Saturday. London, United Kingdom.

Isaac plugged away at the laptop, ignoring the stares and whispers from the others. He didn’t have to explain himself to them, and he didn’t have to share Tanya’s secrets yet either.

“Hey.” Kyle paused next to the table. “Orlando just emailed, says he’s going to call in five.”

“Do we want to put him off? I can say our stuff was damaged when those guys attacked us.”

“No.” Kyle grimaced. “It’s probably better to talk to him, give him some answers. I’ll take lead on this. Abigail have anything say anything else yet on our girl?”

“Nothing yet.” And no call back from the mysterious Agent Jones, either.

Kyle sighed and shook his head.

Isaac wasn’t so sure about Kyle leading the client call. That was usually Isaac’s responsibility. There was a certain skill in speaking to civilians, but Orlando wasn’t exactly a civvie. Isaac opted to kept his thoughts to himself. As far as Abigail’s email, that had been cryptic and short enough they could read whatever they wanted to into it. Abigail didn’t have answers for them yet, but given her connections, she would, in time. But time was a commodity they were running short on.

“We should shoot him straight, tell him Tanya’s scared of him and whatever.” Isaac clasped his hands in front of him. “Be vague about it.”

“Has that women ever been afraid a day in her life? I mean, this morning? Shit.” Kyle rubbed the side of his face. “All right. Fine. I’ll run with it. Set us up. I’ll tell Tanya to stay in her room and out of sight.”

“Oh, hey, take this to her.” Isaac held out a tablet and stared at Kyle, hoping the guy caught his meaning. “She wants to check some messages.”

He’d enabled a keystroke program on the device so that whatever she typed, the sites she went to, he’d have a log of it. Part of Isaac hated the dishonesty, but they needed to know what she was doing and her code of conduct wouldn’t let her tell them. He couldn’t let great sex and chemistry with her cloud his mind and make him mess up. Tanya was a skilled, dangerous woman and she was backed into a corner. Last night could be nothing more than a play to make him complicit in whatever it was she was doing. He didn’t want to think that. His gut said she was the good guy here. Until it was all out in the open he couldn’t trust that what she said or his feelings one hundred percent the truth.

“I’ll make sure she gets it,” Kyle said slowly.

Isaac forced himself to put that act out of his mind. He was protecting his team. Tanya would understand that, if she was who he believed her to be.

He busied himself with arranging his set up for the call.

They usually tried to make these client calls with as little situational information in the shot as possible. A view of their team in a room cluttered with gear everywhere did not inspire calm nerves. With Orlando, it was more about keeping intel on their resources and location from the man. As the communications officer, it was up to Isaac to take all of this into consideration. He was the person who controlled how much their clients found out.

Isaac cleared off the buffet up against the wall and turned the computer. He made sure the dining room lights were on as bright as they’d go to disguise the time of day. They had no way of knowing where Orlando was, and though he might know they’d checked into a London hotel, he had no way of knowing they were at the Bulgaria unless he had eyes on them. In which case, they were in far hotter water than they realized.

A call screen popped up on the laptop.

“Kyle?” Isaac called out.

The other guys were still as statues, not making a sound.

“Coming.” Kyle jogged around the corner, across the dining room and took up his spot standing behind Isaac. “Okay. Answer it.”

Isaac tapped the green answer button and Orlando’s face filled the screen.

The man was still, by all appearances, where he’d last been. Isaac took down a few notes, comparing them to last time. The placement of the sun, what the man was wearing, how things on his desk had shifted, the number of coffee cups in the trash can. Odd things that on their own didn’t mean much, but put together began to tell a greater story.

“I see our connection is better today.” Orlando leaned back in his seat.

“It is. Sorry about yesterday,” Kyle said.

“How about my girl? Were you able to find her? It wasn’t clear yesterday.”

“We were having problems making a good connection, weren’t we?”

“Yes. About Tanya?”

“She’s resting.”

“Wonderful. What is our plan for getting her home?” Orlando bobbed back in his chair and sipped from a mug.

“One is in the works.” Kyle nodded.

Shit. Kyle only nodded on client calls when he was getting nervous.

Orlando tilted his head and studied them. Isaac kept his head down, only part of his face and shoulder in the shot.

“Care to enlighten me?” Orlando asked.

Isaac turned in his chair, glancing up at Kyle.

They had to say it.

If Orlando hadn’t read the fine print, that was his fault.

“Ms. Graham hasn’t yet stated whether or not she wants to go back to you,” Isaac said, out of turn.

“Wants to? I rescued her.” Orlando all but snorted in indignation.

Isaac glanced over his shoulder at Kyle.

“You paid to have us rescue her, sir. Truth is, Ms. Graham is hesitant to return. I guess you had a little argument before she was kidnapped?” Isaac knew it was a lie. Tanya hadn’t said much of anything about why she’d run.

“Argument. Yes. It was unfortunate.” Orlando’s jaw tightened and he stared at Isaac like he wanted to punch him. “You know, if I could speak to her, I’m sure we could sort this out.”

“She doesn’t want to speak to you right now,” Isaac said.

Orlando’s hand clenched into a fist and he stared away from the screen.

How long until he realized Isaac and the others were stalling for more time?

A guy like Orlando didn’t care about people. Not enough to send a professional team after someone. Emotional connections were a weakness to a person like that. Tanya was a thing to him, a resource or maybe a commodity if someone offered the right price. She’d never been a human in his eyes.

“All right. Fine.” Orlando turned his gaze back on the camera. “All I want is what’s best for Tanya. Keep an eye on her for me, okay?”

