40. Wynn
WYNN
Two Days Later
General Robert Kane died in the mountain.
Project Fate died before him.
Meridian did not disappear as quickly.
Organizations built on fear rarely did.
They fractured first.
Within six hours of Wynn’s financial archive and Kane’s offline registry reaching journalists and independent authorities, the first names became public.
Military commanders.
Intelligence officers.
Government officials.
Judges.
Private contractors.
Men and women who had accepted money to bury massacres, authorize illegal operations, manipulate elections, and turn civilians into weapons.
By the following morning, warrants had been issued in four countries.
Arrests followed.
Some members of Meridian ran.
Others attempted to erase their records.
A few denied everything.
It didn’t matter.
The evidence survived.
Payment records.
Operational orders.
Biological inventories.
Recorded conferences.
The original commands that had sent Ghost’s team to silence Dr. Arslan.
The truth survived.
Fate didn’t.
I stood beside the window of a private hospital room outside Geneva and watched snow fall over the mountains.
For the first time in days, no one was shooting at us.
No timer counted down.
No biological unit waited beneath a city.
No voice threatened Lucas through a radio.
Behind me, he slept.
The doctors had removed two pieces of metal from his shoulder and closed a wound along his side that he hadn’t bothered mentioning until he collapsed beside the aircraft.
He had carried me away from a helicopter wreck with shrapnel buried in his body.
Because of course he had.
My thigh had required twelve stitches.
The cut near my hairline needed six.
Compared to everyone else, I had been lucky.
Elena survived.
Kane’s bullet had passed through her shoulder without striking an artery. Roth hadn’t left her side since surgery.
The helicopter pilot had been found alive near the wreckage.
Samir was stable.
Captain Aras’s family was safe.
Boone’s gunshot wound had required surgery. His ankle was fractured, and several ribs were badly bruised.
According to Russ, Wren had already threatened to handcuff Boone to a hospital bed when he returned home.
Ghost remained in critical condition.
But alive.
Everyone Kane had tried to erase had survived him.
Almost everyone.
The door opened behind me.
Adam entered.
A bandage crossed his temple. One sleeve of his shirt had been cut away to accommodate the dressing around his upper arm.
He held two cups of coffee.
“Is that real coffee?”
“No.”
“Then why did you bring it?”
“Hope.”
I accepted one.
It tasted terrible.
I drank it anyway.
Adam looked toward Lucas.
“How long has he been asleep?”
“Four hours.”
“That may be a record.”
“He woke up twice to make sure I was still here.”
Adam’s expression softened.
“He spent six years doing that.”
“What?”
“Waking up and looking for you.”
My throat tightened.
“He never talked about our marriage.”
“He didn’t have to.”
Adam moved toward the window.
Below us, two unmarked vehicles waited near the hospital entrance.
“We confirmed Kane sent the report declaring our deaths.”
“Why?”
“To prevent anyone from searching for us if we disappeared at the facility.”
“So we’re alive again?”
“Officially.”
“That’s convenient.”
“It involved a surprising amount of paperwork.”
I smiled.
“What happens to the Brave?”
“We go home.”
“And after that?”
“We find out how much of our command structure Meridian compromised.”
“Do you trust anyone?”
“My team.”
“Even after Kane?”
“Especially after Kane.”
Adam turned toward me.
“Kane assembled us because he believed he could control us.”
“He was wrong.”
“Yes.”
“He underestimated all of you.”
“No.” Adam looked toward Lucas. “He underestimated what one man would do for the woman he loved.”
Lucas shifted in the bed.
His silver eyes opened.
“You talk too much.”
Adam smiled.
“You’re welcome.”
“For what?”
“Keeping Wynn alive while you destroyed half a mountain.”
“I destroyed very little of it.”
“Hawk has photographs.”
“Fabricated.”
“Roth has video.”
“Foreign propaganda.”
Adam laughed.
The sound felt strange after everything we had survived.
Wonderful.
Human.
He moved toward the door.
“The aircraft leaves tomorrow morning.”
Lucas looked at me.
“Is Wynn cleared to travel?”
“I’m standing right here.”
“I noticed.”
