Chapter 23
Ronan
Location: Mountain Safe Corridor
Lena is sitting up when I reach her.
Wrapped in blankets. Color back in her face. Eyes sharp—tracking me the second I step into view.
She knows.
She always knows.
“It’s over,” I say.
She exhales, relief shaking through her. “He’s gone?”
“Yes.”
She searches my face carefully. “But something else happened.”
I sit beside her, taking her hand.
“I heard a voice,” I say quietly. “From a unit I was told died years ago.”
Her fingers tighten. “And?”
“And if they’re alive…” I trail off.
“They’ll be waiting for you,” she finishes softly.
“Yes.”
She studies me—really looks at me now. Not the protector. Not the feared lieutenant.
The man beneath it all.
“Does that scare you?” she asks.
I think of the mountain.
The vault.
The voice that shouldn’t exist.
Then I shake my head.
“No,” I say. “It explains too much.”
She leans into me, resting her forehead against my shoulder. “Then whatever comes next… you won’t face it alone.”
I wrap my arm around her instinctively.
“No,” I agree. “I won’t.”
Outside, the first light of morning spills over the Alps.
Roscov is dead.
Delta Five is free.
And somewhere in the shadows of a war that never really ended…
My past command just reached out from the grave.