TWENTY-ONE

Leora

ONE MONTH LATER

"Did you get it done?" I asked Kabir.

"Yeah, the rent's all paid up, and they cleaned your apartment a couple of days ago," he replied, giving me a quick smile before his expression turned serious. "You haven't told Zarek about keeping your apartment, have you?"

I let out a sigh, feeling the weight of the secret. "No, I just… I need to keep some things separate, for now."

Kabir leaned back in his chair, eyeing me closely. "Zarek told me to terminate your lease and move everything to storage."

A pang of guilt hit me, and I looked down, wrestling with my attachment to my past life. This relationship with Zarek was still so new, and what if he decided it was too much? Or that he was compromised and a liability to his squad? He had said it once and I didn't fully forget that.

"Just… keep this between us a little longer. I'll tell him, I promise," I said, meeting his gaze.

Kabir shrugged noncommittally, and I headed back out to the main area of the warehouse where we'd been stationed for the past month. My training had been intense, and I felt stronger than ever.

"Finally!" Logan grumbled, "I have been waiting for three minutes."

"Are you really complaining over three minutes, Lo?"

"Punctuality is what I admire in a person. Be on time when I call you next time."

"As you say, Master Lo," I bowed to him dramatically and he gave me a mocking smile.

Logan had been tense since the last mission, which had been a setup—they lost a nonexistent shipment in an ambush. And to top it off, he'd lost his favorite Glock in the chaos, which didn't help his mood.

"I don't have much time before we have to leave for the next assignment," he mumbled.

"I got you, Lo. What do you need?"

"I've set up moving targets thirty yards away. It's a basic multi-position shooting drill. Here are your magz," he handed me a bunch of magazines that I secured in my vest, "Get ready on the whistle."

I nodded, took position, and he whistled.

Once my practice was executed, he ran the score on the target sheets and walked back to me with a tense expression. My heart dropped. My last score had been near perfect, 17 over 20. Did I do worse?

"19 over 20, Leora," he said with a blank expression and handed me the sheets.

"You called me Leora," I said, looking over the sheets.

"That's your name, isn't it?"

"You call me Leo, Logan."

His lips parted to say something but he shut his mouth quickly, "Give me five sets of back squats. You're slow on transition."

"I got 19 over 20," I looked at him, bewildered.

"Five sets. Now."

I went back inside, chalked up my hands, found the barbel, and started my sets. Logan walked past me and sat beside Kabir.

"This Crazon is hard to dispose of," Kabir muttered, "How many were you able to destroy?"

"Seventeen," Logan replied, "Eight are still left."

"And there's a shipment of eight more coming in today. Why eight?"

"Maybe they are an order. Like frickin' Amazon."

Kabir gave him a funny look and sighed.

"We got this, Cipher," Logan patted his back and glanced at me.

Exhausted, I barely finished my third set of squats. My muscles screamed, and a dizzying wave of fatigue washed over me. I'd skipped meals, a mistake given my period had drained my energy even further. But I wasn't about to share that with Logan—dubbed ‘Master Lo' today. Gritting my teeth, I initiated another squat, but a sharp cramp clenched my abdomen, sending me collapsing onto the mat. The barbell clanged against the floor, echoing through the room .

Logan shot me a look of sheer irritation and turned away sharply. His mood had soured lately, and I wasn't accustomed to his brooding silence. Feeling a telltale warmth, I rushed to my room, my thoughts a whirl of frustration and discomfort. After changing and downing an Advil, I returned, determined to finish what I'd started.

The barbell was already reset, and Logan stood there, arms crossed, his glare sharp enough to cut. "You do not leave the station until I tell you to," he snapped, his voice harsh and unfamiliar.

"Lo, what the hell? I needed the bathroom for a second."

"What the fuck is going on?" Zarek's voice interrupted. He had been cleaning his gun and taking inventory of magz.

"Tell your woman that when I'm in charge of training her, she should listen to every word I say," Logan shouted at Zarek.