“Can do.”

Orlando ended the call without another word.

“Fuck me,” Kyle muttered. “I froze.”

“You did fine.”

“You should have taken the lead. You’re better at knowing what to say.”

Isaac turned to face Kyle. He’d been a bit on edge lately.

“What’s up with you?” Isaac asked.

“Me?” Kyle frowned.

“Yeah.”

“Nothing.”

Kyle said it too quickly for Isaac to buy the lie. Isaac spent a lot of time covering up his own issues. He knew what nothing really meant.

“You need to take some time?” Isaac asked.

“Take some time?” Kyle’s brows rose slowly. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

“From me? What’s that supposed to mean?” It was Isaac’s turn to frown.

“You want to talk about why your mother’s called the offices every day since we left on this op?” Kyle crossed his arms over his chest.

Shit. Busted. “It’s nothing.” Isaac smiled and shrugged. “So, Orlando?”

“Fuck.” Kyle shook his head. “What notes did you take?”

“Something’s not right. The guy, up until now, has been meticulous about his space, his desk. It’s always perfect. This time, there’s coffee cups spilling out of the trash, the desk was a mess, and I think he was wearing the same clothes from yesterday. He’s rattled.”

“About Tanya? Or something else? What’s your opinion?”

Isaac stared at the floor, sorting his thoughts. Given Abigail’s most recent email and the cryptic nature of what she was saying, he felt pretty good about reading between the lines. He just didn’t like the message he was getting.

“Tanya works for someone. The question is who?” Isaac glanced up at Kyle, keeping his voice low.

“She give you any indication who that might be?”

“No, but I think whoever it is, they’re friendly. She’s concerned about that chem-weapon and we know that Orlando has no good will toward his former allies.”

“Could she be playing us?”

Isaac didn’t like that question, which meant he had to answer it truthfully. Sleeping with her, holding her, seeing her vulnerable side had got to him. He was ethically compromised where she was concerned.

“Maybe.” Isaac grimaced.

Saturday. Berlin, Germany.

“I hate being backed into a corner.” Orlando stroked the stubble on his jaw and stared out the window. “It’s like when Dad used to ask if I wanted to make you happy or not. Only one of us got what they wanted.”

Orlando had built this life out of a need to do something. To be something. He’d watched his wealthy father dole out adoration on Elda and her mother, all the while sneering at Orlando and Mom. They were trash to him, his mother barely good enough to clean the bathrooms. Watching that man had taught Orlando a lot about life, the different ways it could be cruel, and then Elda showed him what was good.

“What do I do, Elda? What do I do?” He let his gaze drift, not seeing the dreary sky anymore. “If I go after Tanya, I expend resources, people, time and money to get to her. Not to mention those Aegis bastards will make it difficult. Robert says that without him, she’s backed into a corner and no one can verify who she is. She has no resources, nothing. But do I believe that? Tanya is smart. Probably smarter than the rest of them.”

He stood and paced the room. There was no equal to Tanya in terms of what she’d provided him. Edwin was a shoddy replacement for her.

“She’s a threat, no matter what Robert says. She had my schedule memorized, knew all my clients. Intel like that is dangerous. It makes me vulnerable, and what’s more...it puts this current deal at risk.”

Out of his whole staff the only person he’d allowed with him on these last few meets was Tanya. She knew who the three potential buyers were, their plans, how they worked, everything. He’d already decided against the most obvious group, which left two other customers.

“What do I do, Elda?” He paused, staring at her chair.

Before Elda’s death, he’d been complacent in his role as a pseudo-intelligence dealer. Oh, he sold some secrets for real cash, but a large part of his organization was fabricated on the dime of the countries who’d allied him out of the gate. When the old man died, leaving Elda alone and broke, Orlando had made a plan. One that would save them both and put them on top of the world. It was some small justice that he’d done so using his father’s connections and name.

“Tanya is a dangerous threat. She knows me better than anyone—except you, of course. I let her get too close, but she was so useful. She amused me with her silence, that impassive face of hers, but she took care of me when you weren’t here. She wasn’t intrusive. She anticipated my needs, maybe better than you did, sister.”

Had he cared for Tanya?

He’d appreciated her services the same way he might like a well-trained dog. Tanya was merely prettier.

“She never asked for anything. They always ask for something. You wanted gadgets and toys. Most of these girls wanted jewelry or...something else. I should have realized that no one but you could be that devoted to me. I should have seen her for what she was, but I was so focused on working toward this deal. It took me forever to find the right resources and set this up. I will not let Tanya take that from us.”

Orlando pounded his fist on the desk.

He stared at the cluttered surface, disgusted with himself. How could he carry on working with such a mess?

Usually, Tanya swooped in when his back was turned, spiriting away files he wasn’t using and the garbage he’d not yet discarded. He’d become sloppy and created a place for her in his life. She very well might have the tools to destroy him. He couldn’t just let her waltz away into the unknown.

“I have to take care of her, and I need to handle everything else myself. It’s the only way things get done around here.” He grimaced. His initial plan had allowed him to sit back, watch the show and be removed from blame. In the big picture, he didn’t care who knew he was responsible.

“Hunting Tanya will take too much effort. I’ll spread it around that she’s not with me anymore. The Aegis team is good. I doubt anyone in London could get the drop on them, but I can make it difficult for them. I’ll let someone else do that, and I’ll handle the rest.” He sat up and pulled the keyboard toward him. He could always give his man headed to London a few more jobs to do.

There were still any number of complications that could happen, but the ball was rolling. That was what mattered. After months of planning, it was finally time to start his payback.