“I’ll guard them with my life,” Sean said in a tight, grim voice.

Sam put his hand on Sean’s shoulder. “I know you will, Sean. I just worry about dragging Ethan into this fight when Rachel is still fragile.”

“I don’t like it, but you’re right, we do need him,” Garrett said.

Sam looked at Donovan for confirmation, then heaved out a huge breath. “Okay, I’ll call Ethan and bring him in. The Kelly jet could have him home by morning, and we’ll take out as soon as we have things in hand here.”

He looked back over at Sean. “I want Sophie to stay here with you and the other women.”

He caught a blur of movement from the corner of his eye. Sophie had sat quietly through the entire conversation, but now she leaped to her feet.

“Are you insane?” she demanded. “I’m not staying here.”

Sam caught her hand and brought her next to him. “This isn’t up for negotiation, Sophie. I want you safe. I’m not bringing you into the middle of a war with your uncle.”

Her pale face crinkled with anger and outrage. “You’re signing your mother’s death warrant. Whatever your plan is, you cannot go in there without me. The moment he realizes I’m not holding up my end of the bargain, he’ll kill your mother. Oh, he won’t do it himself. He doesn’t have the balls. But he’ll have her killed. Are you willing to risk that?”

“I won’t trade her for you.”

She pulled her hand from his and faced him, her mouth set in a fierce line. “I made the deal with him. The key in exchange for your mother. We have to at least give him the semblance of that. What if your plan goes wrong? Are you prepared for the worst? Are you willing to pin everything on your ability to go in and flawlessly execute a rescue?”

“Sophie . . .”

“Don’t ask me to trust you, Sam. This has nothing to do with trust and everything to do with me not being willing to be responsible for your mother’s death. How about you trust me? Trust me to know my uncle and know what’ll happen when he realizes he’s not going to get what he wants.”

Sam closed his eyes. Goddamn but he didn’t want to involve Sophie in any of this. How could he?

“How close do you think you’ll be able to get without me? Are you willing to take that chance, Sam? You want me to trust you. Well, I do. I trust you to keep me safe when I go with you. I trust you to come up with a plan that has your men going in for your mother while I face my uncle. You know I’m right. You may not want to take me, but you know you have to. You know it.”

Her impassioned plea impressed the men gathered around Sam. They shifted restlessly, and he could see they battled the same dilemma he did. None of them wanted her in harm’s way. They didn’t want her anywhere near her uncle. But they also all knew she had a very valid point.

And it pissed him the fuck off.

“Christ.”

“I don’t like it,” Donovan said. “We can’t risk Sophie and her baby on the off chance we don’t get the job done.”

“I don’t like it either,” Garrett muttered. “But do we have a choice? Do we really want to take that risk? We can protect her, Sam. You know we can goddamn protect her. You don’t want her to go. I don’t want her to go. But do you really want to face Dad and tell him we didn’t do all we could to bring Mom back to him?”

“That’s a low blow,” Sam said fiercely.

Sophie’s small hand slid over his arm and she tugged, turning his attention back to her.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” she asked softly. “I brought this to your door, Sam. I brought it to your mother and father’s door. They didn’t get a choice. Let me do this. Let me save your mother like I couldn’t save mine. Do you think I could live with myself if I stayed here and she dies?”

Her courage astounded him. It humbled him. He felt wholly unworthy of her selflessness. And as much as he wanted to deny her, as much as he wanted to tie her down if necessary to keep her safe, he knew in his gut she was right. She was right and it made him so furious, so afraid for her that he wanted to break something.

He stared into her eyes and then closed his. His hands found hers and he hung on. God forgive him, but what was he supposed to do? How did you make a choice between keeping your woman safe or possibly causing the death of your mother?

Sophie moved against him. He opened his eyes just as she leaned up on tiptoe. She kissed him. A soft, gentle kiss that held a wealth of meaning. And support. It was the first time she’d made any overt gesture in front of the others.

“I have faith in you,” she whispered.

Her fingers squeezed his, and she rocked back on her feet. There was more trust in her gaze than he deserved. He just prayed he didn’t betray it.

Feeling empty, he turned to the others, but he kept a tight hold on one of Sophie’s hands.

“We rework the plan,” Sam said bleakly. “I’ll go in with Sophie. I want P.J. and Cole on sniper duty. As soon as the bastard shows himself to us, I want him taken out. Everyone else will surround and go in. This has to be precisely timed. There’s no room for mistakes.”

“We won’t fail,” Steele said. “We never have. We won’t start now.”

Sam pulled Sophie closer to him, needing in that moment to feel her warmth, to remind him of what was at stake. He slid his hand down her body to her belly, feeling for the reassuring kick of his daughter.

His daughter.

“This is your niece,” he said to his brothers. “Sophie’s having a girl.”

He needed them to know. Needed to make it personal, to make this as real to them as it was to him. Then they’d know what was at risk.

Donovan’s face split into a wide grin. He moved forward, swept Sophie into his arms and spun her around. Even Garrett smiled, and when Donovan set her down, Garrett reached for her hand.

She hesitated only for a split second before she went willingly into Garrett’s embrace. He hugged her close.

She seemed shocked by their gestures, and when Garrett let her go, she teetered a little, her eyes glazed.

“If she’s half as fierce as her mother, she’ll be a force of nature,” Garrett said in a gruff voice.

A wry smile curved her lips. “If you keep this up, I’ll get the idea you actually like me.”

“I regret that I ever gave you the idea I disliked you,” Garrett said, his eyes serious. “And maybe I did. I was wrong.”

