“You’re asking the wrong questions.”
Click.
Dead line.
Connor looked alarmed.
“Who was that?”
Before I could answer, Colonel Harris approached rapidly across the dock.
His face looked worse than before.
“We have a problem.”
“That seems to be the theme today.”
“No sarcasm, Captain. Listen carefully.”
Something in his voice chilled me instantly.
“The dead contractor in the sedan wasn’t supposed to contact your family.”
“What does that mean?”
Harris lowered his voice.
“He went rogue.”
“Rogue from who?”
Harris hesitated.
Then finally said the words.
“An off-book intelligence network operating inside multiple federal agencies.”
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“I wish it was.”
Connor stepped forward carefully.
“You’re saying someone inside the government stole military cargo?”
“Yes.”
“And framed Savannah?”
“Potentially.”
My chest tightened painfully.
“What was the cargo?”
Harris looked directly at me.
“That’s classified.”
“Stop saying that!” I snapped. “People are dead. My family is involved. Someone used my identity to steal a military aircraft!”
Harris remained silent for several seconds.
Then finally:
“It was a weapons guidance system.”
The world tilted slightly.
Not paperwork.
Not intelligence files.
Weapons.
Connor looked horrified.
“Jesus Christ.”
Harris continued quietly.
“The technology was developed jointly with private defense contractors. If it reaches the wrong buyers…”
He didn’t finish.
He didn’t need to.
Then another realization hit me.
“My father.”
Harris nodded grimly.
“We believe he previously worked with several individuals connected to the operation.”
Suddenly my childhood made horrifying sense.
Dad’s unexplained absences.
Large amounts of money appearing suddenly.
His paranoia.
The locked office nobody could enter.
Even his obsession with control.
Because secrets ruled everything in our house.
Then my phone buzzed again.
This time a text.
No number attached.
Just an image.
The moment I opened it, my blood froze solid.
Connor saw my face immediately.
“What?”
I turned the phone toward him slowly.
The photo showed the inside of my hotel suite.
Taken seconds earlier.
And sitting on the bed—
Was my missing wedding dress.
Perfectly untouched.
Beneath the image were six simple words:
YOU CHOSE THE WRONG UNIFORM.
That night, I couldn’t stop shaking.
Federal agents relocated Connor and me to a secured hotel outside Austin while they searched my parents’ house.
The official explanation given to guests was “an active military investigation.”
By sunset, social media had already turned my wedding into a national spectacle.
The Bride in Uniform.
Missing military cargo.
Federal agents crashing a ceremony.
Conspiracy theories exploded online within hours.
But none of that mattered anymore.
Because somebody was watching me.
Inside the hotel suite, Connor paced near the window.
“They got inside your room.”
“Yes.”
“That means they know exactly where we are.”
“Yes.”
His voice tightened.
“Savannah, these people are dangerous.”
“I know.”
He stopped pacing then.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
I hesitated.
Because there was one memory I still hadn’t shared with anyone.
Not Harris.
Not investigators.
Not even Connor.
Three months earlier, during a classified transport briefing at Lackland…
I accidentally overheard two senior officers arguing.
One of them used the term “Nightfall.”
The exact same word printed on the flash drive recovered from the dead contractor.
At the time, it meant nothing.
Now it terrified me.
Connor studied me carefully.
“You know something.”
Before I could answer—
Three sharp knocks hit the hotel door.
We both froze instantly.
Connor reached for the lamp beside the bed like a weapon.
Another knock.
Then a woman’s voice.
“Captain Reed? Federal Protective Service.”
I moved cautiously toward the door.
“Identification.”
A badge slid beneath the gap.
Looked legitimate.
But something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
Then my phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
One new message:
DON’T OPEN THE DOOR.
My pulse exploded.
Connor saw my face immediately.
“What is it?”
The woman outside knocked harder now.
“Captain Reed, we need to relocate you immediately.”
I backed away from the door slowly.
And then—
The hotel lights suddenly went out.
Complete darkness swallowed the room.
Outside the hallway, screaming erupted.
Then gunshots.
Connor grabbed my hand instantly.
And somewhere in the darkness outside our suite…
A man began trying to force the door open.
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