“What is it?”

“Something big. Just picked up something on those forums that Jake first used to find Jaeger-Tech, one of those plane-spotter websites. Tail numbers of some of their planes were spotted down in Durango just yesterday.”

Lacy had called me back into her office just a few minutes earlier, saying she had something I needed to see. I’d come back as quickly as could.

I leaned in closer and eyed the photo of one of the planes we knew Jaeger-Tech used on a regular basis on Lacy’s computer screen. “Shit. Why didn’t we notice it earlier? Shouldn’t this have been something we spotted when they made the flight plan?”

“We would have,” she said, “if they hadn’t changed the ownership on it. This one came in under a completely different name than any of the companies we’d been following. I can’t keep track of all these different things, there’s just too damned much going on with their financial records, and it’s not like I have a mainline into their servers.”

“Shit,” I repeated, sighing loudly. “This was posted earlier today?”

“Just about an hour ago. Had a program running that monitored any updates or new postings made to the forum.”

I leaned forward, eyes narrowed. The image on the screen was of a plane sitting on the tarmac at the Durango Municipal Airport, but the sky seemed off. It was cloudy. The western part of Colorado had been sunny for the last three days, with hardly any sign of overcast.

“Do me a favor,” I said. “Can you check to see what day this image was originally created? This doesn’t look like it came from today.”

“Alright,” she said, biting her lower lip in concentration. She pulled up a series of programs on her computer, which might as well have just been magic and hocus pocus to me. The best I could do was work a database, run a web browser, and work a spreadsheet and word processor. There was a reason why I paid her to do this. “Shit, shit, shit,” she mumbled finally.

“What is it?”

“You’re right. According to the hashing—the, uh, think of it as the signature on the file—this picture was originally taken six days ago.”

I swallowed hard as fear gripped my chest. Not panic. Fear. “Check the flight records going all the way back.”

“Already on it,” she replied as she flipped back to another screen, her fingers a blur on the keyboard as she plugged in a new search string and pulled up a series of information. She sighed and swore again.

“What is it?”

“This was their first flight in. Last week. The flight I saw yesterday by the plane with this tail number came in yesterday.” She looked up at me, her big doe eyes watering up. “Sorry, boss, they’ve been here nearly a week.”

My vision went red. I growled and slammed a fist on her desktop, sending her keyboard leaping and her monitor trembling.

She jumped and squealed, “I’m sorry!”

I growled again and spun away from the desk. It wasn’t her I was pissed at. It was my own cockiness at not having had human intel on the ground at the airport. I’d been too intent on drilling the men. I could have sent any of my men down there on rotation to keep eyes on the place all hours of the day. I could have checked every flight. I hadn’t counted on Jaeger-Tech setting up yet another shell company to outflank us.

But outflank us they had.

“What do we do now?” she yelled from her office as she scrambled out from behind her desk and came after me. “Boss! What do we do?”

“Alright, men!” I shouted as I stomped down the central hallway. Already the guys were poking their heads out of their respective offices, looking at me with the same stone-cold eyes I expected them to have every time we were going into something serious. “Office work’s over! We’re going to the storage unit now.”

“What’s up?” Richard asked, his square jaw clenched. I could practically hear him grinding his teeth already.

“Jaeger-Tech’s somewhere near Enchanted Rock. They must have figured out we were tracking their flight plans and slipped in through Durango under a different name.”

“Son of a…” Richard muttered through bared teeth. He went to grab his phone from his pocket just as I withdrew mine and dialed Vanessa.

“No service,” I said aloud as I looked at my phone. I pulled up Vanessa’s number and tried calling. Nothing. Just beeping, like a disconnected call or a busy signal.

“I’m not getting any service,” Jake called.

Richard and I locked eyes, and he just shook his head.

“Texts aren’t going through, either,” Matthew said, his big, dark brown eyes a little frantic. “I can’t get through to Rebecca.”

“Try calling the school,” Jake said as he picked up his office phone and rapidly stabbed in a number.

“What’re you getting?” I asked him.

“Nothing,” he said in frustration. “No outgoing tone or anything. Just a busy signal, dammit!”

“Can’t get through to the Turtle, either,” Richard said from his office, his handset pressed to the side of his head. He jabbed the switch a couple times and looked back to me. “Nothing.”

“Lacy?” I asked, spinning around to face her. “You getting anything?”

“I’m not even getting fucking internet, boss,” Frank said from his office. “Nothing.”

“All the lines are down!” Gen shouted from the receptionist desk. “Did we pay the bill?”

“Yes, we paid the goddamn bill!” I yelled back.

“I paid mine,” Lacy said, holding up her cell phone for inspection.

Shit. Okay, things were already off to a bad start. Not only had they blindsided us, but they’d cut off communication amongst the group. As of right then, we had six people twisting in the wind, with only one of them armed and dangerous. “They must be using some kind of stingray device or a jammer. Lacy, could they have dropped something into the utilities and locked out phones and internet as well?”

“I don’t see why not. Security around that infrastructure is pretty crappy. I could pull it off if I really wanted to.”

“So we’re cut off entirely?”

“That’s what it looks like.”

“Alright,” I said, turning to Richard. “You take Matthew to the storage unit like we discussed and start pulling gear. We need to gear up and be ready for anything. Once that’s done we–”

“No.”

Everything stopped for a moment as I turned and looked at Matthew Jones, my jaw clenched, my fists balled up at my side. “What was that?”

“I’m going to the school,” he said, his own jaw set, his shoulders squared back. I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard. “I’m getting Rebecca. I can go to the storage unit afterwards if you still need someone, but she’s my priority. She’s the only one without a bodyguard with her. Jessica and the others at the art gallery have Vanessa with them.”