"Your problem is with me, Gunner. Don't take it out on her."

"Wait, what problem?" I asked, confused.

Zarek and Logan glared at each other for a good minute and then stormed off in opposite directions. Something was clearly wrong. I saw Kabir shaking his head and slamming his laptop shut. What the fuck was I missing?

I walked to Kabir and sat down next to him.

"You're telling me what that was about."

"Why, the pillow talk didn't bring it up?" he smiled.

My expression remained steady and Kabir sighed.

"During the last mission, Zarek cut the mission short because an alarm went off here. It wasn't a breach or anything but Zarek was adamant that you were in danger. Hell, I checked the cams and showed him that you were dancing around in the kitchen. But he commanded the squad to scale back and leave the shipment. Well, it was a decoy shipment anyway so I didn't care. But Logan clearly thinks Zarek was compromised."

Compromised.

Fuck!

There it was. The word I dreaded. I didn't even remember any alarms going off during their previous assignment.

Kabir's laptop pinged at the same time and he opened it to see a message from his contact.

"The shipment schedule's changed," Zarek announced with a frown, rising swiftly from his seat. "Everyone, assemble. Now!"

Within seconds, the entire squad was on their feet and ready.

"The shipment's been moved up from 1700 to 1400 hours. We have one hour to reach the location," Kabir briefed sharply.

"Squad Six, report for interception sequence and gear up," Zarek commanded, his voice filling the room with urgency.

As they went through their routine of confirming their readiness and loading up the Escalade, I noticed Logan casting wary glances at Zarek, the tension palpable. They needed to resolve whatever was bothering them.

"I want to come with you," I found myself saying to Zarek.

Out of the blue, Logan interjected, "You're not fucking ready, Leora. Stay here." He didn't wait for a response, just turned and walked away.

Zarek's eyes followed him, dark with irritation.

"Hey," I reached up, cupping Zarek's face to draw his gaze back to me. "If he says I'm not ready, then I'm not ready."

He managed a small, strained smile and leaned down to kiss me—a desperate, deep kiss that spoke of a hunger only barely contained.

"I'll be back for more, Mi Corazón," he murmured after breaking the kiss.

With a reluctant nod, he turned and joined the rest of the squad gearing up. I watched them with a tight chest, my anxiety climbing. Before they departed, I approached Logan, wrapping my arms around him from behind.

"Be safe, Lo."

He tensed under my touch, his body rigid.

"Yeah," he murmured hoarsely, breaking from my hold to follow the others.

I stepped back and watched them drive away. Each departure felt just as difficult as the last, and I silently prayed for their safe return.

???

A searing pain on my arm woke me up from my afternoon nap. The squad was gone and I was still struggling with the period pain, so I had decided to nap at the odd hour.

My vision blurred as I blinked awake, sharpening slowly to focus on a figure looming over me. A sharp sting on my arm drew my gaze downward—blood was seeping from a fresh cut, trickling down my skin.

My panic remained in my head while my body struggled to follow suit. I couldn't move, couldn't scream. My blood leaked through forming a pool near the bed, while another man ran his gloved hands through it, staging a scene for struggle.

"Careful Romano, don't kill her from blood loss," the gloved man laughed.

"Yeah yeah. Are the cams still down? Crazon is amazing at that."

"Yep, we're a go. Jerome moving that shipment was a clever idea, Casteel."

"I'm not forgiving this Zarek guy. He killed Calzone, Mason. I'll fucking end this squad. Jer is tired of them too. Fucking puppets."

Mason chuckled, "Alright. By the way, are we not taking the Crazon they stole from us?"

"We'll get it after," Casteel said, sounding awfully confident, "Hell, we can have this whole fucking warehouse. All their fancy weapons."

"Let's end them, Cas."

Fuck. I was being taken. This was all a trap to eliminate the squad.

They hoisted my paralyzed form effortlessly, carrying me away as darkness crept in from the edges of my vision. Soon, everything went dark.