Early morning light woke her and she roused from sleep, fully awake. She opened her eyes to Ashe. She didn’t want to wake him and even though she wanted to touch him, she kept her hands off him. But she looked.

Looked her fill, he was so beautiful. The sun was warm, heating up the small hut. He’d kicked off the blanket, leaving himself naked to her gaze. He had smooth, dark skin, but as she studied him, she noted imperfections. He had a long diagonal line down his back, several raised round wounds and other nicks and scars. The body of a warrior, marred by battle, but still so gorgeous. All she could see was that he was a work of art, his body a living sculpture of muscles beneath his skin. Lean and highly-defined.

He shifted, sending those muscles rippling, and he turned so his face was pressed close to hers, his breathing still even and steady.

Everything about him was steady and she hoped, hoped like hell she hadn’t drawn him into something that would get him hurt, this precious man she’d found in the wilds of Bolivia. Her chest heaved, and she covered her mouth, realizing that this was all going to be over and this…thing with him was going to come to an end. That was what they had agreed on. He’d go back to San Diego and his deployments, and she’d go back to her job, another case closed, her promotion secured, increasing her hours. She’d have what she’d worked so hard for—her own team.

She’d see Atticus graduate, the last boy out of the house. He’d grow and train into a man like Ashe. Oh, he should be so lucky to be a man like him, but she knew he had the foundation and was already an amazing person. Then it would be her and her father working and living together, neither of them really living.

Her breath hitched and her eyes flooded with tears. She’d been there for her father and her brothers, cooked, cleaned, worked, nursed, and nurtured them. But now she realized she’d never taken a thing for herself.

She closed her eyes as the tears squeezed out. She felt his fingers on her face, the tips brushing at the moisture. His breath was warm, his body solid as he pulled her into his arms, kissing her cheeks where the tears had left tracks. “Aw, babe. Talk to me,” he said softly, his voice husky from sleep.

“I was just thinking about Atticus.”

“Your youngest brother?”

“Right. He wants to be a Navy SEAL.”

“And that’s making you unhappy?” He sounded worried, and she’d never heard that tone before.

“No. Not that,” she said, opening her eyes and meeting that intense gaze.

“What then?”

“Soon he’s going to be gone and it’ll be just me and my dad.”

“That’s making you unhappy? Living with your dad? Or is it the empty nest thing? I know you’re not his mom, but you’ve been like his mom since he was in diapers. Those feelings are normal, sweetheart.”

He was trying so hard to understand her, her heart turned over and there in a one room hut in Bolivia naked and vulnerable, open and real, she fell in love with a man she’d only known less than a week. It was lust at first, until she’d gotten to know him, but his attempt to try to understand her, try to support her, and comfort her was the kind of man she wanted forever. But she was trapped between what she wanted and what she had planned for. Ashe hadn’t been in the plans. He was just this big, beautiful irresistible force who had hit her like a freight train and knocked her whole world out of kilter.

She was at a loss on how to make this work when she felt so burdened by all the baggage in her life.

She cupped his face because he was being so sweet. She kissed his mouth, lingering for a heartbeat. “Thank you for trying to get it. But, yes, sometimes you come to a crossroads and everything hinges on the choice to go right or left. The one thing you do know is you can’t go backwards.”

“No. That doesn’t work,” he said, his eyes serious and direct. “But doesn’t mean you can’t go sideways or on a tangent. Leap up or lie down until you figure it out. Making a choice is important, taking your time is just as important.”

He cuddled her closer and they lay there for a few more minutes until Ashe tensed. She heard it the same time he did. The sound of an engine.

Scrambling out of bed, and hurriedly getting dressed, they stood to one side of the window as a beat-up Jeep motored into the little cluster of huts. The sound of the Quenchen language carried easily on the air.

Both of them relaxed. It was one of the caretakers checking on the building.

“Looks like we got ourselves a ride.”

An hour later, they were back at the Range Rover and heading back to the city. As soon as Paige got a signal, she called her boss, gave him the information and the coordinates. He told her they were scrambling a joint SEAL/NCIS team and would be there by the afternoon. The NCIS team would secure the warehouse in the city and the SEALs would handle the rebels at the crash site. Her second call was to Cris.

