Trigger checked his ammo quickly above us.
“They brought charges.”
My heart dropped.
Hersh moved closer to me instinctively.
His body shielding mine again.
Always shielding mine.
Rook finally slid the brass key into the lockbox.
The click echoed loudly inside the barn.
Everybody watched.
Even the gunfire outside seemed farther away for one suspended second.
Rook lifted the lid slowly.
Inside sat:
A thick black ledger.
Several flash drives sealed in plastic.
And photographs.
So many photographs.
Rook picked one up first.
Lightning flashed through the cracks again?—
illuminating his face.
And for the first time since I’d met him?—
Commander James “Rook” Callahanlooked shaken.
“What is it?” Blaze asked.
Rook handed him the photograph silently.
Hersh stared at it.
Then his entire body went rigid.
“What the hell…”
Fear curled through me instantly.
“What?”
Slowly—
Hersh turned the picture toward me.
