Chapter 2
Raine
My boots hit the hangar floor with a wet slap.
Soaked. Again.
I dropped the helmet onto a folding table and peeled off my gloves, fingers trembling from adrenaline and cold.
The flood had swallowed another road, and we’d pulled two more kids from a partially submerged school bus.
I hadn’t eaten since yesterday, or was it the day before, and my muscles ached from the last rappel, but none of that mattered.
We got them out.
“Cap!” Logan’s voice cut through the noise. He jogged across the bay, rotor wash still tugging at his flight suit. “Got a situation.”
I didn’t slow down. “If it’s about me going back out, I’m fine. And for the last time, stop calling me Cap—I’m your sister, call me Raine. Besides, I’m no longer in the service.”
“What does it matter what I call you? Anyway, it’s not that.” He caught up, eyes narrowing. “Command’s flying in reinforcements.”
I stopped. “We don’t need more bodies. We need better coordination. And dry gear. I’m starving.”
Logan’s shrug didn’t match the tightness in his jaw. “This isn’t coming from me. Higher up requested him personally.”
Him?
Something twisted in my gut. “Who?”
He pulled off his gloves, shoved them in his pocket, and met my eyes like he was bracing for impact.
“Adam Stoker.”
The name landed like a punch.
I laughed once, but there was no humor in it. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I wish I were.”
My hands curled into fists. “Why would they send him?”
Logan tilted his head, voice dropping. “Figured you’d want to know before he walks in.”
Too late.
Bootsteps echoed across the hangar. I didn’t turn around. I didn’t have to.
That voice—I’d know it anywhere. Confident. Careless. Untouchable.
“Permission to enter the disaster zone, Captain?”
I swallowed hard, forced my face blank, and turned.
There he was.
Adam Stoker. Broader shoulders. A little scruff. Same damn smirk, just a bit older.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered.
His eyes met mine. Steady. Unflinching. Like he didn’t remember—or worse, like he didn’t care.
“Nice to see you too, Carter,” he said.