Summer sat in the chopper with Mac some half mile from the missile silo, where Luke and the others were fighting this battle instead of her. She held her cell phone to her ear, cringing as Steven Walsh screamed on the other end of the line. “You lied to me!”

“I promise, I told you the truth. The chemical equations I gave you to make Alloy 531 are right.”

“Bullshit. Now your father’s going to die because you decided to put profits ahead of his life.”

“No!”

“Then stop lying to me! I’m not an idiot. I followed your directions to the letter and all I got was something markedly better than Reynolds Wrap. No more games, or he dies tonight, whether from lack of blood thinner or a bullet between his eyes, I really don’t give a shit.”

“I can help you.”

Mac leaned forward, his eyes wide.

“I can come to you,” she continued. “I can show you how to make Alloy 531 in person.”

Mac mouthed the word no.

Walsh laughed. “How stupid do you think I am? You want the brancium and the only way for you to get it is to find out where my manufacturing setup is.”

“I want my father back. I don’t give a damn about the metal.”

“Then you should have thought of that before. You say it will take him a few more hours to stroke out from his lack of medication. I think I’ll wait. Google says that would be a very painful death.”

The line went dead. “No! Wait…” She looked at the screen and yelled in frustration. “They’re going to let him die. That stupid idiot Walsh screwed something up when he was making Alloy 531, and now he thinks I lied to him.”

“The team is inside. They’ve already made it into the inner portion of the silo. They’ll find him.”

Would they? Or would she simply lose the only person left who mattered to her? It hadn’t escaped her notice that Luke was in charge of the mission, and the last time he’d been in charge of a mission that involved her family, he’d allowed her brother die.

Don’t think about that now.

But what the hell was she going to think about? Luke was down there fighting for her father, and she was sitting safely on the sidelines with the one thing that could potentially save her father’s life. Her own skills and know-how. She unbuckled her seat belt. “That’s not a chance I’m willing to take. I’m going in there.”

“Absolutely not.”

“I’m not asking for your permission. If you want to help, give me a bulletproof vest or something. A gun. I don’t know. But even if you don’t give me anything, I’m still going in.” She opened her door and climbed down.

“Now hang on just a second. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. There could be an army of men down there with guns just waiting for you to walk through the door.”

“They’ll let him go if they can make 531.”

“And if they don’t?”

“Then we are all as good as dead anyway.” She shook her head. “At least, I am. Now, are you going to help me or not?”

The ground rumbled, and a loud boom reverberated through the air a moment later.

“How much do you think they can take, Mac? How many explosions before none of your guys come back out of that hole?”

He grumbled under his breath as he exited the chopper. “You hired me to protect you. This is the exact opposite of that. Putting you in harm’s way. Delivering you to the devil himself with everything but a goddamn bow on top of your head.”

“Please.” She fought to keep her emotions in check. “He’s all I have left. You know what happened to my brother. I know you do. I can see it in your eyes.”

“Yes. I was there.”

“Then you know I can’t lose one more person I love. I just can’t do it. Not when I might be able to save him.”

He pursed his lips, his stare dropping. “I’m sorry, Summer. For everything you’ve lost. But letting you walk in there… Your brother would never forgive me.”

A crackle preceded Luke’s voice on their headsets. “…you copy?”

“Wiseman? Repeat,” said Mac. Summer met his eyes as the silence stretched for long moments.

Another crackle was followed by an unintelligible syllable, then a single word. “…help…”

The desperation in Luke’s voice was palpable. She moved closer to Mac, begging. “Please. We have to go in there. You heard him. He needs our help.”

Resolve hardened in his eyes, showing a formidable side Summer had yet to see from him. “I won’t be able to protect you. You might be hurt, even die.”

“That’s better than sitting here doing nothing. Without them I don’t have anything left. Can’t you imagine what that’s like?”

They stared at each other, eyes locked.

“Yes. I can.”

“Please. Let me come with you.”

“Get in the chopper.”

“No! I’m going in there.”

“Damn straight. We both are. Now get in.” He stepped aside, offering his hand to help her up and calling over his shoulder, “Sloan, get her suited up.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“No. We’re just throwing men into that hole. We have to do something different. Give them what they want. Do it now.”

Sloan fitted her with a bulletproof vest. “Keep your head down and stay back. Do everything you’re told to do, right when you’re told to do it.”

“Okay.”

The chopper spun so quickly her stomach lurched. Then they were moving onto the grounds of the missile silo, over the electric fence, past the sleeping dogs, and landing directly in front of the steel door under the single streetlamp.

She got sight of a dead body and turned her head away, biting back the vomit that made her stomach lurch. She followed Mac down the darkened staircase and through fetid water before rising on the other side, the scent of combustion on the air. She was certain now those were bombs she had heard. Explosives. And she sincerely hoped they’d been used to clear their way instead of hurt someone.

She couldn’t think about that now.

Her feet were wet and cold, her ears ringing with a high-pitched hum as she walked behind Mac through a darkened corridor. They could be approaching the gates of hell, having already crossed the river Styx, nothing good awaiting them at the end of this maze.

But there had to be something good.

Her father.

Luke.

She gasped for air, suddenly feeling as if she couldn’t breathe, knowing he was down here fighting this battle for her, putting his own life at risk. He was wrestling her demons in her stead, so clearly on her side, yet she’d been terrible to him. Unforgiving.

A voice spoke from the darkness, close to her ear. He’s a good guy.

She jumped, spinning around, the passageway completely empty as a shiver raced up her spine. It was Edward’s voice, as real and audible as Mac’s or her own, except he wasn’t there.

But he was.

“Help us,” she whispered, feeling his presence all around her. She turned back around, her knees weak and shaking, and followed Mac deeper into the abyss.

They made their way through an ancient command center and into another stairwell smelling even worse than the first, and she clung to the walls to stay away from the side of the steps with no railing.

How far did it go down? It was a missile silo, for God’s sake. It could be stories upon stories, and she imagined falling into the darkness without end. She swallowed against the moldy taste in her throat. “Can you reach him on your headset? Has he said anything?”

“Negative. Nothing since the first time,” said Mac.

They continued in silence until they reached a mangled steel door, concrete and rubble all around. “Looks like Luke’s been here,” said Mac.

Her father was in here somewhere, probably terribly sick by now without his medicine if he was even alive. How were they going to get him out? This path was too treacherous for a gurney, the floor too uneven, the stairway unsafe.

Don’t think about that now.

Find him first.

They continued on through another straightaway and onto another staircase. These halls were built to sustain destruction, to protect it in case the world came to an end. Now they were being used for exactly that purpose, but on a far smaller scale than intended. To damage her entire family.

Her world alone was being destroyed.

Mac’s voice in the darkness was her first inkling that something was terribly wrong. “Holy shit, the whole thing collapsed.”

She strained to see around him, leaning perilously close to the side of the stairs. There, just below them, a swath of camouflage fabric was visible beneath a large block of broken concrete.

“Luke!” Her voice should have been loud, but it came out as a barely audible squeak. Mac grabbed her arm when she would have run by him.

“No. Don’t go down there.”

“But he needs me. He needs our help.”

Mac’s eyes were steely and black. “That isn’t Luke, it’s T-ball.” His bottom lip trembled in the dim light. “And he’s already gone.”