Page 82 of Dozer

"I can do that," Kenzi says, with no hesitation in it at all.

"I know you can," Hunter says. "That's why you're the one doing it."

Her fingers tighten around mine beneath the table. I look at her. She looks back. No fear. Not exactly. There's fear in both of us. We've just learned not to let it take over.

Four days ago, I would've called that confidence. Now I know better. It's trust.

Kenzi catches my eye, something passing between us, and I understand, watching her hold her own in a room full of operators who've earned their competence the hard way, that she's already become part of this. Not because Hunter says so. Not because the team accepts her. Because she chose to stay and work this with us, when she could have walked away. Because I want her to. Because somewhere along the way, she stopped being the person I was assigned to protect and became the person I couldn't imagine walking away from.

"Four hours," Hunter says, closing the folder. "Get some rest if you can. We move at dawn."

The room empties slowly. Ghost claps me once on the shoulder on his way out, low enough that only I hear it. "Glad you found somebody worth losing the four-word habit for."

I look across the room. Kenzi is gathering the evidence files, unaware of the conversation, one strand of hair falling across her cheek. I could tell Ghost he's wrong. That this isn't about losing anything. That she isn't making me less of who I am. She's making me want more. More words. More time. More life after the mission ends.

Instead, I just shake my head. Ghost grins and disappears through the door.

Kenzi looks up. "What was that about?"

"Nothing."

She narrows her eyes. "You know, you use nothing an awful lot."

I walk toward her, stop close enough that the rest of the room disappears around us. "I’ll give you three words," I say.

"What three words?"

I take her hand. "You are mine."

Her expression changes. Softens. And for once, I don't need anything else to say.

“I’ll give you a few more. You are mine, too.”

“I’ll keep you safe. I promise,” I tell her.

“I know.”

And some promises are dangerous because once they're made, a man might actually have something worth losing.

CHAPTER 27

Kenzi

The Museum of Health and Medicine sits quiet beneath a pre-dawn sky. I sit in the back of the van going over the digital exposure sequence one more time, laptop balanced on my knees, the duplicate evidence loaded and ready to push live the second I get a secure connection inside. I’ve cross-referenced every file, verified every timestamp and documented everything. The chain of custody has been kept well enough to withstand legal scrutiny that will come the second this becomes public.

Ruby helped me harden the release package overnight, redundant uploads staged across servers Cole's people can't touch even if they somehow know where to look. It’s all timed to go live automatically if I don't personally confirm otherwise within a set window. I've built contingencies for everything I can think of. Which means, naturally, I'm trying very hard not to think about the things I can't control.

"You've checked that sequence four times," Dozer says quietly beside me.

He's geared up, weapon secured, every inch of him transformed into the version of the man I've learned not to underestimate. It's strange how quickly I've come to recognize the differences. There’s a slight shift in his shoulders and a quiet that settles over him when he's no longer just Dozer but the operator everyone else expects him to be.

I close the laptop. "I like checking things." I set it beside me. "This one just happens to matter slightly more than most."

"It'll hold."

"I know it'll hold. I built it to hold."

He looks at me for a second. "What are you worried about?"