Page 47 of Burning Justice

A ring on her finger.

Another on his.

Together. Always.

“Let’s go.”

Ten

“He’s the one who broke your fingers? This Chinese guy?”

Maria wanted to squirm under the intensity of Hammer’s stare. The bearded Delta Force team leader sat in a chair beside the hospital bed, his hands clasped in front of him and his elbows on his knees.

“Sanchez.”

She nodded. “Yes. Which means I’m out of the hotshots for the rest of the season, and Tucker is going to have to get others in to fill in for us.” Her. Logan. “I don’t like it.”

“Is that what you’re most worried about?”

Of course not. “I’m just…listing it among my grievances.”

She’d woken up half an hour ago, no one else in here but Hammer. Because Kane knew—he knew she didn’t want to wake up in the hospital alone. They all knew she didn’t want a crowd either. She didn’t want a doctor she didn’t know.

So many things. Concessions they made for her.

Maybe she shouldn’t lean on them so much, but they were her guys. She needed them.

“Thank you.”

Hammer shook his head. “As if you have to say that.” He sat back in his chair. “He’s in the hall, you know. Probably wants to come in here and throw me out so he can sit with you and ask all the questions I’m asking. But we need to move on this intel.” He reached down under the chair and lifted a laptop, which he set on the bed by her legs. “This has a database on it. Key players, people we know. Intel we’ve gathered and what we’ve been given access to by friends and associates. I want this Chinese guy ID’d.”

Hot tears gathered in her eyes. She was not going to cry.

Kane had found her. He and Saxon, Crew and Tristan, had followed the GPS for her ring and found her in the woods. They’d made it so she wasn’t alone when she woke up.

“Elias thinks he’s going to get the code,” she said. “He thinks his plan will come to pass because he isn’t going to give up.”

Hammer said, “We’re all fighting this one. Even your father, from what you said. He’s doing what he has to do. It might not be what he wants to do, but he knows it’s best for everyone.”

She’d told him that her father was out there, and about the note. Even if she didn’t consider that him “contacting” her. Regardless of if it was his handwriting, it wasn’t anything close to closure.

She’d told Hammer everything, because that’s how it was between them. He, Saxon, and Kane, and by extension Mack as well, were the best kind of men. She’d struck gold when they’d rescued her. Careening into her life with war paint on their faces, carrying guns and packs and all kinds of gear. Talking about exfils and rendezvous and eating MREs.

She’d discovered all of a sudden that she wasn’t alone.

And they hadn’t stopped there. They’d jumped on board with her life after they’d been declared dead. Not even one single thought of going back home and digging up proof they hadn’t gone to the dark side. No, they’d decided together that going with her and finding her dad and, by extension, Elias Redding, was what would set everything to rights.

Just like that.

As if it was that easy to change your whole life. Or put it on hold. All to do the right thing, save the world. Clear their names. Save her and her father.

In one swoop, they’d set everything back the way it should be.

“I knew you guys would come to find me.”

Hammer said, “I did what I could to help, but I was deployed. Not sure I’m gonna jump again with the team soon though. You took years off my life.”

“Is Mack okay?”

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