We were in an MC–130H Combat Talon II, the Lockheed variant of the Hercules transport airplanes used during military operations. The last time I’d been in one was on a drop behind enemy lines during Operation Desert Storm. On that occasion I’d been one of fifty-two paratroopers stacked side by side in the troop carrier, but this time there was only me and my friends preparing to jump.

We were only minutes away from our designated drop and I felt the familiar trickle of adrenaline I got when preparing for contact. Rink always became excitable, a nervous energy making him grin like a crazy man. On the other hand the surge of chemicals through my system had the adverse effect of sending me into a state that some—even my best friend—took as a resolute calmness. Rink would comment on my ability to stay calm like it was something admirable, but really there was nothing admirable about it. I was as nervous as everyone else: I just didn’t let it show.

Embrace fear and make it your friend. That had been the philosophy of my instructors at Arrowsake, the secret base where I’d undergone intense military training. It was an ethos I’ve carried with me ever since. Fear keeps you wary and in a state of high alert. It can keep you alive.

I wished that I feared Luke Rickard, but I didn’t. I just loathed everything about him.

Even if he weren’t a stone-cold killer who had earned himself a substantial amount of wealth from murder, I’d still want to put the bastard down. From Imogen Ballard I’d learned that he was a sick-minded beast who had used the threat of rape to torture her, but from Alisha—his wife—I found that he’d gone way beyond threats. At first he’d been the archetypal gentleman, a loving and caring man who’d saved her from a life on the streets. He’d whisked her away, married her on a beach in the Bahamas, set her up in a penthouse suite in Miami, given her everything. But then things changed. The mask had slipped and for two years he’d subjected her to vicious and agonizing sexual abuse in an attempt at dominating her every thought. I was surprised that she’d waited as long as that before asking Del Chisholm to get her away from the monster. I only wished that she’d come to us instead.