Thorne’s story sat in Orion’s gut and chewed at him until, some five months later, he finally contacted former SEAL Hamilton Jones.

Ham invited him to NYC to tell his story to Senator Isaac White, who served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and had ties to the CIA. If anyone could find Royal, it was the people who’d been behind his disappearance. Besides, they owed Orion answers about a number of things. So yes, he’d emerged from the woods for a face to face with White.

Ham had been bugging him anyway to join his private international SAR team, Jones, Inc.

Hello, no. The last thing Orion wanted was to dive back into the world of spec ops and medical tragedies. He’d barely survived the last go-round.

Had left behind buddies, pieces of himself, and a broken heart.

“Listen, that rescue mission blew up in everyone’s faces and got a good man killed, so no, my first thought wasn’t to call you,” Ham said. “Besides, if I remember correctly, you were still in Germany—”

“Knock it off.”

The sharp voice turned both Ham and Orion. Knicks had jostled NYU enough to get a rise out of the college kid. “Step back.”

Knicks, however, came up on him, gave the student a push. “What? You got a problem with me?”

Ham stiffened.

NYU moved away, hands up. “I don’t want any trouble.”

What he said. Orion’s jaw tightened. Please don’t let the kid be armed.

The car swayed as it screamed through the tunnels. Orion glanced at the next stop on the map above the door—Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall station, still three minutes away.

A couple people pulled out their phones.

A ripple of fear silenced the subway as Knicks took another step toward NYU. Then he got in his face with a string of expletives that even Orion hadn’t heard before. And he’d been to spec ops boot camp, a special kind of H-E-double-hockey-sticks.

Yikes.

Orion’s code of honor made him glance, almost in apology, at the women standing in the back of the car and—wait, what?

Knicks and the man in the hoodie might be working in tandem because hoodie slipped past one of the women with what looked like her wallet disappearing into his front pocket.

Aw, shoot. The last thing Orion wanted was to get tangled up in other people’s trouble.

On the other side of the car, the altercation erupted. Knicks cornered the pale, yet angry NYU student, who was trying to bump past him.

When Knicks shoved the kid against the door, Ham moved.