Page 3 of Jason Bourne
I forced a laugh, even though my guts coiled tight. “Yeah? How many women have you butchered for them, huh?”
His smirk didn’t reach his dead eyes. “Keep talking, sweetheart. You’ll find out soon enough.”
When the door slammed shut, I let my head drop back against the bulkhead. My chest heaved. Fear coiled like a snake, but I swallowed it down.
Jason. I’m sorry, I broke us up.
3
Jason
The SUV rolled down the highway, headlights cutting through the mist creeping in from the Pacific. Inside, the air was all tense silence and the quiet clicks of weapons being checked and re-checked.
I tapped my fingers on my knee, eyes locked on Lane’s face frozen on the laptop screen. I couldn’t stop staring at that damn video. The way she fought. The way she didn’t back down, even when she saw Thor go down. My chest ached like someone had punched through my ribs and grabbed my heart.
“Jason,” Max said, breaking the silence. “You’re not gonna be any good to her if you lose your head.”
I didn’t look away from her image. “I won’t lose my head. I’m not losing her. Not again. I don’t give a damn what she says.”
Forest cleared his throat. “We have a location. The ship’s registered out of Shanghai, flagged as a fishing vessel. They’re not even trying to hide it. Coast Guard won’t touch it without proof of trafficking.”
Nate cracked his knuckles. “So we give ‘em proof. Or we don’t wait for permission.”
A small grin tugged at the corner of my mouth.God, I love this team.
Max glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “You want to call it?”
I shut the laptop, snapping the image of Lane’s bruised face out of sight. “We do this quietly. No alarms, no messy shootouts. We arrive, find Lane and Zoe, and then leave. Nobody fires unless I say so.”
Forest lifted an eyebrow. “And if these bastards see us coming?”
“Then we make them wish they hadn’t.” I leaned back, voice low. “Nobody touches her. Nobody touches Lane.”
Forest snorted. “You’re gonna blow a gasket if she’s got one cut on her.”
I shot him a look that could kill. “I’ll do worse than that.”
A tense beat. Then Forest shrugged. “Good. About time you lost your mind over Lane again.
Silence settled once more, heavy and electric. The road ahead felt endless, yet the plan was already stitching itself together in my mind — angles, timing, pressure points, exits—years of training on autopilot.
I closed my eyes, seeing Lane instead. That stubborn smirk. The way she used to crawl into my bed at three in the morning because she couldn’t sleep unless I held her. Her parents wanted us to have separate rooms when we visited them. If only they knew their daughter couldn’t stay away from me.
Hold on, sweetheart. I’m coming.
My phone buzzed. I snapped it open, half-expecting it to be the kidnappers making demands. It was a text from Fraiser, back at base:
“New intel: ship leaves harbor in two hours. If you’re gonna hit it, hit it now.”
I barked, “Max — step on it.”
Tires screeched as the SUV lurched forward, the whole team bracing for the storm we were about to unleash.
4
Lane
The door opened again — but this time, it wasn’t the sneering gunman.
