Ten minutes later My family was staring. And I was silently counting down the minutes until the until the perimeter breach.

I push my chair back slowly, trying not to look at the window again. My fingers graze the badge around my neck—the one that never sees daylight unless the situation is critical. And this, I realize, is about to be one of those situations.

Amelia narrows her eyes at me. “You’ve been living under an alias. Using forged documents. Posing as military. I have statements, dates, bank records—”

“Sit down,” I say softly.

“I don’t think so.”

“I’m not talking to you,” I reply.

Behind her, the man across the street pulls out an earpiece. He looks up directly at me through the window. We lock eyes for a moment too long.

I stand. “Grandma, get everyone to the basement. Now.”

Amelia steps in front of me, one hand on her gun, the other holding up her badge. “You’re not going anywhere.”

But she doesn’t see what I see—the second man slipping along the hedge, hand pressed to a thigh holster.

“You’re going to get them all killed,” I hiss, pushing past her and grabbing Grandma by the elbow. “Everyone downstairs. Now!”

It’s chaos. My aunt shrieks. My uncle tries to play mediator. Amelia draws her weapon and yells at me to freeze. But I don’t have time to explain—because right then, the front window shatters with the snap of suppressed gunfire.

Screams erupt. Glass rains down over the dinner table. I shove Grandma toward the kitchen, dragging her behind the island, flipping it over with one brutal push. Another shot hits the chandelier, sending crystals crashing like ice across the floor.

“Get down!” I roar, my voice cutting through the panic.

Amelia’s gun is out, but she’s frozen, blinking at the window like she’s trying to process a dream. I reach into my coat and pull out my sidearm—a Sig P226 I haven’t used in over a year. But muscle memory doesn’t fade. It fits my hand like it’s part of my body.

Two more gunmen breach the front door. I fire once, twice. One drops. The other ducks behind the frame.

“Captain Linwood,” a voice crackles in Amelia’s radio, “stand down. You are not in command here.”

She stares at the badge around my neck again, confusion giving way to something else—recognition. She’s starting to understand.

“What the hell is going on?” she yells.

“The house is compromised,” I bark. “Your chain of command has already been activated. Now help me get them out!”

Finally, she nods.

I yank open the pantry door, revealing a narrow wooden hatch in the floor. Grandma gasps. “You still remember.”

“I built it with Grandpa. Go.”

One by one, the family scrambles into the dark crawlspace beneath the house. Amelia covers them, finally showing the grit that made her chief. I stay behind, laying down suppressive fire until everyone’s in.

Then I hear it—the unmistakable thrum of rotor blades.

“They’re bringing in a bird,” I mutter.

“What?” Amelia asks.

But she doesn’t have time to finish before a black figure drops from the roof. I spin, elbow raised, and block the knife headed for my throat. The attacker grunts, twisting, agile as a viper. We grapple across the dining room table—shattered plates grinding under our boots—and then I get him in a chokehold, wrenching his arm back until he drops the blade.

Amelia cuffs him without hesitation.

“That’s one alive,” she says, breathless. “You want him questioned?”

I nod, my lungs burning. “Good girl.”

The lights go out.

“EMP?” she whispers.

“Likely.” My watch flickers, then dies.

Outside, two SUVs skid into the street. Unmarked. Reinforcements. But whose?

I hear boots on gravel. Then—finally—a knock on the back door. Three taps. One pause. Two taps.

“General?” a voice calls.

I exhale. “It’s mine.”

Amelia watches, mouth open, as a man in full black tactical gear enters, salutes me crisply, and says, “Perimeter secured. Two targets down. One captured.”

“Good,” I answer. “Clean the scene. Pull surveillance. We’re blacking this out.”

Amelia steps forward. “What are you?”

The operative glances at her, then back at me. “She needs to be briefed?”

“Need to know,” I say. Then I look at her. “Do you need to know?”

She swallows. “I need to know who I’ve been trying to arrest.”

I pull off my sweater, revealing the inner vest with its embedded patch—Department of Defense. But even that doesn’t say enough. So I unzip the hidden pocket and hand her the ID inside.

She reads it once. Twice. Her hand begins to shake.

“You’re… General Samantha Cole. Head of Special Strategic Operations.”

I nod.

“But you’re my sister.”

“I still am.”

She lowers the badge in her hand slowly. “I thought you abandoned us.”

“I couldn’t say goodbye. I couldn’t leave a trail. What I do… it doesn’t come with explanations.”

Her eyes brim with something fierce and broken. “You could’ve trusted me.”

“I couldn’t risk your life.”

Behind us, the medic team moves through the house like ghosts, already erasing signs of what happened. The attacker is zip-tied, gagged, and loaded into a van. Grandma is safe. My family is quiet. Watching. Processing.

I walk outside, into the cold night, Amelia trailing me.

“Why now?” she asks.

“Because someone breached our family. That file you read? I planted it.”

“What?”

“I needed to see who’d come after me. And how far they’d go. I didn’t think they’d dare use my family—but they did.”

“So I arrested you—because you let me.”

“I needed to confirm your chain of command wasn’t compromised. You passed.”

She huffs out a bitter laugh. “So it was a test.”

“No,” I say, meeting her eyes. “It was a war game. And you just found out you were on the front line.”

A pause.

“I’m not a little girl anymore, Sam. I can fight.”

I nod. “I know.”

“Then let me in. Really in.”

The request surprises me. The last thing I want is to pull her into my world. But I also know now that leaving her behind doesn’t protect her—it just makes her an easier target.

“We’ll debrief in D.C. tomorrow,” I say finally. “If you still want in after that… we’ll talk.”

A slow grin breaks across her face. “Are you telling me I passed your test, General?”

I smirk. “Barely.”

A black car pulls up. My ride. Amelia opens the door for me. As I step in, she places a hand on the roof and leans down.

“For what it’s worth,” she says quietly, “you’re not the only one who changed. I’ve got ten years of fire in me. And now that I know what’s out there… I want to fight.”

I nod once.

The door closes.

As we pull away, I see her standing in the porch light—shoulders squared, eyes sharp, the badge on her hip no longer the most powerful thing about her.

And for the first time in years, I don’t feel like I’m protecting her from the storm.

I feel like we’re going to face it together.