Page 80 of Dozer

That tiny exchange shouldn't make me feel better. It does.

Then Ruby comes back on the line, and her voice has gone flat in the way that tells me she's found exactly what we already suspected. She’s confirming my work and more.

"It's confirmed." I stop pacing. "Cole's fingerprints are all over three different shell entities tied to the pharmaceutical fraud," she continues, "and one of them has direct financial ties to a private security contractor that's been flagged internally before for exactly the kind of clean, professional operations you two have been surviving all week."

"Which means even federal contacts might be compromised," I say.

"Assume all of them are until proven otherwise. If Cole's this deep, he's got reach into agencies that are supposed to be investigating exactly this kind of thing. We move on our own terms, our own people, until we're ready to make this impossible to bury." Ruby says.

Hunter's voice comes back on the line, decisive now, the sound of a man who's finished weighing options and landed on the only one that makes sense. "We're bringing the full team into this. You two have carried this as far as two people reasonably can. From here, it's Spartan Elite's operation, all the way to D.C."

Something in my chest loosens at that. Not relief exactly. The danger hasn't shrunk. But the specific comfort of knowing we're no longer facing a senator, a private security contractor, and however many more layers this conspiracy has completely alone; matters more than I want to admit.

"What's the plan?" Dozer asks.

"Working on it. Full briefing once you're back at HQ. For now, stay put, stay careful, and Kenzi—" Hunter's voice softens slightly, the register he reserves for the handful of things that aren't strictly operational. "You did good. Ryan would be proud of the work you just did."

Everything inside me goes still. I stare at the evidence on the table because looking at Dozer suddenly feels impossible. My throat tightens.

"I know that's not easy for you to hear," Hunter adds quietly. "But it's true."

I swallow. "Thank you, Hunter."

The call ends. For a few seconds, nobody says anything. Then Dozer's fingers find mine beneath the edge of the table. He doesn't squeeze. He just holds on. I turn my hand over and lace our fingers together.

I look back at the evidence spread across the table and feel the specific, grim satisfaction of watching a case finally come together after days of chasing pieces that haven't made sense until this exact moment.

"We're not out of danger," Dozer says.

"I know."

"If anything, we're walking toward more of it now that we know exactly who we're up against."

"I know that too."

He looks at me, waiting. I meet his eyes. "But at least now we know what we're walking toward." His thumb moves slowly across my knuckles. "That's more than we had yesterday."

"Exactly."

For the first time since this started, the unknown doesn't feel like the biggest thing in the room. We know the name and now we know what they want buried. But, now they know we have enough to expose them. Which means the next move is theirs and when they move, people die.

I should be afraid, but sitting here with Dozer's hand wrapped around mine, I realize something else. I’m Dozer’s now and Dozer won’t allow anything to happen to me. I know that all the way to my bones.

CHAPTER 26

Dozer

The secondary HQ location feels different walking back into it this time. Not the building, that hasn't changed. Same burnt coffee smell, same scarred briefing-room table, same fluorescent lights that make everyone look like they haven't slept since the invention of war. Same table Hunter slid a folder across a lifetime ago when this was still supposed to be a simple job.

What has changed is everything Kenzi and I are carrying back into it. Not just the evidence and names or the knowledge that somebody high enough to reach federal custody wants us dead.

Her.

Us.

This thing between us started here but it’s different now. We’ve walked through a burning safe house, slept in a collapsing hunting cabin, survived a convoy getting hit, and somehow made it back to headquarters with us intact and stronger than we started.

That's a hell of a thing to bring into a briefing room.