Friday. Berlin, Germany.

Orlando tapped his fingers on the desk.

“I understand technical difficulties, but this is getting a little ridiculous, don’t you think?” He glanced at the chair sitting in the pool of sunlight.

Some days, he could almost picture Elda sitting there. Hear her laugh. Today was one of them. Her words tickled his ears, but there was no sounds, other than the street traffic outside or Edwin in the next room.

The young man was doing his damnedest to step into Tanya’s shoes, but she’d made handling his life look effortless.

“I miss her when I’m not hating her, the bitch.” He sighed. “Four fucking hours, yesterday. Four. She’d have handled it while I was out or sleeping. Edwin’s a God damn moron when it comes to technology, and don’t say I’m being mean. He knows it.”

Orlando turned to stare out the window.

He should have had a quick conference call with the UK team, but their drawn-out technical issues were beginning to seem contrived.

“It’s like they’re trying to not speak to me,” he muttered.

He’d suggested a simple, damn phone call and their tech person kept insisting video proof was their standard. At what point were they delivering a service, versus giving him the run around? What were they hiding? Had Tanya bargained with them?

No, she couldn’t. He’d emptied her spending accounts the moment he realized she’d left.

It was disturbing to realize that the woman who’d become his every-waking-moment companion was not the person he’d believed her to be. Tanya had always seemed a bit vapid, but she was quiet and attuned to his needs to the point she made another assistant worthless. She knew him inside and out, and he’d never truly scratched her surface. He’d simply assumed that after an upbringing such as hers, she’d be malleable. His mistake.

The wobbling telephone icon flickered, and the fuzzy image of two men’s faces filled the screen.

“Finally. Let’s see what bullshit answer they have for me, hm?” He leaned forward. He recognized the men, but didn’t know their names.

“Sorry, it’s been near impossible to connect.” The man in the background leaned forward. The patch on his shoulder designated him the Team Leader.

“Did you recover our person?” Orlando didn’t give two flips about what their issues were. He only wanted results.

“What was that? I didn’t hear what you said?” The man tipped his head toward the screen, cupping his hear.

“Tanya. Did you find her?” Orlando said slowly. He didn’t want to use her name, but he also didn’t want to resort to charades.

“You’re breaking up.”

The other man on the screen frowned and jabbed at the keyboard.

Orlando sighed and rolled his eyes.

Either they were being truthful, or he was being given the runaround.

At some point, Tanya would use what she knew against him. That was how these things worked. The question was, who did this team work for now?

The office door opened and Edwin—a young, nervous man—stepped through.

Shit.

Orlando had wasted his whole morning.

Did he continue to expend time on Tanya, who might be a threat?

Or did he move forward with his plans?

If she hadn’t used the intel all ready, he still had a window of opportunity. It was a risky thing to bank on without some guarantee.

His resources in the UK were limited. It was a small tract of land, with too many vying to control it, so he’d left it for the mainland. While not usually a problem, it left him at the mercy of this damn team.

“I’m going to have to call you back.” Orlando hit the End Call button.

Time to move forward.

He could spin this. There was a way.

“Show them in.” He flicked his fingers at the new assistant.

“One thing, sir. Robert called for you?”

“Later.”

If that were still Tanya, he wouldn’t have to speak.

He’d need to tap his Interpol contact, Robert, to handle her if this team didn’t deliver her. There were things in motion she could interfere with, and his plans were on the roll. Bob was highly motivated. Oh, the things he’d do to protect his wife.

Orlando pasted a pleasant smile on his face.

Three men were escorted into the office. One was a translator and unimportant. The other two were the men holding the purse strings.

“Afternoon, gentleman.”

The translator spoke his German in Arabic.

They covered the pleasantries and sat with the desk between them.

“So, what do you have to offer me?” Orlando leaned back in his seat.

Tanya was going to cost him a tidy sum. His intent to sell to the highest bidder was no longer viable. This group was too obvious, and if Tanya was who he thought she was, he’d have to think outside the box. This could be fun. It’d been ages since he’d had fun. Hell, he might even thank her when this was all over.