She stared at Garrett in stunned disbelief. Sam smiled. Garrett admitting he was wrong was a sight to behold.

Sam held out his hand for Sophie to return to him. She came willingly, and he pulled her to his side.

“This has to go right,” he told the men surrounding him. “I can’t lose her.”

CHAPTER 27

WHILE Sam and his men entered the final planning stages, Sophie slept and Sam watched over her. He wasn’t entirely focused on the conversation and the intense strategy session because his gaze kept drifting to the small woman who held such a big part of him in her hands.

He hated that he couldn’t keep her here, safely tucked away from anything that could hurt her. He despised it. Before, KGI would have planned a ruthless extraction, gone in with precision, rescued the hostage, been in and out in an hour. Wiped their hands, moved on to the next job.

That had all gone to hell because this was his mother, and if Sophie was to be believed—and he did believe her—her uncle was a wild card. No one really knew how he’d react, because he’d never been tested. He’d never assumed any leadership in Alex Mouton’s organization.

That made him unpredictable, and they couldn’t afford to risk his mom’s life by assuming anything.

Goddamn but he hated this.

“P.J. and Cole will be on sniper duty,” Steele said in a low voice next to Sam.

Sam turned to his team leader and knew he’d been caught napping. He’d been staring down at Sophie, who was curled on the small couch in the family room, her face tense and drawn even in sleep.

It was all he could do not to run his fingers over her lips to ease the worry stress, but he didn’t want to disturb her. The next hours would be tense and she needed her rest.

“You and Sophie can make nice and meet Tomas for the trade, if the bastard will even show himself. The rest of us will stage around the house and go in. If Marlene is inside, we’ll get her out. If she’s with Tomas, P.J. or Cole will take Tomas out at the first opportunity.”

“He knows I won’t be coming in with Sophie alone. He can’t be that stupid. He’ll be expecting something. We have to give him something else entirely,” Sam said. “I won’t risk her. I want Garrett and Donovan with me. Protection for Sophie. If I front enough men with me and Sophie, the rest of you might come as a surprise.”

“And Ethan?”

Sam blew out his breath. He needed Ethan, but he didn’t want to involve him either. Hell of a note.

“Ethan comes with me. You and Rio will take your teams and take down everyone in your path. It needs to be clean and quiet. The longer it takes for Tomas to figure out you’re there, the better.”

The door to the room burst open and Ethan strode in, his hand curled tight around his wife’s hand. Baker and Renshaw flanked the couple and were armed to the teeth.

Sam went to meet his brother just as Donovan and Garrett broke away from the others as well.

“How is he?” Ethan asked hoarsely.

“He’s resting. He’ll be okay. I spoke to the doctor earlier.”

Sam’s gaze dropped to Rachel and he extended a hand. “Rachel, honey, how are you?”

To his surprise she walked into his arms and hugged him fiercely. He responded by enveloping her in a hug. She’d gotten better about expressing affection with him and the other family members, but this spontaneous outburst caught him off guard.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “You must be so worried.”

He dropped a kiss on the top of her head and relinquished her to Garrett, who stood impatiently to the side. Garrett and Rachel had always had a special bond, and next to Ethan, Rachel was the most open with Garrett.

“Tell me what the hell’s going on, Sam,” Ethan demanded. “The report I got was sketchy at best, and I still don’t understand what’s happening here.”

Sam caught Garrett’s eyes and nodded for him to take Rachel away. Garrett responded by wrapping an arm around her slender form and guiding her past Sophie and over to where Rusty sat.

As succinctly as possible, Sam gave Ethan the story from the top. The parts about him and Sophie were abbreviated, but his warning was crystal clear. His brother wasn’t to place blame on Sophie’s shoulders.

Ethan stared dumbly at the couch where Sophie lay sleeping. Then he dragged a hand over his short-cropped hair and shook his head in disbelief.

“I’m going with you,” he said firmly.

His stare was challenging, as if he expected Sam to shoot him down. But Sam nodded.

“I need you on this, Ethan. I’ve made arrangements for Rachel and Rusty to be cared for. Sean’s going to stay with them, and we have a veritable army around the hospital so they and Dad will be safe.”

Ethan lowered his voice. “I need to explain to Rachel. She doesn’t know what’s going on, just that Dad’s had a heart attack and there’s trouble.”

“Then go explain,” Sam said. “We leave in an hour.”

“SOPHIE, Sophie, honey, time to wake up.”

She heard the words, but they seemed so far away. Drowsily, she opened her eyes to see Sam sitting on the edge of the couch, his eyes full of misgivings.

“Are we leaving?”

She was proud of the way she kept the fear from her voice, how steady the words came out.

“Yeah, we need to go.”

She pushed herself to a sitting position and took quick stock of the room around her. There were faces she hadn’t seen before. A man who looked a lot like Garrett stood against the far wall, his arms sheltering a slender woman with brown hair. Two other men, heavily armed, stood with Steele. The man and woman must be Sam’s brother and sister-in-law.

“The key,” she said and stopped to clear the cracking from her voice. “Did they get the key?”

Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out a long cylindrical piece of metal.

“Is this it?” he asked as he turned it over in his palm.

It was an odd piece. It didn’t at all look like a traditional key. She could understand his skepticism.

She took it from him and ran a finger over the series of etchings on the outside.

“Yes. It’s specially engineered. It’s quite a piece of technology. On the outside, the etchings are the key part. Each groove fits into a corresponding groove in the keyhole. But it’s hollow, as you can see, and on the inside is an encrypted code that is scanned once the key fits the lock.