Page 377 of Broken Oath

Jack closed his eyes.

And suddenly, escaping the mountain no longer felt like the end of the mission.

It felt like the beginning.

44

SARAH

The helicopter went silent.

Completely silent.

Even the engines seemed to fade into the distance.

Every eye turned toward my father.

Dad sat motionless beside Wade.

Alan Madow’s voice remained in our headsets.

Ask your father, Wade.

Four words.

That was all it took to fracture the joy of having my family together again.

I stared at Dad.

He looked older than he had minutes earlier.

Wade sat beside him, bruised and scarred from five years of captivity.

Five years stolen because of something his team discovered.

Something connected to our father.

“Dad?” Wade asked.

Dad closed his eyes.

Madow laughed softly over the radio.

He wanted this.

He wanted suspicion to spread through our family.

He wanted Wade to question the man who had spent five years searching for him.

Dad opened his eyes.

“He does this.”

His voice was calm.

Steady.

But I saw the pain beneath it.