He tried to call back what his mind was trying to tell him. But it was gone as fast as it’d come. Straightening, he released her and wiped his forearm across his face. “Yeah, I’m just… confused.”

“By?”

“Nothing. It was a fleeting thought that left no impression.” He picked up their pack and took her hand. Yet as they continued on, he couldn’t stop his thoughts from pondering that one question —

Given as long as Keris and Dariana had been together, how had they managed to stay childless?

As they neared Aksel’s old base, Hauk pulled Sumi to a stop. He had a bad, bad feeling in his gut. Something wasn’t right.

“Dancer?”

Instead of answering, he turned a small circle and scanned the desert around them. There was nothing there.

Still the feeling persisted.

Sumi buried her hands in his hair and forced him to look at her. “You’re scaring me. What’s going on inside your head?”

He gave her a dry stare. “You don’t scare.”

“I do on occasion. Now, what is it?”

“Just the ghosts of the past haunting me.” He glanced back to the base, a shoddy, broken-down husk of what it’d been the last time he’d seen it.

A lot had changed in eight years. Then, Kiara had been kidnapped by Aksel and brought here to die. Nykyrian had come on a suicide run to save her life. Hauk’s mission had been to secure Kiara at any cost while Nyk played decoy for Aksel and his men.

Even now, he could see the anguished look on Nykyrian’s face right before they’d left to come here. “If I don’t get the chance, tell her I love her, that I’ve always loved her, and that I couldn’t have been more thrilled about the baby.” Nykyrian’s heartfelt words still ran a chill up his spine. His best friend had given him one hell of a bad day back then. He still owed Nyk a beating for that.

But this was an entirely different time. It was an entirely different enemy breathing down his neck, trying to kill him. One whose face and name he didn’t know.

Shrugging the feeling away, he took Sumi’s hand and led her toward the dilapidated building.

They’d only taken three steps when Sumi pulled him to a stop. He glanced at her with a frown.

She dropped and tugged at his arm for him to do the same. He obeyed without question.

Sumi narrowed her gaze on the shadow that stood in the doorway of the base. Wanting a better vantage point, she crawled along the ground to a small rise. She pulled her rifle from Hauk’s shoulder and used the scope to survey the building.

“We have a problem,” she whispered, handing the rifle for Hauk to use.