“Yes, and I think she wants us to go here,” Buck said, pointing to the western corridor. Hope hit Buck like a punch to the ribs. Wren was still fighting and still thinking of ways for them to get to her. She was trusting them to understand her.
Ghost grinned suddenly despite the tension. “Smart little thing.” Buck’s chest tightened painfully. The possessive thoughts came faster now and felt easier. Like his brain had finally stopped trying to deny what Wren had become to both of them. She belonged to them both now.
Ghost caught the look on his face and softened slightly. “We’re getting her back.”
Buck looked at him, and all he could see was the man who’d stood beside him through every ugly part of his life. The man who somehow understood him without words half the time. The man who loved Wren, too. Buck stepped closer without thinking about what he was about to do. Ghost’s eyes darkened instantly.
“We bring her home,” Buck said quietly.
“Together,” Ghost answered immediately. Emotion lodged hard in Buck’s throat.
Reaper cleared his throat awkwardly from across the room. “I’m real happy you boys are emotionally developing, but we still got traffickers to kill.” Ghost barked out a laugh, and Buck actually smirked faintly.
The war room door opened again. Hulk stepped inside with a woman who looked pale and exhausted. “We’ve got something,” Hulk said.
“Who’s that?” Buck asked, nodding to the woman standing next to Hulk.
“I’m Leah Sinclair,” she said. “I work with Wren at the Northern office when she comes up here to track the wolves. I’d like to help find her. She’s more than just a co-worker; she’s my friend. I think I found something that might help.”
Buck straightened instantly. “What do you have?” he asked.
Hulk dropped a stack of printed satellite images onto the table, and Leah thanked him. If Buck wasn’t mistaken, the big guy actually blushed. “I rerouted through old conservation scans.” Her finger traced a narrow section along the western side of Blackwater Ridge. “There’s an underground drainage tunnel beneath the warehouse.”
Ghost’s grin turned downright feral. “We have a way in.” Buck stared at the maps—at the tunnel and the hidden access points. It was a way inside without touching the explosives. Hope flared viciously inside him.
Leah looked between the two men nervously. “If you go through there, you’ll bypass most of the main security.” Buck’s mind already raced ahead.
Ghost leaned over the table beside him. “We take two teams. Reaper can create noise at the front of the warehouse while we slip through the tunnels.”
Buck nodded. “We find Wren first, and then we’ll blow the entire fucking operation down.”
Leah swallowed visibly. “There are other girls in there,” she breathed.
Buck looked at her. “Then we bring everybody out,” he said immediately.
Leah exhaled shakily. “Then you need to move before dawn.” She looked at Buck carefully. “If they are preparing transports, they’ll relocate everyone by morning.” He wasn’t going to let that happen. Buck grabbed his gun from the table and checked the magazine with steady hands. The room felt as though it shifted instantly around him as the Kings loaded their weapons and started moving, all because Buck had made a decision.
Ghost watched him carefully as the VP slid another knife into his kutte and holstered a second handgun at his back. “You got that look again,” Ghost murmured.
Buck glanced over at him. “The one that says somebody’s about to die.”
Buck’s expression turned ice-cold. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “A lot of somebodies.”
Ghost
Ghost had seen Buck prepare for violence before, but this felt different. It felt more personal and a hell of a lot more dangerous. The entire compound moved around Buck like a well-trained unit now. Men grabbed rifles and ammunition crates while engines roared awake outside beneath the storm. Reaper coordinated overwatch positions near the eastern ridge while Leah worked on satellite feeds at the war table. And Buck sharpened a hunting knife at the head of the table with terrifying calm. The sound of the knife as it scraped the metal worked Ghost’s last nerve.
“You’re freaking the prospects out,” Ghost muttered as he leaned against the doorway, pulling on his gloves.
Buck didn’t look up. “Good, they should be freaked out.”
Ghost watched him for another second before crossing the room slowly. “You know she’d hate this version of you.” That finally got Buck’s attention.
His pale blue eyes lifted sharply to meet Ghost’s. “Meaning?”
Ghost shrugged. “The murderous ice king routine.” He smirked faintly. “Pretty sure Wren likes the guy who tucks blankets around her legs and holds her hand.” Somethingsoftened briefly in Buck’s expression before vanishing again, but Ghost saw it anyway.
Buck set the knife down harder than necessary. “You got a point, or you just irritating me for fun?”
