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With gratitude in his eyes, he said, “Too true, brother. Too true.”
He went into the master suite, and Hazard went to the doorway. He saw how neat and tidy the room was, the bridal magazines on her side of the bed, and that plant she’d brought back with her from the UK. GQ rummaged in the closet and came out with a sleeping bag. He threw it to Hazard.
GQ followed his gaze and landed on the bridal magazines. Something dark and intense filled his eyes, something so tormented it made Hazard’s chest ache. He turned to the wall and started punching it.
Hazard dropped the bag and rushed to GQ. He grasped his brother’s wrist, pulling him into a hard embrace.
GQ took a ragged breath, his chest heaving, his voice cracking and nearly inaudible. “I can’t lose her.”
“We’re not going to loseanyof them.” Hazard said fiercely, releasing GQ and grabbing onto his shoulders, battered by the sheer unknowns in regard to the three women, no emotion in him except compassion and lethal determination. SEALs didn’t wait passively for things to happen. They went directly into the fire. He stared at his friend, a paltry word when it came to the kind of bond they shared. The pain banked in GQ’s eyes, and it was joined by resolve. Utter, determined resolve. “We’re going to find them and we’re going to end this NSH threat, GQ. I promise you.”
He let him go and after washing up, Hazard walked to the bed and stole one of the pillows. He unrolled his sleeping bag in GQ’s room. Fuck being one room over. He wasn’t leaving his brother alone without some human comfort.
For a moment, GQ just stared at him, then with a soft sigh, he leaned over and turned off the light.
* * *
Kodiak wokeup on Iceman’s couch, his phone chiming. He looked and saw that there was a text message from Anna.
I’ve been thinking all damn night. Get over here and we’ll talk.
He wasted no time. Iceman couldn’t sleep. He went for a run and said he needed to be alone. He hoped that pounding the pavement would give Iceman a minute of peace. His friend was wound so tight he was about to break. He texted Iceman that he was heading to base, and he would see him there. Once he got to the ready room, Anna was there looking like she’d been dragged through a knothole. She was sipping coffee and staring at a laptop. She closed it when he entered.
“Have a seat,” Anna said. He stared at her across the table. “So, does this entity have intel on NSH?”
“AI,” he murmured. “Ailee, to be exact, and yes, she was briefly in their database when Celeste sent the virus through the link to NSA. I don’t know what she saw…gathered, but it could be significant. She’s just too damaged right now to relay anything other than she’s repairing herself. I tried responding back to her, but she only acknowledged she got my message. If she says we need to go to Sydney, we need to go.”
“Okay, you trust her?” Anna asked.
“Completely. She saved us all, Anna. She saved our technology at great risk to herself. We thought she had been destroyed.” He swallowed a lump in his throat.
“I know you guys. I’m married to a SEAL and his instincts are never wrong,” Anna said, her voice softening.
“Artful Dodger.” Kodiak grinned.
She grinned back at him. “Yes, and I can say, he wasn’t happy about this assignment. I expect him to show up. So, be prepared. We had a knockdown, drag-out fight about it. We weren’t on speaking terms when I left.”
“We would welcome any help. Dodger has a rep for not only finding the unfindable but for dogged determination. Sometimes, you independent women drive us all crazy, not because of your need to go it alone, but sometimes because we need to be your heroes.”
She laughed at that. “You’re as enlightened as he is. You’d get along well.” She took a big breath. “I’m going to go out on a limb here. I will tell the brass and higher-ups that we got a credible tip from one of my classified sources.” She opened up her laptop and started typing. “I’m going to send us to Sydney. That’s you, me, Hazard, Skull, Bones, Boomer, and Breakneck, along with Reck’d, Wraith, and Panda. Hopefully, Ailee can repair herself enough to tell us what the threats are because they always come in threes with these monsters. Expect orders within the next twenty-four hours.”
“Thank you, Anna, for having an open mind. Ailee won’t let us down.”
“I’m sure she won’t. If Rose believed in her, how can I do less? I need that open mind with my husband. He’s such a?—”
“—great and wonderful guy?” an amused male voice said from the doorway.
Anna’s gaze snapped to the door, and even though there was irritation in her eyes, there was something soft and reserved only for the man standing there. Oliver “Artful Dodger” Graham, a member of Lieutenant Ford “Fast Lane” Nixon’s squad. Decorated SEAL and jack-of-all-trades.
“Dodger,” she said, deep affection laced with her annoyance, her eyes narrowing, her hands gripping the laptop.
“Don’t throw the laptop at me, love. You’re going to need it.”
At that point, caught between the couple and the obvious fact that they hadn’t settled their differences, Kodiak took the momentary pause to remove himself from the line of fire.
* * *
Kaiya Pawar stoodin front of the desk of her supervisor, Tessa Roberts, at the Sydney headquarters of the Australian Federal Police. She was an investigator in their Counter Terrorism and Special Investigations Unit—CTSI.
