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Chapter Text

Alex pushed an electric sander back and forth over the wooden deck of his yacht. All day, he’d been carefully stripping away the silver-gray patina of the weathered teak, revealing a rich golden brown underneath. The work was slow and repetitive. The perfect thing for quiet thoughts. He focused on the buzz of the sander under his palm and the stretch and pull of his arms and torso as he moved it around.

The water around him sparkled in the early afternoon sunshine, and there was a crisp breeze that seemed intent on reminding him that he was in the southern hemisphere now, and it was late fall here rather than late spring. He and Yassen had anchored the yacht offshore a little ways in order to have some quiet, and then Yassen had gone in the tender to buy supplies. Alex had the boat to himself.

Finally satisfied, he turned off the sander and vacuumed up the sawdust. Then he ran his fingers over the velvet-smooth boards, marveling that they were his—his wood on his deck on his yacht.

He’d never owned anything larger than a bicycle (unless he counted the house in Chelsea, which he didn’t), and now here he was with a yacht.

He’d christened it Knot My Problem.

Yassen had raised an eyebrow at that, but he hadn’t vetoed it.

The name was rather childish. It oozed surly teenage vibes, but that was kind of the point. It was also stupidly hilarious. If Yassen had been hoping for something ultra-cool and deadly, Alex was all too happy to disappoint him. There would be no doubt as to who actually owned this boat.

It was Alex’s, and he loved it.

He took a moment to appreciate his hard work. The aft deck looked amazing, and it felt amazing under his bare feet. It was smooth but not slippery, with just the right amount of give. Now all it needed was a couple coats of sealant.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Alex wiped his dusty hands off on his shorts, pulled the phone out, and squinted at the screen. Seeing Tania’s name on the caller ID brought a smile to his lips. He’d been out of cell phone range for the last few days, and he’d missed talking to her.

“Hey you,” he said as he lifted the phone to his ear.

“Hi.”

Tania’s normally upbeat voice sounded distinctly murderous. It was an impressive talent of hers, packing lethal amounts of venom into a single syllable. He’d only experienced it on a couple of occasions, and, thankfully, it had never been directed at him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, slightly nervous. He was pretty sure she had no reason to be mad at him, that she knew of.

“I’m going to kill my brother.”

That was a relief. “Which one?” he asked.

“Kyler.”

Alex sat on the freshly sanded deck and leaned against the railing, stretching out his legs. He waited for her to explain, but she didn’t seem inclined to continue.

“Why?” he prompted.

She growled in frustration. “He’s coming to Arequipa with me.”

More silence. She was waiting for Alex to say something, but he couldn’t come up with anything other than a slightly flustered, “Oh.”

He’d been looking forward to their date for months. Well, truthfully, he’d been looking forward to it since he’d sent Tania off in a cab almost a year ago. He wasn’t sure what would come of their reunion or what to expect. He’d gone over dozens of different scenarios in his mind, how things could play out when they were finally back together in person, but never once had he envisioned her brother showing up too.

He didn’t know how to react, but his initial reaction was… not good. He understood now why Tania was in such a bad mood.

“And Señora assigned him to work security with you.”

Fuck.

Alex rubbed the back of his neck and took a moment to collect himself. “That makes sense... I guess,” he replied, trying to sound unconcerned. It did make sense. Kyler was career military, and, come to think of it, Tania had been pretty vague about the actual nature of his work. The subject hadn’t ever come up. They’d spent very little time talking about her oldest brother. “When you say he’s coming to Arequipa, do you mean...”

“We’re on the same flight, and we have adjoining hotel rooms.”

“Bugger.”

“Exactly. He thinks we’re going to have brother-sister bonding time.”

Alex’s jaw clenched as something feral and dangerous stirred inside of him. Jealousy? He wasn’t sure because he’d never dealt with that particular emotion, and he didn’t have time to process it at the moment. He had to push it down. Keep things light. Keep things fun. Tania hadn’t made any promises, and her brother was, well, he was her brother.

“Does Kyler know that I have first dibs on the bonding time?” he asked. There, he’d managed a joke. Good.

That elicited a chuckle. He could almost see her reluctant smile.

“He wants to meet you.”

“I see.” Alex didn’t agree with Kyler’s timing, but he also didn’t have much choice in the matter. It sounded like it was a done deal.

She sighed, hearing the resignation in his voice, and Alex mentally kicked himself. So much for keeping things light.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “He just got back from deployment and has some extra leave. He talked to the Mamanis before he talked to me. I’ll make sure he knows he’s going to have to entertain himself.”

“No, it’s alright,” Alex said, wincing, “He can hang out with us.” He didn’t want to make things difficult for Tania. Plus, if he and Kyler were going to work together, it would probably be a good idea not to piss the guy off right before they headed into the mountains. With guns.

“Are you sure?”

“A little. Maybe.”

She laughed, and Alex smiled, feeling better. Her laughter always had that effect on him.

“Will he lose his shit if he sees me kiss you?” he asked.

Tania hummed dreamily as though she was imagining kissing Alex the way he was imagining kissing her. At least, he hoped that was what she was imagining.

“He is a bit overprotective,” she said. “We’ll probably be safe kissing, but if you grab my butt in front of him, he’ll beat you to a pulp.”

This time Alex laughed. They’d graduated from hypothetical kissing to hypothetical butt grabbing. “It might be fun if he tried.”

“Do not pick a fight with my brother, Gabe.” She paused a moment before adding, “I want him to like you.”

Alex swallowed, a little overwhelmed by that statement. He tried so hard to keep his expectations in check and to stay firmly rooted in reality, but deep down, he couldn’t help hoping that maybe this thing with Tania would turn into something more. Something real.

“Don’t worry,” he told her. “I’m sure we’ll be best mates. Though, come to think of it, why is he spending his post-deployment leave with you? Doesn’t he have a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend? Or a… friend?”

He could tell by the quality of the silence coming through the phone that Tania was rolling her eyes.

“He has friends,” she said. “But he works with all of them. My parents would be overjoyed if he had a girlfriend, or a boyfriend for that matter. I think my father would make an exception in his case.”

“Why?”

“He’s married to his job. It’s dangerous, and my parents worry. They’re hoping if he falls in love, that he’ll get out. Do something else.”

“Huh.” Alex wondered for a moment at that. Kyler had parents who worried about him doing dangerous work. “You’ve never really told me what he does…”

“He’s a SEAL.”

Alex almost groaned. This was just what he needed.

Kyler Fernandez was a Navy SEAL. Of course he was. Alex rubbed a hand down his face as the ghosts of Wells and Esko surfaced from the depths of his psyche and made nuisances of themselves.

Tania interrupted his not-quite-a-flashback. “You still there?”

Alex blinked as the deck of his yacht came back into focus in front of him. “Yeah. Sorry. That’s cool.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with this? I mean, I could talk to him again. Or we could—”

“No, it’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” The lie came out confidently, and he was glad. Tania didn’t deserve to have to deal with his issues. He’d figure it out.

“Okay. If you’re sure. Where are you now?”

“Lima. We got in last night.” The change of topic was a welcome relief.

She hummed excitedly. “I can’t believe David gave you a yacht for graduation.”

“Don’t get too excited. It needs a lot of work.”

“Still. A yacht.”

Alex smiled and brushed his fingers over the deck again. “Speaking of,” he said, “I’d better get back to it. Just six days until Arequipa.”

“I can’t wait to see you,” she said.

“Me too,” he replied. “Kyler’s not invited to the plaza. Just to clarify.”

She laughed. “No, definitely not. I’ll make sure he knows.”

They said their goodbyes, and Alex slipped his phone into his pocket. He rested his head back against the fiberglass railing, staring blankly at the view of sky and sea in front of him.

Tania’s brother was an active duty Navy SEAL, and he was coming to Arequipa. It was a problem. Potentially a big one.

First off, there was no way Kyler was going to like him. Based on his experience at Brecon Beacons and his subsequent encounters with Special Forces, Alex was pretty sure the man would hate him just on instinct alone.

Secondly, Kyler would be able to tell he had high-level training and would be curious. Alex imagined that if he had a little sister, and some bloke with fuzzy credentials and a shitload of training was interested in her, he’d be worried. He’d want to know everything. Alex needed to prepare himself for a full-scale, likely hostile, interrogation.

And, he realized with a groan, he was going to have to tell Yassen.

There wasn’t a curse word strong enough to convey how much that irked him. He wanted to punch something.

Yassen was going to tell him to call the whole thing off.

That wasn’t an option Alex wanted consider, but Yassen was going to make him. He was going to ask Alex if Tania was worth risking his freedom for, and Alex was going to have to tell him yes.

And then Yassen would want to know why.

Alex had a reason, just not one he was ready to share. It was simply that Tania made him happy. Talking to her was usually the best part of his day, and the thought of never seeing her again made his stomach churn and his palms sweat. He feared losing her nearly as much as he feared MI6 kicking in his door one day and hauling him back to London in chains, which didn’t make any sense, but it was the truth.

He gazed at the horizon, allowing himself a minute to wish that he didn’t have to risk one or the other.

Finally, he took a breath, rolled the tension out of his neck and shoulders, and reined in his emotions. Kyler was a problem, but Alex had dealt with worse. He’d find a way to make it work.

Failure, as usual, was not an option.

Tania found the spot on the Plaza de Armas where she and Gabe had pressed ‘pause’ on their fledgling relationship nearly a year before. The night was clear and cloudless, the air was cool, and very little had changed. There was even a band playing in the same corner of the square.

She checked the time on her phone. She was a little early, and a little giddy, but she hadn’t been able to help herself.

For months now, she’d been fantasizing about this moment, full of nervous anticipation. She’d built it up in her mind so thoroughly that she was afraid she’d be disappointed.

What if he showed up and things were awkward? They’d spent almost an entire year apart, and so much could change in that time.

She’d tried so hard not to get her hopes up, but she’d mostly failed in that endeavor. Her hopes were about as sky high as they could get, and now all she could do was pray that they didn’t come crashing down around her like a house of cards. It was an emotionally agonizing place to be. She checked her phone again, and then picked at her fingernails, scanning the crowds for any sign of him.

She didn’t know which direction Gabe was coming from, so it wasn’t entirely surprising that he managed to sneak up on her. A soft tap on her shoulder was the only warning she got. As she turned to see him, he grabbed her hand and twirled her around. She shrieked in surprise as the white arches and giant palm trees of the square spun around her, and then laughed as Gabe caught her by the waist and lowered her into a dip.

His face was only inches away from hers, and for a moment, all she could see was a pair of warm brown eyes.

She knew in an instant that all her fretting had been pointless.

Holy hell.

Those eyes.

They sent a spark all the way through her. She’d forgotten how hypnotizing they could be in person.

“Hi,” she said, unable to think of anything more intelligent to say due to the sudden influx of Gabe-in-real-life.

The smell of his aftershave took her back to last summer, dancing under the stars, and the barest hint of cinnamon she’d tasted on his lips. Tania wanted to kiss him immediately, but instead of closing the distance between them, Gabe backed off.

“Hi,” he said. There was a tiny smirk behind his smile. He was enjoying himself immensely, teasing her like this. “You’re wearing the same clothes as last year.”

She looked down at herself, suddenly remembering that she had done that on purpose. She had. She’d worn the same clothes because she wanted to pretend that the last year apart was nothing. A blip. This—being here with Gabe—this was what she’d wanted all along.

She wanted to pick back up exactly where they’d left off.

That was too many words though, so she only said, “I did,” with a smile and left it at that.

“I made you something,” he said.

“Um, Gabe. This is a little...” Dips weren’t really meant to be held this long. Tania tried to get her feet under her, thinking his arm and back must be getting tired.

“Give me one second,” he protested. “I have this all planned out.” He took Tania’s hand that he’d been holding and hooked her arm around his neck so that he was free to fish around in his jacket pocket. Finally, he pulled out a small object and held it up between them.

It took Tania a moment to realize that it was a ridiculously large red button. It looked like it belonged on a console in a bunker somewhere surrounded by blinking lights, nervous soldiers, and launch codes. Gabe had scrawled the word ‘PLAY’ on top of it in his untidy handwriting.

“Oh, my gosh,” she laughed. It was a PLAY button.

“You have to press this before I can kiss you,” he explained.

It was the nerdiest, most adorable thing she’d ever seen. Tania pushed the button, beyond ready for Gabe to kiss her senseless.

A fanfare sounded from a tiny speaker inside the device, and then it popped, sending out a puff of smoke and a couple of sparks.

Tania yelped and flinched away from the unexpected pyrotechnics. Gabe managed to keep her from hitting the pavement, and then cursed and flung the button onto the ground where it continued to smoke.

Straightening, he pulled her back up to standing, but didn’t let go of her waist. Tania was grateful for the support. Her heart was still beating a staccato in her chest.

“Shit,” Gabe said. “It wasn’t actually supposed to catch fire.” He crushed the smoldering gadget with his shoe and then inspected the palm of his hand, frowning.

“That was exciting,” Tania tried to laugh it off. “Are you okay?”

Gabe turned back to her. “I can’t even make a sodding button without it exploding on me.”

Tania smiled at him sympathetically and then got a brilliant idea.

“Here,” she said, “let me help.”

She turned her body to face him and slowly wrapped her arms around his neck. Gazing into his eyes, she leaned forward as if to kiss him, but then shifted to the side at the last moment. He shivered under her as she whispered into his ear.

“That was hot.”

And then she laughed at her own stupid joke.

Gabe’s jaw fell open, which made her laugh harder.

“That was terrible,” he said.

“The worst,” she agreed with a giggle.

He was quiet a moment and then, “Tania?”

“What?”

“I really, really want to kiss you.”

He said it so earnestly, so sincerely, that Tania melted into him like warm butter. Their faces were so close that she could feel his breath on her nose.

“So, then, kiss me,” she said.

She couldn’t tell after that who moved first. It didn’t matter. Their lips had only been millimeters apart.

Kissing Gabe the year before had been an exercise in self-control. This time, Tania didn’t want to hold back. She wasn’t 100 percent sure about Gabe. There were things he still wouldn’t talk to her about, a past that was shrouded in darkness, but even so, Tania wanted him. She wanted him tonight, and from the way his body pressed into her, she could tell he wanted her too.

“Gabe,” she murmured, “how close is your hotel room?”

Alex sat in bed as the rising sun filtered through sheer curtains and bathed his room in light. Next to him, cocooned in the pristine white duvet, Tania slept with her back pressed into his hip and leg.

She was soft and beautiful, like an oasis for his soul. Her laughter last night had filled him with more joy than he’d thought was possible. For a few blissful hours, the reality of his life hadn’t seemed all that heavy. With Tania by his side, he was stronger.

He never, never wanted her to leave.

Alex had asked once if Yassen had ever been in love. Not surprisingly, the man hadn’t answered him. Instead, he’d launched into a scientific discourse, describing the phenomenon as though a formulaic combination of hormones, brain chemistry, and human interaction could substitute for lived experience.

Then last summer, Señora Mamani had casually mentioned falling in love as if Alex could somehow control it, and Alex, stupidly, had believed her.

He hadn’t expected that at some point between dancing under the stars with Tania a year ago and waking up next to her this morning, it would just happen.

But it had. He was pretty sure he’d fallen in love.

It was wonderful and strange, as if the rules of gravity had suddenly reversed and pulled him into the vast, floating wonderland of the sky. The whole world was new, and she was everything that mattered to him.

Love, it also turned out, came with a heaping side order of self-doubt. Tania deserved someone better, someone who wouldn’t lie to her or doom her to a life of danger and uncertainty.

How was he going to make this work?

A small part of him wondered if it would be better for him to break up with her now, rather than wait for the inevitable disaster to come, but he couldn’t really consider it.

There was precious little that he actually wanted in his life, and Tania was at the very top of that list

Her phone buzzed twice on the nightstand. After the second buzz, she groaned and buried her head under the covers.

“What time is it?” she asked, her voice muffled.

Alex smiled to himself. “A little after 8,” he told her.

She flipped the blanket off of her face in a panic. “Shit. My brother…,” she trailed off as her phone buzzed again. “That’ll be him.”

She reached over and grabbed it, holding it in the air above her as she read her messages. She rolled her eyes, typed a quick reply, and then let her arms collapse dramatically into the bedclothes. She shifted her gaze to Alex’s face with an apologetic smile.

“He wants to meet for breakfast,” she said and then smirked conspiratorially. “I told him he’d have to wait for brunch.”

Alex ran a finger along her arm and over the curve of her bare shoulder, then combed the hair away from her neck. “Do you mind if I come?” he asked.

She was surprised. “Do you want to?”

“Sure.” He wasn’t exactly excited to have brunch with Kyler, but a meeting was inevitable. He figured he might as well get it out of the way. It also meant he could spend more of his day with Tania, and he intended to get as much time with her as he possibly could.

Alex slid down into the blankets, aching to hold her and start again where they’d left off the night before.

Tania set her phone back on the nightstand and then turned to him, burrowing closer.

“Good morning,” she whispered.

“Best morning of my life,” Alex whispered back. He felt a twinge of nerves at confessing so much, but he pushed past it, wanting to be completely honest with her about something.

Tania blushed, but instead of looking away, she searched out his eyes with her own. Her hands caressed his face, and as she gazed into him, Alex realized that he hadn’t really been in love with her until this moment. His heart was so full, he wondered how it kept beating.

She pulled him into a kiss, then slid her hands down to his chest where they continued to roam. All of Alex’s doubts melted into insignificant shadows, banished in an instant by her touch.

Chapter Text

The first thing Alex noticed when Kyler Fernandez stood to shake his hand was that the man was shorter than him. Shorter than Tania. Maybe even shorter than Yassen.

The second thing he noticed was Kyler’s crushing grip on his fingers. Alex raised an eyebrow, and Kyler grinned at him like a smug asshole.

Fantastic.

For Tania’s sake, Alex pasted on a congenial smile and pretended he was happy to meet the guy. He reminded himself, not for the first time, that he had no reason to dislike Kyler. He had to play nice, be the doting boyfriend, and make sure he and Kyler could work together during their mission with the Mamanis that would set out in less than 48 hours.

“Nice to finally meet the elusive Gabe,” Kyler said. “The entire family has been wondering for months if you actually exist. I took bets.”

“Shut up, you did not!” Tania punched her brother’s arm indignantly.

Kyler chuckled as he absorbed the hit. “Julia owes me a lot of money.”

Tania groaned and towed Alex around to the other side of the table where they sat down. “Fine,” she said, “That means you’re paying.”

Kyler shrugged as he sat and then leaned back in his chair. His coloring was similar to Tania’s. His face looked Peruvian, but the rest of him screamed, “I work for the US Military!”

Alex couldn’t put his finger on exactly what gave it away. Maybe it was the way he sprawled, pushed back from the chipped laminate table with his knees spread wide and his arm flung across the back of the empty chair next to him, like he deserved to take up twice as much space as a normal person.

Or maybe it was the trousers. No one needed that many pockets.

Alex picked up his menu. Much like the tables, chairs, and floors, it was faded and worn from years of heavy use. Apparently this place didn’t need to smarten itself up to attract customers. People came for the food. That was good because he was starving, and since Kyler was paying, he was going to order a lot.

“So, Gabe,” Kyler interrupted his perusing, “This is your second year with the Mamanis?”

“Third,” Alex corrected him without looking up. He leaned over to Tania, pointing out a dish on the menu he knew she would like. “You ordering that?” he asked, enjoying the smell of her hair and the way her arm brushed against his.

“Mmm, definitely,” she said, glancing at him sidelong in a way that made Alex wonder if they were still talking about food.

“A seasoned veteran,” Kyler said, ruining the moment. “Señora told me you’re heading up comms.”

Alex straightened. “That’s right.”

“You know what you’re doing?”

Tania looked up from her menu. “What the hell kind of question is that?” she interjected hotly. “Of course he knows what he’s doing.”

“Sorry, that came out wrong,” Kyler backpedaled. “You just seem rather young, is all.”

“I get that a lot,” Alex replied blandly.

“How old are you?”

And so, it begins.

“Twenty-five,” Alex lied.

Technically he was 21, but that extra 4 years came in very helpful in explaining Gabe’s military training.

“Huh,” Kyler grunted, unconvinced.

Tania scowled at him.

It was time to steer the conversation somewhere else. “Where’d they send you on deployment?” Alex asked.

“Officially,” Kyler hung on the word for a heartbeat too long, “we were in the Middle East. Israel, Northern Africa, the Suez Canal, all those fun places. You ever been there?”

The scorching dust of Malagosto prickled along the back of Alex’s neck as he remembered. “Enough to know I don’t want to go back.”

“Can’t say I blame you,” Kyler replied with a knowing smile. “There’s some crazy shit that goes on down there.”

Alex just nodded.

“Enough shop talk,” Tania said. “What are we eating?”

Blessedly, the conversation turned to food. Once they’d ordered, Alex took the reins in hand again, hoping to head off any more questions directed his way. “So you’re the second oldest kid in the family?” he asked Kyler.

“Yeah. I was eight—wait, no, nine—when Tania was born.” A wicked smile spread across his face. “And I have so many stories,” he chuckled.

“Really?” Alex asked, genuinely intrigued. “Like what?”

“Kyler…,” Tania warned.

Her brother leaned forward in his chair, pressing a hand to his chest. “It is my solemn duty as your oldest brother to embarrass you, and I take it very seriously.” He gestured to Alex, “Gabe here needs to know.”

Tania let out an exasperated huff and turned to Alex. “You really don’t,” she said.

“Let’s start with the best one first,” Kyler began. “There was this one time Mami signed us all up for an after school club—“

“No! Kyler, no! Don’t tell this story,“ Tania pleaded.

Kyler grinned and ignored her, “—to learn traditional Peruvian dances, crafts, that sort of thing. Tania would throw a fit every single week. I was driving by then, so I got tasked to take everyone. Julia was away at college or something. Anyway, Tania hated it. She’d whine the whole way there, and then she’d hide in the bathroom the entire time.”

“I didn’t hate it,” Tania said. “I hated the other girls there. They were so mean!” She turned to Alex with wide eyes. “They were so, so mean.”

