Page 416 of Broken Oath

So Wade kept his eyes open.

Sarah’s head rested against his shoulder.

She had fallen asleep less than an hour after the aircraft left Kazakhstan. Her fingers remained wrapped around his wrist as if even unconscious, she refused to let him disappear.

He looked at his Dad.

His eyes were closed.

He wasn’t sleeping.

Wade knew his father too well.

“You can stop pretending,” Wade said.

Jack opened one eye.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’ve been watching me for three hours.”

“I missed five years. I’m catching up.”

Wade smiled.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

The words left his mouth before he realized their weight.

Dad looked away.

His throat moved.

“I know.”

Except neither of them knew how to believe that yet.

Freedom was too new.

Too fragile.

Wade looked across the cargo bay.

Grant Barrett slept wrapped in two thermal blankets.

Luke Dawson remained beside Eric Hale’s stretcher. A medic had stabilized Hale’s leg and started antibiotics for an infection that should have killed him months ago.

Jackson Cole sat near the small window, staring at the clouds.

The five men had stayed together as much as possible since leaving Black Site Theta.

After years of communicating through concrete walls and air vents, seeing one another still felt like a miracle.

Wade gently freed his wrist from Sarah’s hand.

Her eyes opened instantly.

“What’s wrong?”