Page 78 of The SEAL and the Sheriff

“Our comms lead. He knew the op schedule. Knew where we’d be and when we’d be gone.”

Sarah didn’t speak, giving him room to think.

“He’d buried himself in gambling debts. Started selling information to the same network we were there to take apart to pay off the debts. Routes. Patrol windows. Information he believed was safe to sell.” His mouth hardened. “At least, that’s what he told himself.”

“What did he give them?”

“Our location.”

Sarah went still.

“A temporary position. We were scheduled to clear it at zero-two-hundred. Cord knew that.” Hudson looked toward the window. “We took fire on the way out. Local militia pinned us down. Cost us forty-three minutes. The arms dealers moved faster than Cord expected. He thought we’d be long gone.”

Sarah was quiet for a moment. “So when they arrived⁠—”

“We were still there. They knew our extraction route. There was one channel out to open water. Narrow. Rock walls on both sides.” He paused. “They’d rigged the channel with demolition charges.”

His breath left him unevenly. “They hit us before we reached it. Firefight was short. Maybe ninety seconds. Felt longer. We lost Ben Taggart. Our lead swimmer. He was twenty-three. Could hold his breath for almost five minutes, which was a full minute longer than any of the rest of us, and he never let us forget it.” A sound escaped him that wasn’t quite a laugh. “He died in four feet of water because he never saw the round that hit him.”

The words landed flat. As if they’d been carried so long the sharp edges had worn smooth. A muscle jumped in his jaw.

“Cord got caught eventually. Gave up the arms dealers he’d been working with in exchange for a deal. A new name, a new life, the whole machine that exists to disappear people who cooperate.” His mouth twisted, something bitter in it. “I hated it. Hated that he got to walk away and build something while—” He stopped himself.

“While Ben didn’t come home?”

“Yeah.” Something in his face gave way for the space of a heartbeat.

“And now you think Cord’s active again?”

“I know he is. Fresh evidence started surfacing about a year ago. Small inconsistencies. Missing files. Weapons turning up in places that didn’t fit the established routes.” His hands closed into loose fists on his knees. “I think Cord’s moving hardware again, using quiet coastal access points where cargo can come ashore unseen. But I haven’t proved it. And someone with real access has been cleaning up behind him.”

His eyes had gone somewhere else, seeing files she couldn’t, dead ends piling one on top of another.

“Every time I got close to something solid, it went cold. Witnesses stopped talking. I still don’t know who’s protecting him.”

“That’s why you came here quietly.”

“Yes. He got away with it once, Sarah. Walked away from what he did to my team and built himself a second life out of it.”

“And you’re not going to let him do it twice.”

“No. I’m not.”

“Do you trust me?”

His head came up immediately. “Sarah, that’s the one thing this isn’t.” He held her gaze. “It’s me trying to keep you out of something I don’t fully understand yet.”

A tired laugh escaped her. “Little late for that.”

His eyes closed briefly. “I know.”

“No.” She shook her head carefully. “I don’t think you do.”

She touched the bruise beneath her collarbone without thinking. “Someone decided I was useful because of you.”

His face tightened with something that looked almost like pain.

She shook her head. “Let me decide what I can handle.”