Alex bit his lip. He wasn’t sure whether to laugh or pat her arm in sympathy.

“Anyway, there was supposed to be this performance at the end of the year, and Tania hadn’t gone to a single rehearsal. So, the night of the thing, she’s up there on stage—and we have this on video, so you should definitely request a viewing at some point—she’s dancing wrong, singing the wrong words. Then she turned one way, and the group of girls next to her turned the opposite way and she totally plowed into them. Full speed. She was, like, a foot taller than all of them, and they went down like dominoes. One of them actually fell off the stage,” he snorted, remembering. “They were all screaming. All these ten-year old girls. And their mothers. The whole room was chaos, and Tania’s just standing there up on stage like, It wasn’t me, I swear!” he laughed.

Tania groaned and covered her face with her hands. “The single most embarrassing moment of life,” she muttered through her fingers. “And my family never lets me forget it!” She picked up her napkin and chucked it at Kyler’s head. He caught it before it hit his face and tossed it back to her.

It was a funny story, and despite her protestations, Tania didn’t really seem angry with Kyler for telling it. Underneath their teasing, there was a fondness between them, a connection that Alex supposed came from knowing someone your whole life.

He couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous of their shared history and the easy way they laughed together. Seeing it made him suddenly very aware of how alone he was in the world. He didn’t have a single person left who had known him when he was nine. There was no one he could laugh with about the past. No one to tell Tania embarrassing stories of him when he was a kid.

“At least Mami never made me go back,” Tania said as she turned to him. She cocked her head. “You okay?”

Alex smiled at her, clearing his face of whatever emotion had tipped her off. Tania found his hand underneath the table and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Alex squeezed back gratefully.

“So what about your family?” Kyler asked. “Where are they at?”

“Oh, uh,” Alex hedged. He hadn’t quite been ready for this question. Tania gave his hand another squeeze.

“Nowhere, actually,” he finally admitted. “My parents died when I was a baby. I had an uncle, who raised me, but he died when I was 14, and that was it for my family.”

Kyler considered that with a slight frown. “Last man standing,” he said. He spoke the words with a respectful finality that acknowledged Alex’s heartache, soldier to soldier, as the only surviving member of his team. The camaraderie inherent in the statement surprised Alex, and he didn’t know how to respond. Thankfully their food arrived, saving him from having to figure it out.

He wasn’t sure what to make of Kyler. On one hand, the guy was brash and more than a little obnoxious, but it was clear that he loved Tania and that he was a good brother and a good son. Probably a good soldier too.

As they ate, they talked about the upcoming trip. Kyler had a lot of questions about what to expect, and Alex felt himself growing more and more comfortable around the guy. Tania’s eyes glazed over when they started talking in depth about weapons, perimeters, and patrols, and she retreated into her phone.

“Have you ever seen any action up there?” Kyler asked.

Alex shook his head. “Nothing more than petty theft.”

“Oh, fudgesicles!” Tania grumbled to herself and then looked up from her screen. Kyler and Alex both stared at her, wondering what had prompted her outburst.

“The dental team is getting together soon for a meet and greet across town,” she explained. “I just got the message. I need to go if I’m going to make it in time.” She turned to Alex, packing her phone away and slipping the long strap of her purse over her head. “Will you be okay without me for a bit?”

“Sure,” Alex said, wishing he could go with her.

“I’ll call you soon as it’s done. Don’t kill each other while I’m gone, okay?”

He rolled his eyes. Alex thought he’d handled himself very well so far, all things considered.

Tania grinned and kissed him, thanked Kyler for the food, and left. Alex couldn’t help staring after her as the door to the restaurant closed in her wake.

Kyler whistled softly, and Alex turned back to the table. “You’ve fallen for her hard, haven’t you, gringo?”

His voice had an edge to it that hadn’t been there before. It was as if with Tania gone, he’d switched modes. The easy smile and playful swagger disappeared, and in its place Kyler’s face had turned cold and focused. He was ready to get down to business. Alex didn’t want to stick around for it. Fortunately, he wasn’t handcuffed to the table, so he slid his chair back and stood up to leave. “Thanks for the food,” he said. “I guess I’ll catch you later.”

“Sit down,” Kyler ordered. “You and I have a lot more to talk about.”

Alex froze, feeling his hackles rise. He hadn’t defied Alan Blunt, Scorpia’s executive board, and Yassen Gregorovich only to get pushed around by his girlfriend’s brother.

He tapped his knuckle on the table once, twice, as he stared at the way out, weighing his options. As much as he wanted to make a good impression and keep the peace, it wouldn’t do to let Kyler walk all over him.

He shifted his stance slightly, channeling Orion’s don’t-fuck-with-me attitude, and turned his head to the side, meeting Kyler’s gaze.

“Do we?” he said cooly.

Kyler let the question fill the space between them for a moment, and then he smiled slightly, shaking his head. “Sharp teeth,” he said. “That’s what Señora said about you when I asked her. I wasn’t sure until now. You’ve been on your best behavior with Tania around, but you do have some fight in you.”

He counted a handful of soles and handed them to the waitress to pay for their meal. “Bueno,” he said as he stood. He nodded toward the door. “How about we go to the shooting range and see if you can keep up?”

Alex felt the corners of his mouth twitch into a wry smile. He hadn’t been to the shooting range in a couple of months. It would be good to get in some practice before they left on their trek. He checked his watch to make sure he had enough time.

“Alright,” he said as he followed Kyler out of the restaurant and onto the street, “but it’s your funeral.”

Kyler chuckled. “I seriously doubt that, gringo.” He searched the road for a taxi and then held out his arm to flag one down.

Alex briefly considered letting Kyler have the last word, but he’d never been good at keeping his mouth shut. “Are you a sore loser or a sad loser?” he asked. “I like to be prepared.”

Kyler turned to him, incredulous. “Balls, kid! I’ve been training since before you grew your first chest hair. Who the hell do you think you are?“

“Someone who shoots better than you do.” Alex shot back, “And don’t call me kid.”

Kyler rolled his eyes.

A taxi pulled up, Alex opened the door, and they slid into the back seat. Kyler gave an address to their driver. “Here I was thinking Tania only liked you for your pretty face,” he said. “She never mentioned your big mouth.”

Alex shrugged. “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”

Kyler scoffed, but didn’t say any more.

Alex scored himself a point.

The address Kyler had given the driver was for an outdoor range on the south side of the city, and it would take them at least 20 minutes to get there. Alex pulled his phone out, hoping Kyler would take a hint and leave the conversation there.

He should have known better.

“So who trained you? The Brits?”

Alex didn’t answer. It was stupid to pretend he hadn’t heard the man, but he figured it was a good place to start. Would Kyler move on if he blatantly ignored the question?

“Tania said that you don’t like talking about it.”

Alex put his phone away and gazed out the window at the passing cars. “I don’t,” he said.

“Why?”

“Are there things you don’t like talking about?”

Instead of answering, Kyler huffed in amusement. Alex figured he’d made his point.

“Has she told you about Lieutenant JG Jake Mitchell?”

The name didn’t ring any bells. “No,” Alex answered, shaking his head.

“He came around a couple years ago. He was TDY at the Clifton recruiting center. Still not sure why. I think he might have been recovering from an injury. I was stationed in Spain at the time, so I heard most of the story from my mom. Mitchell was a white boy like you. Not that it really matters,” he shrugged. “Anyway. Tania fell hard for him too. The first I heard of him, she’d been dating him a couple months, and had finally brought him home for dinner. My parents worried that she’d be engaged within the week.”

“That’s fast,” Alex said.

“Yeah, well, I thought so too, and I’m a curious kind of person, so I did some digging. It turned out he was geo-baching.”

Alex furrowed his brow at the unfamiliar term. “Geo batching?”

“He had a wife and a kid back home in Texas.”

Oh.

Oh, fuck.

“So what did you do?” Alex asked.

“I told Tania. Then I called the bastard’s commanding officer and made sure he got what was coming to him.”

Alex imagined that—Kyler telling Tania that the man she loved had a wife and child in Texas. It made him faintly ill.

“I don’t let anybody fuck with my family, Gabe.”

Alex waited a moment and then said, “Understood.”

“I was curious about you too,” Kyler said, and then he paused.

Alex felt that pause in his gut. As if the man was suddenly holding a knife to his stomach, ready to strike. “And?” he prompted carefully.

“I did some digging, obviously," Kyler replied. "But even with my connections, I couldn’t find anything more than your current school records and a Canadian passport.”

He paused again, but Alex waited him out.

“You know how weird that is?”

Alex shrugged as if he didn’t care.

“That’s weird, Gabe.”

“If you say so. Did you tell Tania that you were investigating me?”

This time Kyler refused to answer.

Alex turned to look at him. “I don’t have a wife or kids.”

“Who did you work for?”

“It’s classified.”

“Yeah, that’s what Tania told me. Here’s the thing—there’s classified, and then there’s classfied. How classified are we talking about?”

Alex groaned to himself. Only a Navy SEAL would ask that question. Clearly, Kyler wasn’t going to leave it alone.

If pressed, Alex had planned on lying, claiming special forces from Germany or possibly New Zealand, depending on what he learned about the man, but Tania’s nosy brother wasn’t just asking questions. He was actively searching for information about Alex’s past, and that was terrifying. He couldn’t trust Kyler to believe his lies, and he couldn’t afford for Kyler to continue his investigation.

Eventually, he would either tip one of Alex’s enemies off that he was alive, or he’d discover Alex’s lies and tell Tania.

Now that he knew she'd been lied to in the past, he had no doubts about how things would go. He would lose her, and that would destroy him. He couldn't lie to her any more than he already had. He didn’t want to hurt her the way Jake Mitchell had.

So that left plan B—refuse to answer the question and then convince Kyler to leave it alone.

Somehow.

He swallowed hard. This was risky too. If Kyler didn’t back off, Alex would have to do something even more drastic, like get Yassen involved, and he desperately didn’t want to do that.

Reluctantly, he said, “The kind of classified that will get you in trouble if you ask too many questions.”

Kyler didn’t reply.

“It’s over anyway,” Alex added. “I’ve moved on.”

Kyler considered Alex’s words with a frown. “You’re saying it’s above my pay grade.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah.” He was pretty sure it was the truth.

“And you want me to keep my nose out of your business.”

“That would be helpful.”

Kyler scoffed. “Shit. You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Extremely.”

“Well that explains your cocky-ass manners.”

“Me?” Alex was incensed.

Kyler ignored the outburst. “I’ll make you a deal, Classified. If you’re not just running your mouth, and you really can kick my ass on the range, I’ll drop it. Forever.”

Alex could hardly believe his luck. Was Kyler really that confident in his own abilities? Or was he simply underestimating Alex’s? He supposed he’d learn the answer to that question soon enough. “Deal,” he agreed.

“But if I win, you tell me the truth.”

“You’re not going to win.”

“I’m the best sharpshooter I know.”

“Well that’s about to change.”

Chapter Text

You with Gabe?

Tania scowled at her phone as she typed a quick reply. No. He went to pick up supplies for tomorrow.

She was in the back of a cab trying not to breathe too deeply. The driver must have taken a bath in cologne that morning, and the sharp, flowery scent wafting over her from the front seat was stabbing her nostrils and giving her a headache.

Meet me for coffee?

She looked up from her phone uneasily. Coffee shops weren’t normally Kyler’s thing. What was he up too?

Is this about Gabe? she typed. Her thumb hovered for a moment, wondering if she really wanted to know the answer to that question. She pressed send.

Nothing happened at first, and then three little dots appeared on her screen, showing that Kyler was typing his reply. Tania watched as they blinked one after the other, then disappeared, then reappeared. Then disappeared.

Finally, his answer popped up on the screen.

Yeah.

She closed her eyes and set her phone down in her lap. She felt suddenly queasy and like the roof of the cab was pressing down on her, heavy with the weight of impending disaster.

Memories of Kyler’s phone call from Spain surfaced. He had caught her unaware, and the news he had shared about her then-boyfriend had left her feeling like she’d been crushed under someone’s shoe. Nothing more than a smear on the sidewalk.

She’d forgiven her brother for that phone call and the way he’d almost casually ripped her life apart. He’d only been protecting her, and in hindsight she was grateful, but she couldn’t live through that again. She couldn’t. And Gabe wasn’t Jake Mitchell.

She took a breath.

Gabe was not Jake.

She told the driver to stop. He pulled over, and she quickly paid her fare and stumbled out onto the sidewalk. It drove off, and she stood there in the bright sunshine just breathing.

She didn’t know what to do. Her feet felt rooted to the sidewalk.

The thing was, she knew Gabe. Over the past year, he’d become one of her closest friends. She’d talked to him nearly every day. She knew his favorite foods, the names of his friends in Berkeley, his ex’s, his plans for graduate school, what shows he watched, and what he liked to do on the weekends. But more than that, she knew him. The things that made him laugh. His dreams for the future. The sadness that sometimes crept into his voice. How he could look at people and situations in ways Tania had never considered. His uncanny ability to say the simplest things in just the right way to help her feel better when she was down, or stressed, or angry. How he never pushed or pressured her, and was there—had been there—day after day after day.

What could Kyler have uncovered in one morning that she hadn’t learned in almost a year?

Honestly.

She wanted to tell her brother to mind his own fucking business.

But...

If she’d learned anything from that bastard, Jake Mitchell, it was that people lied. She hated to think that Gabe could be one of those people, but she couldn’t dismiss the possibility altogether. He was so secretive about his past. What if there really was something she needed to know? What if Kyler had somehow figured it out?

Could she really ignore it?

She filled her lungs with air and held it there as she considered.

No.

She couldn’t.

She let the breath out slowly and texted Kyler back.

Fine.

He sent her the address of the coffee shop, and she started walking. It was next to their hotel, only a couple of blocks away.

It’ll be okay, she said to herself. Whatever Kyler had on Gabe, it couldn’t be worse than Jake. She’d survived that, and she would survive this. Whatever it was.

Even so, nauseating dread coiled around her midsection, and she wished more than ever that Kyler had never come to Arequipa.

When she arrived, she found her brother waiting for her at a table in the back of the shop, screened from the street behind a shelf of potted plants.

He was leaning forward in his chair with his elbows resting on the table. His hands were clasped in front of him, and he was rubbing his thumbs over his knuckles nervously. Everything about him said ‘bad news’.

He caught her eyes, and Tania took in his grim expression. She almost turned around and left. Despite the pep talk she’d given herself, she absolutely didn’t want to hear it. She’d let herself hope with Gabe.

What could he possibly be lying about that would necessitate Kyler’s interference?

He wasn’t married, and he didn’t have any kids. She knew this. It had to be something to do with his past, which, to be fair, he’d told her it was horrible.

She bypassed the line at the counter. Her stomach was already churning and coffee would just make it worse.

She pulled out the chair across from Kyler and sat down stiffly, not bothering to take off her purse or jacket.

“What is it?”

Kyler sighed. “I know you didn’t ask me to, but I did some digging on Gabe before we came out here.”

Tania glared at him but didn’t say anything. Had she expected that after Jake he wouldn’t stick his nose into her business?

“I couldn’t find anything.”

She squinted at him, confused. “And that’s good, right?”

“No,” he shook his head. “What I mean is, there’s nothing there, Tan. He has a Canadian passport and the bare bones of an identity, and that’s it. That’s all I could find.”

“What are you saying?”

Kyler licked his lips, hesitating. “I don’t think Gabriel Thomas is his real name.”

Tania stared at him.

Shit.

She had not expected that.

“And that’s not the only thing.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, wishing she could press a button and turn Kyler off. He’d said enough. She didn’t want to hear any more.

“I asked him who he’d worked for in the military,” Kyler continued, oblivious to her distress, “who’d trained him, and he said it was classified—like he told you—but when I pushed him on it, he threatened me.”

“What?” That was so unlike him, Tania couldn’t really believe it.

“He said I’d get in trouble if I kept digging. Made it sound like people higher up than me would be unhappy if I didn’t let it go.”

Tania didn’t know how to respond to that either, or even how to feel about it. Frankly, it was confusing. She didn’t know how much authority Kyler had, who the people “higher up” were, or why they would have any clue about or connection to Gabe.

Kyler continued, “I thought he might be bluffing, so I made a deal with him. I told him if he could beat me at the shooting range, that I’d stop asking. But if I won, he had to tell me the truth.”

“He took your bet?”

Kyler nodded, and Tania suddenly understood how he’d pried the info out of Gabe in such a short amount of time. Gabe probably hadn’t had a clue just how good Kyler was at this sort of thing. Tania knew. She’d been watching him shoot for as long as she could remember. He’d always loved guns and marksmanship and had competed as a teenager, winning several state and regional awards. Add to that 10 years in the military honing his skill, and Gabe probably hadn’t stood a chance.

“So what did he tell you?” she asked.

“He didn’t tell me anything because he won,” Kyler admitted.

“What?” Tania laughed, but then realized her brother was serious. “He won?”

Kyler nodded soberly. “I’ve never seen anyone shoot like that. It was insane. Like he was born with a gun in his hands. Long-range, short-range, different weapons, it didn’t matter. He smoked me in all of it.”

Tania took a minute to absorb that piece of information. Gabe had actually beaten Kyler in the thing Kyler was best at. She loved her brother fiercely, but he had a bloated opinion of himself. His ego must have taken a huge hit.

“You sound impressed,” she said. And embarrassed if she was reading him right, but surprisingly not angry.

“How could I not be? Someone who can shoot like that? He shouldn’t exist.”

“He won the bet and now you have to stop asking him who he worked for.”

“Yeah,” Kyler said. “But Tania, someone that talented, there’s no way they—whoever ‘they’ are—would just let him retire and go to college to be a computer nerd. Either he’s lying about being done, or he’s hiding. Given the thing with his name, it’s got to be one or the other.”

“He didn’t retire,” Tania corrected him. “He got shot, and he’s not lying about that. He has an enormous scar through his thigh. I’ve seen it.”

Gabe had been hesitant to show her, but she’d gotten enough of a look to know that it had been awful.

Kyler shrugged. “It doesn’t seem to slow him down any. Either it looks worse than it is, or it happened a long time ago.”

It was true that Gabe never acted like it bothered him. He didn’t limp or wince in pain, and Tania would have never known the truth if she hadn’t asked Gabe about it. He’d admitted that the wound still hurt sometimes, but that he’d learned to work through the pain. Then he’d assured her that it really wasn’t very bad.

Kyler thought Gabe was either still secretly working for the military or that he was hiding. Neither option made sense with what she knew of Gabe’s personality. Well, maybe the hiding bit.

“So what then,” she said, “you think he’s a deserter?”

“I don’t know,” Kyler rubbed his forehead. “It’s probably not that simple. Regular Joes don’t get the kind of training he has. The way he shoots. The way he moves. My gut is telling me it’s something more, like… fuck, I hate to say it…”

Tania rolled her eyes, too overwhelmed by everything he’d said to deal with his drama. “Just spit it out, Ky.”

“Wet work.”

She stared at him blankly.

He leaned toward her and spoke in a low voice, almost a whisper. “Assassination. Possibly espionage. And not for the U.S.”

Tania scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. You can’t be serious. There’s no way,” she shook her head. “Gabe doesn’t even kill houseflies. He shoos them out the door.”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense!”

“It doesn’t make sense,” she shot back. “Why would he be here in Peru? You’re out of your mind.”

“Or maybe you’re too in love with him to see the truth!” he growled. “For all we know, he could be an enemy spy. Having a long-distance girlfriend makes for a really good cover.”

That was the stupidest, most paranoid thing that had ever come out of his mouth. “I’m not blind!” Tania said. “You think I didn’t learn my lesson with Jake?”

Kyler hesitated. He looked away for a moment debating with himself, but then decided to plow on. “Look, Tan,” he said with a sigh. “You have a type. Blond-haired charity cases that unfortunately happen to be lying scumbags. Maybe he knew that and took advantage.”

Wow.

That hurt like a punch to the chest. It brought tears to her eyes, and she blinked them away furiously. “Gabe’s not a scumbag,” she argued. “Or a charity case. Where the hell did that even come from?”

Kyler rolled his eyes. “Come on, Tania,” he huffed. “’I’m an orphan. I have no one...’ It’s a classic manipulation tactic.”

That you fell for, he didn’t say, but he didn’t have to. Tania heard it loud and clear.

So there it was, the final straw. She was done.

“You’re such an asshole.” She got up to leave.

“Wait, Tania!” He stood to follow her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Tania paused to give him the barest chance to redeem himself.

“I’m just... I’m worried, okay?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I know I don’t have it all figured out, but it would be safer if you stayed away from him. At least until we get some answers.”

We. She almost laughed.

There was no we in this. This was all him. He’d gone behind her back to investigate her boyfriend and then come up with a ridiculous story to get her to break up with him. That wasn’t worry; that was paranoia. That was him being a condescending jerk of an older brother who still thought she needed his help to tie her shoelaces and didn’t trust her to make her own decisions.

Her anger turned cold, so cold that she felt frozen solid. She balled her fists and swallowed down the lump of ice in her throat.

“No,” she finally managed to say. It wasn’t easy standing up to him, but fury lent her strength. “You stay away from Gabe. I never asked you to come here or to get involved. Back off, or I’m going to tell Señora that you have it out for him, and she’ll throw you off the team before we leave tomorrow. I guarantee it.” She took a step closer to Kyler, and her brother leaned back slightly. “She trusts Gabe. I trust Gabe, and I know him a hell of a lot better than you do.” Then she turned and walked away.

Kyler didn’t follow.

She slammed her way out of the coffee shop and onto the street, then raged as she headed to her hotel.

She hadn’t wanted Kyler to come on this trip. She hadn’t asked for his help, and she certainly didn’t need it, because his theories about Gabe were complete and utter horseshit.

He had no proof.

She didn’t care what he thought about her boyfriend. She knew what it felt like to be used. She’d experienced that with Jake, and it hadn’t felt like this.

So Kyler could stuff his ‘worries’ up his ass and go home. She refused to believe him.