Friday. Boston, United Kingdom.

Tanya sat on the stair, the wood biting into her thighs.

Orlando knew the team had her.

If he didn’t, he could guess that they did. All he’d have to do was think about creative methods for tracking her. First thing she’d do would be to search rental properties in a twenty-mile radius, look for places that had walls, security or a decent line of sight. This estate was perfect.

He had ways, he just hadn’t thought to use them yet. Maybe she didn’t matter that much, which would be truly concerning. Regardless, she didn’t have a lot of faith in her chances of survival alone.

Her head was foggy from lack of sleep and her nerves strung tight.

She’d allowed herself to grow confident in her role of Orlando’s girlfriend. That was her first mistake, and the one that could have cost her life. Everyone around Orlando was at risk, either from him or his enemies. Maybe even his allies. He’d burned a lot of bridges. Which was why she should have seen it coming.

Quade hadn’t.

Not until the moment Orlando pointed the gun at him.

Tanya flinched at the memory and squeezed her eyes shut.

Footsteps thumped on the floor.

It was him.

She knew it was him.

It was always him.

She’d had the briefest of plans to use him last night. What a laugh. Isaac was the one who’d burrowed under her skin, past her defenses, to strike at her heart before she’d even found her balance. He didn’t think Orlando was honest, he suspected the truth. She could tell him and he’d probably believe some of her story, but what could he do with it?

The weakness, her urge to share with him, it was her failure to shoulder the burden alone. That was all. This pseudo connection she imagined with him wasn’t real. She was a desperate woman grasping for shreds of hope, and there he was. This bright, shining beacon.

“Tanya?” Isaac said softly.

The stairs squeaked under Isaac’s weight.

Tanya wasn’t cut out for this. She’d thought she was, but she wasn’t. Six months of training wasn’t enough. The body count if she failed...

“Tanya? Tanya, look at me, cupcake.” Isaac cupped her face, gently lifting it from her arms.

She sucked down breath after breath, unable to get enough oxygen in her lungs.

“You’re safe. You know where you are?” he asked.

Of course she knew.

“Answer me, cupcake. Come on. You can do it.”

“Boston. We’re still in Boston,” she said between gasps.

“Good. Okay. Breathe with me. In.”

This was stupid.

People’s lives were at risk, and he wanted to do a breathing exercise?

“You’ve got to breathe with me, Tanya. Come on, or you’ll pass out. In.” Isaac sucked down a deep breath, his chest rising.

Fine.

She inhaled along with him.

“Now out.” He stroked her temples and stared into her eyes. There was something calming about a steady gaze like that. And he did have the most beautiful, stormy blue-gray eyes she’d ever seen. “No, no gasping. You breathe with me. In... And out. That a girl.”

Her head felt as though a hundred crickets were buzzing around. It was better than the screaming tension halting her thoughts.

“What’s got you so worked up?” Isaac perched on the step next to her, one hand on her back.

“Orlando knows I’m here.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because you put him off too long.”

“It took a while to create that much static, you know?”

“He’s paranoid. He’ll see a delay that long as a tactic.”

“It was.”

“Do you want him to know that?”

“I thought you were just his girlfriend, and now you’re talking tactics?” Isaac stroked her back, but he couldn’t touch the chill inside of her.

No matter what she did, she was fucked. She should tell Isaac and the others to run, get as far from her as they could, because soon Orlando would throw something at her they couldn’t deflect. Everyone around her would die.

If she kept the truth locked down tight, they’d make a mistake and get her killed, Orlando would kill them, or she’d be arrested.

If she told them the truth, even a part of it, she’d have to convince them. It would take time, and even then it might not accomplish anything. If she couldn’t get in touch with Rob, she had to do something else. She had to warn someone.

Isaac continued to stroke her back, a silent, comforting presence. He was wearing her down and she knew it. She needed to trust someone, and he was making himself the most logical option. They were all pieces on a chessboard.

“Why do you call me cupcake?” she asked.

“I don’t know. It just popped out.”

