and Gator right behind him, eyes like stone.

Zorro stood back for half a second. Just watched them. His team.

His brothers.

Forming around him like a wall of muscle and purpose and loyalty.

Still…Everly.

The thought kept beating behind his eyes.

He clenched the pistol tighter. “She didn’t get the text message,” he murmured, more to himself than anyone.

Helen came inside, and D-Day went to her, wrapping his arms around her. “Babe…he said softly. “I would have torn this place apart.”

“I’m all right, but there are so many people wounded. Hurt. We can’t?—”

“We’ll address everything in a moment,” Joker said. After five minutes, when no one else came inside, Joker sighed. “Let’s break this down. Pippa is off-site, and she and Izzy are safe.”

Gator chuckled and looked at his watch. “The moment she got the Avalanche warning, my wife started for the hotel.”

“The hotel exits are crawling with tangos,” Blitz said.

Both Bree and Gator laughed softly. Bree looked at Gator. “Izzy doesn’t need a door, my love,” she said

With Gator finishing for her. “My wife makes her own door.”

Five minutes later, she stepped inside, breathless, her hair a windblown mess. Gator swept her into a tight hug. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing yet, but we’re damn glad to see you.”

She smiled at Joker. “I might be doing security for a fashion show, but I figured you could use my Shadowguard expertise. Pippa is safe, but worried,” she said, letting go of Gator.

Joker’s expression evened out. “It’s carnage out there.

” She looked at the BOPE guys. “They took out the entire BOPE security detail.” She took a hard breath.

“Even the surveillance van. They had to have insider knowledge to know where to target.”

Migs bowed his head and leaned against the wall. Sanchez folded down on the bed. “Most of them are wounded,” she said, her eyes blazing with sympathy and anger. Sirens sounded in the distance. “Emergency services have been called in.”

“Where’s Bear?” D-Day asked.

“They’re hitting the summit,” Zorro bit out. “Bailee–”

Joker pulled his cell, then listened. He tucked the phone inside his back pocket, his face carved in stone. “You’re dead on, Z. Bailee’s on the run upstairs,” he said, voice low but lethal. “She got a text message out to Bear before they jammed the signal.”

The room went still.

“Carlos Braga, Brazilian intelligence, flipped. He executed the guards in the command center and on the floor. Bailee barely escaped but she’s trapped. Bear and Flint are going after her.”

The silence shattered.

Everyone spoke at once, cursing, pacing, throwing out half-formed plans and snarled fury.

“Enough!” Joker barked. The room snapped into silence.

“Bear and Flint are solo,” he said, his voice iron. “We’re going to rectify that situation, but first we get organized. No one flies blind.”

Zorro couldn’t stay still.

He paced hard, every step radiating tension, hands flexing like he wanted to wrap them around someone’s throat. His family. Everly. His team. They were out there . He couldn’t hear them. Couldn’t reach them.

That was killing him.

His body shook with restraint, rage held together by threads.

He wanted to slam out of the room, grab his shit, and mow down anyone between him and the people he loved.

But Joker turned toward him before he could move.

“LT—” Zorro started, his voice ragged. “I got a text from my sister after the briefing. My family’s up at the pool. Javi and the girls went for snacks two floors below.”

Joker lifted one hand. “I know what’s on your mind. All of you.”

He looked around the room, gaze steady, voice going low and lethal.

“But first, we understand the situation. We figure out how to save as many lives as possible and then we end this. No questions. No quarter.”His jaw clenched. “We fuck them up.”

The room quieted to a low hum of assent. Controlled fury.

“Who has intel I need to hear?”

Zorro stepped forward, jaw tight. “They were in the hotel to intercept the man we saw at the compound,” he said, nodding toward Migs and Sanchez.

“When he saw them, he reacted. Two more joined him. I warned BOPE, but they opened fire before we could get ahead of it.” He exhaled sharply, rage flashing through the restraint.

“This is Alvorada Negra, Black Dawn. Batista is not dead. One of the men in the elevator was Leandro.”

Migs swore under his breath.

Zorro continued. “I recognized his face. The target’s not the summit. It’s BOPE. Tactical, but personal. They’re trying to humiliate them. Undermine Brazil’s elite.”

“If Batista’s here,” Professor said darkly, “Duarte’s here too. That bitch doesn’t miss.”

Migs unhooked the radio from his belt and handed it to Joker. “We still have active BOPE channels. You’ll be able to reach Captain Leite.”

Joker took it with a nod. “We’re thankful for your assistance.”

Migs gave a grin, sharp and boyish despite the blood on his knuckles. “Being in the fight with you guys is a dream come true.”

Blitz stepped forward. “They forced everyone into the ballroom, LT. Exits are chained. The doors are rigged with explosives.”

“I can clear them,” D-Day said, already calculating. “If we eliminate the guards.”

Helen’s fingers tightened slightly. Not fear, something steadier. She’d seen what her husband could do, back in the Philippines. Though the dread was real, so was her belief in him.

D-Day glanced at her and nodded once, his expression fierce. “I want to go with you to see who I can help.”

“How did I know you were going to say that?” D-Day said as he pulled her close.

“That would have worked,” Buck said, voice tight, “except they’ve stacked civilians against the exits.

Each Black Dawn guy’s holding a hostage.

We take them out wrong and we set off a chain reaction.

We don’t know who has the detonator.” He paused.

His voice cracked. “It could even be remote.” He exhaled roughly.

“Maritza, Julia…and Everly…Zorro’s family.

I’m not going to stand around while they’re in danger. ”

It landed like a gut punch. The silence that followed wasn’t empty. It was heavy with love and fury . Their missing members and Zorro’s family.

Bree spoke up, calm and matter-of-fact. “I can get inside the ballroom. Let them take me hostage. They’ll have to unlock the door to push me in.

I’ll get the lay of the land. If the guy with the detonator’s in there, I take him out.

All I need is an earpiece, my new hot pink bikini, and a beach bag. ”

Blitz’s response was immediate, visceral. “Like hell you will.”

She turned toward him, gaze steady. He met it…barely.

His voice came rough. “It’s one thing to stand beside me through this. It’s another to walk in alone.”