Alex met his contact, procured his weapons and gear, and dropped them off at the Mamani’s ranch for safekeeping. He got back to his hotel with just enough time to shower before his date with Tania.

He’d texted her a couple of times that afternoon, and her replies had been short. She was probably just busy getting ready for tomorrow. Even so, Alex couldn’t help worrying that something more was going on.

He worried it was Kyler.

Their showdown at the shooting range had been intense. Kyler was very skilled, and Alex hadn’t been able to hold back as much as he’d planned.

He’d had to win.

The way he saw it, there had only been two choices. Either he scraped and bowed to Kyler, pretending to be less than he was and lying his way into tighter and tighter corners until he got caught, or he dominated Kyler so thoroughly that the man had to leave him alone.

And if, God forbid, he actually needed to use his gun at some point on their trek, he wasn’t going to risk anyone’s safety by pretending to be incompetent. From a security standpoint, it was better for Kyler to know exactly what Alex was capable of.

So there they were. Two very good reasons for being completely stupid.

Bloody hell. Who was he kidding? He hadn’t been thinking of any of that on the range. All he’d wanted—no, needed—was to see Kyler’s smug grin fall off of his face, and so he’d shunted sensible, careful Gabe to the sidelines and recklessly shown Kyler who he really was.

It had probably been a mistake.

Still, the look on Kyler’s face when he’d blown past the man’s nearly perfect scores over and over had been priceless.

Seeing it had been one of the highlights of Alex’s life.

He chuckled to himself remembering.

Alex had barely finished toweling off when he heard a knock at his hotel room door. He wrapped the towel around his waist and left the bathroom, letting out a cloud of steam that trailed after him as he padded silently to the door.

The pounding sounded again, and Alex looked through the peephole.

It was Tania.

Her eyes were red-rimmed and full of thunder.

He slid the bolt and opened the door, then turned on the overhead light as she pushed her way into his room.

“Kyler is such an asshole,” she growled.

Alex couldn’t argue with that. “What’s happened?” he asked, closing the door and locking it again. His mind went into overdrive imagining all the ways Kyler could have fucked things up.

Tania turned around to face him, wiping angry tears from her eyes. She blinked as she registered his clothing-less state and damp hair that, come to think of it, was probably sticking up in a fuzzy halo around his head. He ran his hands through it, trying to flatten it down a bit.

“I should have told you I was coming,” she apologized.

“It’s fine. What did Kyler do?”

She shrugged and shook her head. “He’s trying to get me to break up with you.”

“Oh. Right,” he replied. Because that made sense. But what exactly had that git said?

Tania’s eyes brightened suddenly, and a small smile crept onto her face. “You know what?”

Alex hadn’t the faintest. “Um, no. What?”

“What if we didn’t go out tonight?”

“Sure? What’d you have in mind?” Alex honestly didn’t care what they did as long as he could be near her. And if Tania was smiling at him, whatever had happened with Kyler couldn’t have been that bad.

She took a step toward him and ran a single finger from his sternum to his belly button. Goosebumps prickled along his arms. Alex raised his eyebrows at her but kept his mouth shut. He was very interested to see what else she had in mind.

Tania’s smile morphed into a sultry smirk. “I may be a bit overdressed,” she said.

Chapter Text

Alex lounged in bed with Tania nestled into his side. It was getting late. They’d ordered room service and then spent the evening wrapped in each other’s arms. Alex wished they didn’t have to leave Arequipa tomorrow.

He pulled the blanket up over Tania’s shoulders and held her close. She hummed contentedly, and Alex dozed for a while.

He woke when she got up and turned on the shower. Ten minutes later, she climbed back into bed with him, smelling of the hotel soap and wrapped in his bathrobe. Alex opened his arms and she curled into his side again, laying her head on his chest. The soft, warm weight of her felt exactly right, as if their bodies had been made to fit together perfectly. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this whole, the problems with Kyler notwithstanding. He really should be trying to get to the bottom of that mess, but it was hard to worry in a moment like this.

Tania sighed. “Kyler still treats me like I’m 12,” she said. Apparently Alex wasn’t the only one thinking about her problematic older brother. “Like I’m incompetent and naive. It’s infuriating.”

Alex nodded in sympathy. Every special forces soldier he’d ever met had done the same thing to him. Granted, he’d actually been a teenager the last time he’d run into one, but even so, the statement hit a nerve. “They’re all arrogant bastards. I’m pretty sure it’s a job requirement.”

Tania let out a tiny laugh and lifted one shoulder. “They’re not all like that,” she said. “Some of Kyler’s friends are really decent.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “If you say so.”

Their conversation stalled, and Alex wondered again what Kyler had said. Was it wise to bring it up? Should he push her? Or would it be better to let the subject drop? Maybe he could corner Kyler tomorrow and drag some answers out of him.

“Gabe?” Tania said, interrupting his thoughts.

“Yeah?”

She hesitated, and then asked, “Are you a spy?”

Alex almost choked.

Holy shit. Where the hell had that come from?

Had Kyler guessed so much? If so, Alex hadn’t given the guy enough credit.

Tania tensed in his arms, waiting for an answer.

“I’m not a spy,” he told her.

He wanted to see her face, to gauge her reaction, but she continued to stare at the far side of the room.

His stomach clenched as he considered what to say next. If she was asking, then she must have some reason to wonder. Simply denying that he was a spy probably wasn’t going to be enough to satisfy her. After all, what spy ever admits to being a spy?

Was this the time to come clean? At least partially? Could he do it? Should he do it? Yassen would say no. But Yassen wasn’t here.

If Kyler had guessed this much, then it was possible that Alex was already out of time. He needed to give Tania something more. He freed his arm and pulled himself up, leaning forward.

Tania sat up as well, a small frown creasing her forehead. Their eyes met, and Alex could see her confusion and fear. He reached for her hand and offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Is that what Kyler thinks?”

Tania dropped her gaze to their clasped fingers. She nodded. “I don’t want to believe him...”

“It’s okay,” Alex sighed. “It’s my fault.” He raked his other hand through his messy hair as he worked up the courage to say more. “The thing is, he’s not entirely wrong.”

Tania’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“I used to be a spy,” he admitted. “But I got out. I promise. I don’t do that anymore.”

Tania considered his words for a minute. Then she asked, “Is your name really Gabe?”

Alex froze as a shot of adrenaline set his heart racing.

He’d been caught, and Tania’s question was gun pressing into the back of his head. He licked his lips, knowing his reaction had given everything away. “It is now,” he said.

Her eyes widened, and she sat up straighter, pulling her hand away. “What was it before?”

Alex clenched his jaw, feeling cornered by this entire conversation. The primal urge to escape clawed at him. He shook his head slightly as he replied, “You don’t want to know.” The words came out harsher than he’d intended.

Tania drew back farther. “You’re not going to tell me?”

Fuck, this was going downhill fast. “I can’t tell anyone.”

“You don’t trust me.”

“It’s not about trust.”

“No, of course not,” she scoffed. “Because why would I need to know your real name?”

“Tania, come on. It’s not that simple.” It was such a stupid thing to say, but he didn’t know how to make her understand. Knowing his name could land her on the radar of some of the most dangerous people on the planet. It wasn’t safe for either of them, and he honestly wasn’t ready for her to know that yet.

She didn’t reply immediately. She stared down at her hands and shook her head. “I thought...,” she swallowed. “I thought what we had was real. And now I feel so stupid. I mean, after this whole year, after the plaza and the past two days... I thought it was real.”

“Shit Tania, it was! It is—“

“—I thought you were different,” she said and turned away from him.

The air left Alex’s chest.

He’d hurt her. Fuck, he’d hurt her. He needed to get on his knees, beg her forgiveness, and tell her everything, but he just… couldn’t. It was too much of a risk.

“It’s not like that, I promise,” he pleaded. But maybe it was. Maybe he was no better than Jake Mitchell.

He didn’t deserve her.

She got up and collected her clothes from the floor, dressing quickly. “I have to go. I’ll see you at the ranch tomorrow.”

Alex didn’t know what to do, what to say. Was this the end? He hoped it wasn’t the end. He got out of bed and pulled on his trousers and a shirt. “I’ll... get you a cab—”

“No, it’s fine,” she cut him off. “I’ll ask at the front desk.”

Her hands were shaking, and it took her two tries to jam her phone into her jacket pocket as she walked to the door. Alex followed her. He couldn’t let this be the end.

“Tania, wait.”

She paused with her hand on the doorknob but didn’t turn.

Shit. She wouldn’t look at him.

“I’m sorry,” he told her. “Don’t leave like this. Please. We can figure this out.” He didn’t know how, but there had to be a way.

“I need to think,” she said and left, letting the door slam behind her.

Alex’s feet continued to carry him forward, right into the door, and he leaned his forehead against it. He closed his eyes.

Instead of calling for a cab, Tania sprinted for the bathroom in the lobby of Gabe’s hotel. Tears were already streaming down her cheeks, and her knees felt ready to give out.

As the door shut behind her, she doubled over and pressed her fist to her mouth, biting down on her knuckles to keep from screaming.

The emotions raging inside of her were deep and raw and… angry. The problem was she didn’t exactly know who she was angry with. Gabe? Kyler? Herself? It was a dumpster fire, and she couldn’t make any sense of it.

She slid down until she was sitting on the shiny white tiles of the floor and buried her face in her knees to have a good, long cry.

She’d come here tonight to prove Kyler wrong, but the joke was on her. She felt so stupid. How did this happen to a person twice? How could Gabe hold her in his arms like that, knowing he was lying to her about who he was?

Gabe Thomas.

Former spy.

That was the reason though, wasn’t it?

He was a spy, and spies lied. It’s what they were best at. Maybe it was so ingrained in him that he couldn’t help it.

He’d said he was done with that life, but could she believe anything he’d told her? Was any of it real? How would she ever know?

Shit. Kyler could be right about all of it. Gabe could be an enemy spy or assassin, working in the US, and using her as a cover. She’d seen only what he’d wanted her to see.

A hiccup escaped her, and her tears petered out as her mind filled with an ocean of questions.

If Gabe was an enemy spy, why had he come on that first mission trip in Peru? And then why had he come back? This was his third year.

Did Señora know that he was lying about who he was?

Did Señora know his real name?

Should she ask the woman about it tomorrow? What if she didn’t know, and Tania ended up outing Gabe? Would he get thrown off the trek? Why did she care? Shouldn’t she want him gone? After all, being in forced proximity for the next three weeks was bound to be awkward and upsetting.

Why the hell wouldn’t Gabe tell her his real name?

And if he was a spy or a pathological liar, why had he confessed when she’d asked? Why hadn’t he just kept on lying?

She would have believed him.

Suddenly, the lights of the bathroom blinked out, and Tania scrambled to her feet only to have them turn back on. Motion sensor activated.

She moved to the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. Her face was red and splotchy and her hair was a mess. She combed her fingers through it to get out the worst of the tangles, then splashed her face with cold water.

The paper towels at the sink were thick and soft. Fancy.

That was another thing. In Berkeley, Gabe had seemed to live like a monk. Bare furnishings, minimal possessions, just focusing on school and work and the occasional night out with his friends. Yet he’d sailed to Peru from California on a yacht of all things, and then he’d booked this very expensive hotel to stay in.

Who the hell was he?

She took a deep breath and stared up at the ceiling as she exhaled.

Why did she care? He’d lied to her. And not just a little. He’d pretty much lied the mother of all lies, right up there with Jake the Snake Mitchell. She had every right to dump his sorry ass and move on, but the thought of doing that scared her.

Why do I care? she wondered again. Why not just walk away?

Alex found Señora Mamani in her kitchen. She was elbow deep in a giant bowl of solterito, preparing lunch for nearly 30 people. Two other women worked alongside her, and their animated chatter paused as he entered the room.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Blond hooligan,” she grumbled. She wiped her hands on her apron and reached for a chopping board heaped with cilantro. “Who let you in?”

Alex smiled at their long-standing joke as he rounded her heavy wooden work table. She proffered her cheek, and he bent to kiss her there before swiping an olive from the bowl and popping it in his mouth.

“What can I do to help?” he asked. He reached for more, but Señora swatted at him with her knife.

It was a big knife. Alex moved farther away.

“Why are you early?” she asked.

“You know me,” he said. “I can’t sit still. I was ready, so I came to help.”

Señora grunted at that. She didn’t believe him.

Alex looked around for something to keep his hands busy. Señora huffed in annoyance, grabbed a bowl of fava beans, and set it in front of him. “Peel those,” she said. “And put them in the bowl.”

Alex washed his hands and sat down to work. The beans were bright green and a little slippery. It took him a minute to figure out how to get the skins off without dropping them on the floor. Once he got the hang of it, he spoke.

“You talked to Kyler about me.”

“Finally! He gets to the point,” Señora said to herself. She paused a moment in her chopping to look at him. “Kyler wanted to know what I thought of you, so I told him.”

Alex peeled a couple more beans. “Sharp teeth?” He wasn’t really sure why the comment bothered him, but it did.

She smiled like he’d told a joke. “And a soft heart.”

“He didn’t mention that bit.”

She turned her attention back to her herbs, mincing them finely. “He has a soft heart and sharp teeth. This is why we need him in the mountains. That was what I said.”

Alex thought about that. It was a relief to know that Señora valued more of him than just Orion’s abilities.

She dumped the cilantro into the solterito and scraped her knife clean on the edge of the bowl. “Where is Tania?” she asked.

Alex swallowed down a sudden lump in his throat and fastened his gaze on the beans in his hands. “With her brother,” he replied. “I’m sure she’ll be here right on time.”

There must have been something in his voice that tipped her off. “What happened?” she asked. “You had a fight?”

Alex didn’t know what to say. He shrugged. What had happened could technically be called a fight, though there hadn’t been any yelling. Or punching. Or weapons. It hadn’t been the kind of fight he could win. He cleared his throat. “She asked me a question I couldn’t answer, and now she thinks she can’t trust me.”

“What kind of question?”

He grimaced.

“Ah,” Señora said and turned back to her salad. “The kind we do not speak of.” She mused over the problem for a minute as she stirred the bowl with a large wooden spoon. “If you never tell her the truth, then perhaps she cannot.”

Alex sighed. She was right, and he knew it, but he also didn’t know how to fix it. He felt stuck, like he was back on that hellhole of a submarine, only this time it was Tania who wanted information he wasn’t willing to give.

“I don’t know if I can,” he said.

He wished he could jettison his past like the putrid garbage that it was and be Gabe Thomas for real. But then of course, he never would have come to Peru and met Tania in the first place.

“Give it time,” Señora said. “Perhaps you will find an answer in the mountains.” She took the bowl from him. “Now, out of my kitchen. That is all the foolishness I have time for today. Find Julio and help him set up the tables outside.”

Somewhat comforted, Alex left. Once the tables and chairs had been arranged, he wandered to the stables to check on his horse friend.

Her name was Alondra. She was a big bay mare, and she was the only horse he’d ever met that he actually liked. The other horses simply tolerated him, and the feeling was mutual, but Alondra was different. She had a serene strength about her and a no-nonsense attitude that reminded him of Yassen. She was also very picky about who she would trust, which, thankfully, had worked in his favor with the Mamanis.

Despite Alex’s prejudice against horses in general, she hadn’t instantly hated him. By the end of his first day on the ranch, she was eating out of his hand and nibbling at his hair. The Mamanis had practically adopted Alex after that, and Alondra had been his trail partner every summer since.

He entered the massive stables and found her in her usual stall. She whickered softly as she came to greet him at the door.

“Hi girl,” he said, holding out a small carrot he’d nicked from the kitchen. Alex rubbed her forehead as she crunched. She dipped her head and nosed his jacket pockets looking for more.

“Sorry,” he told her. “I only brought the one. I had to be very, very sneaky. Señora would have cut off my fingers if she’d found me raiding her supplies.”

He grabbed the curry comb from its hook on the wall and went into her stall. Then he stroked her head and neck slowly, letting her adjust to his proximity and his touch.

“I messed up big time,” he murmured to her in Russian as he started to brush her down. It was a relatively safe language to spill his guts in. No one currently working in the stables spoke it, and Alondra didn’t care what language he used. She had no clue what he was talking about, but the sound of his voice helped her to relax. For Alex, getting his troubles off his chest and into her soft, expressive ears helped him feel better. It was a win-win.

“She won’t answer her phone,” he continued. “I called her six times this morning. She’s not talking to me. Part of me is wondering if I should keep trying. Maybe I should just end it.”

Alondra turned her head to stare at him with one large brown eye, and Alex got the distinct impression that she thought that idea was really stupid.

“The thing is, she has every right to hate me. Sometimes I hate me. I hate that I have to lie to everyone. I hate hiding. I hate that I can’t fucking talk to anyone about this.”

Alondra snorted.

“Anyone but you, I mean.” He dragged the comb in long, slow strokes along her back, and she shivered underneath his hands.

“For the record,” he added, “Yassen doesn’t count because he’s old and he’s never been in love. Plus, I can tell you exactly what he’ll say. He’s as predictable as day-old porridge.” Alex wasn’t sure which language that saying came from, or if he’d just made it up, but it seemed to fit.

Alondra didn’t comment.

By the time Alex finished grooming her, the first of the medical staff had arrived. He put the curry comb away, gave his horse an affectionate pat, and brushed himself off, then headed out into the yard.

There were people he needed to talk to, new faces to meet and old acquaintances to reacquaint himself with, but the only person he cared about was Tania.

As he walked toward the house, he surveyed the arrivals.

The Mamani’s van pulled into the yard, and Alex slowed to a stop when he saw Kyler and Tania get out. Kyler went to grab luggage from the back of the vehicle while Tania stepped into the dust, shading her eyes. She was at least 50 meters away, but she spotted Alex as quickly as he’d seen her. She turned around and joined her brother at the back of the van.

Alex decided to help them with their bags, but he’d only taken a dozen steps forward when Kyler noticed him and started heading his way.

As he walked, he pulled a pair of sunglasses from the collar of his black t-shirt and put them on. His arrogant swagger set Alex’s teeth on edge and told him everything he needed to know. Kyler was coming to break the bad news, and he didn’t feel all that bad about it.

Alex leaned back against a fence post and watched as he approached.

Kyler stopped ten feet away. “Tania filled me in,” he said.

“I assumed she would,” Alex lied.

“Does Señora know?”

“About what exactly?”

“That you used to be a spy and that you’re lying about your name.”

“She knows,” Alex replied, and then mentally added, Kind of. Señora had more of a vague understanding rather than actual facts.

Kyler grunted, then said, “Tania’s rather upset at the moment.”

Alex just stared at him.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you right now.”

Six unanswered phone calls had pretty much told Alex the same thing. “So… what does she want?” he asked.

“The truth.”

Alex raised his eyebrows at the obvious answer, and Kyler went on without waiting for a response.

“Barring that, we both want to get through this trip without any unnecessary drama. Señora’s counting on all of us to do our jobs.”

Alex scoffed. ”Unnecessary drama. Maybe you should have thought of that before you invited yourself along.”

“Hey, you’re the liar here!” Kyler shouted, pointing an angry finger at Alex and taking a step forward. “You had plenty of opportunities to come clean over the past year, but you didn’t, and that’s on you!”

Fuck.

The man was right.

Alex ground his teeth. There was nothing he could say. Trying to defend himself would only hand Kyler more ammunition to use against him.

Tania’s brother stalked closer, almost within striking distance. “So what’s it going to be, Classified?” he asked quietly. “Are you going to suck it up and do your job like a professional? Or are you going to make things difficult?”

The tone of his voice said he was hoping for the latter. He wanted to beat the tar out of Alex and send him packing.

The feeling was mutual, but as much as Alex was itching to break Kyler’s nose (and maybe a rib or two), doing so would only ensure that Tania never spoke to him again. Possibly the Mamanis too.

He had too much to lose, which meant he either had to play nice with Kyler or leave.

Shit.

Chapter Text

Kyler waited for Alex’s answer.

A breeze kicked up the dust at their feet as he wrestled with his emotions, trying to get them under some form of control.

Finally, he nodded his agreement. “Okay,” he said. “We keep things professional. No drama.”

“You sure you can handle it?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Seriously?”

“Maybe you’re a terrible liar,” Kyler shrugged.

Alex couldn’t help smirking just a little. “Doubt me all you want,” he said, “but I’ll let you in on a secret.”

Kyler narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “What?”

“My single most effective weapon as a spy was the fact that nearly everyone underestimated me.”

“Damn.” Kyler frowned.

Alex smiled at him innocently, disengaged from the fence post he’d been leaning on, and walked to the house, leaving the man behind to sort it out.

If they wanted professional, Alex would show them professional. He’d be so fucking professional that he’d make Yassen look like an emotional train wreck.

Step one: stop cussing.

Fuck, he was going to hate this.

Tania slung a large duffel bag onto her shoulder and carried it toward the side of the house while she watched Gabe and Kyler talking. Gabe was leaning back against the fence, and she couldn’t read him from this distance. Kyler however, looked like he was in full alpha mode, ready to attack if Gabe so much as blinked in her direction.

So that was awesome.

Tania groaned and turned away.

She felt like a coward for letting her brother step in like this. She knew it should be her, but she was afraid of her own traitorous heart.

How was it possible in the face of so much hurt and betrayal to still want him?

She knew that if she talked to Gabe, if he apologized again and she allowed herself to get swallowed up in those eyes of his, she’d never be able to let go.

And she needed to let him go.

A relationship based on lies wasn’t healthy.

It wasn’t what she wanted.

So the smart thing to do was to stay away, let Kyler handle it, and hope she could make it through the next three weeks without completely losing her mind.

All afternoon, she actively avoided both Gabe and her brother. It was easier to do than she’d expected. She was busy with her team, and they were busy with theirs. Task after task, she completed her orientation checklist and eventually made it to base camp with her horse and gear.

It was only during the evening meal that things got dicey. Tania discovered that she’d forgotten to bring her mess kit, which meant she had to go claim one of the spares from the supply truck.

As she approached, she saw Gabe. He was standing with his back turned to her and a clipboard in his hands. Tania noticed his hair first. The evening light had turned the top of his head golden. Next she took in his olive green shirt and the way the sturdy fabric skimmed his shoulders and back. Her eyes drifted lower to where a pistol and two large knives hugged his hips, right where Tania’s hands had gripped him the night before.