Adam opened the door.
“The doctor cleared both of you.”
“Ghost?” Lucas asked.
“He regained consciousness twenty minutes ago.”
Lucas sat up too quickly.
Pain crossed his face.
I moved toward him.
“Slow down.”
“I need to see him.”
“He asked for you,” Adam said. “Both of you.”
Lucas looked at me.
I set down the coffee.
“Let’s go.”
Ghost’s room was at the end of a guarded corridor.
Hawk stood outside it.
Russ sat against the opposite wall with dried blood on his boots.
Boone occupied a wheelchair beside him, one arm braced against his wounded side and his injured ankle elevated.
“You look terrible,” Lucas said.
Boone stared at the bandages covering him.
“I’m going to assume you’re medicated.”
“Not enough.”
Russ stood and embraced Lucas carefully.
Then he turned toward me.
“You gave us a scare.”
“You dropped out of an aircraft.”
“Controlled descent.”
“It crashed.”
“It stopped descending.”
Boone grinned.
I had missed them.
Even while running for our lives, I hadn’t understood how completely these men had become part of my world again.
Lucas reached for the door.
Hawk stopped him.
“He doesn’t know about Minser.”
Lucas’s hand fell.
“How much does he remember?”
“Everything until Garrison Eighteen.”
“Does he know Fate is gone?”
“Yes.”
“Who told him?”
“Leyla.”
“How did he take it?”
“He asked for proof.”
“That sounds like Ghost.”
Hawk looked toward me.
“He may blame himself.”
“For Minser?”
“For all of it.”
Lucas entered the room.
I followed.
Ghost looked smaller against the white hospital bed.
Machines surrounded him.
Bandages covered his chest and neck.
His eyes opened when we approached.
He looked at Lucas first.
Then me.
“You’re alive.”
“So are you,” Lucas said.
“Apparently.”
Lucas sat beside the bed.
“We destroyed Fate.”
“Leyla told me.”
“Kane is dead.”
Ghost closed his eyes.
Relief moved across his face.
“And Minser?”
Lucas remained silent.
Ghost opened his eyes again.
“He was at the facility.”
“Yes.”
“Did he help Kane?”
“No.”
A long pause followed.
“He shot Kane,” Lucas said.
Ghost stared at him.
“Kane shot him.”
“Is he dead?”
“Yes.”
Pain filled Ghost’s eyes.
Not surprise.
Not forgiveness.
Grief.
The kind reserved for someone who had once been a brother.
“He gave us access to Aegis,” I said. “Without him, we wouldn’t have reached Kane.”
Ghost looked toward me.
“He threatened you.”
“Yes.”
“He used your marriage.”
“Yes.”
“He almost released Fate.”
“Yes.”
“You’re defending him?”
“No.” I moved beside Lucas. “I’m telling you the truth.”
Ghost turned his face toward the window.
“He made his choices.”
“All of them,” Lucas said. “Including the last one.”
“Did he say anything?”
“He said to tell you he remembered.”
Ghost’s eyes closed.
“The oath,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
A tear moved down the side of Ghost’s face.
He didn’t wipe it away.
Neither did Lucas.
“What was the oath?” I asked.
Ghost continued looking toward the window.
“People before power.”
Four simple words.
The promise Kane had broken.
The one Minser remembered too late.
But not so late that it meant nothing.
Ghost closed his eyes.
“Thank you for telling me.”
Lucas rose.
Ghost caught his wrist.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“The warning.”
Lucas looked down at him.
“I signed the divorce papers before the tag arrived.”
“But you might have gone after her.”
“Yes.”
“And my warning stopped you.”
“For three weeks,” I said.
Both men looked at me.
“I waited three weeks before filing the papers with the court.”
Lucas’s expression changed.
“You waited?”
“I kept hoping you would come.”
Pain filled his silver eyes.
“I wanted to.”
“But you believed going after me would put me in danger.”
“Yes.”
Ghost’s grip weakened around Lucas’s wrist.
“I kept you apart.”
“You were trying to keep Wynn alive,” Lucas said. “But I still made the choice to let fear control me.”
“And I made the choice to leave instead of demanding the truth,” I said.
