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“Yes,” I confirmed. “Both of us, along with the Montgomery brothers, help to finance and plan the operations.”
As she turned her head to look at me, I could see surprise and astonishment in her gaze as she asked, “Hudson, Jax, and Cooper are involved, too?”
I nodded. “They signed up a little before we did. Wyatt jumped on board right after he was discharged, and then I volunteered when I got out after he told me about it. We’re the only organization left that has the scale and size to do almost any rescue without government involvement. But our continued existence relies on secrecy.”
She shook her head slightly, like she was still letting the information sink in. “How did Last Hope end up coming to my rescue? How often do you and Wyatt have to trudge through jungles to bring hostages home? God, do you know how incredible all of this sounds? I know you’re telling me the truth, but it all seems so unbelievable. How many filthy rich men are willing to step into dangerous hostage situations?”
I grinned. “Just the ones who had already done it many times in the military, and the five of us don’t usually carry out missions ourselves anymore. In fact, we all decided not to because our faces are recognizable, and we have plenty of volunteers who are willing to work in the field. We mostly do strategic planning and backup from headquarters.”
“You came and rescuedme,” she pointed out.
I shrugged. “It was personal, and we needed a helicopter pilot who could fly at night and move into a very tight space. Do you really think we were going to leave your fate to someone else, Savannah? Wyatt and I have known you for most of your life. In your case, Torie was worried when you didn’t get back to San Diego on your target date, so she went to Marshall. We stepped in because you were considered a missing person, and neither government was ready to come off that stance. Last Hope knew differently, but Marshall’s sources aren’t necessarily people the government would see as credible. None of us have any issues with his information. Marshall has never been wrong or let us down when we needed something. Unfortunately, we were certain that you couldn’t wait for the governments to figure everything out on their own. So we moved as soon as Marshall had a good location on you. We all decided the operation would be more covert if it was just me and Wyatt, but everyone cared about your safety, Vanna, especially Torie, but Cooper and his brothers volunteered their services, too.”
I saw her swallow hard before she said, “I had no idea about any of this, so I’m still in shock. So Torie knows?”
“She does now, but she didn’t until recently,” I told her. “After recovering from her kidnapping, she decided to investigate some rumors she’d heard about Last Hope while she was working for the FBI. When she finally tracked down Marshall, she volunteered her services as a translator. Soon after that, she discovered that Wyatt and I had been part of Last Hope for years.”
“Torie is a volunteer, too? How is that possible if your volunteers need to be previous special forces?”
“Recent policy change,” I explained. “No one except ex-special forces can run field missions, but Marshall decided to start relaxing that rule when it came to special services. Jax’s wife, Harlow, was a weather specialist in the military. She was the first exception. Torie’s skills as a translator are valuable, so Marshall signed her up, too.”
“Wait,” she mumbled. “I thought Harlow said she and Jax were getting married on Valentine’s Day when I met her at Torie’s wedding.”
I smirked. “You’re right, thatwasthe plan. But Jax got impatient and they ran away to Vegas instead. Since Harlow wasn’t all that thrilled about a bigger wedding, I’d say she encouraged the whole thing.”
The event had been so spontaneous that the immediate family and friends had barely gotten there on time for the wedding. Wyatt and I had cut it close, and we had private jets at our disposal.
“What about Hudson and Taylor?” she asked curiously.
“Oh, they had their wedding as planned in October,” I shared. “A lot has happened since Torie’s wedding.”
“I guess,” she said wistfully. “I went out of the country several times after Torie got married. We were going to catch up as soon as I got back to San Diego. Is Taylor part of this organization as well?”
“As of right now, no,” I told her. “Taylor is just finishing her doctorate and working as a geologist for Montgomery Mining full-time. She’s already told Hudson that she wants to be an advisor as soon as her doctoral studies are completed.”
“An advisor?” she questioned. “Is that a volunteer?”
“Not exactly. She couldn’t mention it before, but Taylor was a Last Hope rescue. She and Harlow were in the same hostage situation while they were working out in the field in Lania for Montgomery Mining,” I explained. “Sometimes previous captives want to be involved in Last Hope after they recover. Who knows more about how to get through that recovery process than a previous hostage? We have some great advisors who are volunteers, but some are previous rescues, too. The trauma of being kidnapped extends way beyond physical recovery. Essentially, those advisors are there for aftercare. We also have some professionals, like counselors and physicians who know about Last Hope but keep our secret.”
She was silent for a moment before she spoke again. “Are you telling me that you have an entire network set up to care for all of a victim’s needs?”
“Yes,” I said simply. “That network gets more complete every year. That’s one of the biggest reasons we’ve been able to fly under the radar. We can’t force anyone into treatment they don’t want, but we haven’t had anyone betray our existence yet.”
“So, does the government know about Last Hope? You said Torie heard about it from the FBI.”
“Officially,they don’t know we exist. But yeah, they know. I think Marshall was so well respected when he was a special forces commander that nobody in the government wants to pull the plug on this operation. We try not to step on their toes when it’s something they’re willing to handle. In return, they pretend they’ve never heard of us. In all honesty, we’re pretty sure we get unofficial tip-offs from them sometimes when there’s nothing they can do, but we can’t prove it.”
She rubbed her temples distractedly as she said, “God, this is all so crazy. Taylor and Harlow never mentioned their kidnapping for obvious reasons. Even though I’m an investigative journalist involved in foreign affairs, I never heard a peep about the organization.”
“We like to keep it that way,” I replied honestly. “None of us are in it for the recognition or notoriety. We think what we do is important. We fill in a gap that needs to be filled. Hopefully, no one will ever hear about what happened to you, either. We went with a cover story since you’d already been reported as a missing person, and the authorities had apprehended and imprisoned your captors.”
“I’ll do whatever you want,” she answered immediately. “I wouldn’t ever want to jeopardize the existence of Last Hope. They saved my life. You and Wyatt saved my life. Torie did, too, since she’s the one who took my disappearance to Marshall. You were right. The government wheels were turning too slowly. I would have died out there in the jungle before they even realized I was kidnapped. God, it’s possible they never would have figured it out.”
“I promised you I’d be truthful with you,” I said carefully. “Time wasn’t on your side, and we knew it. If you hadn’t gotten treatment…”
Fuck!I didn’t even want to think about what could have happened if she’d remained a prisoner for even a few more days.
“I would have died of sepsis,” she finished softly. “Do you think I don’t know that? I knew I was slowly dying, Chase. Most of my hopes of getting rescued were already gone. I owe Last Hope, you, Torie, and Wyatt more than I can ever possibly repay.”