A rush of longing pulled at her as she remembered, and her cheeks flushed with heat.

Shit. This train of thought was not helping.

Gabe turned and looked up from his clipboard. The expression on his face was bland and pleasant, and Tania was disappointed. She’d hoped for a bit more of a reaction from him, honestly, which was totally stupid. She should be grateful he was playing it cool. It was what she’d wanted, wasn’t it?

“What can I get you?” he asked.

Once again Tania remembered his lips on her skin, his hands in her hair. She swallowed dryly. “I forgot my mess kit.”

Gabe nodded. He set his list down on the tailgate of the pickup and hoisted himself up into the back. He rummaged through a large canvas sack. “Found one,” he said, then jumped down from the truck and handed it to her.

“Thanks.”

“Sure.”

Their eyes met and locked for a moment. Gabe opened his mouth to say something more, but Tania turned and hurried away.

It was the right thing to do, she assured herself over and over, but no matter how many times she said it, the pain in her chest refused to go away.

Late that night, after almost everyone had gone to sleep, Sra. Mamani found her sitting by the fire.

She lowered herself onto the large rock next to Tania and groaned. “My bones are too old for this.”

Tania smiled at her wearily, then turned away as another tear slid down her cheek. She wiped it away with the cuff of her jacket but it was no use, they just kept coming.

“Gabe said you had a fight,” Señora remarked.

Tania huffed indignantly. “He called it a fight?”

Señora raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged. “He said he couldn’t answer your question.”

Tania debated for only a moment before saying, “He’s lying about his name, and he won’t tell me what it really is. I thought I knew him, but...” She trailed off, suddenly worried she’d said too much too loudly. The fire popped, sending sparks into the night air. “Sorry,” she added. “I wasn’t sure if you knew.”

Señora shrugged slightly. “It doesn’t bother me.” She turned her head to look at Tania. “If he wants to be Gabe, does it matter? A rose is still a rose, is it not?”

Tania had always loved that part of Romeo & Juliet, but now it was haunting her.

It was true that a rose was still a rose, even if you called it a tulip, or a french fry. Or Gabe. But that wasn’t really the issue. When Juliet had spoken that line, she’d known her lover’s identity. Tania hadn’t the faintest clue about hers.

“It matters that he lied to me,” she replied.

“Ah.” Señora nodded to herself. “Does it upset you then to learn that my name was not always Señora Mamani?”

Tania wanted to roll her eyes. “That’s different,” she said.

“Is it?”

“Yes.”

“I have not used my birth name in almost 50 years.”

Tania’s mind tripped over the statement. Fifty years? If this woman was the same age as Mami, or nearly the same age, then she’d changed her name long before they’d met. How old was Mami, again? Sixty-two? So then, had Señora only been 12 when she’d changed her name? She couldn’t have been that young. Tania gave up trying to make sense of it. Maybe Señora had the math wrong. “Mami calls you Nina,” she said.

“Yes,” the woman explained. “I chose that name after I left my village.”

Tania gazed up at the glittering sky hoping the woman would continue, and after a while, she did.

“Not everyone who lies is a liar.”

Even though Tania wanted to argue, she kept her mouth shut. A person who lied was, by definition, a liar, but she didn’t exactly want to call Señora a liar. Gah! Why was this so complicated?

“I expect Gabe has his reasons. Did you ask him?”

“No,” Tania shook her head. Two years ago, she’d asked Jake why, and it had been a huge mistake.

You’re so beautiful, baby. How could I resist? he’d said.

She doesn’t understand me. Not like you do.

We don’t have to end it. I’ve still got six weeks…

Every word out of his mouth had left her feeling used, empty, and utterly, utterly stupid for not realizing the truth sooner. She’d learned her lesson. She wouldn’t give Gabe the chance to make things worse.

Señora yawned, and Tania followed suit. Her eyelids drooped.

“We should sleep,” the woman chided. “Today’s problems will still be here in the morning.”

Reluctantly, Tania agreed, but before she got up she asked, “How can I know if he’s a liar or just, you know, lying?”

Señora smiled. It was a rare occurrence, Tania realized.

“First, you must ask him. Hear what he says. Then you ask yourself, what does your heart say?”

Tania had to stop herself from groaning in frustration at the woman’s answer. Her heart was a notoriously bad judge of character.

She couldn’t trust it.

Work.

It was Alex’s answer to many of his life’s problems. Fortunately, there was plenty of it to be done on the trek. Unfortunately, almost all of it had to be done in the company of a certain Navy Seal.

Kyler hadn’t gone out of his way to make things difficult, but his constant, inescapable presence forced Alex to suppress his emotions in a way that felt hauntingly familiar. Acting “professional” and keeping his cool around a man he desperately wanted to punch in the face was exhausting, irritating, and entirely too much Orion for his mental health.

On top of that, Tania literally ran away from him any time they were in danger of starting a conversation. She’d done it multiple times, and each time he’d had to catch his breath from the stabbing ache it caused in his chest.

He felt as if he was walking around with a broken rib and trying to hide it. It was soul-suckingly miserable.

They’d arrived at their second village that afternoon, and everyone was busy setting up camp. Alex’s shovel bit into a patch of rocky soil as he put the finishing touches on a latrine he’d been digging for nearly 30 minutes. It was bigger than it needed to be, but he’d desperately wanted the alone time.

It wouldn’t last much longer. He could hear a set of boots crunching through the brush, getting steadily closer to his position.

The owner of the boots rounded the small hillock that separated the latrine from camp, and Alex looked up to see who had come.

It was Kyler.

Of course it was.

“Dimitri!” Kyler said, smiling. “Dinner. Come and get it.”

Alex grit his teeth and turned back to his shoveling. The stupid git could have just called him on his radio. “That’s not my name,” he growled. No one else was around; he could let his mask slip.

“Well neither is Gabe, so…”

Alex froze and straightened. Rage boiled to the surface as he realized that Kyler had come up here just to torment him.

He’d managed not to beat the shit out of Tania’s brother for five days—five endlessly long days—but that was all he was going to be able to manage.

His fingers tightened around the shaft of the shovel, and he stabbed the blade down into a pile of dirt. He left it there as he stepped away from the shallow trench he’d dug.

Kyler narrowed his eyes, but didn’t change his mocking tone. “Does the truth make you mad, Dimitri? Or is it Gunther? How about Pedro? Come on man, give me a hint here.”

Alex stalked forward, ignoring the voice in his mind telling him to stop. There was a whole team of doctors just 200 meters down the mountainside. Kyler would be fine. Eventually.

“You want a fight,” Kyler said and smiled. “Bring it on.” He shifted to the side and they began circling.

Alex took his time, evaluating Kyler’s stance and gauging the man’s reaction to small, barely noticeable movements.

“You ever worked with the SBS?” Alex asked.

“A little. You?”

“I got into a fight with one once. He lasted three seconds against me. I’ve always wondered if a Seal would last longer.”

Kyler was still trying to think of a brilliant comeback when Alex attacked. The man put up a decent defense, but Alex got around him easily, striking him hard in the jaw, punching the air from his lungs, and knocking him flat on his back into the dirt.

Kyler wheezed and then groaned, bracing himself for more. Alex had been so fast, the man was probably wondering what the hell had just happened.

“I guess that answers that question,” Alex said and shook out his knuckles. Fuck, that had felt good.

He waited to make sure Kyler could breathe and then went to retrieve his tools. When he turned back, shovel in hand, Kyler had picked himself up, and he was pointing his pistol at Alex’s head.

Alex raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t think you were this sore of a loser,” he said.

“Who the hell are you?”

Kyler’s words came out slightly muffled from the swelling in his jaw. It was clear from his wide blown eyes that he was shaken, but Alex had to give him credit; he held the gun steady.

Alex honestly couldn’t tell if Kyler was going to pull the trigger or not. He hoped not, but he stayed perfectly still anyway, quickly weighing his options, and then he said, “No one.”

“BULLSHIT!” Kyler yelled and took a step forward. “BULL! SHIT!”

Alex didn’t respond.

“Why Tania?” Kyler’s voice broke as he said her name.

Alex hesitated. This was a question he could answer, but would Kyler believe him?

“You are shady as hell, and we both know it,” Kyler went on, “How do I know I wouldn’t be doing the world a favor by taking you out of it?”

Oh, fuck.

Alex needed to say something before Kyler talked himself into pulling the trigger. He swallowed hard, hating the man just a little bit more. “Because I love her,” he said.

Kyler didn’t move, didn’t blink, didn’t react in any way.

“And because I’m already dead.”

Time stood still as Alex waited for a response. Kyler’s eyes searched his face, and Alex barely breathed. He couldn’t believe the words had actually come out of his mouth, and that he’d told Kyler of all people. He’d revealed too much, and it still probably wouldn’t be enough.

Kyler processed Alex’s statement, fitting it together with what he already knew. “You… faked your death?”

Alex’s silence was answer enough.

“Why?”

He clenched his teeth, not wanting to reveal more of his secrets at gunpoint. However, he also didn’t want Kyler to come to the wrong conclusion—specifically, the one that pegged him as a criminal. Whether or not it was true was beside the point. “To get away from the people who wanted to use me,” he said.

“Who were they?”

He refused to answer.

“What did they want you to do?”

A sudden flood of remembering swept over Alex, and he closed his eyes, drowning in the memory of blood and fear. After all these years, it was still too much.

“Kill?”

It was just one tiny word—only four letters—and yet it jolted him and set his heart racing. Alex opened his eyes and met Kyler’s gaze. A minute passed and then two minutes as they considered each other. Finally, Kyler lowered his weapon.

Alex turned to leave.

“Hey!” Kyler shouted. “We’re not finished!”

Alex flipped him off as he walked away.

He headed straight to the middle of camp, looking for Tania. She was eating with a small group of girls their age, nurses and dental assistants mostly. Their friendly conversation died away as Alex approached, and they all turned to look at him.

He stopped a few feet from Tania. She glanced around quickly, likely searching for an escape route.

Fuck. He was still holding the shovel like a bloody idiot.

Alex set the shovel down, but then he didn’t know what to do with his hands, so he picked it back up again, holding it as nonchalantly as he could. He wasn’t sure he was pulling it off, however.

This afternoon just kept getting better and better.

He waited for Tania to acknowledge him, but she refused, and the silence transitioned from painfully awkward to awkwardly painful.

“I punched your brother,” he finally blurted out.

One of the girls laughed and then sobered quickly. “Oh, shit. He’s serious. Sorry.”

Tania stood up. “What the hell, Gabe!”

“He was being a dick.” What was wrong with him? Tania was speaking to him for the first time in nearly a week, and he couldn’t stop making things worse. Was he so starved for her attention that he’d forgotten how to have a normal conversation?

Tania set her plate down on her camp chair. “Where is he?”

Alex could sense her anger gathering like thunderclouds, and he welcomed the storm. Anything was better than watching her run away.

He decided to go for broke. “He might have trouble chewing for the next few days.”

“What?! How hard did you hit him?!”

“Sorry.”

“No you’re not.” Her anger crashed over him in quiet, furious waves. Clearly one of them was still worried about making a scene.

Alex stared at her. What could he say? She was right. He wasn’t sorry.

“He pulled his gun on me—“

“No,” she gasped, clapping a hand to her mouth, her anger gone in an instant.

“—and I said some things. Things he’s probably going to tell you that I’d rather tell you myself. Alone.” There. That was why he’d rushed to find her. Why he’d needed to talk to her first.

Tania rubbed her forehead, then grimaced as she noticed the crowd of listeners. She shook her head. “I can’t... Gabe. I just...”

“Please. This is important.”

She bit her lip.

“Kyler’s back,” one of the girls said, and Tania turned to look for him. Alex could almost see the threads of her connection to her brother pulling her away. He wanted to grab her by the arm and shake her free, but that wasn’t how love worked. He knew that much.

Tania looked back at him, torn. “I’m sorry,” she said taking a step back. “I need to check on him. Make sure—”

“Right,” Alex said. “Okay.” But it was far from okay. As he watched her run away yet again, he wondered how hard it would be to find a hole big enough for him to crawl into.

Hell, he was still holding the damn shovel.

He could just dig it himself.

Chapter Text

Tania couldn’t ever remember being this angry. She’d managed to keep her cool during this entire screwed-up, miserable journey, so why the hell couldn’t they?

Because they were morons, that’s why.

Morons who couldn’t keep their mouths shut and their fists to themselves, and… agh!, she hated men right now.

It didn’t help that she’d left Gabe just standing there in the middle of camp. The look on his face was haunting her, adding a sprinkling of self-loathing into her emotional stew.

But was he genuinely devastated or a really good actor?

She’d gone with Kyler to the large medical tent, which wasn’t fully set up or equipped yet since they hadn’t been planning on using it until tomorrow afternoon. Her brother sat on a folding exam table while one of the doctors and the dentist assessed his injuries.

Tania paced from one end of the mostly bare rectangular space to the other, literally biting her tongue to keep herself from spewing wrath like dragon flame.

The dentist, a wiry, older man named Pat Shinner, put down his instruments with a grimace. “Looks like you’re going to lose that molar,” he said, “but let’s give it a couple days for the swelling to go down and see how it fares.”

Kyler pressed an instant cold pack to his jaw and mumbled something incoherent.

After Dr. Shinner left, Tania and her idiot brother finally had a moment alone. Well, alone-ish. As alone as anyone could be in a large tent in the middle of a bustling camp in the Andes.

Tania stopped pacing.

“How could you?” she started.

“How could I what?” Kyler slurred. They’d given him some strong-ish painkillers, and he wasn’t at his most coherent. Tania didn’t care.

”Never point a gun at someone unless you intend to shoot them,” she hissed furiously. “You taught me that.”

Kyler finally looked up at her, meeting her gaze. “The guy is scary, Tan. It’s like he’s a fucking robot or something, he moved so fast. It was the only way I could get the upper hand.”

Tania couldn’t imagine her cocky, bigger-than-life brother ever being scared. And scared of Gabe? The image simply didn’t compute.

“Why on earth did you even go up there? Were you trying to start a fight?”

“Maybe,” Kyler shrugged.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I made him mad. He stomped over, and we got into it. And before you say anything else, it was dumb, I know. And petty. Sometimes I’m a fucking idiot. Got it.”

Tania didn’t believe that. Kyler hadn’t gotten to where he was by being a ‘fucking idiot’. And he wasn’t impulsive. Petty maybe, but he’d pushed Gabe to his breaking point for a reason, she was sure of it.

“It was interesting,” her brother continued, “Right before he punched me, he asked if I’d ever worked with the SBS. Did he ever mention them to you?”

Tania shook her head. “I don’t know what that is.”

“British special forces. Like SEALS.”

“No,” she said. “He never mentioned them.”

“I was wondering if he had some kind of connection to British military,” Kyler mused. “So that’s one more piece of the puzzle at least.”

Suddenly it clicked. “That’s why you did it?” she asked incredulously. “You were fishing for information?”

Kyler scowled. “Asking nicely wasn’t working,” he said. “I thought I’d try something different.”

“Well, good job. You’ve created an absolute disaster and lost a tooth in the process! Serves you right.”

“Yeah, well, it would have been nice to have some kind of warning before I got my ass handed to me,” he replied hotly. “You’ve been talking to the guy for a year, didn’t he say anything?”

“About what?” she asked.

“About his super-human ass-kicking skills,” Kyler said as if this should have been obvious.

Tania shook her head, but then she froze as a memory sparked. “Actually,” she said, “he might have, but I didn’t take him seriously.” She thought back to their phone conversation two weeks ago. “We were talking about you tagging along on this trip. I mentioned something about you beating him to a pulp, and he laughed. He said it would be fun if you tried. I thought he was just being, like, you know, a guy.”

Kyler grunted.

So Gabe had told her the truth, albeit in his particularly Gabe-ish, understated way. Were there other things he had mentioned in passing that she had brushed aside as a joke or an exaggeration? It was something she’d have to think more about later.

There was so much she was going to have to think about later.

“So after he punched you, you got scared and pulled your gun on him,” she said.

“I... yeah, I guess,” Kyler replied.

“What did he say?”

“Something stupid about me being a sore loser.”

Tania imagined the scene. Of course Gabe would make some kind of joke. Maybe there were things she knew about him after all.

Kyler lapsed into silence, as if there was nothing more to tell.

“What else did he say?” she asked.

Kyler stared at her mulishly.

Tania ground her teeth. She couldn’t believe after all this, Kyler wasn’t going to tell her. “He said something important,” she growled. “I know he did, so tell me, Ky. All of it. Now. Or I swear to God I’ll tell Julia what you did to Enrique at their wedding, and she will murder you.”

Julia was the only person in the family that Kyler was legitimately scared of. She would skin him alive, and he knew it.

“I was pointing a gun at him! He would have said anything—”

Oh, there was no way in hell he was getting away with that garbage excuse. Fortunately, Tania had one more card to play.

“You know what,” she cut him off angrily, “never mind. I’ll just ask him.” She turned and walked toward the door of the tent.

She only managed four steps before her brother said, “Wait.”

The sound of defeat was a beautiful, beautiful thing. Tania paused and turned around.

Kyler gestured to the stool in front of him. “You might want to sit down.”

Tania took his advice and sat, suddenly nervous.

“He said he loves you.”

That was not what she’d been expecting. “He... what? Why?”

“Why does he love you?”

“No, I mean, why did he tell you that?”

“I asked him why he’d targeted you, and he said, because I love her.”

And that felt true.

Oh, Gabe.

Sudden tears welled up in her eyes, but she blinked them away.

He loved her. That was what he’d wanted to tell her himself. She turned her face away and swallowed down a lump in her throat.

“Don’t go all soft on him now,” Kyler told her. “He said some other stuff too.”

Tania took a moment and a breath and then nodded for him to go on.

“Basically he admitted to faking his death. I asked him a bunch more questions, but he wouldn’t answer them. All he would say was that he did it to get away from people who wanted to use him.”

“Use him for what?”

Kyler scoffed. “With the skill set he has, there’s really only one thing.”

It took her a minute to understand what he was implying, and thankfully Kyler didn’t interrupt her frantic thinking. Finally the pieces started fitting together.

I never wanted it.

Gabe had said that on their first date.

She’d asked about his military career, and that’s what he’d told her, followed by the fact that he’d been dragged into it by other people and was glad to be done with it.

So he hadn’t been lying to her, exactly, he’d just been glossing over the fact that he was a rogue assassin.

And spy.

Shit.

She would have laughed at the absurdity of it, but it explained so much.

Why he wouldn’t talk about his past.

Why he was always looking over his shoulder.

Why he didn’t want to tell her his real name.

Wow.

It was…

She covered her face with her hands as the weight of it started to sink in.

It was overwhelmingly too much.

“Just stay away from him, okay?” Kyler said. “You don’t want to get mixed up in that. Believe me.”

That’s when the tears started.

“Tan,” he sighed. “I’m sorry.”

She cried harder. Her brother was right. She shouldn’t get ‘mixed up in that’. It was a world she had no experience in. It was death and danger and uncertainty, and she wasn’t cut out for it. But Gabe loved her, and if she asked herself, which she wouldn’t, but if she did, she would have to admit that she loved him too. And the tragedy of that confession tore her to pieces.

Kyler put his ice pack down and slid off the table. He reached over and patted her shoulder. Then, despite the fact that she was still furious with him, she let him pull her up and into a hug.

She’d been keeping so much inside these past two weeks that she couldn’t hold it in any longer. She’d told herself not to hope with Gabe, but then she had anyway, and now that hope was well and truly crushed, along with her heart. All of that agonizing disappointment poured out of her in a flood, and so she let Kyler hold her up because otherwise she would have collapsed into a heaving mess on the ground.

“I hate you right now Ky. You know that, right?” she said through her tears.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“And I’m never talking to you again.”

“Okay.”

“And I’m still telling Julia.”

“Yeah. Fine. I deserve it.” He squeezed her a little tighter. “I deserve it.”

Four days passed, and Alex found himself avoiding Tania as much as she’d avoided him. He couldn’t bear for her to see him, and it was fine. She probably hated him now anyway. It was better like this. Better to shut himself off. Better not to hope for something he could never have.

At 15, when he’d refused to kill Alan Blunt, Yassen had warned him that life on the run wouldn’t be easy. Fifteen-year-old him had replied that he didn’t care if it was easy as long as he was free. And while he hadn’t changed his mind in that regard, he did recognize that 15-year-old him hadn’t fully comprehended how difficult it would be. He hadn’t believed anything could be harder or more painful than what he’d already endured, and honestly, who could blame him? At just 15, he’d already experienced blackmail, torture, brainwashing, incarceration. Traumas galore.

He’d been wrong though, because this was a new kind of hurt, something he’d never experienced or imagined. The woman he loved had turned her back on him, rejected him in front of the entire camp, and he felt as if he’d fallen from heaven straight into the pit of hell. He was lying broken at the bottom of it, and he was pissed.

At Kyler. At Tania. Most of all at himself.

But he was fine.

He was still doing his job. Naturally.

If there was one thing in the world he was truly exceptional at, it was ignoring his emotions and getting shit done. Señora needed him, and that was good because otherwise she would have drop kicked him down the mountain for punching Kyler as hard as he had.

Once he got back to Arequipa, he’d transfer Gabe’s assets, destroy his phone, and go underground for a bit, just until Tania’s brother lost interest in him.

Tania needed to talk to Gabe.

In the destructive aftermath of Kyler’s extreme meddling, that was the only conclusion she’d been able to reach.

She owed him that much at least.

She needed to talk to him, but she couldn’t find him.

Granted, she hadn’t had much time to try, but the few times she had tried, she’d been unsuccessful.

He was crazy good at avoiding her, which, given what she was finally learning about him, wasn’t all that surprising.

She was going to have to surprise him. Somehow.

On day five, as they traveled to their third and final village, Tania got her chance.

When they stopped to eat around midday, she watched Gabe and his partner move from their position at the front of the group to the rear. She tried to catch his eyes as he rode past her, but he refused to look her way.

