Chapter 23
EMILY
Three weeks later, Dozer called.
She was at her desk when she heard Rampage's voice change in the kitchen, a subtle shift to operational, the frequency she'd learned to recognize. She saved her work and waited.
He appeared in the doorway.
"Dozer," he said.
"The east?"
"Ghost picked up a new thread. Different network, connected to the same group. They're moving on it next week." He leaned against the doorframe. "He's asking if I want in."
She looked at him steadily. Read everything in his face. He was a former special forces operator, the kind of man who'd been built for exactly this, the decade and a half of being pointed at a problem and trusted to solve it with whatever force necessary.
"Do you want in?" she asked.
"I want to know what you think."
"That's not what I asked."
He paused. "Yes," he said. "I want in."
“Will you be helping people? Like the one they found?”
“Yes, baby. The idea is to go dismantle the trafficking ring and help bring home their victims.”
"Then go." She held his gaze. "Rampage. Go."
"You'd be here."
"I'd be here," she agreed. "With Makenzie and Nicole and Savannah and Irish and Savage and a hundred-pound dog who loves me more than I think he loves his owner." She tilted her head. "I think I'll survive."
"I could be gone a week. Maybe more."
"Then call me every night." She paused. "And bring me something when you come back."
He looked at her. "What do you want?"
She thought about it. "Surprise me."
His expression did the warm shift. "Okay."
"And Rampage." She stood from the desk and crossed to him and put her hand flat on his chest. "You go do what you're built and trained to do, and you come home safely." Her voice was steady. "That's the deal."
He covered her hand with his.
"That's the deal," he said.
She went up on her toes and kissed him. He let her and then took over, and when they broke apart she pressed her forehead to his jaw for a moment.
"I'm not scared," she said. "I just want you to know that. I know you are the best at what you do and will come home safe to me.”
"I know you aren’t."
"I trust you to come back."
"I will."
She stepped back and looked at him. He was her Daddy, her person, the wall that was on her side.
"Go call Dozer," she said.
He went.
She stood in the doorway of her office and listened to his voice in the kitchen and looked at the mountains through her window and thought about what Chloe had said.
Recognizing something you didn't know you'd been looking for.
Yes. Exactly that.
She went back to her desk.
Her phone buzzed. Madison in the group chat, sending a link to a new book release with seventeen fire emojis.
Emily opened it.
Added it to her wish list.
Went back to work.