CHAPTER 153
LUCAS'S POV
The secure facility turned out to be a converted monastery in the Swiss Alps, complete with stone walls that had stood for eight hundred years and modern security systems that could detect a sparrow landing in the wrong tree. As safe houses went, it was impressive. As prisons went, it was luxurious.
But as I watched Skylar pace the length of our assigned quarters for the hundredth time in three days, I knew that luxury meant nothing to someone who'd built her identity around protecting others.
"The Italian operation is falling apart," she said, reading from her tablet while walking back and forth across the stone floor. "Without proper coordination, the Albanian traffickers are moving their operations to Romania, where they'll be even harder to track."
"The Italian authorities can handle it," Harry said from his position by the window, where he'd been monitoring the security perimeter since we'd arrived. "They've got our intelligence files and recommendations."
"Intelligence files aren't the same as active coordination. There are nuances to these operations that you can't convey in a briefing document."
"Skylar," Jax called from the bed where he was reviewing our new security protocols, "you're going to wear a groove in that floor if you keep pacing like that."
"I'm not pacing. I'm thinking."
"You're driving yourself crazy, which means you're driving all of us crazy too."
I closed my laptop and moved to intercept her on her next pass across the room. When she tried to step around me, I gently caught her shoulders, feeling the tension radiating through her entire body.
"Talk to me," I said softly. "What's really bothering you?"
"What's bothering me is that we're hiding in a monastery while trafficking networks reorganize and adapt to fill the vacuum we created. Every day we spend here is another day children suffer because we're too scared to do our jobs."
"We're not scared. We're being responsible. There's a difference."
"Is there? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like we let them win the moment we agreed to go into hiding."
I could see the frustration and guilt warring in her expression, the same conflict that had driven her to make dangerous choices in the past. But this time, the stakes included not just her life, but the life of our unborn daughter.
"You want to know what I think?" I said, guiding her to sit beside me on the ancient stone bench beneath the window.
"Always."
"I think you're struggling with the fact that being pregnant means you can't be the person who charges into danger to save everyone. And that scares you more than any trafficking network ever could."
She was quiet for a moment, her hand moving instinctively to her rounded stomach. At seven months pregnant, her body was changing in ways that made high-stress operations not just dangerous, but impossible.
"I've never been the person who stays safe while others fight," she said finally. "I don't know how to be that person."
"You don't have to be that person forever. Just for a few more months, until our daughter is born and you've recovered enough to return to active duty."
"What if the world gets worse while I'm sitting on the sidelines? What if trafficking networks use this time to rebuild stronger than before?"
Harry turned away from the window, his expression serious. "Then we deal with it when you're ready to deal with it. The world survived before you started hunting traffickers, and it'll survive a few months without you."
"But will the children who are being hurt right now survive?"
The question hung in the air like a physical presence, heavy with the weight of lives we couldn't save from our current position. I could see all of us wrestling with the same impossible equation - how many innocent people was our unborn child's safety worth?
"There's something else," Skylar said quietly. "Something I haven't told you."
"What?" Jax asked, immediately alert.
"I've been having dreams. Nightmares, really. About our daughter growing up in a world where trafficking networks have become so powerful that no one can stop them. Where she has to live with the knowledge that her parents could have made a difference but chose safety instead."
"That's not what we're doing," I said firmly.
"Isn't it? We're literally hiding in a fortress while criminals reorganize and expand their operations."
"We're protecting our family while other people handle the immediate threats. That's called having priorities."
Before she could respond, an alarm started blaring through the facility's speaker system. Red lights flashed along the corridors, and we could hear the sound of running feet and shouted orders echoing off the ancient stone walls.
Harry was already moving toward our weapons cache, his protective instincts taking over immediately. "That's the perimeter breach alarm."
"How is that possible?" Jax asked, pulling up the facility's security feeds on his tablet. "This place is supposed to be impregnable."
I moved to the window and looked out at the mountain landscape, searching for any sign of approaching threats. What I saw made my blood run cold.
"They're not coming up the mountain," I said. "They're already here."
Through the bulletproof glass, I could see figures in tactical gear moving with professional precision through the monastery's courtyards. Not the stumbling advance of amateur criminals, but the coordinated assault of military-trained professionals.
"How many?" Harry asked, checking his rifle.
"At least twelve that I can see. Probably more in positions we can't observe."
"Professional grade equipment, sophisticated approach vectors," Jax added, studying the security feeds. "These aren't street-level traffickers looking for revenge. This is a military-style extraction operation."
Skylar was already moving toward the weapons locker, her pregnancy making her movements awkward but not slowing her determination. "They didn't come here to kill us."
"What makes you say that?" I asked.
"Because if they wanted us dead, they would have blown the building instead of staging a complex infiltration. They want to take us alive."
"Which means they want to use us for something," Harry concluded grimly.
The facility's intercom crackled to life with an unfamiliar voice. "Ms. Mitchell, this is Colonel Viktor Kozlov, formerly of Spetsnaz, currently employed by people who have a vested interest in your continued cooperation with certain business enterprises."
"Never heard of him," Skylar said, but I could see recognition flicker in her eyes.
"You have five minutes to surrender yourself and your associates before we begin eliminating facility personnel to demonstrate our seriousness. Your choice."
Through the window, I could see more tactical teams taking positions around the building. We were outnumbered at least four to one by professionals who had obviously planned this operation meticulously.
But as I looked at Skylar's face, I realized that being trapped and outnumbered was exactly the kind of situation that brought out the most dangerous aspects of her personality.
"What are you thinking?" I asked, though I was afraid I already knew.
"I'm thinking that if they want me alive, that gives us an advantage they probably haven't considered."
"Skylar, no. Whatever you're planning, no."
"I'm not planning anything suicidal. I'm planning something tactical."
She moved to the weapons locker and began selecting equipment with the kind of focused intensity that meant she'd already decided on a course of action.
"The baby," Jax said desperately. "Think about our daughter."
"I am thinking about her," Skylar replied, checking the action on a submachine gun despite her advanced pregnancy. "I'm thinking that I'd rather she grow up knowing her parents fought for what was right than knowing they surrendered to monsters."
As she began outlining a plan that was equal parts brilliant and terrifying, I realized that motherhood hadn't made her more cautious.
It had made her more dangerous than ever.
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