“Mateo! The eggs! I have to stop them!” The words tore out of her as she lunged forward, but she was met with strong arms that threw her back towards her colleagues. Adam, a young man of only twenty five, tried to catch her but was bunted on the back of his head to stay still. Gabriella and him both fell together, the impact rattled through her shoulders as she fell to the ground.
Angry words circled amongst the group of military men. One of them kicked a tear-streaked researcher, Charles, to place him on his knees.
I can’t help them right now. I can’t helpanyoneright now.The realization was one of the worst things she’d ever felt. Tears drenched her face as a deep racking sob escaped her lips, agitating one of the poachers. He reached down to pull her up when Mateo stepped in, batting away the soldier's hand.
“Silence,” Mateo hissed at her before throwing out another command in Spanish that sounded like “Just her.” The men responded immediately, their attention swinging towards her with a focus that made her skin crawl.
Mateo pulled her up, his touch no longer welcome and familiar, and he pushed her away from the group.Am I being kidnapped?The word felt absurd in her mind, cinematic and unreal, the kind of thing that happened in thriller novels left dog-eared on airport bookshelves. Not to marine biologists standing ankle-deep in Caribbean surf, counting sea turtle heads.
And yet …
She looked closely at Mateo, at the man standing beside her, who had always seemed to belong to the sea and the sand and the whisper of the palm trees, and saw him at last for what he truly was.
Dangerous.
CHAPTER 2
TEX
John “Tex” Keegan stared at the screen, blinking once … then twice. There were very few things left in the world that could surprise him, but the words scrolling across his decrypted feed made his pulse kick hard.
He leaned back in his chair, rubbing a hand over his jaw. He should’ve gone to bed hours ago. Melody was already asleep upstairs, curled beneath the quilt she loved, her soft breathing still the most comforting sound he’d ever known. He’d promised her, no,swornto her that he’d slow down. But old habits had a way of clawing their way back.
After everything that had happened—the kidnapping, the torture, the months clawing his way back to normal—Tex couldn’t ignore certain alerts when they crossed his desk. He’d built this system himself; part therapy, part obsession. And tonight, it had caught something he couldn’t walk away from.
The encrypted transmission was faint, buried under layers of obfuscation, but once he cracked it, the message became clear enough:
An agent embedded with a poaching syndicate in Costa Rica has gone dark. Possible termination. Target: a femalemarine biologist working near Tortuguero. Potential trafficking of endangered green sea turtles.
Tex’s gut clenched. Tortuguero. He knew the place with its lush jungle and untouched beaches. A haven for turtles.
And, unfortunately, poachers.
He exhaled slowly, leaning forward, fingers flying across the keyboard. He could hand it off to Beth, his best protégé. Sharp as a whip, she was a natural intel analyst for the team, but something about this one hit too close to home.
He’d been the one trapped once. The one waiting in the dark for someone to come, and somehow his own disappearance had brought the cavalry. It had touched him and made him swear he would always step in when he could. His leg ached thinking about it. A reminder of what he lost to be medically discharged.
Not again.He thought. Yeah, he wasn’t the type to let others wait to be saved.
Tex pulled up the map overlay, cross-checking coordinates. He knew of someone who could help. Someone with boots on the ground thanks to their wife’s specialty … at least when they were not stateside. He pulled up the team’s profile along with his contact card, which he kept saved in his database.
Troy “Beatle” Lennon. He was Delta Force, which meant he was smart, stubborn, and one of the few men Tex would trust with his life. They had met briefly on another mission, and Tex knew he was his best bet. Beatle and his wife, Casey, had spent months stationed in and out of Costa Rica on humanitarian and anti-trafficking ops. Their own origin story involved Beatle rescuing her after she was kidnapped while studying bugs as an entomologist.
Tex didn’t like the thought that this could even remotely put Casey in danger again or the possibility that she was the one kidnapped. The woman had been through enough already, and yet he knew she had a heart of gold. Hell, she reminded himof Melody. They were both brave to a fault, the kind of woman who’d runtowardsdanger if it meant saving someone else.
His gut twisted even as he grabbed his phone and hit Beatle’s number. Hehadto make sure it wasn’t Casey in trouble. And then once he knew she was safe, he would get Beatle’s thoughts on what he had found.
The line rang twice before a familiar gruff voice answered, “Hello?”
“Beatle?”
“Tex. Everything alright?”
Tex could picture him instantly—standing in some kitchen somewhere, brow furrowed, jaw working as he tried to figure out why Tex would call him.
It also meant Casey was safe. He let out a slow breath. “Got something weird on a dark channel. Can I get your thoughts?”
Without a beat, Beatle responded, “Shoot.”