The Divorced Military Queen Awakens (by Sadie Baxter) novel Chapter 469

Chapter 469 Command In The Shadows

Chapter 469 Command In The Shadows

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Quinn stepped closer, her boots whispering across the polished floor. She rested a reassuring hand on Fabian’s tense shoulder. “Help me secure operational command, and I swear you walk away clean. Julius will not fault you afterward.”

Behind her, Gavin let out a sardonic laugh, shoulders loose, as though the room carried no danger at all. “Fabian, what’s left to debate? I’m still breathing, aren’t I? Offend Julius or offend Quinn–think hard, which curse lands heavier?”

Fabian’s gaze churned with hesitation, then settled into resigned stillness. The fight drained from him as quietly as air slipping from a punctured tire.

Gavin had struck the raw nerve. Crossing Julius was survivable if Quinn interceded; crossing Quinn meant Julius would kill him first and ask no questions.

Besides, once Julius woke, Fabian reasoned, his anger would surely fall on Gavin before it ever reached himself.

After all, the sedative Quinn had used on Julius had come straight from Gavin.

Resolution finally settled in his chest like a stone at the bottom of a pond. “All right. I’ll help you take command.”

With Julius unconscious, Fabian alone possessed the full picture–personnel rosters, tactical diagrams, contingency codes.

In the chain of command, he sat just one notch below the master himself.

There was a reason Julius trusted Fabian to escort Quinn onto the jet; that trust now became the lever Quinn needed.

If Fabian cooperated, securing her control over the mission would be a formality.

He pulled a slim handset from his jacket, tapped through encrypted menus, and opened every access gate he owned.

“Quinn, you now hold clearance second only to Mr. Whitethorn. Any order you issue will move every operative in this mission.” He extended the phone, palm open, as though presenting a crown.

Quinn accepted the device, her eyes skating over the operation plan like a general surveying the battlefield in miniature.

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Chapter 469 Command In The Shadows

She already possessed a strategy of her own–a strategy that dovetailed neatly with the Wamework Julius had drafted.

After all, they shared a single goal: capture Joaquin.

零国

Satisfied, she snapped the phone shut, its click sharp as a trigger pull. “Let’s go. Gavin, you stay here and guard Julius.”

Fabian’s voice cracked through the corridor, halting her mid–step. “Wait! If you want Mr. Whitethorn fighting beside you, why not let him wake first?”

Quinn half–turned, calm eyes reflecting fluorescent light. “By the time he wakes, some windows may already have slammed shut. Besides, he’ll insist on protecting me his own way. Convincing him would burn precious minutes, and there’s a chance I never could. This, right now, is the only plan that fits.”

Concern tightened Fabian’s brow. “What if, before Mr. Whitethorn reaches you, you’ve already confronted his father? Joaquin Whitethorn is ruthless. What if he decides to kill you on the spot–what then?”

Quinn answered without the faintest tremor. “Then I kill him first. If Joaquin must die, better by my hand.”

“What?” Fabian’s eyes widened, stunned by her cold certainty.

A faint, almost pitying smile brushed Quinn’s lips. “Surprised? Remember my old job. When an enemy forces a fight to the death, you take the shot. Fabian, mercy was never part of my training.”

The reminder hit Fabian hard. Quinn had once commanded the Falcon Special Forces, a soldier forged for lightning strikes and impossible rescues. She had run black–ops missions, endured drills that broke lesser people. Waiting meekly had never been written into her DNA.

Fabian realized his earlier illusion–mistaking her kindness for softness–had been naïve. When a woman like that struck back, it would be one decisive, lethal blow. He swallowed, tasting iron on his tongue.

Fabian straightened his back, the fluorescent lights of the private ward glinting off the buttons of his suit. With a deep breath that sounded like the loading of a chamber, he said, “All right. From this moment on, I’m at your disposal for tonight’s operation–no reservations, no half-

measures.”

In the echo that followed his pledge, Fabian finally grasped why Julius–so guarded, so mercilessly self–reliant–had fallen for a woman like Quinn.

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