Thursday. Boston, United Kingdom.

Tanya stood at the open window, a gentle breeze stirring the curtains. Climbing down the trellis wouldn’t be terribly difficult. Her boots weren’t ideal, but they were serviceable. The problem was, she couldn’t account for security cameras or the team downstairs watching for signs of movement. It was more complicated than simply slipping away.

On her own, what did she hope to accomplish?

She swallowed.

If she were to calculate her odds, she’d give herself a one-in-fifty chance at survival. After forty-eight hours, her odds would decrease. Eventually, someone connected to Orlando would see her and report back. It would only be a matter of time until he found and killed her. She’d spent enough time in his presence to know that the only thing that mattered to Orlando now was amassing enough wealth and power to fuel his revenge.

There was also the risk of getting caught by The Patrol or other organizations like them. What she knew could bring Orlando’s operation down. He’d gotten lazy, letting her do a good deal of the day-to-day work for him.

She could always turn herself in to the authorities, but she’d have to survive long enough to do that. And there were many who were not yet aware of Orlando’s double-cross. Sorting it all out would take time.

As much as she hated using people, this team might be her best hope. Or at least Isaac was. He was so...honest and raw. She didn’t think that was an act.

Unlike The Patrol, Isaac and his team didn’t want anything from her. She was not a chit to be bargained with. They didn’t want to mine her for information. If she were to believe them, they weren’t precisely mercenaries. They were something else. An insurance plan, perhaps. But she couldn’t trust them, not with everything.

The stairs creaked, one after the other.

If she were leaving, it had to be now.

She braced her hands on the windowsill and inhaled the scent of damp earth.

Tanya swung the window shut and secured it. She adjusted the drapes and turned on the lamp.

Someone tapped on the bedroom door.

Despite expecting the sound, she still jolted, rocking forward on the balls of her feet.

“Tanya?”

They’d sent Isaac.

She felt a touch of guilt already. He’d seen her at her worst. His whole declaration of faith and promise to keep her safe had been made to her at the darkest moment she’d faced in a long time. She was better than that.

“Yes?” She walked across the small room and cracked the door open.

“There’s food downstairs.” He didn’t exactly smile at her, but his relaxed expression was friendly.

He didn’t say it was time for dinner. He was simply stating that food was available downstairs. If she requested to eat in her room, would he let her? Her gut said yes. Though her instinct was to hide, doing that wouldn’t help her in building any kind of rapport with them. If she was going to rely on them to keep her alive, they needed to see her as a person. Someone worthy of saving, and not just as Orlando’s errant girlfriend.

“Are you hungry?” Isaac gestured to the stairs.

Crap.

She’d been staring, mulling her thoughts over too slowly.

When was the last time she’d rested?

Tanya rubbed her face and yawned, buying herself another few moments.

A chance to socialize with them would allow her to assess them and maybe come up with a plan. She needed to stop thinking like the panicked, scared woman and more like what she was.

“Starving,” she muttered.

“Well, come on, then.” He nudged her door open, holding it for her.

She stepped out into the hall.

“Have a good rest?” Isaac gestured to the stairs.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Your accent, where are you from?”

“Here and there.” She smiled and shrugged.

Isaac didn’t press her for a more accurate answer. He let her go down the stairs first, into the main hall.

“Everyone is in the dining room to your right.”

Tanya followed the voices.

The other four members of the team were gathered round the ancient, formal table. Several tablets were propped up, showing infrared surveillance footage of the grounds, if she were to guess. Pans of pasta lined the middle like a buffet and the house china sat at the ready to receive the meal.

She slid into an empty chair at the end of the table, leaving Isaac to assume the seat at the head.

“Isaac, you want to go to Africa?” Felix asked.

“What?” Isaac paused with his hand on the chair.

“This trip Shane and his girlfriend are putting together for next year.” Felix flicked his hand at the big, guy with dark hair on the other side of the table.

“I wasn’t aware of a trip,” Isaac said.

“Nothing is for sure happening, but Lacey knows a park in South Africa that’s having problems with poachers during migration season. We’ve talked a little about their surveillance and we think that a strategic team onsite could help deter them. It’d be a volunteer thing, unpaid, but room and board would be free.” Shane picked up a pan and began handing them around.

“I’ll think about it,” Isaac said.

“What’s to think about?” Felix glanced at Isaac.

“Some of us have responsibilities, pretty boy.”

The men continued to banter, and let her be.

No one asked her about earlier or Orlando. They chatted about everyday life, but mostly, they pestered Shane about his girlfriend. Judging by the way the man’s face flushed, the relationship was still new. Isaac frowned every time someone mentioned Lacey’s name. Did he lose out on a lover? Was there bad blood between the men? And why did she not like the idea of this Lacey person with Isaac?