When he answered, she said, “Cris, I need you to listen because this is important. You and your family are in danger. You should get out of La Paz at least until tomorrow.”

“Why Paige?”

“I’m afraid that Bryant Anderson is the man I’ve been searching for since I came to Bolivia.”

He sighed heavily, his voice sounded strange. “Who do you really work for?”

“I’m sorry I had to lie to you, but I’m undercover for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. I’m a federal agent and Bryant is working with Kirikhan rebels. He was the mastermind behind stolen military weapons in California and responsible for the death of two military policemen. I need you to promise to get out. Take Ariane and the kids to your in-laws just until it’s safe to come back.”

“I think he’s storing those weapons in our warehouse. I could get you inside.”

“You can?”

“Yes, I have the code. I could give it to you.” He made a grunting noise, then said, “Where are you?”

“Almost to La Paz. What is the code?”

As soon as she hung up, she turned to Ashe. “We’ll go to the warehouse and make sure the weapons are secure. They have no idea we were at the crash site, and I’m pretty sure it was hard for them to get a description, but we could have spooked them. It’s possible they could be getting ready to ship them out of the country. I don’t think we should wait. Cris gave us the code. We could do a looksee and then report back to the teams.”

He nodded. “You trust him?”

“Yes, I do. He’s not part of this.”

“Okay, but we’re going to need some firepower.”

She nodded. “My boss has us covered.”

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s do this.”

Ashe parked several blocks away from the warehouse, and they made their way around to the back where the side door opened up into the storage area. Her boss had supplied them with automatic weapons.

Paige keyed in the code, and they slipped inside. Ashe put his hand on her shoulder after only a few steps.

“I don’t like this,” he whispered. “I prefer to do recon before we do any type of assault.” He was very busy watching the door and waiting, focused, and looking damned deadly with the way he was holding his weapon, which oddly enough almost made her feel safe.

His gaze slid to her again, his face grim, and suddenly—oh, quite suddenly—all she wanted to do was retreat. “I know,” she whispered back. “This feels off. Let’s get out of here.”

The lights came on, and Anderson and his buddies strolled out into the center of the warehouse, Norris and Reggie training their weapons on them. “Leaving so soon? But you haven’t been introduced to our guests.” Two hard looking men stood behind the lackey brothers. Kirikhan rebels.

Paige’s heart went into her throat, and then she saw Cris and it plummeted to her shoes. His face was battered and he had his head bowed.

She closed her eyes, letting out a shaky, frustrated sigh. She closed her hand so tightly she could feel the sharp edges of her fingernails pressing into her skin, until Anderson’s flunkies snatched their weapons out of their hands.

Anderson clapped him on the back, and he winced. “Thanks to Cris, we’re done with the cat and mouse game.”

“Cris,” she whispered, his name broadcasting her disappointment, realizing that she’d made a terrible error, one that was going to get all three of them killed. She’d trusted him, let down her guard and made the most colossal mistake of her professional career.

She hated to doubt herself, tried to shake it off, but it was a tricky, invasive emotion. She’d never been this wrong before.

But tonight she was, she thought. Tonight felt different. Tonight she was afraid.

“I’m sorry, Paige. Ashe. They have my family.”

Her gut clenched hard, and she looked at Ashe whose expression was flat, calm, and lethal.

“Bryant, you’re committing treason, not to mention murder counts and theft of government property. Those warheads…you know what they’ll do with them. What kind of man have you turned into?”

At the mention of the warheads, the two rebels swore and started shooting rapid Russian at Anderson. He held up his hand and turned to her, a dose of stone-cold silence.

“I’m a federal agent and Petty Officer Wilder is a Navy SEAL. You harm us and you’re looking at the death penalty.” Her voice rang with authority inside the cavernous warehouse.

This time he laughed.

Norris grabbed her and flexed cuffed her wrists, then pulled her close, his breath hot and unwelcome on her neck. “You’re mine, sweetie.”

Ashe leaped at Dean and his attack was so fast, so brutal all the men there didn’t even have a chance to move. He pushed him against the wall, his arm across his windpipe. Paige saw that Dean couldn’t breathe and Ashe had every intention of making sure he never took another breath.

