Jed swallowed hard, but the lump in his throat persisted. None of the memories swirling in his head were pleasant. Old wounds reopened and the once-extinguished anger at the betrayal he’d suffered rekindled. And then there was the other memory—the one he’d been running from his entire adult life—that usurped all others and filled his mind with dread. He squeezed his eyes shut. How could he possibly go back to Nashville and face all the unresolved matters that awaited him there? And besides, he was a Navy SEAL, not a miracle worker, and he was certainly no investigator. What did he know about finding missing kids? Give him a target package and a location, and he and his team of SEALs could unleash the wrath of God, but what David was asking for was no counterterrorism operation.

“Are you there?” David said.

Jed let out a long, quivering sigh. He felt nothing but animosity toward the man on the phone, a man he’d vowed to never forgive. But this wasn’t about David, was it? A little girl was missing. Rachel’s little girl. And try as he might, he’d never been able to stoke a fire of anger toward Rachel. The connection they’d shared had been powerful and special. He’d never experienced anything like it with any other woman in the years since.

“Jed, please. She’s only twelve years old. You have to help us.”

The sound of a father weeping for his missing daughter eroded his defenses. No matter what had happened between them, no matter how painful unpacking the past might be, how could he walk away from the man he’d once loved as a brother?

“Okay,” Jed said at last. “Tell me exactly what happened, and you have my word I will do whatever I can to help.”

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