“No, it didn’t. You’re choosing to be nice to me. To comfort me. Were you assigned to me? Is that why the others hardly speak to me?” She turned to watch his face, lot of good it did for her.

“With some assets, it’s easier if they have a...person on the team they can lean on. Talk to.” Isaac reclined back on the stairs, as though he were perfectly comfortable here.

“And you were assigned as my person?”

“Not in the beginning, but...I don’t trust Orlando. I’m the only one on our team who has met him before, and I use that in the most general of terms. He probably doesn’t know my face, but I was around him for long enough to get a feel for him.”

Tanya wasn’t sure she could trust her gut anymore. It hadn’t told her Orlando was onto her, and it wasn’t screaming warnings at her right now. In fact, she was fighting the urge to lay her head on Isaac’s shoulder and trust him completely.

“You click with a lot of your assets, don’t you?” She could see his appeal, that charisma about him that made Isaac easy to underestimate.

“Not all of them. Shane’s girlfriend? We didn’t click.”

“She was an asset?”

“She was.”

“That must be an interesting story.”

Isaac grimaced.

Clearly it wasn’t an encounter he liked.

“How much do you know about me?” Tanya asked.

“A fair amount,” Isaac said.

“That’s what I was afraid of.” She turned and leaned against the wall, facing him.

“For what it’s worth, I think you’re pretty remarkable.” He settled his hand on her knee. Was the physical link intentional? Or was he just a tactile kind of guy?

Tanya stared at his hand.

When she was younger, she’d have taken that touch as a threat.

As an adult, she recognized it as intended comfort, though more often than not she’d avoid contact.

With Isaac, it was different.

He’d wormed his way past her defenses and she simply didn’t know how to categorize his place in things anymore.

“I can’t imagine what it must have been like to grow up in a cult. I was... I think I was going into boot camp when they were busting it up. I remember my parents sending me newspapers to read and the headlines.” Isaac frowned.

“I try to not think about it too much.” Or what her part in the greater wheel had been. Arguing with her conscience that she’d just done what it’d token to survive only worked half the time.

Maybe she didn’t deserve to keep living. Maybe what she deserved was to go to the authorities as this version of herself, come clean, and serve a sentence. It wouldn’t make up for what she’d done, what she’d been part of, but it might appease her conscience a bit.

“It doesn’t work, does it?”

“What?”

“Trying to not think about it.” Isaac stared into the distance, his gaze locked on a point below them.

“No.” She swallowed.

What demons haunted him?

He didn’t offer up further commentary or explanation.

In the greater scheme, what could she live with?

Procedure would dictate she only tell Rob what she knew, but four days later, she still hadn’t heard from him. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

She wasn’t prepared for everything to go to hell in a hand basket.

What could she live with? Wasn’t there enough blood on her hands?

Tanya bit her lip.

Life was full of risks. She’d made one years ago that changed her future, and now she needed to make another to keep disaster from happening. Why was it her? Couldn’t it be someone else? Or was it her own fault for letting herself get trapped in this situation?

“I’m going to tell you something, and I don’t have any proof, but I need you to believe me.” She licked her lips and peered at Isaac.

“Go on.” Isaac squeezed her knee.

“Everything I said before? It’s true. Orlando is no longer an informant for the US, the UK, Interpol, none of them. A little over two years ago, an op went bad. His sister was kidnapped, used to gain entry into a US federal building and then killed when things went bad, all because his allies wouldn’t do anything. Or that’s what he thinks. He needed help and his allies did nothing. It broke him. Literally. He talks to her, Isaac.”

“What? Like she’s there?”

“Yes. He’s pretty careful about it, but I was around him so much he started ignoring me. And he’s been on the war path for revenge ever since.”

“Someone with his connections and knowledge...that’s bad.”

“It’s worse than bad. Not everyone has shared that he’s gone rogue because no one wants to admit to having used him, or that one of their most valuable informants isn’t working for them anymore. That means that people—good people—are still telling him things. Still trying to work with him, and he uses that information to further his agenda. He wants to create unrest in Europe and the Middle East, anything to be a thorn in the side of the people he used to call his allies.”

