Her gaze steadies, and for a heartbeat the banter fades, replaced by something deeper. “Then don’t regret it.”
“I regret nothing about you,” I admit, voice rougher than I intend. “Only that I didn’t do it sooner.”
Her smile flickers, tender and fierce all at once. “Good. Because I’m not porcelain, Gage. I don’t want you holding back like I’ll break.”
“I know that now.” I brush a kiss over her brow. “You’re stronger than anyone I’ve ever met.”
She snorts, humor returning. “Stronger than you?”
I grin, teeth grazing her lower lip. “Don’t push your luck.”
Her laugh spills through the room, warm and wild, and for an instant it pushes the danger outside into the background. Italmost feels like peace, like the world might hold still just for us. But the illusion frays quickly. The threat never truly leaves. My instincts keep hammering at me, reminding me we’re sitting in the eye of a storm that’s still turning, its fury waiting to break over us.
I ease her down into my lap, holding her snug against me as my gaze drifts back to the map Rush abandoned. The marks across its surface glare like open wounds, demanding attention. My fingers move slowly, tracing each line and number, committing them to memory with the discipline of a soldier and the desperation of a man protecting what’s his. Sadie studies me as I work, her touch lazy but intimate as she toys with the hair on my chest, her eyes sharp and calculating even while she leans into me, as if she belongs nowhere else.
“You’re building a plan in your head,” she says softly.
“Always,” I admit. “They’re not just after money or power. Grayson pushes laws, Van Holt supplies the manpower, and Harwood owns the ports to move whatever they want unseen. That ledger is a blueprint for war.”
She shifts in my arms, eyes narrowing at the names. “So how do you stop men who’ve spent decades learning how to be untouchable?”
I give a humorless smile. “You go for the places they think are safe. You cut off the oxygen, force them into the open. And you hit harder than they ever expect.”
Her voice steadies, calm and strong. “Then I’m not hiding when you do it. I've been running my family's foundation for a long time, Gage. It was never Cassidy's thing. If it’s being used as cover, I’ll want to be the one to burn it down.”
I tilt her chin, forcing her to look at me. “You’ll do it under my protection. No arguments.”
Her grin flashes, wicked. “You mean I get to watch you play the big bad wolf while I set fire to their paper empire? Sounds like teamwork.”
Despite myself, I chuckle, though the weight in my chest remains. I lay the map flat, pointing at the routes near the ranch. “They’re probing us. This proves it. If the convoy was a distraction, the real strike comes closer to home. Which means we plan for both.”
She studies the lines, surprising me with how quickly she grasps the tactics. “This choke point here—if they try to move through the ridge, you can pin them between the rocks and the creek bed.”
I arch a brow. “Been studying field maneuvers, have you?”
She shrugs, smug. “Maybe I just know how to read the ground better than you think.”
I lean in, murmuring against her ear, “You keep surprising me.”
Her shiver tells me she likes that as much as I do, the small sound she makes caught between pleasure and surrender. Yet even wrapped in heat, the seriousness lingers. The danger thickens around us, pressing closer until it hums in my bones like a warning drum.
Her eyes find mine, steady and fierce. She touches the mark at her throat, the pulse of it echoing under my lips. “You said once you’d burn down the world for me.”
I cover her hand with mine, letting the truth settle between us. “I will. Because I love you, Sadie. That’s not instinct. That’s me choosing you, every time.”
Her answering smile is wet and wicked all at once. “Good. Because I love you too, Ranger—and I’ll hold you to that promise.”
The moment shatters when the door slams open. Rush strides in, expression carved in stone. “We’ve got final-op intel.They’re moving tonight. The plan is to extract the data from the port, then cut every line by dawn.”
I curse under my breath, yanking my shirt back over sweat-slick skin. Sadie slips gracefully from my lap, replacing and smoothing her clothes with steady hands, then lifts her gaze to mine. Her eyes blaze with fresh fire—no fear, no hesitation, only raw determination that matches the pounding in my chest.
Rush slaps the marked map onto the table. A red X glares back at us. “Secondary objective. One mile beyond the ranch. They plan to torch the evidence and anyone guarding it.”
My blood runs cold, adrenaline detonating through me like a shockwave. The mark on Sadie’s neck gleams, fresh and raw, a vivid reminder of what I’ve claimed and the danger that now circles tighter. I twine my fingers with hers, grip firm, and fix my eyes on the map, already seeing the battle lines forming.
“Then we hit them first.”
CHAPTER 19
