When Murphy had told them all he could, Luke and Chad secured him to a tree with materials from the Mary Poppins backpack Chad had slung over his shoulders.

They moved into place, with Chad heading up the side of the cabin to enter through the window at the top of the loft. Log cabin construction had the advantage of providing foot and hand holds they could use to their advantage. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Chad’s backpack also contained climbing equipment, ropes, and a small metal piston for breaking out the glass window.

Time to rethink his assessment of the man’s addiction to gadgetry. Luke set the charges on the hinges of the door. He’d like to have body armor, but this would have to do. He moved around the side of the building.

Luke would bet Damon wasn’t willing to blow anything up while he was still in the building. The man was too in love with himself to risk that.

Luke was doubling down on that bet, choosing to go straight through the front door using a small charge of his own as a distraction. A low whistle told him when Chad was in place outside the window. He would use the sound of Luke’s small explosion to cover the sound of the breaking glass.

Luke froze. He could hear the quiet sounds of Naomi singing, her voice shaky. Chase all the clouds from the sky…

He closed his eyes. He’d sung that to her a hundred times. The memory washed over him as he opened his eyes and focused on what needed to be done.

“Shut the fuck up!” Damon’s angry shout cut of Naomi’s song and Luke took the moment to blow the charge.

In seconds, he was around to the front door and up, one swift kick taking the door the rest of the way down, weapon drawn on Damon.

“Drop it.”

Damon stood halfway between the couch and a table where his laptop sat open. He held a gun, pointing it first on Luke, but swinging it back toward the couch. Murphy had been wrong. That, or he’d lied. Not that it mattered.

Damon had moved Lyra and Alyssa to sit on either side of Naomi on the couch. His niece’s face was battered and bruised, blood crusting her chin and he swallowed against the urge to run to her, to assess the damage.

Luke burned at the site of the swelling on Lyra’s face. He wanted to rush to her and hold her tight. All of them. He wanted to pull them all into him and whisk them out of there. Alyssa was the only one not banged up. Her precious eyes met his and he saw hope burning there. Hope and a fierceness that made him proud.

“Not gonna happen.” Damon held up a small black garage door opener. “You shoot me and they’re dead.”

“That right, Damon?” Luke let a slow smile take over his features and wondered if Damon had ever seen a man go down from a head shot. He would sink to his knees instantly, before falling over in a boneless heap. And that wasn’t a dead man switch the asshole was carrying. If he wasn’t alive to push the button, that thing wasn’t going to go off.

That didn’t mean he wanted to gamble on a clean head shot right now. Not until his backup was inside the cabin.

Luke kept his eyes on Damon who had begun to ease back to the laptop. He didn’t look up, not letting his gaze give away Chad’s position as he moved into place above them in the loft.

“The auction’s not going to happen, Damon. We’ve got people working on shutting it down right now. They’ll move in on your bidders before they know what happened.”

It wasn’t exactly true, but he was hoping Samantha would be able to gather information on each of the bidders so the commander could move on them. It would be a bonus if they could take down more than just Damon and Murphy. Of course, everyone in the Brain Trust who had shared confidential information gleaned from their positions could be facing charges, as well. At the very least, there’d be civil suits and their jobs would be shot to hell.

Luke glanced away from Damon quickly, letting his eyes take in the equipment strapped to Naomi’s chest before moving back to Damon. He’d be willing to bet there wasn’t a damned thing that was real on that device. Was he willing to bet the lives of the three people sitting on the couch? The ones who held so much of his heart and soul in their hands?

Shit, maybe not.

Damon sat, tapping on the keyboard, a look of panic crossing his features. Chad took advantage of the distraction to drop from the loft as Luke launched himself at Damon. The laptop went flying as Luke hit hard, taking them both to the ground as the wooden chair splintered beneath them.

He heard the gunshot as a bolt of fire pierced his side but he didn’t stop. The pain didn’t come close to touching him as adrenaline coursed through him.

Raising a fist, he slammed it into the side of the man beneath him, a satisfying crack resounding through the room. He saw his gun on the wooden floorboards two feet from where he wrestled with Damon.

He could hear Alyssa’s screams behind him and he prayed Chad was getting her out of the cabin, away from the visions that would haunt her for a long time to come. Hell, he’d never expose her to this if he could help it. He wanted to shield Lyra and the girls from everything that might hurt them or cause them any fear.

As long as he lived, he would never get the sound of Alyssa’s screams out of his mind.

Luke grasped Damon’s arm and slammed it hard against one of the wooden legs of the chair until the man released his hold on the gun. Luke raised up, lifting his arm for another blow, but Damon shoved a hand into the wound in Luke’s gut. Pain blinded him momentarily, searing heat plowing through his midsection.

Damon shoved hard, but Luke kept his leg out to the side, bracing against the smaller man’s efforts. Luke shifted and rolled, grabbing for his gun to come up firing. One, two. Double tap to the body. Dead center mass.

Another scream told him Alyssa was still on the couch and Luke looked over as Damon fell.

Chad switched places with Luke, coming to watch over the man that bled out on the floor as Luke rushed to the three women on the couch.

A gurgling laugh came from Damon but Luke tuned him out. He didn’t care what the man was saying. The asshole was likely going to be defiant to the end. He seemed to think the world owed him something, and Luke wondered where he’d ever gotten that idea.

Luke saw immediately why Chad hadn’t gotten the women outside. Wires now ran from Lyra and Alyssa to Naomi, who sat stock still in the center. Tears streamed down her face.

Luke knelt before Alyssa and cupped her face between his hands. “Shh,” he soothed, and his gaze jumped between all three of them before landing back on the littlest of them. He dropped his eyes to the bomb to double check before looking up to reassure her. “It’s not real, sweetheart. The bomb isn’t real. Superheroes know these things.”

He didn’t tell her it was his training as a SEAL that told him it wasn’t real. Let her hold on to the idea of a superhero a little longer. Hell, she deserved it. “It’s clay, baby. Just pretend, make believe, I promise.”

Luke heard the trembling breath tumble out of Naomi as Lyra let loose a sob that damned near cracked his heart. He worked to strip them of the wires and the ropes that bound their feet and hands.

Alyssa leapt into his arms as he heard sirens in the distance and Naomi wrapped her arms around both of them. Luke looked up and found Lyra’s eyes locked on his, tears running freely down her face. He reached out and pulled her toward him with one arm, bringing her close. He needed to smell her, feel her. To know she was there, alive, safe.

“You came,” Alyssa said into his shoulder.

“Always. I will always come for you, ’Lyssa.” The promise was one he knew he would always keep. As long as he lived, he would be there for the twins.

“Prentiss ran.” She pulled back for this part, eyes wide. “She went to get help for us.”

“She’s safe. She got to safety and had someone call me. She’s not far from here. I’ll take you to her.” His eyes shot to Lyra’s. “That was really smart to write my number on the girls. She was able to lead us right to you.”

Alyssa spoke up again. “I think Wonder Woman has to talk to you now. You can probably get her to come see us now, I bet.” Her mouth quivered but there was a grin splitting the girl’s face and Luke took the first free breath he’d taken since getting the picture of them hours before on Billy’s phone.

Alyssa looked up at Naomi. “He’s a superhero.”

“He really is, isn’t he?” Naomi said, but it was Lyra that Luke was looking at now.

He soaked her in, needing to reassure himself she was okay as he heard the sounds of police arriving and Chad calling out that they needed an ambulance and someone to take two men into custody. His eyes stayed on Lyra’s. She was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.