Then for two hours, they had to ride nose to tail up a winding dirt track barely wide enough for a cart.

At last, Tania crested a rise, and the terrain opened out into a wide, relatively shallow valley between two ridges. If she remembered correctly, they weren’t far from their destination. It was now or never. She stopped by the side of the trail and waived her friends on with a promise to catch up with them later, then waited for Gabe to catch up to her.

The long line of pack animals plodded past with their handlers, and finally, Gabe rounded the bend, bringing up the rear of their caravan.

He wasn’t looking her way, and for a moment she was able to study him when he thought no one was watching. There was something about him that felt off. She’d sensed it when he’d ridden past her earlier too. He sat straight in the saddle, alert and serious, but Tania couldn’t see any of the warmth she was used to. Instead, he looked cold and hard. Like stone.

He was still a couple dozen yards away, too far to speak, and so she waited for him to notice her. It didn’t take long.

He frowned, and Tania swallowed nervously before sending him a small, tentative smile that was probably more of a grimace.

Hi. I’ve been wanting to talk to you, she rehearsed as he drew closer. Her hands were sweating inside her gloves.

The wind shifted, and an icy gust hit the side of her face. Tania took a deep breath to steady her nerves. Her forehead creased as she sniffed the air again. Was that… smoke?

That was odd.

The smell was faint, and she couldn’t see where it was coming from, but the wind had blown from the direction they were heading.

Could it be wildfire? She didn’t think this was the season for it.

Gabe stopped his horse next to her, and Tania glanced at him, worried.

“Can you smell that?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. His mouth pressed thin as he gazed past her down the line of horses and riders. “We have to keep moving. We don’t want to fall behind.”

“Right,” she said, guiding her horse back onto the trail and waiting for him to join her. “I was hoping we could talk.“

“Rubito!” A faint cry came from farther down the trail.

Gabe swore and stood in his stirrups to get a better view. One of Señora’s sons, Julio, was riding quickly down the line toward them.“Come on,” he said, sitting back down. “I can’t leave you here by yourself.”

Tania cringed. She didn’t think she was imagining the frigid anger in his voice. His choice of words served as a pointed reminder of how badly she’d treated him, and, whether he meant them to or not, they cut deeply. She opened her mouth to apologize, but before she could get the words out, Gabe clucked at his horse to speed up.

Tania followed. Dread collected in her chest as they trotted past the pack animals and back into the main section of the caravan. The faint smell of smoke continued to invade her nostrils.

“Rubito!” Julio yelled again as he closed in on them.

Gabe acknowledged him with a wave of his hand, and then slowed his horse to a walk. He turned around in his saddle. “You good here?” he asked.

Tania was nearly back with the girls she’d been riding next to earlier.

“Yeah,” she said.

Gabe nodded a sharp farewell and left. Tania watched as he met up with Julio. They conferred quietly, then Julio turned and headed to the back of the line, while Gabe continued on toward the front.

Tania couldn’t begin to guess what was going on. A sickening sludge of emotion churned in her stomach. She desperately needed to talk to Gabe, but it didn’t look like she was going to get the chance.

Chapter Text

There were people on the trail. An entire family if Alex was seeing this right. It wasn’t unusual to encounter others on their way from one village to another, but these people looked like they had left in a hurry. Two women were talking with Señora, a mother and her grown daughter, Alex guessed. Then there was a teenage boy, an old man, and a young girl. She couldn’t have been older than five or six. They were all covered in dirt and had no pack animals with them, just small cloth bundles tied to their backs.

As Alex drew closer, he realized that what he’d thought was dirt was actually soot. It stained their clothing and streaked their haggard, haunted faces. His heart sank. Something must have happened in the village, and it must have been bad if this family had felt the need to run from their home in such a state.

Señora spotted him and waived him forward. Her facial expression was stoic, but Alex could sense a heavy sort of tension in her. He dismounted and covered the last few meters on foot, leading his horse behind him.

“What’s happened?” he asked.

She excused herself from the group and took his arm, pulling him a few steps away. Alex noticed that her hands were trembling, though she tried to hide it.

“A group of armed men,” she said. “They came early this morning and set fire to the houses one by one. Then they took the children as everyone fled outside. Some of the villagers tried to fight back, and the men killed them. At least six are dead, including the village leader. Many more are injured and burned. Most of the older children and teenagers were taken.”

She pressed her lips together and blinked rapidly, trying to pull herself back from the brink of tears. She whispered a prayer in Quechua and crossed herself, glancing briefly at the sky.

After a couple of breaths, she regained her composure, and a look of fierce determination settled on her face. “I will send Kyler and Sam ahead with the doctors and nurses, but we need to get the rest of us and the supplies there as quickly as possible.”

“And them?” Alex nodded toward the family on the side of the road.

“I tried to convince them to come back with us, but I don’t know if they will. The younger one’s husband died in the fire trying to save their belongings. They said they have family in Cusco.”

Alex doubted they’d make it to Cusco with so few supplies.

“Do we know where the men are taking the children?” he asked.

Señora’s shoulders drooped. “From here they must go northeast to avoid the fallout. The terrain is rough. Once they reach the road, they’ll load the children onto a truck and take them through Juliaca into Madre de Dios. To sell to Sendero Luminoso.”

Sendero Luminoso. Shining Path. The politically-motivated guerrilla group was responsible for most of the cocaine trade in and through Peru. Ironically, Cray’s bombing had done very little to disrupt them. Instead, the nuclear crisis had sent the Peruvian government into a tailspin, allowing the gang to infiltrate the highest levels of power and carve an impenetrable haven for themselves in the dense jungle of Peru’s least populated sector.

Now, in addition to their drug operations, they also controlled the illegal gold mines in Madre de Dios. Human trafficking for forced labor and sexual exploitation had been a major problem in the area before, but now the practice was all but institutionalized.

Alex had thought the villages above Arequipa were too remote, too cut off by radioactive fallout, even for the traffickers, but apparently he’d been wrong.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked.

Señora looked away, gazing at the mountain peaks far in the distance. Finally, she said, “Something I cannot ask you to do.”

Alex sat with that a moment. He’d agreed to come on this journey to protect the caravan, the doctors, nurses, and supplies. He hadn’t signed up to chase after violent criminals and risk his life to rescue a handful of children from slavery.

It was a lot to ask. Not that she was asking.

Alex didn’t often think of himself as a survivor, but as he pictured those kids, dragged from their homes and forced into a life they never wanted…

Aw, shit.

“I’ll do it,” he said quietly.

She turned back to him. “You and Kyler.”

He stared at her, knowing she was right and hating that fact. It would be beyond stupid to undertake this mission by himself, and Kyler was the most skilled of the group, after him. Reluctantly, he nodded.

“These men,” Señora said, “We must find out who they work for. If they belong to Sendero Luminoso or another of the gangs, there will be repercussions that we must prepare for.”

Alex didn’t need her to spell it out. If the gang knew about these children already, and he and Kyler interfered, the gang would come back for revenge. The entire village could be slaughtered.

“Understood,” he said.

Señora was not Mrs. Jones, but for a brief moment Alex could have sworn he was back in that woman’s office. Fortunately the moment passed, and he shook his head slightly to clear away the memory.

“Gabe.”

He refocused on her face.

“This may be a fool’s errand,” she said. “Promise me you will come back—you and Kyler—without the children if this is the case.”

Alex stared at her again, speechless. No one had ever ordered him to put his own life ahead of the mission objective. To fail, if necessary.

“Promise me,” she demanded.

He swallowed. “I promise.”

The air was thin and cold as Tania climbed the last rise before descending into the village. She pulled the zipper of her coat all the way up to her chin and shivered, trying to keep her breaths deep and even. Señora had told them what had happened in the village and what to expect, but Tania didn’t want to believe it.

When she had come here a year ago, she’d been charmed by the simple beauty of this small, isolated community. The village was called Quripampa, and it spread across a wide, rolling plain nestled between several peaks. A patchwork of family farms covered the land, separated by waist-high, rock walls, and dotted with thatch-roofed, adobe houses. Animal pens and pastures held small herds of llamas, donkeys, sheep, and the occasional cow.

As she caught her first glimpse of the village this time around, Tania couldn’t help the gasp of horror that escaped her.

Every house had burned.

Smoke hung in a haze over roofless, charred walls, and several animals roamed free of their pens. Women picked through the debris of their ruined homes, salvaging what they could. Other villagers simply sat and stared.

Tania had braced herself to hear wailing or other expressions of grief. Instead, the village was eerily quiet. Even the animals refused to make a sound.

In the distance, Tania could see the tiny village church. That’s where Kyler’s advance team had gone. She could see them too, conducting triage and basic first aid in the wide yard that served as the village square. Most of the residents had congregated there, either sitting or laying on the hard-packed dirt.

Only a year ago, she and Gabe had sat together at the edge of that churchyard. It was where they’d danced under the moonlight. This place had felt so magical, and now the magic was gone.

The loss left her feeling hollow with a squeezing ache in her chest that made it hard to breathe.

Their caravan snaked down the path into the village, rushing as much as possible to set up medical equipment, shelter, and supplies, but their progress felt painfully slow.

In the chaos that followed, Tania was grateful for the steady leadership Señora provided. She ordered the dental team to set up the large tents, water, and washing stations. As soon as they’d situated their horses, they got to work.

Tania kept an eye out for Gabe, hoping she would at least get the chance to tell him she was sorry, but the few times she saw him, he was deep in conversation with villagers or members of his team. It was strange. Usually, he was the first to get to work, but this time he just seemed to be… talking.

Tania had barely gotten started unpacking supplies for the water stations when Kyler found her and pulled her aside.

“Gabe and I are heading out soon,” he told her. “Going after the kids.”

Gabe and I? “But you hate each other.” And Señora had expressly forbidden them from being alone together.

Kyler shrugged. “We’re just going to have to get over that. For the next few days at least.”

“Wait,” she shook her head as the second part of his statement registered. “What do you mean you’re going after the kids?”

“We’re going to try to rescue them and bring them back.”

Oh, shit.

“Just you and Gabe?”

“Yeah.”

“From the people who did this?!?” Her legs felt suddenly weak.

“Yeah.”

“Shit, Kyler. What if they kill you too?” And Gabe. What if they killed Gabe?

“We’ll be careful. We’ll sneak up on them. Stay low, out of sight. We won’t start a fight we can’t win.”

“You thought you could win against Gabe…”

He laughed and shook his head slightly. “I’ll be smarter this time. Promise.”

“But what about… your... job?” she asked lamely. She’d wanted to ask ‘what about me?’, but that felt utterly selfish under the circumstances. Still, she couldn’t help panicking at the thought of both of them leaving at the same time.

What if they didn’t come back?

“What my CO doesn’t know won’t give him an aneurysm,” Kyler quipped a little too cheerfully. The lower left side of his face was still purple. They’d had to extract his broken tooth two days ago, and he was in pain. How was he going to manage that on a rescue mission?

Tania’s eyes filled with tears, and she didn’t even try to hold them back. She wanted to tell him to stay, but she couldn’t. “Be extra careful of your extraction site,” she blabbered. “If you get dry socket while you’re out there, you’re going to wish you were dead.”

“Roger that.”

She threw her arms around her big brother and squeezed him tight. “I’m sorry I’m such a weakling about this,” she said. “I know you’re doing the right thing; it’s just... hard.”

He hugged her back and then patted her on the top of her head. “Aw,” he teased. “This is why I don’t ever tell you guys about my missions. The hand-wringing would never end.”

Tania rolled her eyes and shoved him away, then dried her face with her jacket sleeve. He was such an ass. Still, his joking helped.

“Also OPSEC,” he added with a smirk.

“Oh my gosh,” she groaned. “Just take your stupid acronyms and go, jerkface. I’m done crying over you.” Then she added, “Don’t die, please.”

Alex heard her come up behind him as he was packing the last of his food and water into his saddlebags.

“Gabe,” she said softly.

He’d expected this. Tania had told him that she wanted to talk, but he didn’t know what she wanted to talk about. Maybe she was ready to officially break up with him. He steeled himself as he finished buckling the bag closed and turned around.

Her hands were hanging limply at her sides and her forehead was creased with worry. She also looked like she’d been crying.

“I’m sorry,” she said, carefully setting her words before him like an offering.

Alex didn’t know what exactly she was apologizing for, but maybe that was okay. Maybe he could interpret it any way he wanted.

In truth, seeing the destruction of the village and the horror of what had happened here had already pushed his anger far into the background. It didn’t seem all that important anymore. Tania’s apology banished it completely.

“I’m sorry too,” he sighed. “I never wanted to hurt you.”

Tania looked away and nodded, trying to smile but not quite managing it. Tears spilled onto her cheeks, and she wiped them away. “Sorry,” she apologized again as the tears continued to flow. “I’m such a mess right now. Kyler told me what you guys are going to do, and I’m so afraid.”

Alex stepped closer. He wanted to wrap his arms around her, but he didn’t know if that was okay. “I’ll watch out for your brother,” he said.

She huffed and shook her head, glancing upward briefly. “I’m not just worried about him,” she admitted.

Alex swallowed hard, unsure of how to respond. His chest was aching, and he couldn’t tell anymore if it was from heartbreak at the way things had gone between them, or a desperate, hungering hope that he could somehow fix it.

“We’ll be alright,” he promised.

A piece of her hair had come loose from her braids. Tentatively, he reached out and tucked it back underneath her wool cap. Then he pulled the cap down to cover her ears, which were rosy from the cold. She closed her eyes and leaned into him slightly, letting him wipe the tears from her cheeks, and Alex gave himself up to hope. He could fix this. He had to fix this.

He’d told himself repeatedly that the excruciating pain of their separation would fade, and it was better this way. Better for her. Better for him. He wasn’t entitled to this kind of love. He would be okay without it.

He’d stubbornly repeated this mantra, trying to convince himself that it was the truth, but then he’d heard Ben Daniels’ voice in his head.

What do you want your future to be?

It was the question that had haunted him since he was 15.

He’d been handcuffed in an interrogation room on a submarine, so lost that he’d barely known which way was up, and unable to do more than cling viciously to the barest scraps of sanity he’d had left. And then Daniels had asked him this.

For some inexplicable reason, Alex’s mind had immediately conjured up an image of his mum and dad holding him as a baby, and he’d realized that he wanted a family. Love. Something more than adrenaline and the razor-edged shadows of humanity he’d been force-fed since Ian had died.

He’d realized in that moment that survival wasn’t enough. Revenge wasn’t enough. Money wasn’t enough.

And now that he’d tasted love, he knew he’d been right all along to want it.

Living without Tania was starving. Darkness. Deprivation. He didn’t think he could survive it much longer. He was ready to do anything to fix it, and all of this had started because he hadn’t been willing to trust her with his name.

“Did Kyler tell you what I told him?” he asked.

Tania hesitated a moment and then nodded.

Well, he supposed that made things a little more straightforward.

He took one of her gloved hands and pulled it toward him, holding it in the shelter between their bodies. He turned her palm upward as though he was going to put something in it.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said. As he spoke, he traced the letter A onto her palm with his index finger. Her eyes narrowed in confusion, and so he did it again, carefully drawing each line and giving her fingers a little squeeze with his other hand when he’d finished.

When he saw that she understood, he continued. “There’s something I’m wondering about,” he said as he traced an L, “and maybe you can think about it too while I’m gone.”

She cocked her head to the side. “What are you—“

Alex squeezed her hand in a warning and cleared his throat, then started on the E. “My past is complicated. Honestly, it’s horrifying,” he continued. “It’s not something I share. Not because I don’t trust you, but it’s...” He finished the E and started the X. “... well, there are a lot of reasons. But the person I am now, I haven’t lied to you about that. Everything I’ve shown you, school, work, my plans for the future, how I feel about you, that’s all real, Tania. And I meant what I said to your brother.”

He wrote the letters of his name into her palm twice more, and then folded her fingers over it and held them there, hoping she would understand his meaning, the absolute necessity of keeping what he’d revealed to her a secret.

He cleared his throat again nervously and looked up into her eyes. “I love you, and I’m wondering if maybe that could be enough,” he ventured. “If Gabe could be enough. At least, for the foreseeable future.”

Tania blinked a few times and glanced down at the hand that held his name.

Alex

“Don’t answer that question now,” he added. “Just, think about it, will you?”

She nodded.

Alex looked over her shoulder to see that Kyler was mounted and ready to head out. “I have to go.”

She turned slightly and followed his gaze. Her brother gave her a salute, then signaled for Alex to wrap it up. Alex turned to leave, but Tania grabbed his arm.

“Wait.”

He swiveled to face her, and before he could blink, her lips were on his in a quick, fierce kiss. It felt like fire, washing down through his chest and into the rest of his body, warming him, bringing him back to life. He wanted to cry with relief.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she let go of him.

Alex acknowledged the statement with a duck of his head, not trusting himself to speak, and then climbed into the saddle. He adjusted the rifle across his back, checked his other weapons, and positioned the reins in his hands.

“We’ll see you soon,” he promised and clucked at Alondra to move out.

Chapter Text

Alex

Tania stood there as he rode away like a fairytale prince off to slay a dragon. He looked back just before he disappeared from view, and though he was too far away for talking, or even eye contact, he saw her watching, and he waved.

She tried out the name he’d given her, fitting it to him like it was a new jacket or a hairstyle. Did she like it on him?

Alex?

She wasn’t sure. She’d met at least a handful of Alexes in her life—who hadn’t?—but she’d never been particularly close to one. That was probably a good thing.

She took a deep breath and let it out.

Alex.

Huh.

She supposed it didn’t matter. It was his name—his real name—and it felt like the most precious gift anyone had ever given her. As if Gabe had entrusted her with a piece of his soul.

So she’d kissed him.

She hadn’t stopped to think about the shoulds or the shouldn’ts. She’d just done it, and it had felt amazingly, incredibly… right.

Holy frijoles.

The dirt road leading in and out of Quripampa had been abandoned for seven years, ever since Cray’s attack had strewn nuclear fallout over its path. According to Señora, the bandits would head toward Juliaca, which sat far to the northwest across the desolate Peruvian Altiplano. They would have to leave the road before they reached the signs marking the fallout zone and traverse nearly 30 km of rough, mountainous wilderness to get to the next closest road.

“They will have to camp overnight,” she’d said. “Build fires to keep from freezing.”

This was fortunate for Alex and Kyler. It meant they would be able to follow the group from a distance during the day, and then close in after nightfall.

Alex smiled to himself as he and Kyler started up the overgrown road, following the trail of footprints and trampled scrub left by the kidnappers. He couldn’t help himself. His conversation with Tania and the kiss that followed had lifted a huge weight off of him. He could finally breathe again, and he felt… amazing.

True to form, Kyler saw him smiling and couldn’t leave him alone. “Don’t get your hopes up, Classified.”

The sound of his voice sent Alex crashing back down to Earth. His smile fell away, and he took a deep breath in through his nose, trying to tamp down his anger at the man. “Are you at all capable of keeping your opinions to yourself? We have a job to do,” he growled.

“Just tell me why she kissed you. What did you say to her?”

“It’s not your fucking business.”

Kyler’s temper flared, and he turned in his saddle to fix Alex with an angry glare. “Like hell it’s not! She’s family. Maybe that doesn’t mean anything to you. Maybe you can write yours off, pretend they don’t exist, but that’s never going to happen with me.”

Alex stared, caught wide-eyed in the audacity of Kyler’s statement. He felt like he’d been punched in the stomach, like the air had been driven from his lungs.

Write his off?

His family?

Fucking hell.

He didn’t say anything. He couldn’t say anything, but then Kyler looked like he was going to keep talking, and Alex knew he wouldn’t be able to hear any more without completely losing his shit.

“Don’t,” he cut the man off. “Don’t say anything else. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Kyler barely avoided rolling his eyes as he said, “Explain it to me then.”

Alex scoffed.

“I mean it,” he added. “Tell me why I’m wrong.”

He sounded marginally sincere. Alex thought back to when they’d first met at the restaurant. He’d told Kyler that his family was dead, and Kyler had seemed sympathetic. Maybe he would be again.

Still, it was hard getting the words out.

“They were murdered,” Alex finally said. “First my parents and then my uncle. I didn’t write them off. I’ve never written them off. I had a couple of close friends that I had to leave behind when I disappeared. They were the only family I had left. Losing them never gets easier.”

He had to look away as he said it, too afraid of what he’d see on Kyler’s face. They topped a rise, and Alex tugged on the reins to bring Alondra to a standstill. Bracing himself for another of the man’s asinine comments, he pulled out his binoculars and scanned the uneven horizon for their quarry. He didn’t expect to spot them this soon, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.

Kyler stopped also. After a minute he said, “I’m sorry that happened to you. Shit like that shouldn’t happen to people.”

It was as much of an apology as Alex was going to get. He nodded curtly to show he’d heard and put his binoculars away.

Kyler continued, “I’m not going to let something like that happen to Tania.”

Alex paused in the act of telling Alondra to go and furrowed his brows. He turned to Kyler. “What exactly are you talking about?”

“The future,” Kyler said and kneed his horse into a trot. Alex and Alondra followed. “What are you going to do when your secrets get out? Let’s say someone from your past finds you, and you and Tania are still together. A year from now. Fifteen years from now. What then?”

Alex shifted uncomfortably in his saddle. He could see now where Kyler was headed with this, and he didn’t like it. He blew the air out of his lungs slowly, feeling his chest deflate. “I don’t know,” he admitted. It depended on a lot of factors, none of which he was going to explain to Kyler.

“Die again?”

“I don’t know,” he reiterated. “Maybe.”

“And take Tania with you.”

Alex opened his mouth to protest, but what could he say?

He didn’t know what he would do if he needed to disappear again. Would he take Tania with him? How could he leave her behind?

That was it then, wasn’t it? The fuel behind Kyler’s animosity towards him. This certainty that Alex would take Tania away from their family. That they would never see her again. Alex didn’t want that to happen to Tania. He’d do everything in his power to keep her safe from that particular nightmare, but he also couldn’t predict the future.

Shit.

What could he say?