Reggie hit him in the head with the end of his rifle and Ashe let go as Dean started choking and backpedaling away from Ashe, who fell to his knees, then Reggie flex cuffed his hands behind his back.

He grabbed Ashe by his shirt collar and dragged him over to Anderson, pulling him to his feet.

“Dean, you can have the girl, but hold off just yet. Petty Officer Wilder and I are going to have a chat.”

Anderson punched Ashe so hard in the gut that he doubled over and went to his knees. Then he smashed his knee into his face and knocked him onto the concrete. Blood splattered from a gash on his cheek, running down over his jaw and neck. Anderson grabbed a handful of Ashe’s hair. “I’ve had about enough of you, Navy boy. Just like your damn father, never know when to quit. Well, after I put a bullet in his brain, that stopped him cold.”

Ashe’s face contorted into such a mask of pain and agony, Paige’s stomach clenched, his roar feral and anguished just before he head-butted Anderson and knocked him completely off his feet. Ashe rose in one powerful push of his thighs and rushed over to Anderson, ready to stomp his face when Reggie grabbed him from behind, clamping his arms tight around Ashe’s arms and waist and hauling him away. The big man could barely hold him as he thrashed and fought to get free.

“You fucker. You’re a dead man,” Ashe said, and it was more potent, more crazy because he was so damn quiet. She ached for him.

Anderson rose from the floor and turned toward her. He raised a pistol and pointed it directly at her. Ashe stilled, his harsh breathing suddenly hitching.

“Attack me again, and I’ll fucking blow her head off.”

Ashe clenched his jaw, fury rolling off him in waves, and he gave Anderson a narrow-eyed, lethal gaze. If looks could kill…

“That’s better.”

Reggie shoved him, and Anderson grabbed him by the throat. This time Paige tried to move, but Dean grabbed her and held her back.

“I’m going to ask you once and only once. Then you have five minutes to make a decision. If it’s the wrong decision, she dies. No second chances.”

“What do you want?”

“The ETA of NCIS and Navy SEALs. Where and when?”

Paige made a soft sound. She was forcing him to betray his country, his team just like he’d done to Cris. Ashe, who would go to his death before he’d put his brothers in arms in mortal danger. But then his eyes met hers and they softened, the anger banked.

Oh, God, Ashe…no.

* * *

Anderson turned away and Ashe wanted to kill him with his bare hands.

“This is some kind of revenge for what happened with my father,” he bit out, keeping his voice calm, despite the demoralizing dread he felt. He would do anything to protect Paige, but give up the coordinates, betray his team? He’d taken a vow. If he broke that vow, he’d break his honor and like vines that had entwined too tight, all of that was mixed up in his own father’s honor or was it lack of honor?

He’d trained hard, honed his body into a killing machine, but where a SEAL excelled wasn’t his body, it was his mental toughness, it was making decisions on the fly, it was all about winning every goddamned time, against the toughest odds, against the toughest enemies.

Memories of being tangled up with her, of holding her, taking her, the warmth of her body, the smell of her skin. Standing here in agony with the threat of losing her, he knew without a doubt that he was in love with her, the real kind, the kind that held no illusions. His heart beat as if in slow motion. In this place, in this time he was her partner and all the mental toughness in the world wouldn’t save him from the devastation of being the reason Anderson took her life.

If he could buy them some time, any time to get back in the game, that would be the win. The NCIS team would find an empty warehouse, but his teammates, his close friends, his brothers would find a freaking small war.

She was helpless, bound, but the look on her face, that defiant, tough girl stance made his heart beat double time. He took a breath. If he gave up this information, they would be ambushed, and he’d have to live with it for the rest of his life. Ruckus, Scarecrow, Cowboy, Hollywood, Blue, Tank and Echo, and Wicked.

But they were Navy SEALs and battle was what they did. Live to fight, fight to live.

“Time’s up,” Anderson sneered. “What will it be?”

There was no contest here, no choice. He gave up the information. Betrayed them and took the hit against his honor, against his trident, against everything he’d ever stood for.

In that act of betrayal, he found what he was looking for. Found the answers to his questions once and for all. He might have followed in his father’s footsteps and gone into the SEALs because he was trying to be worthy of his father. But right here, right now, he made his own decision, was his own man and that decision was to be fearless, take batshit crazy to a new level.

