It wasn’t complex by any means. It was as basic as possible. An hour before the first light of dawn, Jae and Luke were going to drive to a trailhead for a loop that included Mount Olympus. One section of the trail came within five miles of Lake Olympus Lodge as the crow flies. It was a gruesome, nasty, backwoods five miles that went up and over a ridgeline before descending into the lake basin, but it was as close as they could get without road access.

With no real word on what had happened to Audrey and stonewalling from the Navy, it was the right thing to do. The superintendent admitted the lock shouldn’t have been changed, but he wasn’t doing enough to push back against the military powers that be.

Audrey’s SUV could have slipped off the road in the storm, and no one was looking for her. He and Luke would change that. Something just wasn’t right.

No way would Xavier fail to reach out if Audrey had been stranded at the lodge. He’d know Jae would worry.

The lack of contact meant something had gone terribly wrong. For Audrey, and maybe even for Xavier.

There was a lengthy debate on what do to with Audrey while the team moved in on the lodge, and Xavier knew she was ticked that absolutely no one considered her opinion on the matter. Not even him. But in the end, she’d accepted their decision and agreed to the plan.

Much as he wanted to leave her safe in the deep woods, it was safer to stick as close together as possible. Leaving her by the donkey sled hideout would mean having to send someone back for her after the lodge was secured, and that only invited more risk.

So she made her way toward the lodge with the team and would take cover in the post office that was attached to the museum across the street from the lodge, where she’d wait out the battle alone.

They couldn’t spare a man to protect her, not even injured Xavier. They were thirteen strong, moving in to rescue their fellow SEALs—five trainers and, they hoped, four SEALs.

They had to be ready to strike when George set off his lightbulbs.

Audrey insisted a SEAL take her Glock. They needed bullets more than she did. She had a paintball gun and a Molotov cocktail to defend herself should she be spotted by one of the mercs.

Xavier felt sick at the plan, but it was the only option. She couldn’t storm the lodge with the team. That would be far riskier.

He accompanied her to the back door of the post office. With a SEAL watching his six, he quickly picked the lock and pushed the door open.