Page 3 of Annika's Aurora

Her luminous blue eyes widened in surprise then melted as the words registered. She kissed him, a quick kiss, on the lips. “Thanks for spending your last day with us. It was just what we all needed.” She turned her face away suddenly and hurried into the jeep. Logan knew she was trying to hide her tears from him, and his heart clenched for the pain he was causing her. But it was just like Annika to hide, her feeble attempt at protecting him. She didn’t want to make this any harder on him than it was already.

He was distracted. That was his only excuse. He’d been distracted by the feeling of her soft lips on his. He’d been distracted by the sheen of tears in her eyes. Distracted by thoughts of a future he dreamed of having with Annika.

The truck was on them so quickly after Annika’s scream; there was nothing Logan could do as it hit them, sending the jeep rolling over and over down an embankment. A tree t-boning the passenger side stopped their momentum and Logan’s world went dark with Annika’s name on his lips.

Chapter 2

Fifteenyearslater

December

Logan Cain’s thoughts were a jumbled mess. For some reason, he couldn’t let it go. The rush of the water. The pleading eyes. The anguish. It all played in slow motion continuously in his mind. And each repetition ended the same way?in failure.

The woman had been desperate to live, and he’d been too late to do anything but watch as she slipped away. He’d failed again. He’d lost another life, and it hit just as hard as his failure that night before boot camp, even though the woman was a stranger to him.

Donotgo there. If he wallowed in that grief again, he might not come out of it. He needed to focus. There was a job to do, and his Nighthawk teammates were counting on him.

After leaving the SEALs, Logan had joined Nighthawk Search and Rescue, an organization developed by Graham and David Whitaker. Not only did they assist with rescues wherever they were needed, but the brothers had also built a large facility where they trained organizations looking for instruction and certifications. First responders came to Nighthawk from everywhere to improve their rescue operations. Logan, being former Navy, focused on training those groups on water rescues. Living by the Great Lakes made that type of training necessary. Though the Coast Guard covered the lakes, for the most part, there were numerous waterways that led into the lakes.

One of the largest of those was the St. Joseph River which Logan was currently navigating. He stood at the helm of one of the rigid inflatable boats, or RIB, that they used in training for water rescues, trying, with no success, to forget his memories.

“Yo, Logan!” Graham called to him. “You in there?”

He shook himself back to the present. “Yeah, sorry.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Graham grinned at him. “You just blew past the dock.”

Fuck.Logan looked behind him. Sure enough, the Nighthawk docks were rapidly disappearing behind them. Turning the wheel, Logan brought them quickly about as they all leaned into the tight turn. Graham and his brother David stood behind him laughing.

Jude Riker and Atticus Mobey, nicknamed Finch, were in the stern packing away the supplies they had used for training, laughing their asses off as well. He’d take a ribbing about this one for a while and he would good-naturedly put up with it, as they all did when teasing and jokes started among the close-knit group of men. The teamwork among his SEAL squad had been decent but lacked the close camaraderie he’d found with his Nighthawk family.

After tying off the RIB, Graham pulled him aside.Shit.Here came the ass chewing for getting distracted. It had been a rookie mistake. One he hadn’t made since his first weeks at boot camp. He had to get his head in the game, or he’d very likely lose everything he’d worked so hard for.

“Listen,” Graham started. “I know that last mission was rough. Losing Mrs. Petersen was tragic; the entire team has been affected by it. But it seemed especially hard on you.” He held up a hand to silence Logan when he was about to deny it. “I can also tell you are not ready to talk about it. I completely understand that. But the team needs your head here. Why don’t you take a few weeks off? It’s nearly Christmas. Go spend some time with your family. We don’t have any groups scheduled until after the holidays. It’s the perfect time for you to disappear for a bit. I may just do that myself.” Grahamwouldrelish a long weekend away with his girlfriend, Natalie. Especially after the last getaway they’d planned had been canceled when the Nighthawks were deployed to help evacuate people from a flood in Wisconsin.

His boss needed time away with his girlfriend since, while the team had been working, an employee and friend of the Nighthawks had attempted to kill Natalie by pushing her into an old abandoned well. Natalie had been trapped for three days before they’d realized she was missing.

But somehow, Graham knew. He’d been out of his mind with worry on that SAR trip since he couldn’t get ahold of her. By the time Monday rolled around, and Natalie didn’t show up for work, Graham was frantic to get home. They raced back just in time to save her from that pit before she succumbed to hypothermia.

But Graham wasn’t offering Logan time off so he could have a romantic getaway with a girlfriend. Logan didn’t have anyone. No family either, but he hadn’t shared that with any of his teammates yet.

“Are you letting me go?” He’d always feared that he’d fail to live up to the men on the Nighthawks team. His failure with the Northrups was always with him. And now he had this new failure with the woman in the river entrenched in his soul. He’d thought he’d put all his doubts and fears behind him, that the brutal months he spent training to become a SEAL, otherwise known as BUD/S or Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, had beaten it all out of him. Apparently not. One loss on a river in Michigan and his misgivings came back to undermine him.

“Absolutely not,” insisted Graham. “Your place is here. And when you are ready to talk, your Nighthawk family will always be here to listen. I just think you need a break. Not for long though, you’re too important to the team, but you should get away for a bit. Even if you stay in a hotel somewhere, you need a break to renew yourself. Fuck, that sounds new-age-y. But you get what I’m trying to say, right?” Graham smacked a hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eye. “That’s an order, not a request. Get your head on straight. Then come back.”

Logan relented. His rational side knew that he was a danger to his team if he couldn’t stay focused. And he’d die before he’d want any of them hurt.

Fuck, maybe Graham was right. He needed time away. After parting from Graham with a promise to keep in touch, he headed for the dorm-style barracks on the Nighthawk property. On his way to his room on the top floor, he stopped in the dining hall and grabbed an apple. Chef Layla was there as always, preparing dinner for the guys. He bussed her cheek quickly then headed for the stairs.

In his room, he was at a loss as to what to do next. He didn’t have anywhere to go. His grandmother died years ago. He had no family left that he knew of; he’d never known who his father was and had never missed that. He’d had Papa J.

Jansen Northrup had been a father to him for the first half of his life. That was all he’d needed. Everything necessary to know about being a man had come from Papa J. But after that night, he hadn’t been able to face him. He couldn’t face any of them. The guilt kept him away.

The ache he always felt when he thought about his adopted family hit him square in the chest. He missed them, now more than ever. Especially the twins.

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