Ghost looked between us.
“Are you going to make the same mistake again?”
“No,” Lucas and I answered together.
A faint smile touched his mouth.
“Good.”
His hand released Lucas.
Within seconds, he was asleep again.
We left the room quietly.
The others had moved down the corridor to give us privacy.
Lucas stopped near the window.
Snow covered the hospital grounds.
Beyond them, the mountains stretched beneath a gray winter sky.
“We signed the divorce papers in our kitchen,” he said.
I looked at him.
I had placed the documents on the table.
He had read every page without speaking.
Then he signed.
No courtroom.
No judge.
No final argument.
Only two people who still loved each other and no longer knew how to stay married.
“Yes.”
“You took off your ring.”
“So did you.”
“No.”
My breath caught.
“What?”
Lucas reached beneath the collar of his hospital shirt.
A thin chain appeared.
My wedding ring hung beside his dog tags.
“You kept it.”
“You left it on the kitchen table.”
“I couldn’t take it with me.”
“I couldn’t leave it there.”
“So you put it on your chain?”
“Yes.”
“For six years?”
“Every mission.”
Emotion closed my throat.
“You let me believe you stopped loving me.”
“I never stopped.”
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“You should have trusted me.”
“I know.”
“You should have come after me.”
His silver eyes held mine.
“I know.”
I touched the ring.
“What happens now?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer surprised me.
Lucas always had a plan.
A route.
A target.
A way out.
But this wasn’t an operation.
It was us.
“I know what I want,” he said.
“What?”
“You.”
My heart turned over.
“Not the woman I thought I had to protect. Not the wife waiting at home while I disappeared into missions I couldn’t explain.”
He took my hand.
“You. The journalist. The woman who walks into danger because someone has to tell the truth. The woman who argues with commanders, crawls through burning buildings, and sends evidence to twelve people because she assumes eleven of them might be compromised.”
“Only eight.”
“What?”
“I believed eight might be compromised.”
“That’s comforting.”
I smiled through the tears.
“What are you asking me?”
“Come home with me.”
“For how long?”
“As long as you want.”
“And my work?”
“I won’t ask you to stop.”
Surprise must have shown on my face.
“I hate it,” he admitted.
“I know.”
“I hate the danger.”
“I know.”
“I hate that you believe a press credential makes you bulletproof.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“You walked into an aid convoy near the Iranian border.”
“That was one time.”
“You were kidnapped.”
“Technically, we were all kidnapped.”
“Not helping.”
I laughed.
Lucas’s thumb moved across my hand.
“I won’t ask you to become someone else,” he said. “But I will ask you not to disappear into another war zone without telling me.”
“That seems fair.”
“And if you’re in danger, you call me.”
“What if you’re deployed?”
“I answer.”
“What if you can’t?”
“Then you call Adam.”
“He’s very bossy.”
“I learned from the best.”
I leaned into him.
“I don’t want to live in war zones anymore.”
He became still.
“Because I asked?”
“No. Because I’m tired of running toward other people’s wars while avoiding my own life.”
“What will you do?”
“Investigative reporting. Meridian left thousands of victims who deserve to have their stories told.”
“That still sounds dangerous.”
“It probably will be.”
He sighed.
“But I won’t do it alone.”
His eyes searched mine.
“Neither will I.”
Lucas removed the chain from his neck.
He slid my wedding ring into his palm.
For one breathless second, I thought he would kneel.
Instead, he closed my fingers around it.
“I’m not asking you to marry me today.”
“Why not?”
“Because the first time, I asked after three months.”
“You were impatient.”
“I knew.”
“So did I.”
“This time, I want to build something before I ask you to trust it.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“That might be the most romantic thing you’ve ever said.”
“I had a speech.”
“Was it longer?”
“Much.”
“Then I’m glad you skipped it.”
He touched my face.
“Come home with me, Wynn.”
I looked at the ring in my palm.
Then at the man who had carried it for six years.
“Yes.”
His mouth covered mine.
The kiss held no desperate goodbye.
No countdown.
No fear that one of us might not return.
Only a beginning.
This time, we would build it together.