Bit by bit, the tension coiled tight in Tanya’s gut released, making room for more pasta. The food was good, the company entertaining. It was better than many a meal she’d shared with Orlando. Less chance of death or catching a stray bullet, that was for sure.

It was clear these men worked closely and often, very much the professionals at what they did.

Would they protect her if they knew the truth? Would they believe her? Or would she find herself in whatever came after the fire?

The simple truth was that she couldn’t risk telling anyone. It was too wild to believe. Like much of her life. Only she would find herself in a situation like this. Then again, it was her unique history that made her the ideal candidate for this job to begin with.

Felix bussed the table once they were done with a quick efficiency while the others moved on to their tasks, focusing on their tablets or moving off to other parts of the house.

“Want some coffee or tea?” Isaac asked.

“Yes, please.” Tanya might be tired enough to sleep for a week, but she didn’t have the luxury. She needed to think and make a decision about what she did next. There wasn’t time to rest.

“Both, or...?”

“I can get it myself, if you tell me where?”

“It’s in the kitchen. Come on.”

Isaac stood and pulled her chair out before she could wrangle the heavy, old thing on her own. Once more he escorted her, this time into the kitchen where Felix was filling the compact dishwasher. An electric kettle and a serving coffeepot sat on a shelf in the corner of the kitchen out of the way.

“Let me guess...” Isaac turned and studied her face. “You’re a...coffee girl?”

“It is one of my vices.” She smiled. “How’d you know?”

“You grew up in South America. It was a best guess.”

Tanya swallowed. If he knew that, did he know the rest? Her palms grew a touch sweaty and the skin between her shoulder blades prickled. Once someone went down this road, there were always questions.

Isaac went about his job, filling the coffee pot with fresh grounds and turned it on, oblivious to how that statement affected her. If he knew where she’d grown up, he likely knew the rest of the story. Or at least the version on record.

She glanced at Felix, nodding his head, the cord to his ear buds swaying back and forth, oblivious to their conversation.

Did they all know?

“Something wrong?” Isaac asked.

Shit.

Tanya swallowed.

She was not on her game at all anymore.

“No.” She pasted on a smile and aimed it at Isaac.

He stared at her, brow furrowed, the wheels in his head turning. There was no attempt to hide his study of her.

“Was it the mention of South America?” he asked.

“If you know that much about me, then you know why I might not like to remember where I grew up.” She leaned on the breakfast buffet adjacent the coffee and tea station, doing her best not to tense up. Did he really know?

“We do a background check on anyone we are sent to retrieve.”

“How does this work?” She gestured at him and Felix. Anything to get them to stop talking about her.

“What my team does? Or what our next move here is?”

“Your team.” She swallowed. They had a plan for her already?

“Let’s say a family is vacationing in Egypt. They do all the tourist things, they follow the rules, they’re safe. Except these two dumb ass twenty-year-old cousins. They wander off, get themselves kidnapped by a religious group with a cause. State Department tries, but can’t do anything. The family can’t or won’t pay the ransom, maybe there isn’t one. Someone refers them to us. We do our homework on the people who took the kids, the kids themselves, and anything else going on, then we go in with a tactical team and get them back. The goal is no injuries or fatalities, everyone goes home safe.”

“What if the boys did something? Like...carve their initials into a monument?”

“That’s where it gets tricky.” Isaac shrugged. “It’d be up to the Big Boss in that case.”

“What do you think he’d do?”

“If two stupid kids defaced a monument in Egypt?” Isaac scrubbed his hand across his jaw. “A few years ago he’d have told us to give them to police. Right now? I’m not so sure.”

“You aren’t just mercenaries, then.”

“We try not to be. Bottom line, we do a job for a fee. We just try to pick our jobs carefully and operate in tandem with law enforcement when and where possible.”

“Where do I fit on your sliding scale of morality?”

“Sugar, cream, anything?” Isaac pulled the pot from the machine and poured the dark brew into a waiting mug.

“No, thank you.” She pressed her hands to her sides, willing them to stop shaking. “Are you going to ignore my question?”

“What we do here is not my call to make.” One side of his mouth screwed up and he shrugged.

Tanya stared at the curtains over the breakfast nook doors.

The team had a plan, but they were still undecided about her. She couldn’t blame them for that. In their shoes, she’d be hard pressed to believe her own story. It was one of those cases where they had to be there to understand. She didn’t know how to make them see the truth without revealing everything. And that wasn’t an option. Not with what she knew. They were still mercenaries. How did she know they wouldn’t try to profit off what she knew?