He didn’t have a fucking death wish. He delivered death to the enemies of the country he served even and especially if they were her native sons. And, he met Paige’s stricken eyes, watched as tears slipped down her cheeks in wet tracks. He wanted to live. He wanted her to survive. And, in that moment, he understood Cris’s betrayal to save his family. Thought about that precocious little girl, the smart, charming boy, and his beautiful wife.

The big doors started to open and the tail end of a truck, its staccato beep warning it was backing up, pushed through the metal doorway.

They were loading the weapons, and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. But he heard what the rebels said and tucked the intel into his head.

No matter what, they were going to all get out of this alive. He was going to see to it.

They started to load the boxes and the two rebels left. “Dean, she’s all yours.”

Every muscle in his body clenched. He met Paige’s eyes and his message was loud and clear though he never uttered a word. Stay alive, fight, win. Babe, I’m coming for you.

He stared Dean down, and Kid could tell he was scared of him. “You’re a dead man.”

Reggie cracked him from behind, right in the same motherfricking place he’d hit him before and pain exploded in a flash burst. He fell to his knees, but his eyes never left Dean’s as he backed away, his hand wrapped around Paige’s arm.

“Take them to the village. I don’t want any blood in the warehouse. Kill everyone. I’ll take care of the SEALs.” He turned to go. “Oh, and Reggie, save these two for me.”

Cris exploded from the floor and went for Anderson’s throat, screaming at him, but Reggie grabbed him from behind and wrestled him away. Cris continued to scream until Reggie hit him in the temple and Cris went out like a light.

Through it all, Kid watched as Dean dragged Paige away, and they disappeared out of the double doors.

The muzzle of the gun dug into his back, and Kid wanted to shove it— “Get up.”

He complied. He was eager to get back to the village where Cris’s family was being held, where that goon was taking Paige, where his brothers were coming in to kick ass. It was time to take back the night, and he was just batshit crazy enough to do it.

After forcing Kid into the back of an SUV, Reggie tossed Cris on top of him, shut the back door and got behind the wheel.

About fifteen minutes into the trip, Cris woke up. He groaned and looked at Kid. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to do,” he said, his voice ragged and desolate.

Kid captured his battered gaze. “I do,” he said. “Pull yourself together. If you want to save your family. Do exactly as I say.”

Hope lit his eyes and his head came up. He nodded.

* * *

Dean had tried to engage her in conversation from the moment they got into the truck. He’d actually buckled her into the seat and that almost made her laugh. She knew what he was planning the moment he got her to the village, and it wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t going to allow him to take something she wasn’t willing to give. Her body belonged to another man, her heart his. She couldn’t help but wonder if she had focused more on the job and less on Kid Chaos if this would have ended up differently. But now they were all in mortal danger. Dean just as big a psycho as Anderson, and hellbent on taking what he’d wanted from her the moment she’d met him.

He kept squeezing her leg, sliding his hand too close to her groin, but going no further. She couldn’t help wondering if it was because of Kid’s threat. That look on his face…my God, she got scared and nervous from those deep blue pools broadcasting mayhem, promising pain, delivering retribution.

She couldn’t believe he’d given up the coordinates for her, for Cris’s family.

She took a breath, reminded herself to stay calm, to stay focused, to not give in to the wave of panic trying to wash over her. Men like him underestimated a woman, every time, but she wasn’t just a woman. She was a seasoned NCIS agent and this POS wasn’t going to intimidate her.

After the interminable ride where she’d wanted to throttle him several times for touching her again and again, she was ready to scream. He parked the truck and came around and got her out. Dragging her toward one of the small huts, she started counting down in her head. When they reached the door, and he pulled her inside, she turned and hooked his ankle. With a deft swing of her leg, he went down in a very satisfying tangle of arms, legs, and automatic gun. She turned toward the door and started to run.

She got all of ten feet before she was hit from behind.

“Not that easy, wild cat,” he said with a laugh, “I like them feisty.”

He dragged her back, and when he got there, he threw her on the bed.

Advancing on her, he climbed on top of her and got into her face. “Fun times.” He pulled out a knife. “Did I also say that I liked it when they screamed? Pain and fucking go so well together…don’t you think?”

Dean’s dark gaze held hers, and there was no mercy there.