Hawk leaned over his arms and clutched his stomach. He had never been in more pain in his life. Ever. He felt gutted, hollow inside with no room for anything other than terror and grief. This was a terminal disease he felt he might not survive.

He couldn’t smile this away, like he had the trauma of losing his mother, that was for sure. This pain would be with him every day for the rest of his life. Every time he looked at the tiny piece of Maddie Carter she left behind, he would grieve.

“Oh, God,” he groaned as another sharp pain knifed through him. Hawk’s whole body felt numb as he rocked on his knees.

“I called Cade. He’s coming to help you,” Mickie said frantically, as she knelt beside him to put her hand on his back.

“He can’t help me,” Hawk growled. “I need you to call Max Carter and get him here. The number is in my cell phone. Keep calling until he answers. Text him 9-1-1.”

Mickie nodded and ran back inside the office, but Gray appeared in her place to put a hand on his shoulder. “What can I do to help, Hawk?” he asked.

“I won’t know until I can find out what happened. She cooperated, we told them where the compound was, where they could find the helo,” he replied, rocking harder.

“Why did they arrest her, then?” he asked.

Anger finally cut through his grief, and with a roar, Hawk surged up to his feet. “I don’t know why they fucking arrested her! It doesn’t make any sense!”

Mickie walked out on the porch, her face grim as she held the phone out to him. “He called before I could call him. They arrested her because the cartel and helicopter weren’t where you said they would be.”

Hawk grabbed the phone. “They bugged out?” he grated.

“Yeah, there was nothing there except empty buildings when the team went in. That woman must’ve told them,” Max replied, huffing a breath.

Hawk slapped his forehead, amazed at his stupidity. He realized now that taking Maria back was a boneheaded fucking move. “Yeah, that had to be what happened.”

“I’m on my way. Be ready, because we’re going back to Guatemala to find them.”

The phone went dead, and Hawk’s heart did too, but he revived it quickly. Now was not the time to fall apart. Maddie needed him and Sarah needed her. Once he got back from Guatemala, he’d have his nervous breakdown.

Finding that cartel again, though, in the midst of the cartel kingdom that was Guatemala, in a jungle so thick you couldn’t see the ground, would be like finding a needle in a haystack. But to save Maddie, he had to not only find that needle, he had to thread it before she did something stupid—like pleading guilty to a crime she hadn’t committed.

“Call Slade and Logan. I’m going to get Levi and Caleb up so we can install the cannons and infrared scanners that Dex bought for the helo. I have a feeling we’re going to need them.”

The extra men and the weapons. Hawk was in combat mode now, and this was a war he would win, or die trying.

This time, he wouldn’t be relaying anything to the Army, or relying on them to show up a week after they got the intel, when it was too late. Hawk wasn’t just going to Guatemala to find that Little Bird, he was going to recover it, and capture the leader of the cartel. He would personally deliver both to the Army, and that man would vouch for Maddie, or he would kill him.

That is El Jefe’s daughter—that baby is his grandson. Or maybe Hawk wouldn’t have to kill him, if he gave him the right incentive.

* * *

“Captain Carter, your attorney is here to see you,” an MP said from the doorway of Maddie’s cell. Her appointed watchdog to make sure she didn’t deprive the military of the pleasure of sentencing her to life in hell.

“I don’t have an attorney. I fired him,” she mumbled into her bare pillow. “I don’t want to see anyone but the prosecutor to sign my confession.” If they’d have left my bedsheets in here, I could’ve saved him the time.

“You have one now, ma’am. Your brother, Lt. Colonel Carter, has talked to the tribunal and requested a new one be appointed.”

“I don’t need one. I’ve confessed,” she replied, and the scene in the meeting room replayed in her head. In hindsight, she had no idea how she held herself together long enough to get through it.

She just kept thinking about Sarah and Hawk, and that’s where she found strength. Maddie was not surprised when they told her, with her father’s sworn statement and the statements of her teammates and commander, they had an open-and-shut case.

They were surprised though, when she refused their deal of twenty years for the lesser offenses, and instead confessed to all they’d charged her with. What did it matter? Harlan Carter had killed her mother, and now he’d thrown her under the bus that was about to run over her, so why fight it? In his mind, she was sure this was her punishment for embarrassing him.

If Maddie was free, however, with the knowledge she had now, she might make this life sentence worthwhile and kill him.

“Ma’am, you’re looking at life in prison, for God’s sake. Please come with me and at least talk to her. Max went to a lot of trouble to get her here,” the MP said, in a lowered voice.

Maddie forced one swollen eyelid open to see he was inside the cell now, standing over her with his hands in fists at his sides.

“I was on deployment in Iraq with your brother, ma’am. He’s a good man and he’s trying to help you. The attorney he found is the best there is.” The sergeant’s eyes sparked, as his chin dropped and he barked out the words. “Now, get your ass up and get with the program, ma’am.”

Military Maddie sat straight up and almost paid the price when she got dizzy and would’ve fallen off the cot, if he hadn’t caught her. He bent, picked up her prosthesis and shoved it into her chest then stepped back. She outranked him, and he was treating her like a grunt.

Maddie was lower than a grunt—she was military garbage, a traitor and coward—the lowest form of criminal there was, in their opinions. A deserter and a thief. She imagined she wouldn’t have an easy time of it in Fort Leavenworth once her fellow inmates found out either.

“I. Don’t. Have. All. Day!” he shouted, and Maddie jumped, almost dropping her peg leg.

Shooting him a glare, she quickly pulled on the sock and worked her stump into the fitting, then put her pants leg down to stand and snap off a mocking salute. He evidently didn’t notice the middle finger she left extended when she brought her hand down, because he took her arm and jerked her into motion beside him.

He led her down a long hallway, made a sharp right and practically dragged her down to the last meeting room on the left. Opening the door, he shoved her inside and left her there. Maddie turned and came face-to-face with a woman with a flying eagle on her collar, who looked like she ate nails for breakfast.

“I’m Colonel Claire Wright, your attorney. I’ve read through the comics the prosecutors gave me, and I have to say, I’m not entertained. You might have a death wish, but I’m here to tell you it’s not happening on my watch. You’ll have to find another way to commit suicide. Now, sit down and tell me what really happened to you in El Salvador and Guatemala, so I can get this Bravo Sierra straightened out.”

Maddie’s lips curled, because she couldn’t stop them. Now, this was an attorney. Too bad she was too late. Her sworn confession had been recorded and her court martial was in progress. Maddie was going to Leavenworth, and not even Colonel Ballbreaker could save her.

If she got a last wish, though, it would be for this woman to be in a locked room with her father. She would buy tickets for a front row seat to that event.

And that gave her an idea.