Nothing, it turned out, and Kyler had been expecting that.

A morose silence settled over them as they continued on. They followed the bandits’ tracks, moving quickly whenever the terrain allowed. After five or so kilometers, the footprints left the road, striking northwest across a patch of salt flats. Kyler and Alex urged their horses into a brief gallop. Neither of them were accomplished riders, but they managed to stay in their saddles. Alex counted it as a win.

On the other side of the flats were several steep climbs over ridges, and with no trail other than what the bandits had left behind, the horses had to step carefully.

As they climbed, Alex forced himself to really think about Kyler’s question.

What was he going to do if his past caught up with him?

How would he keep Tania safe?

He’d been so busy over the last year pretending to be a normal person that he hadn’t stopped to consider what would happen to her if he got caught. Truthfully, he’d been afraid. Acknowledging the reality of the danger he put Tania in could force him to do something he really didn’t want to do, and so he’d skirted around the issue, telling himself he’d figure it out if he needed to.

Well, now he needed to.

Tania’s kiss had opened up the door to a possible future together, he could feel it, but he couldn’t walk through that door without a solid plan. A plan that didn’t leave her as broken as he was.

Running had always been his fail-safe, his ’Hail Mary’, as the Americans sometimes called it. It wasn’t ideal, but it was there. An option.

Either he’d have to leave Tania behind or take her with him.

Both scenarios were shit, honestly.

In the first, well, he was pretty sure he’d rather be actually dead than have to start over again, cut off from yet another person he loved.

In the second, he and Tania would be together, which would be great for him, but horrible for Tania. How long would they have before the agony of losing her entire family drove a wedge of resentment between them?

Tania didn’t deserve that. Her family didn’t deserve it either, and Alex wouldn’t be able to live with himself knowing he was responsible for their collective pain.

He sighed.

Running wasn’t going to work.

There had to be another way.

Fortunately, riding a horse through the middle of nowhere Peru gave him plenty of time to figure it out.

He took off his hat and scrubbed a hand through his hair. He hadn’t showered in days, and the combination of dust and sweat was making his head itch.

His problem was that he was dealing with more than one enemy.

MI6 on one hand and SCORPIA on the other.

If MI6 found him and he didn’t run, they would arrest him. He’d spend the rest of his life imprisoned at a black site. That scenario felt like the worst of the lot, but at least Tania would be okay. They might try to use her against him, but ultimately he could sacrifice himself to keep her safe. She would survive. She wouldn’t have to disappear, and Alex wouldn’t have to pretend. He could go back to being himself, which felt strangely appealing at the moment. It was probably best not to think too deeply about that, so he moved on.

Technically, SCORPIA didn’t exist anymore. From what intel he and Yassen had been able to gather, MI6 had been on the warpath. SCORPIA had been useful to them in the past, but blowing up a section of the M4, then torturing and executing the Director of Special Operations had apparently crossed a line. Mrs. Jones and her successors had enlisted the help of the CIA, INTERPOL, and several other agencies in a herculean effort to wipe out the entire organization. As with any large-scale extermination, however, there was a small handful of individuals that managed to escape. Most notably Zeljan Kurst and Dr. Three.

Cockroaches. Both of them.

Extraordinarily deadly cockroaches.

Just the thought of them out there somewhere made Alex shudder.

They didn’t know he was alive, otherwise they would have killed him by now. It was possible they could discover the truth at some point and decide to have their revenge. If that happened, no one would be safe. Not Alex. Not Tania. Not Jack or Tom. Maybe not even Yassen.

The thought sent him into a panic.

Fuck, this was why he never let himself think about them.

Because what could he do?

Just ahead, Kyler sat on his horse, leading them through a particularly rough patch of rocks and bramble. He wore military-issue camouflage, though he’d taken off any identifying markers. Alex noted the man’s weapons, felt the weight of the rifle slung across his own back, and thought, Kill them first.

It was a crazy idea.

Crazy. Stupid. Impossible.

It was…

Shit.

It was quite possibly the only way he could be sure that Tania would be safe.

Where would he even start? He had no idea where they were, and just the act of looking for them would probably get him killed. And Tania too.

Shit.

Alex put his hat back on and rubbed his face, then reached forward to pat Alondra’s neck. Her soft warmth was a comfort. Maybe it was time to admit to himself what had been obvious to Yassen and Kyler from the start—that this thing with Tania simply wasn’t going to work, and the longer he stayed with her, the more danger he put her in.

The thought settled like a lead weight into his chest as they climbed up and over and up again. The wind turned icy and the sunlight started to fade. Alex couldn’t come up with any other solutions to his problem, and so he left the matter there, hoping clarity would come at some point before he got back to camp and to Tania.

At each high point along the way, he and Kyler pulled out their binoculars and searched ahead for any sign of the bandits. Finally, just as the sun began to kiss the tops of the mountains behind them, they got their first sighting.

“Two o’clock,” Kyler murmured.

“I see them,” Alex replied. He was lying on his stomach at the top of a large rock formation. They’d climbed up to get a better vantage point and had finally been rewarded with a view of their quarry.

They studied the group through their binoculars for several minutes, then Kyler slithered back down the rocks to the horses, and Alex followed a few moments later. They compared notes. There were 11 children—4 boys and 7 girls—and 8 kidnappers, all male. They’d also spotted five rifles and two pistols carried by the bandits. From the back, the men all looked the same. They wore brown or black wide-brimmed hats, trousers tucked into boots, and striped woolen ponchos.

“The one bringing up the rear looks young,” Kyler said. “Smaller. Maybe a teenager.”

Alex nodded slowly. He’d noticed that too, but he couldn’t let himself think about what it might mean.

He hadn’t yet wrapped his head around what would happen when they caught up to the group, what he and Kyler would do to free the kids. He knew it, deep inside, but he’d been afraid to give the idea life and room inside his brain.

Time was running out though. He had to confront it soon.

He needed to make peace with the idea that he was going to have to kill several people sometime in the next few hours.

Stomach churning, Alex traded his binoculars for his canteen and settled down next to Kyler. They sat in the sun, letting it warm their faces one last time before it set behind the mountains. Alex pressed his back into the rock and stretched out his legs. With their target in sight, they didn’t need to hurry.

“So who wanted to use you?” Kyler asked. “The good guys or the bad guys?” He pulled a couple of protein bars from his cargo pocket and offered one to Alex.

Alex considered him for a moment as he screwed the lid back on his canteen. He took the protein bar. “You realize that’s a completely subjective question, don’t you?” he said as he tore the wrapper open.

Kyler laughed. “That’s why I asked it.” He took a bite of his protein bar and chewed carefully, pushing the food to the uninjured side of his mouth. He swallowed. “I figured with the ability to weasel your way out of a straight answer, you might actually be willing to talk about yourself.”

“Why even bother then?” Alex replied with his mouth full.

“I like irritating you.”

He rolled his eyes. “I hadn’t noticed.”

Kyler chewed and swallowed another bite, then said, “Also I have a theory that I’m wanting to test.”

Alex raised a long-suffering eyebrow at him. The gesture and the emotion behind it felt very Yassen-ish.

“I think it was the bad guys.”

“Of course you do. You hate me,” Alex pointed out.

“I don’t hate you. I hate that my baby sister is in love with you. There’s a difference.”

“She’s not a baby.”

“Figure of speech,” Kyler replied, dismissing Alex’s protest with a wave of his hand.

Alex braced himself for the rest of Kyler’s “theory”, but after a couple of minutes of silence, he looked over at the man, wondering why he hadn’t spoken.

Kyler was staring into the distance as he chewed, thinking. He noticed Alex watching and shrugged. “The thing is,” he said, “I’ve been looking out for her since she was a baby. My parents worked hard to give us a good life, so Julia and I basically raised Rob and Tania. It’s not easy to let go, you know?”

Alex looked down at his hands. He didn’t know, but he nodded anyway.

Kyler shoved the last of his protein bar in his mouth and wadded up the wrapper, then rose and wandered away to take a piss.

Tania had talked about her parents working two or sometimes three jobs each, but Alex had never stopped to consider who had picked up the slack at home. In a way, he supposed, her childhood had looked a little like his, but instead of Jack, she’d had Kyler.

Thinking about Jack always made Alex want to curl up in a ball on the ground. Usually he dismissed thoughts of her as quickly as possible. They were too painful. This time, however, a memory surfaced and slammed into him, grabbing him by the throat.

Some distant part of him knew he was having a flashback, but it didn’t matter. The emotions were real. First, came hopelessness. It wormed into his chest, pushing everything else out. Then despair landed on his shoulders, shoving him down and digging its razor-sharp talons into him. He wanted to scream and shake it off, but then he felt the phantom bite of handcuffs around his wrists. Tape over his mouth. Hands on his arms lifting him up on his toes, squeezing hard enough to bruise.

They carried him down the hallway into the bright light of the kitchen.

He was back in MI6’s safe house, and Jack was there. She called his name. He turned to her, and their eyes met. She was full of fire, ready to take on the whole world for him, but Byrne’s agent held her back. She struggled in his grip. She started to cry, and Alex couldn’t go to her.

He couldn’t stop. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t tell her he was sorry, and they carried him away.

Oh, please, please…

Jack!

I’m sorry!

Fuck! I’m so sorry…

The memory left him as Kyler’s boots crunched on the rocks nearby, and Alex sucked in a shuddering breath. He quickly wiped his eyes with his jacket sleeve.

Tania’s brother studied him for a moment and then asked, “You ready?”

Alex blinked twice, nodded, and got up.

Chapter Text

“Does that happen a lot?” Kyler asked.

They’d gotten back on their horses and were picking their way down a mountainside. Alex briefly considered acting like he didn’t know what Kyler was talking about, but found he lacked the energy to even try.

He shrugged and shook his head. “It’s been a while.” He honestly couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a flashback that bad. His mind was in a fog. His hands were still shaking.

“A while as in…?”

He shrugged again. “A year… at least.” He’d naively hoped they were over.

“Huh,” Kyler replied. Then he added, “Was it something I said?”

There was dark humor in his voice, and Alex let out a bark of a laugh.

Encouraged by Alex’s reaction, Kyler smirked and raised his eyebrows suggestively. “Want to talk about it?”

Alex couldn’t help laughing at that. It was the first time he’d genuinely laughed since his and Tania’s fight weeks ago. Kyler’s jokes were stupid but they were exactly what he needed. The lingering tightness in his chest and shoulders dissipated, and he took a few relieved breaths as the world around him came into sharper focus.

After several minutes of quiet riding, Kyler asked, “You good? Because if not, I’m totally fine taking on these piece-of-shit kidnappers all by myself.”

“Like hell you will,” Alex replied with a slight grin. He felt steadier, capable of thinking again. “You’ve probably never worked alone in your life.”

“And you have?”

Bugger. That had been a stupid thing to say. He did not feel like taking any more trips down memory lane.

Clearing his throat, he replied, “Yeah.”

Thankfully, Kyler didn’t push him for any more than that.

They continued to move, carefully staying out of sight of their targets. The sun dipped below the peaks of the mountains, covering them in shadow that rapidly faded into full dark.

Much to Alex’s surprise, the kidnappers didn’t stop. They didn’t set up camp. As the minutes ticked by and the freezing darkness of night settled around them, he became increasingly worried that perhaps Señora had been wrong, and they weren’t planning to stop at all.

Ahead of them, the group continued doggedly forward, using torches and lanterns to find their way. Their lights set the sky glowing above them and served as a beacon for Alex and Kyler, who followed behind using night vision. They closed the distance between their groups to just a few hundred meters and waited nervously. After an hour, the lights suddenly veered east for a bit, then dimmed, and then vanished entirely.

“Shit,” Kyler said.

They sped up.

The group’s tracks led straight into the side of a mountain. They had disappeared inside a cave.

“Shit,” Kyler said again.

Alex had been thinking the same thing.

If the bandits had opted for an open camp, the two of them could have picked the men off one by one with sniper fire. It would have been easy. Now they didn’t know what they were walking into.

They geared up, left the horses, and crept towards the cave’s mouth.

The kidnappers had stationed a watchman there. He lurked in the deep shadow and would have been nearly impossible to spot if not for the fact that he was smoking.

The glowing pinprick of light was all Kyler needed to take him out.

They moved quickly after that, crossing the last 200 meters almost at a run. The cigarette was still burning when they got there. It had landed in the dirt next to the body of the guard. Alex ground it out with his boot and moved on.

The space beyond the entrance was vast and curved deep into the mountain. Alex crept silently forward with Kyler at his back following the wide trail of footprints in the dirt. The cave narrowed and twisted. After an abrupt turn, light invaded the darkness and they pulled off their night vision goggles.

They found the horses first, bedded down in a pen built of rocks and cement. An electric lamp hung nearby, casting a dim yellow-orange glow into the space. A black electrical cord snaked across the cave wall, connecting the light to another further into the mountain. The lamps were spaced roughly 10 meters apart, providing just enough illumination to see the wall they were attached to and the uneven floor below. Here and there Alex noticed patches of cement where someone had attempted to level out the rocky ground.

Clearly this wasn’t just a random camping spot; the kidnappers were using this cave as a base of operations. It was bad news for the people of Quripampa and their neighboring villages.

Alex found a deeply shadowed hollow behind some boulders and pulled Kyler in after him. Then he took off his pack and rifle, setting them in the dirt. He checked his other weapons, and then he and Kyler set their watches.

They’d agreed before coming in that one of them would lay low while the other scouted the cave. They at least needed to know the locations of the enemy and the children before they started shooting. As a former spy, Alex was the obvious choice to go. Kyler hadn’t argued, but he had stipulated a time limit.

“Twenty minutes,” he murmured as a reminder, “and then I’m coming after you.”

Wordlessly, Alex nodded his agreement and slipped away. If someone had asked him that morning whether he’d feel safe having Kyler watch his back, Alex would have thought they were crazy. But now, despite everything that had happened between them—or maybe because of it?—Alex felt reassured. Granted, Kyler was no Yassen Gregorovich, but he was a lot better than nothing.

On his own and free of his gear, Alex could move faster, quieter. He melted into the shadows, following the electrical cord from lamp to lamp as it led farther into the cave. Before long, the walls constricted and the floor sloped upward, forcing him into the light. Alex pulled out his knife and climbed slowly, keeping his breath even and his heartbeat calm so that he could hear every whisper of noise around him.

A raucous murmur of voices ahead told him the group wasn’t far away.

After another few meters, the passage forked. The electrical cord went down the left-hand passage but then must have looped around, because it came back along the opposite wall and continued into the right-hand passage.

Alex paused to listen. The voices he’d heard were coming from the right. Nothing from the left.

He went left. The passage was short, barely 10 meters long before Alex arrived at a wall made of chain-link. It stretched from floor to ceiling and side to side, attached to bolts drilled and cemented into the stone. A gate in the middle was padlocked.

The light behind him was too dim to make out anything in the room beyond the fence. All he could see were a few glowing pinpricks of red and green scattered through the darkness. With a deep sense of foreboding, Alex pulled out his torch and flicked it on.

To his left, the small, focused beam lit up a large bank of car batteries. It had to be the power source for the lights and whatever else they were doing here.

Moving his torch to the right, he found electronics. Several lightweight but expensive video cameras were set up on tripods along with a handful of powerful lamps carefully arranged around a central stage. Alex’s stomach dropped as the beam of his torch flashed across it. The set was far more elaborate than anything had a right to be this far removed from civilization. There were multiple backdrops, props, costumes, pieces of furniture, and—most disturbingly—restraints. All of it child-sized.

Alex turned off his torch, too horrified to continue looking. He’d seen enough to know what was going on. The bastards were making videos of their captives. Creating child porn.

He took a breath and swallowed down his disgust and his fury. The clock was ticking; he needed to move on, find the kids. There would be time to deal with all of this later.

And he would deal with it.

He turned and left the room behind, heading up the right-side passage. The voices got louder as he slid silently along the wall directly underneath the sodium lamps. It curved and then widened into a black void.

The lights continued to his left, and so Alex followed. He was glad to hide inside the safety of the shadows again, but the unlit portion of the cavern felt massive and unnerving. He pulled out his infrared scope and made sure there were no surprises lurking in the darkness before he turned his back on it.

Twenty meters past the entrance to the cavern, Alex finally laid eyes the kidnappers. They’d fashioned a living space for themselves with makeshift furniture, a cooking area, and some electric space heaters. It wasn’t particularly impressive or comfortable looking, and it smelled bad. The combination of unwashed bodies, cigarettes, cooking food, and some kind of latrine setup not far enough away made for a potent miasma of vapors that seemed to hang oppressively from the ceiling and cling to the rocks. Alex could see why they hadn’t lit fires. There wasn’t enough air circulating to keep from suffocating in the smoke.

The voices he’d heard came from three men sitting around a small table. Alex didn’t think they were native to this area. The most obvious giveaway was that they were speaking to each other in Spanish rather than Quechua, but also their build and facial features were different. Perhaps, as Señora had feared, these were lowlanders working for one of the cartels.

Alex watched them a moment longer, trying to figure out what they were talking about. They laughed and boasted to each other as they played a card game, gesticulating wildly with whatever was in their hands—cards, cigarettes, and bottles of liquor for the most part. They seemed to be insulting the members of a rival gang, clearly happy with the results of the day’s pillaging.

The rest of the men in the cave were more subdued. One stood near a hot plate, stirring something in a large pot. He was definitely Quechua. Alex could tell by the shape of his nose and the way he absently dipped into a pouch hanging from his neck for more coca leaves to chew. It was an intriguing dynamic. Alex figured he probably worked as a guide for the group.

Another man was lying down on a pile of blankets with his hat pulled over his face, so Alex couldn't glean much from him. Last, he spied a pair of boots sticking out from behind a rock. That made… seven men… including the one Kyler had killed at the mouth of the cave.

He still had to find one kidnapper and the children.

Alex crept farther into the cavern, skirting the edge of the camp. He got as close as he dared, then climbed onto a large boulder, hoping it would give him the sightline he needed.

Fortunately, it did. Farther along the side of the cave, the bandits had piled rock and mortared it with cement to seal off a depression in the wall. The only access point was a plywood door, and it was padlocked. Outside was the last member of the gang, keeping watch.

Satisfied, Alex turned to go back. In the process, he got a good look at the kidnapper behind the rock, and his whole body went cold. Frozen.

He was sitting there, lanky as a newborn foal, slouched against a boulder with his knees pulled up. He was playing a Game Boy.

Fucking hell.

Kyler’s suspicions had been correct. One of the kidnappers was, in fact, a teenager.

Something suffocating welled up in Alex’s chest, but he didn’t have time for it. He pushed it down and looked away. After one last surveying glance around the space to make sure he hadn’t missed any important details, he silently picked his way down to the ground and back towards Kyler.

He’d only gone 10 meters when the man at the stove turned and yelled, “Tiso!” His gravelly voice echoed through the cavern and set Alex’s heart racing. Alex didn’t think he’d been spotted, but he ducked behind a rock anyway and watched.

The boy pushed himself up and walked over to the stove, still playing his game.

“Put that away,” the man ordered in Quechua. “You’ll run out of batteries, and I’m not giving you any more.”

Tiso grumbled something incoherent and shoved the Game Boy into his back pocket. The older man handed him a bowl of food. “Take this to Javier, then come back. I have more jobs for you.”

The kid held the bowl in limp fingers and slumped away disinterestedly. It took Alex a second to process the fact that he was heading straight for the dead man at the mouth of the cave.

Oh, shit.

Before Alex had consciously made any kind of decision, he started unlacing his boots. He didn’t really know what he was doing, only that he had to get to the boy before Kyler did.

Kyler would kill him, Alex was positive. He was also suddenly positive that he could not let that happen.

Several dozen meters of dark cave stood between them. It was strewn with boulders, large cracks, and other obstacles, and if Alex made the slightest noise, he’d find himself in the middle of a firefight with no rifle and no plan.

So, business as usual then.

He set his boots aside hoping he’d be able to retrieve them at some point. Next, he got out his scope and switched it on. The slight glow from the eyepiece could give him away, but he had to risk it. He had to be able to see where he was going.

The thick socks on his feet would mute the sound of his steps, making it possible for him to jump from one rock to another. He tested the feel of his feet on the stone, noting the way the wool scraped against it, providing a measure of traction.

He took a deep, steadying breath and shook out his limbs like a swimmer before a race. Once his mind had settled firmly into the task before him, he propelled himself into the dark.

He leapt onto a boulder, climbed to the top and then vaulted to the other side where he sprinted for a few steps before hurtling over a large crack in the stone. He let his momentum carry him forward over each new obstacle, every movement of his body perfectly controlled, perfectly timed, and perfectly silent.

Yassen would have approved.

Well… probably not of his recklessness in going after the boy, but at least of his execution.

He made it back to the mouth of the passageway in less than two minutes. Crouched at the edge of the shadows, he took a moment to breathe, to switch gears, and to make sure he hadn’t alerted anyone in the cave to his presence. He didn’t linger, however. The kid had already disappeared down the glowing corridor and had a sizable head start. Alex traded his scope for his knife and slid into the light.

As it turned out, catching up to the teenager wasn’t hard. He’d wedged the bowl of food into the crook of his arm and taken out his Game Boy again. Alex rolled his eyes in annoyance as he was forced into an agonizingly slow pace, waiting for the right moment to strike.

When they finally reached the fork in the passage, he sped forward, hooked the boy’s arm with one hand and pushed him roughly around the corner and into the wall. Alex cut off the kid’s yelp of surprise with his free hand and placed his knife at the boy’s neck, right under his ear and jaw, letting the edge of it graze his skin.

Tiso froze with a terrified whimper. He’d managed not to drop his Game Boy, but the bowl of food in his elbow had tipped into his side, spilling rice down his poncho and onto the ground.

”Quiet, if you want to live,” Alex whispered to him in Spanish. “You understand me?”

The boy stared at him with wide eyes and swallowed. He jerked his chin in a tiny nod. Slowly, Alex took his hand away from the kid’s mouth. He plucked the bowl from his arms and dumped the rest of the food out, then dropped the bowl onto the pile to keep it from clanking noisily against the hard floor. Once that was done, he grabbed a fistful of Tiso’s poncho, pulled him away from the wall, and positioned the boy in front of himself, keeping the knife to his neck.

