Page 22 of Broken Trust
Sophie’s voice cut through his trance. “CFMP is standing by.”
“Mason.” Con’s harsh tone set him in motion.
But before he rushed to wake the rest of Charlie team, he dipped his fingers over the back of the chair and let his fingers trail across Elin’s shoulder, close to that sweet juncture of her neck that drove her crazy the instant his lips landed on it.
This op was so much bigger than the small skirmish that tore him and Elin apart. This was the start of a war.
And that made his blood run cold.
* * * * *
Adrenaline cut through Elin’s veins like a blade. The confusion that had fogged her brain since she got here—since she set eyes on the man she believed dead—vanished the instant the live feed blinked to life on the war room big screen.
The mission was underway, and there was no going back.
They were watching the takedown thatsheset in motion.
Every second that ticked by, every tactical move unfolding miles away in another country was a result of her work.
The endless strings of code, the deep dive into lines of data she’d followed like breadcrumbs through a digital forest. Every fragment of data told her this was the man handling a bomb for Cipher.
Her stomach gripped as the map pulsed with blue dots moving toward the target’s location—a neat little neighborhood, not a compound. Her breath caught when she saw the house.
God, it was so normal. Middle-class with vinyl siding, shutters and a mailbox with cheerful lettering.
Her chest constricted, making it hard to draw enough air into her lungs. What if she was wrong?
The question punched through her like shrapnel.
She didn’t make mistakes—not big ones. Not ones like this. But watching armed officers move toward the door of the home she’d marked sent a wave of nausea rolling through her gut.
She wasn’t hiding behind the safety of code anymore. She was the reason good men were about to step into danger.
“Team in position,” came the voice on the livestream.
She gripped her seat until her fingers grew cold. Tension throbbed in the room. Con stood at the center, silent and as sharp as a blade, his focus fixed on the screen.
Sophie perched on the edge of her seat near him, her face taut with worry. Dante planted his elbows on the table and leaned forward with an intensity that made her skin prickle.
Then there was Liam, close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating from his body even though he didn’t touch her.
She didn’t dare look at him and risk crumbling.
Every one of them trusted her intel. Now, as the seconds crawled forward arm over arm, knees digging into the dirt, the fear that she’d led them wrong was a flame scourging through her.
“Breach in ten,” the voice over comms said.
Her pulse hammered in her ears.
She wasn’t tired anymore. She wasn’t anything except terrified.
Her gaze tracked the body cam footage as the officers lined up at the door. She whispered a quiet prayer for them to come out safe. She’d seen plenty of scary things unfold from behind screens, but this was different.
This wasn’t hacked systems and stolen passwords. This was a house with a front porch, a wreath on the door…
And a family inside.
The command seemed to boom through the room. “Execute.”
