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PROLOGUE

QUICKSAND That hat you called a mission that went from bad to worse with every maneuver you made

Sergeant Bobby Evans sat inside a C-130 Hercules awaiting takeoff from the US aircraft carrier Vincent with four of the twelve soldiers in his Special Ops tea crazy things like today’s HALO, a high-altitude low-opening jump from thirty thousand feet The mission was to extract the ten-year-old son of the newly elected American ally, Iraqi president Aban Kaleb Sadr, from Al Qaeda hostiles

Free-falling at high altitudes came with risks, from unconsciousness to frostbite, but was necessary to stay off eneive even veterans like the Aces a sense of quicksand, he supposed But in seven years of Special Ops duty, and more than his share of HALOs, Bobby had seen quicksand only three times while a mission played out—and every one of those three tihtmares about the rest of his life

Sitting next to Bobby, Mike Reynolds, the youngest of the Aces at twenty-eight, pulled out a picture of his fiancée, Jennifer, frooing to watch out for your sorry Texan asses,” he scoffed, referring to the roots that Bobby shared with Caleb Martin and “Cowboy” Ryan Walker, the two other Aces along for this ride with theood New York pizza and a hot woman Adios muchachos”

Both Bobby and Mike were up for reenlistned, sealed and delivered his new contract But Mike, lovesick puppy that he was, had already opted out He was gone in teeks and none of the Aces were couy like a blood brother—because they did The Aces were tight Family without the ancestry But ever since Mike hadwith the wrong head in control

And Bobby understood He used to have his own Jennifer back hout in knots The irony of the shared name didn’t sit ith Bobby one bit Not when his Jennifer had been, and alould be, the love of his life The woo The fact that aold feelings only brought that fact closer to light He’d never stopped checking on his old fla her up-close and personal, facing what he’d left behind, wasn’t going to be easy

“Put the flipping picture away and focus,” Bobby said sourly, that quicksand feeling sliding fro to cli”

Caleb sat beside Ryan, directly across froainst the wall, eyes shut “I’d rather jump without a chute than be led around byhis head and casting Mike a da, icy-blue look

“You’re a dick,” Mike gru the picture back in his jacket

“A happy-to-reenlist-and-be-single dick, at that,” Caleb agreed

The engine roared to life, and Bobby flipped his headset on The heavy thruines filled the next twentyInstantly all thetheir equipen masks they’d wear for their jump

Ryan, Bobby’s closest friend, et ‘crazy,’ Aces” His gaze shifted to Mike, as he added, “Soon you can be pussy-whipped all day and all night, and nobody but your woive you a hard time”

Laughter erupted in Bobby’s ears, but there was a subtle tension lacing the air, and Bobby and Ryan shared a look He felt the quicksand, too

At the five-minute buzzer, all masks were in place and the doors slid open Headsets were turned off This would be a silent juhosts, off radar, nonexistent to even their own govern as a wicked wind screaainst the hit with a concrete slab

The jump conditions were far from favorable, but neither were the Iraqi boy’s chances of ht At the one-en tanks and chutes in preparation for a jump that would end in a low chute pull that left no ti

At exactly 0100, with the night as their cover, and a few mountainsides in view, Caleb saluted and exited the plane in a headfirst free fall Ryan followed As Mike started forward, Bobby shackled the younger Ace’s ar He didn’t know Bobby checked his chute Then pointed to Mike’s chest and then his own before twisting two fingers together, telling him silently he would have his back