“Hands on your head,” he ordered.

Still clutching the Game Boy, Tiso slowly lifted his hands and set them on his mop of greasy hair. Alex noted a slight tremor in the teenager’s fingers, but nothing else. He was remarkably self-possessed for someone with a knife to his neck.

Alex performed a cursory pat down of his pockets. He couldn’t do more without removing the knife, and something told him that would be a very bad idea. He needed to get the kid to Kyler asap and get him secured before the little bugger decided to do something stupid like shout for help.

Alex eased his head around the corner to make sure it was clear, and then steered Tiso by the collar of his shirt quickly down the path.

Kyler saw them coming. “What the hell is this?” he hissed in English as Alex dragged the boy to their hiding spot.

Alex didn’t have time to explain. “Gag him. Now,” he said, reaching for the rope in the top of his pack.

Kyler growled in frustration but did as Alex asked, cutting off a piece of the boy’s poncho with his knife and stuffing it in his mouth. The kid shifted, starting to panic, and Alex pressed the knife into his skin just a hair. Just enough to remind him. It would hurt, and Alex hated himself for doing it, but Tiso stilled.

Kyler stretched a piece of tape across the kid’s mouth. “How long do we have before they come looking for him?”

“Maybe ten minutes.”

“Shit.”

Alex put the knife away and pulled the kid’s hands behind his back. Without the imminent threat of death, Tiso resisted, especially when Alex tried to take the Game Boy away. He had to pry the kid’s fingers off one by one to get it, and Tiso let out an angry moan of protest when he finally did.

He and Kyler hog-tied the boy and left him lying on his stomach in the dirt. The sight of him like that made Alex’s gut curl in on itself. He tasted bile.

Kyler grabbed the video game from where Alex had dropped it and squatted down into Tiso’s line of sight. The boy was breathing hard, pulling at his bonds. Thankfully, the cut at his neck had stopped bleeding.

“You want this?” Kyler asked in Spanish.

Tiso froze as he focused on the man, looking warily from Kyler’s face to the Game Boy and back. He nodded.

“Stay there and be quiet until we’re done, and you can have it.” Kyler stood and tucked the device into his pocket, then reached for his rifle.

Alex should have been doing the same, but he couldn’t move. Couldn’t look away from the hopeless rage he saw in the boy’s eyes.

It wasn’t the same, he told himself.

He hadn’t shot the kid.

But he was about to go shoot everyone else in that cavern.

Maybe people that Tiso cared about. Loved, even.

After this, he wouldn’t have anyone. He’d be alone, and he’d be a prisoner.

A prisoner that Alex was responsible for.

His stomach heaved again, and this time he couldn’t stop it. He managed to spin away and lurch a couple of steps before he threw up onto the cave floor. Doubled over, wiping vomit from his lips, he couldn’t help thinking that this whole thing had been a mistake.

Señora should have sent someone else.

He couldn’t do it.

Fuck. What the hell was wrong with him?

There were 11 other kids in this cave that needed saving, and despite Kyler’s statement to the contrary, there was no way the Navy Seal would be able to handle it all on his own.

Alex hated to admit it, but the task ahead of him required not only the skills he’d developed, but also the mindset. He was going to have to shove his emotions into a closet and be the killer Yassen had trained him to be. As was so often the case with Orion, he simply had no other choice.

He took a deep breath, in through his nose, out through his mouth, giving himself a moment to adjust.

It had been years since he’d needed Orion like this. Almost six years to be exact, but it might as well have been a lifetime ago. Slipping into the persona was a bit like shrugging on an old jacket. It still fit, but it felt a little damp and dusty.

He straightened, filled with cold determination, and noticed that Kyler had grabbed the other rifle and was standing two feet away.

“Where the hell are your boots?”

Alex raised an eyebrow and took his rifle out of Kyler’s hands.

The man frowned at him. “You sure you’re up for this?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

Night fell gently on Quripampa, almost as if the sky, looking down, pitied the people there. Once it was too dark to continue working, Tania drifted to the large fire in the churchyard along with everyone else. Her fingers were numb inside of her gloves, and she was covered in soot from her hat down to her boots.

She sat in the dirt next to her friends, letting the flames warm her face and hands. They didn’t talk. They were too exhausted.

Now that the shock of it all had worn off, everyone in the village seemed to be holding their breath. Waiting.

It was too early to expect Gabe and her brother to return, but Tania gazed out at the abandoned road anyway, desperately hoping to see them there, coming back safe and whole. Her body ached with emptiness. She felt hollowed out, and it was Gabe she wanted. She wanted to wrap herself up in him, to feel his strength, his warmth, his comfort.

A gentle tap on her shoulder startled her out of her thoughts, and Tania looked up. A woman, one of the cooks, handed her a bowl of food. Tania tried to remember her name, tried to respond, but before she could, the woman moved on to someone else.

Celia, she thought belatedly and looked down to see a meager portion of beans in her bowl. Now that they were feeding the entire village, supplies were stretched thin. Tania lifted a spoonful to her mouth and chewed. It tasted like ash. Everything was ash.

She put her spoon down.

Kyler and Gabe would succeed. They had to. They’d bring the kids home, but what were those poor kids coming home to?

Only ashes.

She’d been digging through them for hours trying to find anything salvageable, but there was nothing. Food, clothing, furniture, bedding, all of it had gone up in flames. In all those hours going from burned house to burned house, she’d only found scorched cooking pots, knives and tools without their handles, broken crockery. Some of the families had small outbuildings or sheds that hadn’t burned, but many were not so lucky.

How were they all going to survive the winter?

Tears burned in Tania’s eyes and the back of her throat. She’d had a respite from them while she’d been busy working, but now that she had time to think again, her eyes filled and spilled over, creating tracks through the soot on her face.

It was all so unfair.

And Tania felt so… useless.

Quripampa didn’t need a dental hygienist. And for that matter, neither did Gabe. She was completely out of her depth with him. How exactly did one go about having a real-life relationship with a rogue assassin? She loved him, but what could she realistically offer him? She hated the thought of being a burden, someone he always had to keep safe and take care of. As if she were still a child.

I love you, and I’m wondering if maybe that could be enough.

She wanted it to be enough, wanted it so badly she thought her heart would burst. But what was love without trust? Without true partnership?

She wiped her face on her grimy sleeve and looked up, past the fire, to the tiny church at the end of the yard. Its door was open, and soft candlelight spilled onto the dust outside. People had been in and out of the building all day. She understood why. They were facing an avalanche of pain and suffering. Like Tania, they were probably feeling too small to fix it, so they turned to God and begged for a miracle.

Tania wished she could believe, but despite going to church most of her life, faith had always eluded her. How was lighting a candle and speaking a few memorized words supposed to help when the people of Quripampa needed actual food and shelter and protection from the gangs?

If she went into the church and prayed, would God really keep Kyler and Gabe safe? Or was it all a game of skill and physics and who had the better guns?

What if the kidnappers’ sisters or girlfriends or mothers were praying also? Who would God listen to then?

As usual, there were more questions than answers.

Still, the candlelight seemed to reach for her.

She felt a tug, an itch, a need to do something other than cry. Even if that something was utterly pointless.

And who knew? Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe something as simple as praying would actually help.

Setting her bowl down in the dirt, she rose wearily to her feet and crossed the churchyard on aching legs.

The plan was simple; get into the cavern undetected and start shooting. They didn’t have time to come up with anything more elaborate than that.

Alex quickly drew a diagram of the cavern in the dirt. He marked the locations of the six targets and circled the ones for Kyler to handle, two men at the table and the cook. Alex took the third one at the table, the sleeper, and the guard.

If everything went to plan, this would be easy. They’d have the kids out in a matter of minutes. Alex wasn’t stupid enough to believe it would actually happen that way, however.

With their rifles drawn, they navigated through the shadows towards their targets. Alex took the lead.

Adrenaline surged through his veins, and his hyperawareness kicked up a notch almost to the point of distraction. He could feel every grain of sand under his toes and the musty, stale air on his face. He listened to the sound of his own heart beating steadily uptempo. There was a real danger of being discovered while trapped in the passageway, and if that happened, their practically nonexistent plan was fucked.

Alex held up a fist at the edge of the shadows, telling Kyler to hold. He went first, edging his way up the narrow, lighted corridor for a dozen meters until he had a clear line of sight ahead. Then he waved Kyler forward. Once the man had caught up to him, they repeated the maneuver.

They made it just past the fork in the passage before something went wrong. Alex was waiting for Kyler to catch up when the scuff of footsteps reached his ears. Alex held up a hand, and Kyler froze, both of them listening.

The sound intensified, and Alex shooed Kyler backwards, quickly retreating into the side passage. When he got there, Kyler was already in position, flattened to the wall with his knife drawn. Alex stepped over the mess of food that he’d dumped on the floor and fell in behind, readying his own knife.

He leaned into the rock, feeling the uneven surface dig into his shoulders, and then closed his eyes to hear better. The footsteps came steadily towards them. Only one set. Alex breathed a silent sigh of relief.

They could get rid of one man quietly.

Alex opened his eyes, waiting and counting the seconds. Just when it seemed the man was nearly in range, he paused. His footsteps slowed, then stopped.

“Tiso?” he called, and Alex’s heart sped into overdrive as he realized the man must have noticed the rice spilled on the ground.

In that moment of strained, uncertain stillness, Kyler lunged from his hiding spot. Alex could no longer see him, but he heard the scuff of boots against stone and a muffled shout that died almost instantly.

Kyler dragged the body around the bend and dumped it, then wiped his bloody knife on the back of the man’s trousers.

Numbly, Alex turned to the body, watching the man’s face as he bled out. His eyes stayed open, staring vacantly.

The metallic tang of blood rose up from the floor mixing with the smell of Tiso’s discarded food. Alex put his knife away and stepped through the mess as though it was nothing, returning to the intersection of the two paths. His socks got wet.

Blood, death, and a gun in his hands. Five more targets.

“Which one was that?” Kyler murmured.

“Cook,” Alex replied.

“I’ll take the sleeper.”

Alex nodded and mentally adjusted his plan. He checked that the way was clear, raised his gun into position, and moved forward. Kyler followed.

The only sound from the cavern now was the raucous laughter of the men at the table. Alex and Kyler surged forward to the entrance of the cavern and flattened themselves into the wall.

Alex turned and met Kyler’s gaze. The man nodded once. Alex turned back and took a breath, then stepped into the cavern.

They melted into the deep shadows, knowing it would give them the advantage. It wasn’t necessary to get close. As long as they could see their targets, they would get the job done. Alex led Kyler to a large boulder. They took position on either side, and he held up his fingers—three, two, one. A heartbeat later two men at the table were down, and Alex was running for the guard at the back of the camp. He wove between boulders as first one and then two more shots sounded.

If the guard was smart, he’d have disappeared into a hole as soon as he heard the first gunshots. That’s what Alex was hoping for anyway. It meant they’d be playing a deadly game of cat and mouse, but Alex figured that was preferable to anything else the man might do.

As he closed in on the location of the children, however, he sensed something had gone wrong. Perhaps it was a faint whiff of smoke that tipped him off, or the reflected flicker of flames, but he knew before he got within range that the man had started a fire.

Alex cursed and skidded to a stop as the holding cell for the children finally came into view.

The guard must have doused the plywood door with kerosene because the fire raced upwards greedily, sealing the children off behind a wall of flame.

“Fire!” Alex yelled. He needed Kyler here now. His instincts were screaming at him to rush forward and put out the blaze, but he knew better. He’d been trained better. It could easily be a trap. As soon as Alex left the shelter of the shadows, the guard could gun him down.

Shit, he needed a moment to think, but there wasn’t any time. Already, smoke was pouring upwards, filling the higher reaches of the cavern. Alex could hear terrified shrieks coming from the children. He had to move.

He needed something to draw the guard out from whatever boulder he was hiding behind. Something that would make the man think Alex was going for the kids.

Shots wouldn’t work.

Rocks? Would it be enough?

He searched the ground at his feet frantically, and spotted his abandoned boots almost within arms reach. He smiled as he grabbed them and then hurled one after the other into the open space between himself and the fire. Their thick rubber soles bounced and skidded on the ground as they tumbled to a stop outside of the blazing cell.

Alex positioned himself behind his rifle and watched through the infrared scope, holding his breath and hoping. Moments later, the guard eased up from his hiding spot to investigate, exposing just the top of his head, but it was enough. Alex pulled the trigger.

He didn’t wait to watch the man fall. The kids were screaming now, desperate to escape. Alex ran, stopping only to stuff his feet into his boots.

The heat roaring off of the inferno was unbelievable. It instantly scorched Alex’s face and hands, but he pressed forward knowing the heat inside the cell would be much worse. Kyler appeared at his side with a pile of blankets. “Shoot the lock!” he yelled.

Alex was already on it. He took out his pistol and got as close to the fire as he could stand. A padlock held the door closed with a simple hinge hasp. The trick was finding the angle that wouldn’t risk hitting any of the kids inside. Alex shifted to the left and shot the hasp from the side twice, blowing the metal clean away from the doorframe. Kyler had blankets wrapped around his hands. He stepped forward and grabbed the handle of the door, cursing as he pulled the flaming mass wide open. Thick smoke spilled out of the space.

Alex held his breath as he ran into the cell. Ducking through the flaming doorway, he found them huddled together in the farthest corner of the room. They were coughing and wailing, terrified beyond reason, but thankfully still conscious. Alex scooped up one in each arm and ran for the door. They struggled against him weakly, but he couldn’t reassure them. They had to get out.

As soon as he made it clear with the first two, Kyler rushed in. They alternated this way, grabbing two kids at a time and depositing them a few meters away before patting down their smoldering clothes and returning for more. Soon they had all 11 out of the burning room, but they still weren’t safe.

Alex’s lungs struggled to pull in enough air to sustain him, and he was starting to feel lightheaded. The cavern was rapidly losing oxygen.

The kids from the village clung to each other in a tangle of limbs and soiled clothing, hurt, terrified, and exhausted to their bones. They continued to cough and wheeze, struggling to breathe. One girl sat taller than the rest, and Alex guessed she was 15 or 16. Possibly the oldest of the group. Her hair had pulled free from its braids in tortured strands that fell over her face, and her beautifully patterned shawl hung crookedly, kept in place only by a thick knot at her throat. She was holding onto several of the other kids with her arms stretched wide like a mother hen, but her head was bowed, and her whole body was trembling.

“We have to go,” Alex said in Quechua, touching her shoulder to rouse her. “We have to leave.”

She lifted her head and focused on his face, then blinked in astonishment. “R- Rubito?” she whispered hoarsely. At the name, several other faces turned to him with expressions of dazed recognition.

Alex nodded mutely. He hadn’t expected them to remember him; he’d spent a grand total of ten days in and around their village over the last two years, and other than passing out a few sweets, he’d barely interacted with the children of Quripampa. But, somehow, they knew him.

“Up,” he ordered. “We have to get out.” There were too many of them for him and Kyler to carry. Most would have to walk or crawl out of the cave on their own.

“The men?” she asked warily.

“Muerto,” Kyler interjected and then hoisted two of the smaller kids into his arms. That was another surprise. Alex hadn’t realized that Kyler understood even a syllable of the local language.

“We’re taking you home,” Alex added.

A spark of hope flashed in the girl’s eyes, and she sat up taller. Alex was glad to see it. He held out his hand to help her up, and she took it.

Together, they managed to get the rest of the kids on their feet and moving. Alex scooped up the slowest of the lot as they followed Kyler through the filthy, blood-spattered camp back to the entrance of the cave. It was the quickest way out.

Alex observed the bodies of the bandits with cold detachment. One of the men at the table had fallen forward onto a pile of cards, and his eyes stared blankly at the children as they passed. In the orange-yellow light of the sodium lamps, the blood on his face looked more brown than red, and Alex wasn’t sure if he should try to shield the children from the sight or not. Would they be traumatized or reassured?

If they were anything like him, the answer was a mix of both.

He would have to deal with his own complicated emotions eventually too, but for the moment, all he could feel was the comforting weight of a child in his arms and relief as more and more oxygen made its way into his lungs.

They trekked all the way back to the horse pen before stopping. The air in this part of the cavern was fresh, the cave floor relatively clean. Kyler set down the two children in his arms, and Alex did the same.

The cold air in this part of the cave soothed his overheated face and hands. As Alex headed to their hiding place, he ran a finger lightly over the tight, burned skin on his nose, testing for blisters.

Thankfully, their packs were right where they had left them. The boy, however, was not. Somehow, Tiso had managed to worm his way across the ground until he’d reached their packs. Alex caught him fumbling for the bag’s zipper, his whole body taut and straining to gain leverage. When he spotted Alex, he collapsed with a furious moan, breathing hard.

Alex shook his head and wondered whether being stuck with the kid was karma or just the universe’s idea of a joke. “You’re going to be trouble,” he muttered to himself.

Yassen’s ever-present voice in the back of his mind pointed out that keeping the teenager alive was a potentially deadly mistake. They knew almost nothing about the boy.

Alex sighed. They’d just have to be extra careful. Once they got the kid to Quripampa, Señora would know what to do.

He lifted the packs and took them to Kyler, then went back to check the ropes on the kid’s hands and feet. The knots were secure, and the boy had angry welts around his wrists and ankles from struggling against them. They looked painful, but not overly problematic. Alex stood and left the boy tied and gagged. He’d have to wait until Alex and Kyler had seen to the other children. All of them desperately needed medical care, food, and rest. And then, Alex realized with a groan, they’d have the horses to figure out.

He counted them quickly. There were 12. Once they retrieved Alondra, Kyler’s horse, and the packhorse, they’d have 15.

Fifteen horses, plus 11 children and 1 murderously angry teenage prisoner all needing to be fed, watered, and transported safely back to Quripampa.

Fucking hell. Alex had thought the hardest part of this mission would be finding and freeing the kids. He could see now that he’d been stupidly wrong.

Chapter Text

Despite his painfully uncomfortable bonds, Tiso had fallen asleep.

Alex wasn’t surprised. He and Kyler had spent hours tackling their massive ‘to do’ list. First, they’d tended to the children—patching them up as best they could, calming, and feeding them. Most of them had been so exhausted that they’d nodded off into their food. Kyler had made a thin sleeping pallet for them on the cave floor, and Alex had tucked them in with silver emergency blankets.

Then Alex had fetched Alondra and their other horses and settled them into the cave while Kyler moved Javier’s and the cook’s dead bodies to the back.

Finally, Alex had turned his attention to Tiso.

He sighed and rolled the stiffness from his neck and shoulders as he debated about what to do with his unconscious prisoner. He didn’t want to wake the boy, but leaving him hogtied all night felt cruel.

And, annoyingly, his mind kept bringing up Ben Daniels.

He didn’t want to think about the SAS soldier turned MI6 agent. He didn’t want to acknowledge that the man had been barely older than Alex was now when he’d been in this exact situation. And he definitely didn’t want to wonder if Daniels had felt the same as him—completely spent, in over his head, and certain that one wrong move would lead to disaster.

Alex ran both of his hands through his hair, trying to scrub away the memories. Coming to a decision, he got out his knife and stepped forward to cut the rope between Tiso’s wrists and ankles. Slowly, so as not to wake him, he lowered the boy’s feet to the ground.

As Alex crouched there, summoning the energy to move on to his next task, he heard Kyler walk up behind him. Kyler didn’t speak, but he didn’t have to: Alex knew what he was thinking.

He sheathed his knife and stood to face the man. “I don’t kill kids,” he said.

Kyler frowned in weary annoyance. “I never said we should.”

“But you think he’s a problem.”

“Don’t you?”

Well, yeah, but Alex couldn’t actually say that. Not out loud. So he settled for, “He’s just a kid,” and then cringed at his utter stupidity, hypocrisy. Whatever.

This was such a shit show.

Kyler raised an eyebrow.

“He’s young,” Alex tried to explain. “We don’t know how he got here. He deserves a chance.”

“To kill us in our sleep?”

“No, to—,” fuck, this was getting personal, “—to do something better with his life. Maybe.” Hopefully.

Kyler grunted, moving on. “We need to question him.”

Alex’s mouth went dry. “Now?”

“I’d like to know if it’s actually safe to sleep here tonight or if we need to clear out before someone finds us.”

“Oh. Right,” he said, feeling like an idiot twice over. Why hadn’t he thought of that?

Because, Alex, you’ve been focusing on the wrong problem.

The realization hit him like a kick to the chest. For a moment, he couldn’t breathe.

Fucking hell.

He’d been focusing on the wrong problem.

It was like that one time he’d gone whitewater kayaking with Ian and broken his finger. He’d been 10 years old, and he’d been so caught up in not wanting the pain in his hand to get worse, that he’d nearly let himself get swept away in the wrong direction. Fortunately, Ian’s forceful command to keep paddling had saved him from disaster.

The idea of treating Tiso like the enemy made his stomach churn and his palms sweat. It stirred up painful, shameful memories that Alex had been trying so hard to avoid, but in the process, he’d inadvertently put the mission and all of their lives at risk.

His only saving grace was that Yassen had not been there to witness it.

Alex wasn’t dealing with a broken finger this time, but what he’d learned in the river that day still applied. He needed to pull his head out of his ass, acknowledge his pain, and step into it anyway. Saving the kids of Quripampa was more important.

Kyler eyed him a moment and then asked, “You want me to do it?”

Thirty seconds earlier, Alex would have said yes. Instead, he licked his burnt lips, feeling as though he was facing an arena, needing to prove himself. “No,” he said, “I will.”

Shit. His transformation into Ben Daniels was now complete. He wanted to puke. Again.

Kyler’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Okay.”

“It’ll be fine,” Alex added, more for his own sake than Kyler’s.

His training in interrogation methods at the merciless hands of Dr. Three had been exhaustive and horrifying. The knowledge of what to do and how to do it was there in his brain, but unlocking the door on those memories and deciding which of them were useful felt like sifting through razor blades coated in guilt. He grit his teeth and did it anyway. And came up with a plan.