One look at him and I knew he wouldn’t back down. There was no question about that. Any of my men got it into their heads they were going to disobey an order, they were going to do it, no matter who that order was coming from.

It didn’t help, either, that I couldn’t threaten him on charges of insubordination. We weren’t in the military, after all. Even worse, he was right. We all had people we loved and they might be in danger. Shit, I had two women I cared about in vastly different ways, and they might both be targets right now.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm the rage that had built up inside me.

“Okay,” I said, taking another deep, calming breath. In and out, in and out. I focused back on Matthew and nodded. “You get to the high school. Do whatever it takes to get Rebecca out of there, whether or not she has class. Her being there is a bigger threat to them than anything else that might happen. While you’re there, I need you to get Mary as well. Got it?”

“Got it, boss.”

I spun back to Lacy as Matthew disappeared into his office to grab his sidearm and keys. “No way you can fix this from here, is there?”

“Nope. Only if I got to where they were cutting it off, and even then I have no idea what they’re using.”

“Good. No reason for you to stick around, then. Get out of here. Take your grandmother with you.”

“But–”

“No buts, Lacy. This has gone from an intel war to a shooting war, and we don’t have any idea what’s waiting for us. You get out and you take Gen with you.”

“Lacy,” Gen said from behind me. “He’s right. He’s still right. We’re just going to be hindrances if we stay here. We don’t need them worrying about us, too. We need to go, honey.”

Our little mascot’s lips pressed into a thin line, and she looked like she was about to bust out in tears.

My heart nearly broke watching her. I didn’t want to let her out of my sight, but I knew that we already had our hands full trying to watch out for our mates and each other. If she stayed with us, she’d just be one more target for these assholes to come after.

“You’re wasting time,” Richard added, stepping up next to me. “If they’re cutting off communications, they’re getting ready to strike. It’s the way I’d do it, at least. Put us in the dark and, while we’re divided, hit us hard. You take your grandma and go. Get out of here.”

Without another word, she wiped a fist across her eye as she turned to head back to her office, and disappeared inside to pack up.

I turned back to Jake just as Matthew came rushing out of his office and headed for the front door, his truck waiting outside. Moments later his pickup roared to life, followed soon after by the sound of rocks flying from spinning tires as he took off out of our parking lot.

“Frank, Jake, you hit the storage unit. Richard and I’ll go to the Turtle and get the ladies.”

“Now, hold on just a red hot goddamn second–”

“Frank,” I said, cutting him off, “I swear to God, you contradict me like Jones, I’ll pop you one in the mouth. We need those damn guns, and we need them now. Faster you get to them, the faster we can get our battle rattle on and be ready for this shit.”

“Come on, Cap,” Jake said, stepping up.

“Same goes for you, too. This sucks for everyone. I’ve got Matthew going after my daughter, and I’ve got you going after my guns.”

“Peter, man, you gotta understand.”

“I understand one thing,” I said firmly. “We’ve each got a pistol, and that’s it. Think that’s enough to fend off these guys?”

There was silence from both men.

“That’s what I thought. Now, I suggest you two get a move on before whatever trap they’ve got springs shut. Understood?”

Both men sighed and reluctantly nodded. “Yeah,” Jake said finally. “We got it, Cap. We’ll get it.”

Lacy came out of the office, her backpack over her shoulder, every footfall a stomp on the hardwood floor as she nearly shoved past me.

I caught her by the shoulder as she went by, and spun her around to face me. “Hey,” I said, grabbing her and looking down into her face.

She turned away from me.

I touched her chin, guiding her eyes back to mine. “I’m doing this because I care about you, okay? Hear me? I love you and your grandma. We all do. You’re family. I can’t have you hurt or worse.”

She looked back down to the side, avoiding my gaze.

“There’s one sure thing, kiddo,” Richard added as he stepped up, “and that’s that you don’t wanna be around when the lead starts flying. Believe me.”

“Look at me,” I said, squeezing her shoulders.

She looked up at me with those big blue eyes of hers that were so childlike, but still older than any of us when we went off to war.

“We don’t want you to get hurt,” I said again. “That’s all. If I thought you could help us with this kind of thing, I’d keep you here. I swear. But you’re an asset, and I need you in one piece for the future.”

“He’s right,” Richard said. “If it hadn’t been for you, I don’t think we would’ve been able to save my wife. I know it, you know it. You’re good, kid. You’re just not up for this fight, that’s all.”

Behind her, Gen advanced up the hall. “Lacy?” she asked. “You almost ready, honey?”

Lacy sniffled a little and nodded. “Yeah, Grandma. I’m ready.” Before she turned to go, though, she threw her arms around my neck, her body warm and loving against mine as she unexpectedly hugged me close. “Don’t do anything stupid, boss,” she whispered in my ear.

I was taken aback at first, but quickly wrapped my arms and hugged her back like the little sister I’d never had. “We won’t,” I said before we pulled apart. “Goes for you too, okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Nothing stupid. And give ‘em hell.”

“We will, I promise. And remember, don’t contact us until you know it’s safe,” I said as both women finally broke and turned to go. “No emails, no texts. Nothing.”

“We know,” Gen said as she stopped to look back at us, her eyes misty as well, even if she was managing to hold her emotions in check better than her granddaughter had. “We’ll be safe. We promise.”

They both disappeared out the front. From the sound of the engine that started less than a minute later, they’d piled into Gen’s car. With just the clothes on their back, they pulled out of the lot and headed north, the fastest route of town.

They’d wanted me to be safe. And I’d told them I would.

How was I supposed to know I was lying?

And that was when we heard the explosion and the sound of gunfire coming from across town.