Page 37 of Axel Martin

“You won’t get close. Not without starting an international incident.”

“I’m not asking permission.”

“You’re not hearing me.” His voice lowered. “If she’s with me, she’s already deeper than you can go. But if she sent you that pin, it means she wants you to follow. Because she thinks she won’t make it back.”

I didn’t speak. I couldn’t.

Bishop added, “If you’re serious about finding her, pack light. No attachments. No backup. Just you.”

I ended the call.

And stood there in the stillness of the mountain air, heart racing, knowing exactly what I had to do.

But for the first time in years… I didn’t want to do it alone. I didn’t care what Bishop said, I was calling Fraiser.

34

Lark

He didn’t say it right away.

But I knew. The moment Axel walked back into the cabin, something in him had shifted. The tension in his shoulders wasn’t the usual “SEAL-on-alert” tightness. This was different. He was already gone, and just hadn’t told me yet.

I stood by the fireplace, my hands wrapped around a mug I hadn’t touched in fifteen minutes.

“Where is she?” I asked.

He didn’t answer right away. He moved toward me, slow, deliberate, like he was trying to memorize the room. Me.

“Jordan,” he said finally. “Outside Amman. She met up with someone I used to know. Greg Bishop.”

I stared at him. “You know him.”

“We crossed paths. He’s one of the good ones… in a very gray, morally ambiguous, probably-broke-every-law kind of way.”

“And Marley’s with him?”

“She was. But the file she found? It’s dangerous. She’s in over her head. She knew it. That’s why she sent the pin.”

I nodded slowly. My throat was tight. “You’re going after her.”

He stepped closer, and I hated the way he hesitated—like he wasn’t sure if I’d let him touch me.

“I have to,” he said quietly. “I can’t ignore this. She’s your twin sister. Sure she has long black hair. And you have beautiful red hair. But she’s your blood. I won’t leave her there. Fraiser is going with me. We’ll get her out and come straight home.”

“If it’s this dangerous, you shouldn’t go.”

His eyebrows lifted slightly, surprised.

I set the mug down on the mantel. “I don’t want you to go. But I’d never ask you to stay. Not when someone we care about is in trouble.”

His jaw flexed. “I was prepared to walk away from everything for a while. To just… breathe. Stay here. With you.”

My heart twisted. “That’s the thing about people like us. We don’t really stay still, do we?”

He exhaled hard and reached out, wrapping his arms around me like he could memorize the shape of me in seconds. “You changed everything, Lark. And I don’t say that lightly.”

I pressed my cheek to his chest. “I meant what I said. I want you with me.”

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