The Complex was supposed to be a military base. I could understand NORAD being housed there, but a think tank? “What’s an astrophysicist doing here?” I asked.

“It’s classified,” Bianca said.

After a lot of unnecessary banter, Bianca checked her watch. “Let’s continue the tour. We have eight and a half minutes before we turn back to meet the general.”

“Doctors,” Trex said, nodding before following Bianca farther down the hall.

Harbinger kept close and leaned in when he spoke. “What the fuck is going on here?”

Trex inhaled, trying to process his frustration. “Not sure yet. But I’m going to find out.”

“You’d better,” he said, pulling his rifle close.

We were shown corridors Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta, and then taken upstairs to meet the brass. Bianca’s attitude changed the moment we stepped through the threshold.

“And this is the NORAD Operations roo…” she audibly gasped. “Good morning, Senator Bennett. I thought you were in D.C. What a nice surprise.”

“Is it?” he said, turning to face us.

I froze, trying not to reveal my shock to everyone. Peter Bennett was standing in the center of the room in a fitted dark-blue suit and matching tie. His charming gaze only stayed with Bianca for a few seconds before his steel blue eyes found me. Peter was from Sasabe, Arizona like me, but my father was militia, and Peter’s was a politician. We always found our families on opposite sides of issues, but Peter and I were determined to stay together.

Peter was my first love. Peter was my first everything—including my first broken heart.

Bianca stood taller. “I’m pleased to introduce you to Senator Peter Bennet. He chairs the Complex’s oversight committee, and he visits occasionally.”

“More than occasionally,” Peter said, flashing his grin that always won over the fairer sex.

Trex wasn’t impressed because, being best friends with Matt and then me, he knew exactly who Peter was.

Bianca breathed out an awkward laugh and played with her hair as if she were a smitten teenager, and I shot Trex a wry smile. I couldn’t judge her. I’d been there.

Trex rolled his eyes. Prom wasn’t the last time Peter tried to get me to go on a date with him. We’d kept in touch after high school, and the focus of the conversation was always him trying to convince me that we were meant for each other. Even after Peter broke up with me because he was engaged to the woman his father wanted him to marry, his now-wife, Paige. Even after I’d met Matt. Peter had shared his fear more than once that if we didn’t find a way to end up together, he’d miss his soul mate the rest of his life.