“And there’s something else? Something more?”

“He has an end game in mind.” It made her sick thinking about it.

“Let me guess, he’s bringing the fight home?”

“Months ago, Orlando got a lead on a new, chemical weapon in development in Russia. A team from the UK stole it and destroyed the facility working on it. They deemed it too dangerous to keep, so they wanted to hand it off to the Americans to dispose of. The whole thing took months. People had to be trained, a holding facility built—”

“Fast forward to the end.”

“Orlando hit the transport team headed to America five weeks ago. He has the weapon now, and he’s going to sell it to someone who will use it, probably in America.”

“This is why Orlando wants you dead? Because you know?”

“Yes. I organized his schedule. I know who was coming to talk to him, make deals, broker intel. When I had to leave, I had his buyer list narrowed down to three groups. One of those will buy the weapon and use it. I don’t know when, but...soon?”

“What’s the rest of the reason, cupcake?”

Tanya swallowed. The last of it was her safety net. She wanted to trust Isaac. Part of her did. But this? It was handing him the keys, and if he was playing her, if these men were in it just for profit, she’d regret everything.

“Who do you work for?” Isaac’s voice was barely more than a whisper.

“I can’t tell you that.”

“I need a reason—evidence—to believe you.”

“There’s a number. Call it.”

“This is an encrypted phone.” Isaac reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. “Number?”

Tanya bit her lip.

There was no guarantee this would work, but it was the only thing she could think of.

She recited the number, watching the digits light up on his phone.

Isaac pressed the call button and put it on speaker.

It beeped straight to voicemail, probably because it was still the middle of the night in America.

“Agent Jones, this is Tanya Graham—”

“Incoming!” Shane yelled from the great room.

“What is it?” Isaac bolted to his feet, holding one hand to his ear. He shoved the phone in his pocket, grabbed her wrist with his other hand, and pulled her down the stairs.

“I’ve got eyes on what looks like three locals, but they are definitely hostiles.”

Isaac led Tanya into the Great Room. Shane leaned over a desk and stared at a laptop screen. Kyle was there, but the other two men were not.

“Pack it up, we’re moving out,” Kyle said.

“You copy that, Felix? Adam?” Shane asked.

Isaac let go of Tanya and grabbed his gear from a row with two others. The trunks and big bags were all gone. Had they meant to leave today? No one had said anything to her about it.

He slid a light vest on, and then hauled on a thicker vest with various tools hanging off it on. The other two were acting just as fast, shutting down the laptops, gathering what little equipment they had with them. They geared up in rotation. It all happened so fast, Tanya was still standing there reeling.

Who was there? What were they after?

“You recognize any of these people?” Shane thrust a small tablet in front of her.

“Yes.” She pointed at one. “This is the guy who was in charge of me at the cottage. You said there were three of them?”

“Yeah.”

“Then there’s at least five. The same ones who were at the cottage, and probably more we aren’t seeing.”

“Felix, Adam, is the van ready?” Kyle said.

They had some sort of headset that cut Tanya out of the conversation.

“Here. Arms up.” Isaac approached her with a smaller vest in hand.

She slid it on and fastened the straps. The weight of it felt good against her chest. Familiar, even.

“They’re circling around the service entrance, right?” she asked.

“Correct,” Shane replied.

“Then the other two will likely be on whatever other entrance there is.”

“That’s the way we’re going out.” Shane slid the tablet into a backpack and slung the bulging thing over his shoulder. “Ready.”

“Okay, cupcake, you’re going to stay with me. Kyle will go first. We’re loading into the van and hitting the road.” Isaac tugged on the straps keeping her vest in place, no doubt double checking them.

“They will likely have more support en route,” she said.

“Ready,” Kyle called out.

“Then we better get out of Dodge before they get here.” Isaac nudged her around. “Stay close to me.”

In the chaos of the conflict, she could slip away. But she’d already calculated her odds by herself and they weren’t all that great. With others, she stood a chance.