Isaac took a step closer, the coffee in hand. She didn’t back down though she wanted to cower in the corner.

“Talk to me,” he whispered.

“About what?” She forced herself to smile and take the coffee.

Before Quade’s death, she could feign the girlfriend act for Orlando. She could have fooled this man. But Quade was dead, Rob wasn’t answering his phone, and she didn’t know what to do unless she called that one, last number. Nothing they’d gone over had covered this situation. There was no contingency plan for this scenario. She was lost and alone, something she hadn’t been for a very long time.

She could feel Isaac’s stare on her as she sipped his offering. The coffee was good, not great, but it would do. When she made it back upstairs she’d start a list and figure out her options. The clock was no doubt ticking down while she sat here sweating under the watch of this too perceptive man. Underestimating him was currently her greatest mistake.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“You’re a lot more attractive without the mask on,” she said.

“Thanks, but you aren’t going to distract me by talking about my good looks.”

“Couldn’t help myself.”

“Come on. Don’t feed me that bullshit.” Isaac cracked a smile and poured himself a cup of the coffee. “What are you really thinking about?”

Damn.

Now was not the time to be interested in a man. Maybe it was how she’d met him, when her guard was down, but she couldn’t help but feel like he believed her without the facts. Which would be stupid, and yet, her ability to evaluate people was one of the reasons why she was here in the first place.

If she were to dissect Isaac, the first thing she’d point out was his intelligence. He was smart, without lording it over people. His good humor never quit. He was easy on the eyes. A girl could find a lot of things to do with a guy like that. But she couldn’t keep her head screwed on straight as things were. Tangling with him, even for fun, was a bad idea.

“I’m wondering when you are going to tell me I have to come clean and tell you about Orlando’s secrets.”

“I’m not.” He shrugged. “That’s not my job, and unless it interferes with our ability to get you wherever you want to go, no one else will either. You’re entitled to your secrets.”

Tanya stared at him, unsure what to think.

Isaac edged closer until their bodies were almost touching.

“You can trust us,” he whispered. “We’re not just paid to be on your side in this, you know?”

She wasn’t so sure of that.

Isaac might want to save her, but in the end, she feared all she’d do was get them killed.

Friday. Boston, United Kingdom.

Every time Isaac closed his lids, her eyes were there. Staring at him. Begging him for help. Which was why Isaac was haunting the hallway instead of sleeping like a sane man.

He glanced at the clock creeping past five o’ clock. The sun was already bathing the world in light. Kyle would be plugged in for his powwow with the higher-ups. It was clear this gig was not straightforward, and they needed to know what the others had found out. Maybe one of them had uncovered the key to what was really going on with this woman.

There was always the risk that their background check hadn’t gone deep enough. It was impossible to uncover all of a person’s secrets with one. So the team back home would have to cast their nets a lot wider.

The shadows under Tanya’s door shifted.

She hadn’t slept and neither had he. He’d sat here, across the hall with his door open, attuned to her every movement since he’d given up on the idea of rest. If he could have thought of a reason to knock on her door he’d have done it already.

Isaac checked his watch. Kyle might be done his meeting by now. It wouldn’t hurt to find out what they’d decided and do something useful. Besides, once he had news, he could update Tanya and check out what she’d been up to all night.

That decision made, he stepped in a zigzag pattern across the floor, doing his best to miss the squeaky bits.

Almost all the light under Tanya’s door disappeared.

He paused in the middle of the hall, staring at the shadow.

She was right there. What was she doing? Was it a good idea to trust her? Where was this gig going?

He swayed toward the door, drawn by something other than good reason. Truth was, he’d looked into her eyes, and knowing what he did of her history and his own experience with Orlando, he wanted to help her. It wasn’t entirely rational, which likely meant he was thinking with his dick, but there it was. Tanya needed help, and damn it all, he wanted to help her.

Isaac tapped on the door, just the faintest of noises.

It opened immediately, Tanya peering up at him with one, dark eye.

He swallowed and internally shifted against the invisible pull drawing him closer to her. It hadn’t been there yesterday, but as they talked, through dinner and their conversation last night he’d become more than just invested in her wellbeing. He cared. Tanya was more than she appeared, but the flashes of fear were very real.

“Hey, just checking to see if everything’s okay. You want breakfast yet?” he asked.

“Coffee, please?”

“You can’t live on coffee.” He nudged the door open with his shoulder so he could at least get a proper look at her.

Tanya let the door drift open. She’d pulled her hair up into a messy bun, but otherwise was still dressed in the same sweater dress, leggings and boots from yesterday. The difference was behind her eyes. The fear was still there, almost like it was plaguing her.

Bits of paper littered the floor.

