The last one down was the first one moving—a tall figure in a dark jumpsuit who hit the ground, shed his chute in two practiced motions, and started across the yard without pausing to check if the others were following. He moved with an unhurried, rolling walk that covered ground faster than it should have, his attention already fixed on the farmhouse.
I’d been told to expect this. Burke had explained it over breakfast—Sterling and six of his people, coming in by air rather than road, dropping onto the property from high enough that they couldn’t be tracked.
I’d nodded along, trying to look like the idea of seven men parachuting onto a Montana ranch on my behalf was something I could process without difficulty.
It didn’t help.
The reality of it—watching seven figures fall from the sky with military precision, land exactly where they’d intended, and then move across the property with clear purpose—made my breathe catch in my throat.
As the figure got closer, I could make out more details—height and build similar to Burke’s, but everything else different. Where Burke was all quick movement and constant commentary, this man—Sterling—moved like he was expending exactly the energy each motion required and not a ounce more.
His face was set in lines that gave nothing away, eyes doing a constant scan of the property as he walked—the barn, the equipment shed, the tree line along the river, the blind corner where the ground sloped away toward the creek.
He reached the porch steps and stopped, looking up at where I stood with Decker and Burke. His eyes found mine immediately and held them without wavering.
It wasn’t the look Gerald’s men had given me—that combination of assessment and entitlement that made my skin crawl. Sterling was reading me like a map—scanning for terrain, not passing judgment, looking for information rather than confirmation.
I held the look without flinching, something in my chest loosening at the contact. I’d spent months being assessed by men who wanted something from me—the job, compliance, the surrender that came with fear—and I knew the difference.
Sterling was not interested in me as a thing to acquire. I was a problem to solve, a situation to manage, a package to protect. The distinction sat differently in my body than I’d expected.
Burke stepped forward, breaking the moment with characteristic directness. “Jasper, Sterling. Sterling, Jasper. The package.”
Sterling looked at me for one more beat—a quick, professional assessment that took in my face, my posture, the fading bruise on my cheek—then nodded once, tight and definitive.
“Jasper,” he said.
Then he was moving past me, already turning toward Decker and Rawley with the unhurried confidence of a man who knew exactly what he was doing and didn’t need to perform it.
“Talk to me,” he said.
I wasn’t offended. I understood exactly what was happening—Sterling had a job to do, information to gather, a property to secure. My feelings about whether he liked me were considerably less relevant than whether he could do what he’d been brought here to do.
I stepped back, giving the men room to work, and watched Sterling’s people deploy across the property. They moved without being directed—each man seeming to know exactly where he was supposed to be and what he was supposed to do once he got there.
One was already climbing the equipment shed roof. He reached the peak, dropped to a sitting position that somehow managed to look both casual and completely alert, and pulled a pair of binoculars from his vest pocket.
Another two were walking the fence line toward the highway, moving with the careful deliberateness of men looking for something specific—a cut wire, a broken post, any sign that the perimeter had been compromised. A third had disappeared into the tree line along the river, his dark clothing making him nearly invisible against the shadows within seconds.
The remaining three were checking sight lines at the barn corners, testing the locks on the rear doors, making the kind of quick, methodical adjustments that spoke of men who’d done this before and knew exactly what to look for.
They worked without speaking, without looking at each other for confirmation, each man moving through his assigned task with the absolute certainty that the others were doing the same. The trust of people who’d worked together long enough to stop needing to check.
I stood on the porch with my coffee cooling in my hands and tried to make sense of what I was seeing: seven people who’d dropped from the sky with absolute precision, who were now securing a property they’d never seen before.
They were here because of me—because Gerald had followed me from Nebraska, because he’d found the ranch, because he’d stood in this yard yesterday and claimed I belonged to him. They were the solution Burke had reached for when things got complicated—the “nuclear option” Rawley had agreed to with visible reluctance.
And they were very, very good at what they did.
I watched Sterling’s team work the property—checking sight lines, securing approaches, moving with the quiet competence of men who’d done this a thousand times—and decided that Sterling being good at his job mattered considerably more than Sterling liking me.
The porch door opened behind me and Decker stepped out again, this time with a phone in hand, eyes doing a quick scan of the yard. He stopped when he saw me, something in his expression softening just slightly.
“They’re good,” he said, keeping his voice low enough that only I could hear it. “The best, actually. Sterling doesn’t take jobs he can’t finish.”
I nodded, accepting what he’d offered without pushing for more reassurance than he could give. “I believe you,” I said, the simple statement carrying more weight than its three words should have been able to.
Decker’s hand came down briefly on my shoulder—not a gesture, just a point of contact—before he turned back toward the house. “We’re meeting on the east porch in five,” he said. “Sterling wants everyone there for the briefing.”
