Page 117 of Boomer
Boomer cleared the last hall and engaged Luka Vukovic hand to hand, steel vs. steel. Both men bled. Only one walked out. The fight was brutal, personal. Boomer's final move? Controlled. Lethal. Necessary.
Draža tried to escape by sea, a speedboat fueled and waiting. But Bones found him first, and Skull finished him off.
When it was over, the Adriatic was quiet again.
Three bodies. Three ghosts.
TheZverstvo Triadwas no more.
Their fall ended the largest Balkan fentanyl route to ever reach Western Europe, and the blow sent shockwaves through the cartels operating in North Africa and southern Spain. It was Hoffman’s operation, and as the week progressed, and the joint task force interdicted the last remaining ships with no backup and their support gone, it was just a matter of time.
They had operated out of the fortified villa on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro, with outposts across Durrës, Thessaloniki, and Sarajevo, their influence stretching from ports to customs houses to corrupt officials at every checkpoint. The whole thing came crashing down, each outpost flooded with DEA, CIA, and Europol.
Boomer found Taylor in the conference room, surrounded by men in tailored suits and measured voices. She was smiling. Polished. Confident.
He leaned against the doorframe and waited. When the meeting broke, the men nodded politely as they passed. Boomer nodded back, then stepped inside.
“Hey,” he said as he crossed to her.
She turned, smile softening.His smile.She came into his arms like she was part of him. “Hey yourself,” she murmured.
He held her, breathing her in, anchoring himself to the moment. He hadn’t seen her much, not since the Balkan op, not since they’d started hunting the last of the ghost ships.
“Who were those guys?”
She pulled back, exhaled, eyes flicking away. “My second job offer.” His hands stilled on her arms. Waiting. She met his eyes. Her voice was steady, but her throat moved with the effort. “I can hardly believe it. They’re offering me Division Chief of Counter-Narcotics and Transnational Crime for Europol. At The Hague.”
He blinked. Just once. “What the actual fuck, sugar…that’s huge. That's a sky's-the-limit kind of career move.”
She nodded, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“No more combat. No field work. I’d never carry a sidearm again. I’d go from enforcer to administrator.”
“Yeah. But as chief at Europol, you’d run EU-wide ops. Inter-agency coordination. Diplomatic missions. That’s—” He didn’t finish. Couldn’t. “The second offer?”
“Deputy Director of MAOC,” she said quietly. “I’d leave my position with BKA. Stay in the fight, just…behind a desk. Strategy. Task forces like this one. Still powerful. Still vital. But political. Entangled.”
Boomer gave her a slow nod. “They both sound high-powered. Great steppingstones.”
There was anxiety in her eyes…hurt. “Is that all you have to say?”
Boomer hadn’t told her about Lila. About the wreckage of his marriage. About how he could do his job without hesitation, dodge bullets, breach under fire, run into battle, but couldn’t walk back into a shared kitchen without feeling like he was on foreign soil.
He hadn’t told her how Mike’s death had hollowed something in him, and how he’d let that grief destroy everything else. The parts that should have healed.
He hadn’t told her that when he was deployed, he could breathe. But when he came home? That’s when everything started to unravel.
Now she was being offered everything she’d earned. Everything she deserved. He was standing there like a goddamn ghost with his hands in his pockets and the Atlantic still clinging to his skin.
“Carter...” Taylor’s voice broke through the quiet. She clutched his sleeve. “I need to know what you think.” All her hopes and dreams were threaded through her voice, and the hope in them hit harder than a supersonic bullet.
He took a hard breath. Everything in him wanted to just say it.Choose me. Please.
“I think we have something here,” he said, voice thick. “Something real. But I belong to Uncle Sam and that puts me in Virginia Beach.”
She didn’t flinch. Of course she didn’t.
“At most, we could try a long-distance thing. But that’s not feasible. Not for me. Not for you. Not with everything coming at us.” The pain in her eyes hit him like a battering ram…what was he doing? What were these stupid words coming out of his mouth? This was the one defining moment in his life, and he was being an idiot. Holding on to shit would come between them, and he refused to allow his past to dictate his future. Not with this fucking amazing woman, not with him. He’d allowed his guilt and shame to rule him, but in the face of losing Taylor? It was incomprehensible that he would fold. Hurting her was something he wasn’t going to do.