Not wanting to disturb the other children, they decided to move the boy closer to the front of the cave. Alex grabbed a heavy-duty torch and the lantern from his saddle bags, a jug of water, and some of their leftover food. Kyler still had the Game Boy in his pocket, so he took that as well and set everything up in the twisting corridor between the horses and the cave entrance.

Together they grabbed Tiso by his arms and dragged him into the makeshift interrogation space. He woke with a start, but he was still gagged and bound and couldn’t do much more than squirm.

They seated him in the dirt with his back against a rock and then moved a few feet away. Alex had set the lantern on the floor with its light dimmed to almost nothing. It cast a soft glow on the boy’s face, but left Alex and Kyler as little more than shadows in the dark.

He signaled, and Kyler stepped forward and pulled the tape away from Tiso’s face.

If it hurt, the kid didn’t let on. He bent to the side and spat out the wad of soggy poncho he’d held between his teeth for hours. Strings of saliva dripped from his mouth, and he spat in the dirt several times before sitting up with a grimace of disgust on his face.

Alex watched in silence, noting the kid’s tense shoulders and shallow breathing. Tiso’s eyes searched the darkness in front of him, trying to pick out exactly where Alex and Kyler were standing.

“You killed them all?” he asked in Spanish, his voice wavering slightly.

“Yes,” Alex said.

“Are you going to kill me?”

Straight to the point. Alex could appreciate that. “I’d rather not,” he replied.

Bloody hell. He sounded exactly like Yassen, and he didn’t know how he felt about that. Weird, mostly.

Tiso bowed his head and stared down at his knees. His shoulders hunched.

“Who were you working for?” Alex asked.

The kid shook his head. “You killed my brother,” he said, choking on the words.

Ow. Oh, shit. There was more of that pain he’d been expecting, like a knife twisting in his gut.

Which one had been the brother? Javier? The fire-starter? It didn’t matter. Alex couldn’t allow himself to care. Maybe later, but not now.

“Who were you and your brother working for Tiso?” he asked again.

The boy flinched at the sound of his name. He looked up with wide, startled eyes that quickly hardened in anger. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “They’re all dead now. Everyone I’ve ever known is gone thanks to you.”

Another moment of dizzying deja vu. Hadn’t Alex said something similar to Yassen once upon a time? He stepped forward and crouched down just beyond the reach of the boy’s feet.

“What happened to your family?”

“You should know, fucking Americans,” Tiso snarled.

Suddenly the picture was horrifyingly clear.

“The bombs,” Alex said.

Tiso looked away.

“That’s why you ended up with these scumbags?” Kyler asked.

The kid didn’t answer, and Alex glared at Kyler over his shoulder, warning him to stay quiet.

He turned back to Tiso. “Tell me about your gang. Are there any more of you close by? Others coming to this cave?”

The boy leaned forward with a snarl and let out a string of curse words that loosely translated as, “Go fuck yourselves.”

Alex sighed and stood up. He hadn’t expected the kid to cooperate, but even so, he hoped the boy possessed some level of self-preservation. Alex wasn’t sure how far he could go before he’d need to leave the room. Leave it up to Kyler.

It wasn’t time to panic yet, however. He had a few ideas to try first.

He bent and adjusted the lantern as bright as it would go. Tiso blinked as light flooded the cave and stabbed into his eyes. Alex walked a few steps away and picked up the Game Boy from where he’d stashed it.

He walked back slowly, holding the device up so that Tiso could see it.

“Do you want this?”

Tiso pressed his lips together. He glared up at Alex in stony silence, but Alex waited him out.

“You said you’d give it back,” the boy finally growled.

Alex crouched down in front of him again. “We did,” he said, and took out his knife. He dug the tip of it into the device’s side seam and started to twist. The plastic case popped ominously.

“Stop!” Tiso shouted. “What are you doing?”

Alex paused and looked up. “Giving it back. Do you want the buttons first or the screen?”

The boy paled.

Alex had found his way in. It had been surprisingly easy. He turned back to the job of dismantling the Game Boy, looking for another likely spot to dig his knife in. “Unless you’re ready to answer my questions,” he mused, raising his eyebrows.

The kid swallowed.

“Look. I don’t want to hurt you, but I have no problem tearing your little toy into pieces.”

Finally, Tiso nodded.

Alex put his knife away. “Who were you working for?”

Once they were done with Tiso, they secured him to a metal ring in the wall next to the horse pen, gave him a blanket, and told him to go back to sleep. Alex then politely told Kyler to bugger off while he went outside to stand watch.

It probably wasn’t necessary. According to Tiso, the gang usually kept kids here for at least a week before moving on, making it highly unlikely that anyone would show up before morning. Alex volunteered anyway.

As he stepped out of the cave into the black of night, he closed his eyes and filled his lungs with cold, clean air. It was such a relief to breathe, to be outside, to be alone. He let the tension of the day bleed from his fingers and toes until he felt himself go slack as a mooring line.

He looked to his right where a rocky outcropping stretched skyward and found a low shelf. Alex climbed up to it and settled back against the lumpy face of the mountain, then gazed at the lonely expanse of wilderness surrounding him. In the moonlight, it appeared grey and ghostly, nothing but clumps of prickly grass, rocks, and dirt in every direction. The cold, silent emptiness suited his mood perfectly.

He’d thought that after the killing was over and he had a chance to breathe that he’d feel… something. He waited for that something to hit, but it didn’t. The horror and guilt he’d experienced as a Scorpia operative simply wasn’t there.

Those men had deserved to die.

The guard who had set fire to a room full of children had especially deserved to die.

Did it mean anything though that Alex didn’t feel bad? Had Yassen rubbed off on him more than he’d realized?

He looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers, remembering how it had felt to pull the trigger of his gun. To kill his targets. In the cave, at the time, it had barely registered. He hadn’t really been thinking or feeling. His body had moved automatically, years of intense training coalescing and working exactly the way they were supposed to. He’d saved the kids, and in the process, he’d rid the world of a small pocket of evil.

Now that he had the chance to think about it, he felt… good.

It reminded him a bit of his missions with MI6. That feeling of euphoria at having won. Those moments had been brilliant, if short-lived.

Eleven kids wasn’t much compared to the lives he’d saved from Herod Sayle or Alexei Sarov, but it felt significant—different, somehow. This mission had been his choice. His plan. For the first time ever, he’d been the one in control. There’d been no threat hanging over him. No Blunt or Jones. No Board to report to. No Yassen. Just Alex.

Well, and Kyler. The two of them made a surprisingly good team.

Tania would be proud.

Alex’s heart warmed as he thought of her. Would she smile at him when they returned to Quripampa victorious?

Bloody hell, he missed seeing her happy.

It was her smile that had first caught him in that hotel lobby in Arequipa. She’d simply smiled at him, and his brain had placed a pin in that moment, marking it like a map. He hadn’t been the same since.

Thoughts of Tania set his imagination spinning. He envisioned her sprinting straight past Kyler to throw her arms around his neck. He felt her kiss him again, long and slow. He remembered the taste of her lips, the feel of them against his own. He wanted her to lace her fingers through his and drag him away from camp. They would find a place, hidden away, where they could be alone and safe under the blue sky. Nothing and no one would exist beyond the two of them. No Kyler, no Yassen, no Scorpia cockroaches or MI6, and in the quiet moments of their togetherness, he would hold her close and tell her… everything. She would finally see him, all of him, for the first time.

The idea of it was both terrifying and exhilarating. Maybe, if he was very lucky, she’d love him anyway, and life would be good again. They would be good again.

He sighed mightily as the dream of it filled him to the brim.

Shit… he wanted her so bad.

Bad enough to throw grad school out the window and move to New Jersey.

Bad enough to live in her parents’ basement.

He took a breath and shifted his gaze to stare into the endless expanse of space overhead.

Did he want her bad enough to hunt down Zeljan Kurst and Dr. Three?

Terror cut through him at the thought, setting his heart pounding.

But, underneath it, there was something more. Something warm and insistent, a spark that hadn’t existed before tonight. He felt it deep inside his chest, pulling him. Pushing him. Feeding him crazy, hopeful ideas. Making him restless.

For years, he’d been content to hide, but Tania was changing that. She was changing him.

And he liked it.

Chapter Text

After a lengthy search, Tania found Señora behind the kitchen tent surrounded by piles of dead chickens. The sun had barely risen and frost still covered the ground, but the woman’s apron was smeared with blood. Tania froze, wide-eyed with shock.

Holy shit, had Señora slaughtered them all herself?

Were there any left in the village?

“What’s going on?” Tania finally asked. She’d emerged from her tent that morning to find the villagers decorating the churchyard. They’d been hanging rainbow-colored garlands and tying bunches of plastic flowers to poles around the perimeter of the space. They’d even set up tables for food and covered them in their best cloths. They’d brought out all the treasures of their little church and set them up as if for a party. Or was it a strangely festive funeral?

She didn’t know.

So she’d gone in search of Señora, because maybe, just maybe, the woman had heard that Gabe and Kyler were coming back safe with the kids, and Tania would finally be able to breathe again.

Except Señora was here alone, clearly not having slept, surrounded by death and flying feathers, so… Tania was at a loss.

“Señora?” she tried again.

“Yes?” the woman replied. She didn’t look up or stop her vicious plucking of the bird in her lap.

Tania took a couple of steps closer and stood there awkwardly. “They’re decorating the square,” she finally said. “And I thought…, ” she swallowed hard, trying not to let her emotions take over, “… that maybe you’d heard from Gabe or Kyler? That they were coming back?”

Señora sighed and looked up. Her weary face was sympathetic. “No, child,” she said, “We haven’t heard.”

Despite the woman’s gentle tone, her words hit hard. Bitter disappointment surged painfully through Tania’s chest like a traumatic case of heartburn.

What made it worse was that she should have known better. Kyler and Gabe hadn’t taken the group’s satellite phone with them or the solar equipment they’d need to power it. Their radios were short range. There really was no possible way Señora could have heard from them.

Tania wanted to pull her hair and scream. She hated feeling like this, small and stupid. She’d thought that adulthood would finally put a stop to it, and yet, here she was, left on the sidelines once again, waiting for the grownups—or more specifically, her brother—to handle it. And no one was telling her anything.

It was infuriating.

And she still didn’t know why the villagers were decorating the square. “If we haven’t heard anything, then why the hell are they throwing a party?” she demanded, gesturing angrily to the pile of chickens at Señora’s feet. She immediately regretted it. The woman didn’t look like she could handle one more thing, and, more importantly, she didn’t deserve Tania’s ire. “I’m sorry,” she backtracked, and blew out a heavy breath. “I just don’t understand how they can throw a party when they don’t have enough food and people are dead and their children are gone…”

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, adding to her misery. Why, oh why couldn’t she stop crying? She really was such a baby.

Sra. Mamani used her forearm to push wisps of hair out of her eyes. “When the children return,” she said quietly, “they will celebrate. A party and a funeral, and then they will pack up the little they have left and leave Quripampa forever.”

“What?!” Tania’s legs suddenly threatened to give out on her. She sat in the dirt with a thump, scattering feathers in every direction. “They’re all leaving?”

Señora nodded. “They decided late last night. Without shelter or food stores, they won’t survive the winter.”

Tania’s heart ached as she pictured Quripampa years from now—the charred husks of their homes crumbling into dust—the church, cold and dark, empty of prayers—the village square with all of those lovely decorations left behind, hanging in faded tatters.

“Where will they go?” she asked past a lump in her throat.

Señora frowned as she replied, “There are refugee camps near Arequipa and various relocation organizations, but none of them are prepared to take such a large group. They will have to split up.”

Oh… shit… The villagers were losing everything. Their homes, their community, their traditions, and their way of life...

The decorations now made even less sense. “How can they celebrate at a time like this?” Tania wondered incredulously.

Señora paused in her work to give Tania a long-suffering look. “They do not have the privilege of choosing an easier path,” she said. “They never have. They make do with what God gives them.” She turned the naked bird in her lap, inspecting it for feathers. “It is a hard life, but it has made them wise. They do not dwell on their sorrow. They hold on to every happiness, no matter how small, and they do not fret incessantly about the future.” She set the plucked bird into a basket and then lifted the next dead chicken from the pile into her lap. “Yesterday, they mourned, but today, they celebrate because they believe that their children are coming home.” Clumps of feathers flew at Tania’s head as Señora vigorously pulled them out.

Scrambling to her feet, Tania waved them out of her face, but a bit of fluff managed to find her nose. She sneezed and backed away.

“Rude,” she huffed under her breath, and Señora smiled slightly.

“Do you want help?”

“No.”

Tania didn’t press. Señora clearly wished to be done with the conversation, so she turned and left.

Walking back to the breakfast line, she thought about what the woman had said.

They do not have the privilege of choosing an easier path.

She’d never considered privilege in quite that way—that she had the option of choosing an easier path. Her life was just her life, but she supposed if she really thought about it like that, she did have a lot of options that the people of Quripampa simply didn’t have. She could go to the grocery store instead of growing her own food or drive a car instead of walking miles and miles. She used a microwave instead of cooking over a fire. Compared to the people of Quripampa, everything about her life was easy.

Everything except for Gabe.

And yet, being with him had made her so… happy.

Tania’s feet stopped moving. It seemed for a moment as if the entire planet stopped with her.

Gabe had lied about his name, but she understood why. He hadn’t done it to hurt her, and she couldn’t blame him. Not really. Now that she no longer had that excuse, she could see that every single one of her reasons for pushing this incredibly wonderful man out of her life—this man who loved her—boiled down to the fact that a future with him might be hard.

Hard, she thought again, and then scoffed.

Her brother hadn’t shied away from hard. Rob had chosen love, chosen to be true to his heart, even knowing their father would never accept it.

So then, how big of a crybaby was she?

The biggest, apparently.

Tania was so used to easy. Too used to it if she’d been willing to throw away the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Señora had said moments ago that hard didn’t have to mean unhappy. And she knew it. She’d listened to the stories of her parents, seen them struggle and fight for everything they had. Hard just meant she had to work for it. Fight for it. If she felt out of her depth, she could learn, adapt. Figure it out. And Gabe would be there, able to help.

The man that she loved.

He was strong enough. He’d said as much. Tania could be too. Their future together might not look exactly the way she had naively imagined it, but she and Gabe could still build a beautiful life.

At the thought, something lovely and bright flickered to life inside of her.

Suddenly, the decorations in the square made sense. The villagers weren’t in denial. They knew that leaving would be hard, but they had accepted hardship as a fact of life. Today, however, their lost children were coming home. How could they not celebrate?

---

By some miracle, Alex and Kyler managed to get the children and horses out of the cave and on the trail home just as dawn broke over the mountains. The children were still half asleep, but they were sitting on their horses and moving in the general direction of Quripampa. Alex couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Tiso was eerily quiet. He refused to eat and didn’t protest when Alex tied his hands to the pommel of his saddle. He wouldn’t look at Alex or Kyler, opting instead to stare at the ground with his shoulders hunched.

They’d been moving slowly but steadily for nearly 20 minutes when Alex turned to look behind him and judged that they were a safe enough distance away from the cave. He hadn’t forgotten about the room of video equipment. It was time to make his move.

“Here,” he said as he handed Kyler the lead to Tiso’s horse. “I need a few minutes. I’ll catch up.”

Kyler’s eyebrows rose. “For what? A shit? We can wait.”

“I may be a while.”

“We’ll wait.”

“Suit yourself,” Alex shrugged and then trotted off on Alondra back the way they’d come. Once he’d rounded a small ridge and was briefly out of sight of Kyler and the kids, he kneed her into a gallop.

Halfway to the cave entrance, he braved a quick glance behind him. Kyler was standing on the ridge watching him through the binoculars. It didn’t look like he was going to follow, however, which was a relief.

He was being stupidly reckless. He knew it. He didn’t need Kyler to tell him as much.

He left Alondra just outside the cave mouth, looping her reins loosely around a pile of large rocks. The tether was more of a request than an order. He wanted her to be able to get away if something went horribly wrong.

He took off his hat and rifle and strapped them onto his saddle, then went through his pockets, stuffing anything that might slow him down into his saddle bags. Once that was done, he jogged into the cave, timing himself as he went. It took two minutes at an easy lope to reach the fork in the passage and the fenced-off room at the end. He’d have plenty of time.

The putrid smell of blood and smoke hung in the sluggish air. It was enough to make Alex’s eyes water. He pulled his scarf up over his nose and mouth to block some of it out. He tried not to look at the dark stains on the floor, including his bloody footprints leading off towards the back of the cave.

Those socks had been completely buggered. Fortunately, he’d brought spares.

The gate at the end of the passage was still padlocked. Alex pulled out his picks. Opening it was stupidly easy, the kind of thing he could have done in his sleep. He slid the lock out from the chain and tossed it away, then opened the gate.

It took him a minute to locate a light, and Alex pulled in a steadying breath before flicking it on. Everything was still there, the gaudy, indecent props, the stage, the recording equipment, but Alex dismissed them. He’d come for the car batteries.

He unhooked wires and pulled them out two at a time, all but the ones powering the lights, and moved them closer to the cave mouth, scanning the walls and ceiling as he went. He was nearly back to the horse pen when he found what he wanted—a large crack in the wall that widened as it led up.

It looked suitably unstable. Alex figured that if he could blast it apart even further, the whole side of the cave would collapse, and his work would be done.

He ventured back into the campsite looking for things to burn. There wasn’t much. The furniture was shit, and all of the cloth laying around was wool.

Useless.

Unless…

He jogged over to the stove and smiled at what he found—several liters of kerosene and a large jug of cooking oil. Yes, that would do nicely. Alex snatched them up, along with several wool blankets. He piled the blankets on the floor under the crack in the wall and soaked them thoroughly in kerosene. Then he stacked and nestled the car batteries on top. There were dozens. In addition to the 15 that were hooked into the machinery or standing by as backup, there had been piles upon piles of depleted batteries. Nearly 70 in total. Alex counted as he lugged them out to his blast site.

It looked as though they’d been using this cave for years.

The stark and depressing reality of it made his chest ache with an all-too-familiar horror. He wanted this whole filthy mountain to burn.

He packed as many of the batteries up as high as he could get them against the crack in the wall and then doused the entire mess with cooking oil for good measure. Alex soaked a length of rope in kerosene to use as a fuse and laid it down in a path toward the mouth of the cave.

Crude, but probably effective.

He didn’t think he’d have much time to get away. He wasn’t entirely sure, however, and while it would be fascinating to measure exactly how long it took four dozen car batteries to explode in a raging bonfire, he wasn’t going to stick around to find out.

He gave himself one last moment to breathe before he lit a match, set the fuse burning, and ran like hell.

Outside, Alondra was waiting, her ears pricked forward and her hooves shifting nervously. She whinnied as he pulled himself into the saddle and then took off, needing no encouragement to leave. They picked up speed going down the base of the mountain and then broke into a gallop when they reached more level ground.

Alex felt more than heard the explosion, a muffled, rumbling boom that reverberated into his body. He checked his watch.

Less than three minutes.

Sensing danger, Alondra picked up speed. The rumbling got louder, which, shit, hadn’t been part of his plan. Not that he’d had much of a plan.

Alex looked behind him, or rather, above him. The mountain’s peak loomed overhead, and he had to twist his neck upward to watch as it shivered and started to crumble. Then, as if in slow motion, the face of it sheared away and started to fall.

Ho… ly… shit…

A fresh wave of adrenaline flooded his body, bringing the bleak, Peruvian landscape into sharp focus. Alex tore his gaze away from the calamity overhead and tightened his grip on his horse. “GO, ALONDRA, GO! GO!” he yelled, tapping his heels into her sides.

He refused to turn around again even as the earth shook and Alondra screamed in alarm, picking up speed. The steady but frantic drum of her hooves pounded through Alex like the beat of his own heart. Faster and faster. So fast, the wind whistled past his ears as the crash and rumble of the mountain grew deafeningly loud behind them. A dust cloud of debris reached for them. Giant rocks bounced and then careened through the air. Alex ducked as one shot overhead and landed in a shower of dirt off to their side.

Bloody hell! It had been bigger than a fucking car.

Alex held on, crouching low, as Alondra practically flew over the hard-packed ground away from the disintegrating mountain. He felt as if they were running through a war zone, dodging bullets and catapult fodder. That was something he’d never encountered. Guns and bullets, yes, but not catapults. That stupid thing he’d done with the crane and Skoda’s boat had maybe come close. Though he hadn’t launched the boat as much as accidentally dropped it, so it didn’t really count.

This didn’t count either, he supposed, since there were no actual catapults involved. Just flying rocks.

Another boulder landed ahead of them, skidding right into their path. Alondra didn’t even slow down, instead, she jumped over the obstacle. Alex fell forward into her neck with an “oof!” as she landed, and had to scramble to pull himself back into the saddle. Fortunately, Alondra didn’t seem to be paying any attention to him. If they survived this, it would be entirely because of her.

She could start a club, he mused as dirt and tiny shards of rock rained down from the sky. Her and everyone else who’d saved him—Jack, Sabina, Yassen, Ben Daniels…

Tania.

The woman he loved hadn’t kept him alive in the traditional sense, but she still belonged in that group. Before she’d come along, he’d gone through the motions of living a ‘normal’ life, but underneath, he’d known it was a sham. None of it was real. None of it was him.

Tania had changed that, and if Alex died today, he would lose her forever. The realization brought with it a new kind of fear that clawed to life in his chest.

Fucking hell, he was such a moron.

He wasn’t used to having anything to lose.

Alondra’s breaths turned ragged, and Alex’s thighs burned as he struggled not to bounce in the saddle like a sack of beans. They stayed barely ahead of the crushing wave behind them.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, the mountain settled. The roar fell to a clatter, rocks rolled to a stop, and the dust cloud drifted away behind them. Alondra kept running. Dizzy with relief, Alex leaned into her dirt-encrusted mane, slowly patting her neck to try and soothe her.

“Whoa, girl,” he croaked and then coughed. “We made it… holy fucking shit,” he coughed again, “we actually made it.”