Page 101 of SEAL of Valor

I turn toward Zane as he steps into the barn. “I mean, I did have you convinced that I couldn’t see the color blue for three weeks when we were eight.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

Crossing my arms, I study my oldest friend. Zane has been like a brother to me for nearly our entire lives. We’ve played together, fought together, bled and nearly died together. So I really shouldn’t be surprised that out of everyone in that room, he saw right through me.

“You can’t go after her alone, Weston. By now, she’ll have an entire army around her.”

“She had one before, and I escaped.”

“Barely. And what about Reese? Are you really so quick to leave her behind?”

“Reese is one of the reasons I have to do this.”

“And the others?” When I don’t answer, he nods. “Well, given how much time we’ve all spent together, I feel confident in speaking for everyone else when I say none of us want you to risk your life for us. We can all come up with a plan, and we all go in.”

“You have families to take care of, Zane. Garrison just had a baby. Sawyer and Anastasia are getting married next month. And what about you and Tessa? Ryker is the only other one of us with nothing to lose but his life.”

“Then take him with you.”

I shake my head. “It has to be me. She could have come after any one of you, but she picked me.” I tap my finger to my chest. “And we both know why that is.”

Zane’s expression darkens. “That was not the same.”

“It feels pretty close.”

Right after we first started working for Brenda, Zane came to me with a set of orders she’d assigned directly to me. It was a no-report, off-books mission where I was instructed to breach a trafficking ring to rescue fourteen teenage girls kidnapped from the States. Including the daughter of a senator. Because of the risk to the girls, I was sent in solo. Get in. Eliminate targets. Get girls out.

That was the mission.

What happened in there is something I will never forget.

The things I saw will haunt me until the day I die.

But the next morning, I walked out.

Covered in blood, with fifty-three girls and young women at my back.

Not a single one of those twenty-four predators saw the next sunrise.

And the survivors are the only way I ever got any sleep after the carnage of that mission. Because, no matter what weight I carried, they had a chance at freedom because of what I’d done.

“We both know we can’t sit around and wait for Brenda to make her move. What if she figures out where the families are first? What if she comes here and wipes us all out before we have a chance to stop her? We have to end this, Zane.”

“You’re throwing around that word ‘we’ a whole lot for a guy determined to go on a solo suicide mission.”

“I’ll survive.”

“And if you don’t?”

It’s something I’ve already considered. If we all go, then everyone’s families—including Reese—will be vulnerable. But if it’s just me? They can protect what matters most. “Then you’ll protect Reese.”

“She needs you.”

Those three words hit me square in the chest because I need her, too. But above all, I need to know that she’s safe. “I need her to survive, Zane. If it were Tessa?”

He sighs, and I can see that I’ve won. “There’s not a single mountain I wouldn’t scale to get to her.”

“Then let me go. Let me do this. Let me keep everyone safe.”