She pushed the door a few moments too late. It thumped against his shoulder without the needed weight to move him.

“What’s all this?” he asked.

“Nothing. Coffee, please?”

Isaac knelt and snagged a piece of paper. The script wasn’t anything he recognized. Some sort of Cyrillic alphabet. He turned the paper this way and that, trying to identify something about it.

“Taking notes?” He glanced up at her.

Tanya had the door closed, her hand braced against the wood. The way she stared at him now had tinges of panic in it. She didn’t want him to see even this much.

He picked up another piece and another.

She’d found a notepad somewhere and ripped it into bits. The scraps were arranged around the floor and on the furniture in some sort of pattern he didn’t comprehend.

Their secrets were still beyond his level of comprehension.

“What’s going on, Tanya? Talk to me.”

She turned to face the wall, her head bowed.

Isaac wasn’t the sort to get overly involved with a client. Sure, he might enjoy a roll between the sheets for the thrill of it, if they were all consenting, understanding adults about it, but he didn’t allow himself to care. Something about Tanya though, it’d hooked him. Her story, his own distrust of Orlando, the way they’d found her, how she was so clearly on the verge of panic. He knew he needed to help her, but how?

“Tell me, please?” He stood and took a step toward her.

“You wouldn’t understand,” she whispered over her shoulder.

“Try me.”

“It’s too...crazy to believe.” Her gaze wasn’t here, it was somewhere else. She was seeing something. Her mouth opened and her brow creased. She shook her head, her whole face twisting up into a mask of horror.

“Tanya? Hey, what is it? What’s wrong?” He cupped her shoulders, squeezing her gently. Was this a panic attack? Did he need to ground her to the here and now?

“I don’t know what to do.” Her whisper-voice broke.

“I’m here. Nothing’s going to happen to you.” He slid his arm around her waist, squeezing her a bit tighter.

“You won’t believe anything I say.” She turned her face away from him, her voice thick with emotion.

“Maybe I’ll surprise you?”

“What if I told you Orlando was a bad person?” she whispered.

Isaac swallowed.

“I’d tell you that was old news, cupcake.” Isaac jostled her a bit, wishing she’d look him in the eye.

Tanya lifted her head and frowned over her shoulder at him. Disbelief was written in the furrows of her brow. He could understand why. Orlando had a slick way about him, and what he knew was valuable enough people excused many wrongs. It didn’t make him good.

She stared at him and the world seemed to wobble, as if he were being weighed in the balance against whatever burden she was carrying. Would she let him in on the secret? He hoped so. Little by little, without a shred of evidence, he was coming over to her side on no other basis than his dislike of Orlando and that wasn’t smart. She just needed to give him one bit of proof.

“Do you know what it is he does?” she whispered.

“I can guess.” He’d heard enough of the rumors.

“What if I told you he was selling secrets now? That he wants to do everything he can to target the people who used to call him an ally?”

Isaac grimaced. Money caused so many of the problems his team was sent to fix. In the bigger picture he wasn’t surprised that someone like Orlando would shift his allegiances. But the prospect worried him on a couple levels. First, their boss had dispatched their team on the ground of Orlando’s previous contributions. After that it got more alarming.

“I’d say I wasn’t surprised, but I don’t see why that would matter to you, if you were just his girlfriend.”

Tanya turned. He let her go, but didn’t give her any more space.

“Why leave now? Why not before?”

“Because he’s a bad man.”

“And you didn’t know that when you got in bed with him? Figuratively speaking, of course. So what’s the deal? What are you really afraid of? Please, give me one good reason to believe you.”

“I don’t owe you any explanations.” Tanya recoiled. “I didn’t hire you. I didn’t ask for this.”

“No, you didn’t, but here we are.” Isaac planted his hand against the wall and leaned closer. “You don’t owe us anything, but what we decide to do from here on out depends on you. Now, for whatever fucked-up reason, I want to believe you. I want to trust you. But you have to give us something. So, either you trust us enough to be honest, or we decide what happens next. If I were in your shoes, I’d want to be in on that choice.”

Tanya flinched and glanced away.

She was unraveling.

He could see it in the cracks of her serene mask. The way her brow had furrowed. Even the teeth marks on her lower lip where she’d been biting it.

“Won’t you just toss me back to Orlando?” she asked.

“Haven’t you been listening? Didn’t you make a note of it?” He tossed the bits of paper still between his fingers on the ground. “We were paid to get you out of there safely. We’ve done that. Everything from here on out? It’s up to you. If your life is at risk, if you think he’ll hurt you, tell us.”

Tanya stared at him, her lips pressed tightly together. No secrets were coming out of that mouth. Not right now.