Page 34 of Critical Mass
Colton clicked to the next image. “This is your father meeting with Kyle Harrell, who was linked to the attack on the naval base last month, the one where Sigma tried to blow up the submarine pens.”
“You could have doctored these photos. Made them look like?—”
“We have audio recordings.” Ty pulled out a tablet. “Would you like to hear your father discussing shipments of ‘specialized equipment’ to locations that don’t match any legitimate Ravenscroft International contracts?”
“No.” Natalie pushed back from the table. “No, I don’t want to hear it. You used me. Now you’re trying to turn me against my own father.”
Hudson saw tears gathering in her eyes, saw her fighting to hold them back. Every instinct screamed at him to go to her, to put his arms around her, to tell her it would be okay.
But he couldn’t. Because it wouldn’t be okay. And Natalie had made it clear she didn’t want his comfort.
Before he could dwell on it any longer, an alarm cut through the air.
Ty and Colton shot to their feet.
Hudson pushed away from the wall.
Headquarters was on alert.
Did this have anything to do with the fact Natalie was here?
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
The alarm cut off abruptly,leaving a ringing silence in its wake.
Natalie’s heart still hammered against her ribs as she watched Colton move toward the door. Ty was right behind him—both men transformed from seated strategists to tactical operators in seconds.
“Hudson, stay with her,” Colton ordered without looking back.
“Copy that,” Hudson replied.
The door banged closed, and suddenly the conference room felt smaller. More intimate. Just her and Hudson and the echoes of everything they’d said—and hadn’t said—to each other over the past few hours.
Natalie wrapped her arms around herself, the oversized Michigan Wolverines sweatshirt providing little comfort now. Through the windows, she saw people moving with controlled urgency through the hallways. Not panic but definitely heightened alert.
“Do you think—” She stopped, hating how her voice shook. Then she started again. “Do you think this has anything to do with me? With my father?”
Hudson was quiet for a moment, and she appreciated that he didn’t immediately try to reassure her with a comfortable lie. When he finally spoke, his voice was honest. Careful.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “It could be. Or it could be completely unrelated. We handle multiple operations here. Sometimes things converge in ways we don’t expect.”
Natalie moved to the window, watching the organized chaos below. “Does this happen a lot? The alarms, I mean. The emergencies.”
“Not really.” Hudson came to stand beside her, maintaining that careful distance he’d kept since she’d overheard his conversation with Colton and Ty. “This facility is secure. Well-protected. An alarm like that means something significant is happening. Something that requires an immediate response.”
She turned to look at him. “Something significant like armed men showing up? Like the attack at the marina? Like everything that’s been happening since I followed you?”
“Maybe.” His jaw was tight. “Or it could be related to another case entirely. We won’t know until Colton and Ty come back.”
Natalie studied his profile—the tension in his shoulders, the way his eyes kept scanning the area beyond the windows, the controlled stillness that suggested he was ready to move, to fight, to protect her if needed.
Even now, even after everything, he was positioning himself between her and potential danger.
“You’re doing it again,” she said quietly.
“Doing what?”
