I stood on a luxury beach with my scars exposed while my family laughed, until an Admiral crossed the sand and saluted me.

The audio feed crackled in our ears. Clear as a bell. I sat in the back of the van, my hands clenched into fists so tight my nails dug into my palms, watching Chloe on the monitor. She sat down on the opposite end of the couch from Voss, crossing her legs, her posture perfect. Just like we’d practiced. Scared. Vulnerable. Dumb.

“I don’t know what to do, Admiral,” she said, her voice trembling exactly the right amount. “Harper came home the other night. She was… she was different. Scary. She was talking about Somalia. About men dying. About a bomb. She said if I told anyone, people would get hurt. I’m so scared. Is she… is she in trouble?”

Voss leaned forward. His eyes gleamed. He set down his champagne glass.

“Your sister is in very serious trouble, Chloe,” he said, his voice low and soothing. The voice of a man who’d spent his whole career lying to people. “She’s been mixed up with some very dangerous people. Men who want to hurt this country. Men who want to hurt your father. I’ve been trying to stop them for years. But Harper… she’s been helping them. Ever since Somalia.”

He paused. Let that sink in.

“Your sister didn’t ‘disappear’ because she was a hero, Chloe. She disappeared because she betrayed her team. Sold them out to Raza Karim for money. That’s why she’s got those scars on her back. Karim’s men did that to her when she tried to cheat him out of her share. She’s a traitor, Chloe. A dangerous, lying traitor. And she’s gonna get a lot of people killed unless we stop her.”

On the monitor, Chloe’s eyes went wide. Perfect. She leaned forward, like she was hanging on every word.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “I… I knew it. I always knew there was something wrong with her. What… what do you want me to do? I’ll do anything. I don’t want Dad to get hurt. I don’t want to get hurt.”

Voss smiled. Reached across the couch. Put his hand on her knee. Chloe didn’t flinch. Didn’t pull away. Just stared at him with those big, innocent blue eyes.

“That’s my girl,” Voss purred. “All you have to do is tell me everything she says. Everything she does. Every meeting she goes to. Every person she talks to. And when the time is right… I’ll take care of her. Permanently. You’ll be the hero. The only Sterling daughter. Your father will be so proud. And I’ll make sure you get a promotion. Captain. Maybe even Admiral, one day. All you have to do… is be a good girl for me.”

His hand slid higher up her thigh.

In the van, Jake had to physically hold me back. I was already halfway out the door, my gun in my hand, ready to storm the building and tear Voss’s throat out with my bare hands.

“Wait, Harper,” Jake hissed in my ear. “We don’t have the confession yet. Wait.”

I forced myself to sit back down. My whole body was shaking with rage.

Chloe laughed. A soft, breathy little sound. Just like we’d practiced. She leaned even closer to Voss. Put her hand on his chest.

“Really?” she said, all wide-eyed innocence. “You’d do that for me? You’d make me a captain? What else would you do for me? Tell me. I want to hear all the things you’ve done. All the big things. Like Somalia. Tell me about Somalia. How did you know Harper was a traitor?”

Voss’s ego did exactly what we knew it would.

He preened. Sat back. Puffed out his chest. Took a sip of his champagne.

“Somalia?” he said, chuckling. “Oh, my dear, I arranged Somalia. That was my operation. I sold Karim the intel on the team. The route. The frequency. Four million dollars. Enough to pay for this little lifestyle of mine. I planned for all of them to die. Your sister included. Imagine my surprise when she showed up alive six months later. Working at a bar. Hiding like the coward she is. I’ve been waiting five years for her to make a move. And now that she has… I’m gonna finish what I started.”

He leaned in again. His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper.

“In seven days, a very special package is gonna arrive at the Port of Los Angeles. A little gift from Karim to the Navy. And when it goes off at the graduation… Harper Sterling is gonna take the blame. Everyone will think the disgraced SEAL got her revenge. I’ll be the hero who ‘tried’ to stop her. I’ll get my third star. Maybe even run for office. And you, my dear… you’ll be right by my side. If you’re good.”

Got him.

I didn’t wait another second.

“GO GO GO!” I yelled into the comms.

The breach team hit the suite door like a battering ram. BOOM. The lock shattered. Ten operators poured into the room, guns raised, shouting orders. Voss jumped up, his face white with shock, reaching for the gun in his waistband—but Chloe was faster.

She’d been waiting for this moment.

She drove her knee up into his groin as hard as she could. Hard. Voss made a high-pitched, gurgling sound and doubled over, his eyes bulging. Chloe grabbed the champagne bottle off the table and smashed it over his head. Glass went everywhere. Voss collapsed to the carpet, out cold.

Chloe stood over him. Breathing hard. Her dress was askew, her hair messy, her knuckles white. She looked at the camera. And she winked.

“Told you I was good,” she said over the comms.

By the time we got up to the suite, Voss was in cuffs, a bag over his head, being led out by the MPs. Thorne was there, his face like thunder, going through Voss’s phone and laptop. The files were everywhere. Emails. Texts. Bank records. The entire operation laid out in black and white. The warhead. The port. The plan to frame me. Everything.

“He sang like a canary the second he woke up in the interrogation room,” Thorne told us an hour later, back at the safe house. “Confessed to everything. Mogadishu. The embezzlement. The warhead. Karim’s exact location in Dubai. We’ve got enough to put him in Leavenworth for the rest of his life. And enough to take Karim down permanently.”

He slid a piece of paper across the table to me. The official operations order. Signed by the SECDEF himself.

“Operation Final Strike,” Thorne said. “It’s a go. Zero dark thirty, September 27th. We hit the Port of LA the second the MSC Geneva docks. Simultaneously, DEVGRU hits Karim’s compound in Dubai. We take the warhead. We take Karim. We end this. Tonight, you brief the President.”