Chapter 20
Reese sits beside me, cross-legged on my cot.
Her blonde curls are damp from the shower I insisted she take.
Not that you can wash away the smell we’re all cloaked in.
Her eyes are red-rimmed, hollow from tears she’ll never admit to.
She’s been silent for hours. Hell, we all have.
The things the two of us need to discuss seem almost insignificant after standing over a mass grave.
My elbows are braced on my knees, and the satellite phone is pressed tightly against my ear. The phone rings once before the staticky call connects. “If this isn’t life or death, you owe me a beer, Hawk.”
I huff a quiet breath. “Mattis, it’s three a.m. in Chicago. Why the hell are you awake? And so damn chipper.”
“Three Red Bulls deep and trying to finish this project,” he responds far too quickly. His voice is wired, too fast, too alive.
I rub a hand over my jaw. “For the last time, figuring out the code to hack into the NSA is not a project.”
Reese’s wide eyes snap toward me. I shake my head before she can even form the question.
Mattis chuckles through the line, manic and unbothered. “Gotta stay sharp. Look at it as honing my skill set for a future job.”
“Look at it as a one-way ticket to federal prison that I don’t think even we can pull enough favors to get you out of.” I pinch the bridge of my nose.
The incessant running of his fingers over a keyboard clicks through the phone. “Did you just call to lecture me?”
“No, actually. I need your help.”
“What kind of help?”
“Hacking the Pentagon, kind of help.”
The humor fades from his tone immediately, and the faint clicking stops as his voice turns sharp. “What’s wrong?”
I glance at Reese. She’s twisting the hem of her T-shirt around her fingers so tightly that her knuckles are turning pale. I shift my focus back to the phone. “We’re in Zambidia. Still on Reese’s detail—”
“Reese?” His voice ticks up with intrigue. “Like, Reese Reese?”
“Yes. Reese Reese.” I don’t have to look to my right to know that a tiny smile is pulling at her lips. “She was documenting humanitarian reconstruction when she saw something she shouldn’t have. They’ve come once for the evidence. Then again, to kill her.”
“You’re fucking serious?”
“Deadly.” I say the word before realizing what poor taste it is in. “Today, we found an entire village population in a mass grave.”
Mattis goes silent, then exhales, “Christ.”
“Whoever did this wants it erased.” My tone hardens, the soldier and protector in me taking over. “We need the proof before it disappears.”
“Proof,” he repeats, already typing away again. “All right. Drop me the coordinates.”
I rattle them off from memory as Reese’s hand lightly brushes against my thigh.
Her touch is barely there—a whisper of contact—the kind of small, accidental gesture that should mean nothing.
But it feels like everything. The warmth of her fingers against my thigh sends a silent shock through me, not from surprise, but from how natural it feels, how easy.
As if no time has passed at all, as if we were never apart.
After a long moment, Mattis’s voice crackles through the poor connection. “Satellite data has logged movement for the past few weeks, trucks rolling in and out. It all stopped a few days ago. After that? Nothing.”
My stomach tightens. “Define nothing.”
“Like someone flipped a switch. Satellite coverage over that entire grid went dark. No cloud interference. No error code. Just… nothing.”
Reese whispers, “They shut it down.”
I meet her gaze. “That’s not a coincidence.”
Mattis exhales, “Not a chance. Whoever can black out a government satellite has serious clearance levels.”
“No shit.” I’ve seen some of the worst in this world—bodies burned beyond recognition and cities destroyed to dirt—but this feels worse. This is calculated enough that someone is taking great strides to try to cover it up.
Reese leans in closer to the phone. With her voice trembling, she asks, “Can you trace who authorized it?”
“Maybe.” Mattis hesitates. “But if I poke into something that deep, there’s a real good chance they’ll notice. That’s not good for me or any of you. Are you sure you want me digging around?”
“Don’t get caught,” I gruff flatly.
“You’re all heart, Hawk.” Mattis laughs dryly. “Give me a bit. It might take a few hours. Maybe a few days.”
“Mattis—”
“Relax. I’ll call when I’ve got something. In the meantime, the four, I mean five of you, should get the fuck out of there. If you stumbled on what we think you did, this is only going to get worse.”
The line crackles with static, and I vaguely hear Mattis’s request to be safe before the line goes dead.
Reese’s gaze up at me, her eyes soft but searching, as if she’s trying to read the storm brewing in my head. “What if he’s right?” she asks quietly. “What if it’s not some local warlord covering up a massacre? What if it’s the government?”
“Then we’re already in deeper than we should be.”
She pulls her knees up, hugging them to her chest. “They killed them all, Chris. Women. Families. You saw…”
I wrap my arm over her shoulder and pull her against me to comfort her. “Are you okay?” She answers silently, nodding against my chest as the tent falls quiet again. Outside, on the other side of the canvas, someone laughs. It’s normal, casual, like the world isn’t rotting from the inside out.
“Mattis will find something,” I promise. “He’s a little out there, but he’s good.”
Her lips twitch into a ghost of a smile. “You have… um… interesting friends.”
“Occupational hazard.” I lean against the cot frame, staring up at the dim glow overhead, as I drag her back with me.
“He’s one of the best hackers alive and somehow still my biggest headache.
” His recklessness is one of the biggest annoyances in my life—right after Jagger—but I’m thankful every day he’s here to be a pain in my ass.
Reese snorts softly, the sound barely there. It’s the first time I’ve heard her laugh since we stumbled upon the grave. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until now. It’s short-lived, her expression fading quickly. “What if they come after us again?”
“They will.” I regret my brutal honesty when she tenses against me, but she needs to know the truth. “But they’ll have to go through me first.”
She swallows so hard I can hear the gulp. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
I pull her tighter, tucking her snuggly under my arm. She splays her palm on my chest, rolling slightly to rest her cheek against me. My hand brushes hers before curling around it. “You need rest, baby. Get some sleep. I’ll wake you if Mattis calls.”
“Do you think he’ll find proof?”
“If it exists, he’ll find it.” She nods, trying to hide the tremor in her chin. She’s strong, but even steel bends under pressure. I want to promise her that nothing and no one will touch her again. But if I fail, it would be a lie. “Try to sleep.”
Her gaze lingers on me, soft but guarded. “You’ll stay?”
“Yeah,” I whisper. “I’m right here. And one of us will be keeping watch all night.”
She nuzzles into me, and I stroke her hair as her breathing becomes more even. As I stare down at her, her lashes flutter with every minute that passes, and her eyelids grow heavier. We lie in silence until she falls asleep in my arms.
I glance at the flap, the fingers of my free hand brushing my pistol.
The night beyond is still. Too still. I can feel it in my bones.
Left alone with my thoughts, my mind drifts to Mattis, probably staring at over a dozen monitors with his fingers flying across keys. Then, to Reese, sleeping beside me.
She shifts in her sleep with her head resting beneath my chin, the soft rhythm of her breathing grounding me in a way nothing else can.
Even here, surrounded by the darkness and silence that feels ready to break at any moment, she fits against me perfectly.
Like she always did. My arm tightens around her instinctively, and for a moment, I let myself forget the danger waiting beyond the tent.
Her hair spills over her cheek and onto my chest. Tucking it behind her ear, I study the faint outline of her face in the low light.
She’s different from the girl I left behind.
But she’s still perfect. I never should’ve left her.
The years we spent apart sit heavily on my chest—missed moments, wasted time, and the life we could have built together.
If we survive this—if the world gives us that chance—I swear I’ll make it right. I’ll make up for every day I wasn’t there. I’ll give her the kind of peace she’s always deserved, the kind that only exists when she’s in my arms.