Page 105 of Lost Hope

Alone.

54

BEGINNINGS

Ronan slipped out of Tailwinds,needing air that wasn’t thick with laughter and possibility. Inside, Blair had just finished telling some story about Christian memorizing her entire coffee order before their first real date—right down to the extra shot and splash of vanilla—and his teammate’s besotted expression made something in Ronan’s chest ache.

The summer night hit him like a wall of warm velvet. The tarmac stretched black and empty under the stars, its edges bleeding into shadow where the valley walls rose up, sudden and steep. Granite peaks cut jagged lines against the sky, and somewhere in the darkness, cicadas were singing their endless summer song.

He walked until the sounds from Tailwinds faded, until he could pretend he wasn’t listening for footsteps behind him. The mountains felt different now—less like the backdrop to another temporary assignment and more like ... home. The thought stopped him cold. When had he started thinking of this place as home?

Since Maya.

He hadn’t gotten a chance to ask her about the offer. She’d been surrounded all night—his mother, the admiral, the endlessstream of people wanting to congratulate her on her first op. And when they danced, he couldn’t bear to ruin that brief, shining moment. But he’d caught glimpses: her quiet smile, the way she kept tucking her hair behind her ear when she was thinking hard about something. The look on her face when Blair had talked about making a life here, like she was seeing something just out of reach.

If she turned down the job ... if she left ...

He pressed his palms against the hood of the nearest vehicle, letting the residual heat from the engine ground him. The practical part of his brain, the part that had kept him alive through a dozen hot zones, told him to start preparing. To imagine a future here without her, working with Knight Tactical, rebuilding his life.

But standing there under the stars, with the mountains rising like walls around him, he finally admitted what he’d known since she’d ordered him and Axel out of Tank’s condo: there was no preparing for a life without Maya. Not anymore.

A burst of laughter from the party carried across the tarmac. He straightened, squaring his shoulders against the night air. He needed to talk to her. About the job, about them, about everything he’d been too careful to say.

Before she walked away thinking he wanted her to.

He just had to figure out how to?—

“You planning to hide out here all night, dude?”

Ronan turned to find his team emerging from the shadows, Griffin bringing up the rear. From their expressions, this wasn’t a casual check-in.

Well, yikes.

The team spread out in a loose circle, and Ronan caught the faint scent of gunpowder that always seemed to linger on their clothes, mixed with the sharp pine from the surrounding forest. Axel’s boots scraped against the tarmac, the sound unnaturallyloud in the night air. The asphalt still radiated heat through Ronan’s boots, but a cooler breeze had started flowing down from the peaks, carrying with it the metallic hint of snow that never quite melted, even in August.

“So,” Deke said, his shadow stretching long under the security lights. “You and Maya.”

Ronan’s fingers twitched, missing the familiar weight of his rifle. He’d rather be pinned down under heavy fire than have this conversation. “Not now.”

“Yeah, actually now.” Axel’s voice was gravel-soft but immovable. Like the mountains themselves. “Because we’re all in on this Knight Tactical thing, and we need you operating at full capacity.”

The circle tightened almost imperceptibly. Ronan could feel the pressure of their concern like a physical touch against his skin. These people had saved his life more times than he could count, had trusted him with theirs. The least he could do was listen.

Griffin stepped forward, his presence solid and steady as always. “You’re not the only one who’s noticed how you are around her.”

“And how’s that?” The words came out rougher than he intended.

“Whole,” Zara said simply. She’d materialized silently at Ronan’s four o’clock. “Trust me on this one. I wrote the book on watching happiness walk away because I was too stubborn to reach for it.”

He clenched his jaw. The metal of his watch was warm against his wrist. He focused on that sensation, trying to ground himself. “It’s not that simple.”

“Actually,” Axel said, “it really is.” His boot scuffed against the tarmac as he shifted. “You love her. She loves you. The rest is just details.”

The words hit Ronan like a physical blow. He’d been so careful not to think them, not to admit them even to himself. But here they were, laid bare under the stadium lights, as obvious to his team as the mountains against the sky.

Deke’s massive hand landed on his shoulder, warm and anchoring. “You’ve spent your whole life running toward the fight, Quinn. Maybe it’s time to stop running from this one.”

The truth of it settled into his bones, as undeniable as gravity. They were right. God help him, they were all right.

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