Wednesday. Vara Price’s Home, Damascus, Syria.

Vara sat on the sofa watching the street. Or more accurately the windows across the street. With the streetlight down the way she had a perfect reflection of the entrance to the tunnels. She doubted anyone had followed them. Nothing about the inspection had seemed odd to anyone besides the new hires or Wyatt, for different reasons.

Her new recruits wouldn’t be a problem. But Wyatt? He’d been with her so long she thought he had to have guessed that some of what she did served another purpose. They’d never talked about it, because truth was she couldn’t trust anyone. Not even her right-hand man. And especially not this blast from her past.

She resisted the urge to glance at the stairs.

Was Alec still a SEAL?

She hadn’t kept track of him. Her heart couldn’t take the awareness. Even after all these years looking at him hurt. One glance and she was in the throes of first love turning into first heartbreak all over again.

The door upstairs creaked shut. She heard the rustle of fabric on the upper landing and could picture Alec standing there. His longer hair curled around his face, those dark, brooding eyes that seemed to shift color depending on his mood locked on the floor.

Vara had imagined running into him again over the years. Reality was never as good as what was in her head.

The first time she’d seen him after their break-up she’d just left an interrogation room where she’d spent eight hours being the go-between with a captured terrorist who’d organized an attack on a school. A school full of children. Babies. Mothers. The ordeal had exhausted her physically and emotionally. She’d walked across the courtyard, intending to go straight to her room for a shower, food and sleep. Instead she’d locked eyes with Alec at twenty yards. She’d been in no shape to handle a confrontation with him that day.

The second time she’d known he was going to be there. She even had a few witty things in mind to throw in his face. Make him realize what he’d lost. But then she’d rounded a corner and there he stood, blood splattering his clothes and his eyes so full of pain. She’d withered under the realization that he could have died. Lost all those carefully curated words and ran back to her quarters to bawl her heart out.

It appeared their cycle was unbroken. Another day, another dose of danger and unknown with possible loss looming in the wings.

Damascus was growing safer by the day, which meant it was more and more dangerous for her. If Rafat didn’t come after her business soon, Vara suspected the Russian intelligence officers working inside the country would zero in on her. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe she was operating completely in the clear. For the last two years she’d been smuggling intel out of the country for the CIA from a wide range of contacts, the most forthcoming of which was embedded in a Russian-Syrian project developing some seriously scary surveillance tech. She was careful, but she knew better than to believe she was safe.

And this was just what she was going through.

What was Alec stirring up?

Jules Neilson had been on everyone’s radar for going on ten years. Rescuing her was a miracle. And Alec had made it happen. What sparked that, how he’d done it, was going to be a story worth hearing.

Finally footsteps thumped on the stairs.

Vara scooped up her forgotten cup of cold tea and focused her gaze on the empty street.

Still no movement.

The hair on her arms rose the closer Alec got until he was standing a dozen or so feet away. She didn’t need to look at him to know he was staring at her. She could feel it.

What was she supposed to say to him? What could they say?

“Is she comfortable?” Vara asked finally.

“She’s passed out.” Alec crossed the room and eased himself down on the sofa facing her. “Vara? I’m sorry we—”

“Don’t.” She sighed and glanced at him, wrestling her mind back to business. She didn’t have time to waste on the past. Even if it was just the last hour or two. Not when everything was moving fast. “What’s done is done. Now we figure out how to deal with it.”

“How’d you know who she was?” Alec regarded her with shrewd eyes. There were questions he wanted to ask, but he wouldn’t.

“I remember Mom having a whole file on her. I guess Jules made a habit of going to dangerous places.” Vara sipped her tea. She hadn’t figured out how to rescue Jules and stay on mission herself. She was glad someone else had gotten Jules free. “I’d heard rumors she was going to change hands. I just didn’t know she was here. I’m glad you’re getting her out of here.”

“That’s the goal, but someone is very interested in keeping her. They weren’t ISIS that’s for sure.”

“How’d you know that?” Vara turned her head and frowned at Alec. Now that was interesting.

“Wrong kind of people. No badges. The place was upscale. I think whoever took possession of her is government or close to it.”

“It could still be one of the rebel groups.” Vara was inclined to agree with Alec, but she couldn’t say that. Jules had gone from an unknown to a figure at the forefront of all news coverage in the last month.

“I doubt it.” Alec stretched his arm along the back of the sofa toward her. She ignored his hand just like the rest of him. “I hope we don’t interfere with anything you have going on here.”

“We’re smugglers. Everyone has secrets.” Vara shrugged and finished her tea to hide her grimace. She was used to lying to people. It came with the job. But for some reason lying to Alec wasn’t as easy. Maybe because she knew he already didn’t believe her?

“Is that all you’re doing?” Alec studied her.

Vara swallowed.

No, it wasn’t her goal at all. But she couldn’t tell him that.

“It is.” She stretched her arms over her head. This conversation needed to end. “You two can stay here tonight. Do you have a plan for how to get home? What about your team?”

“Working on the plan. I don’t know about my team.”

“I hope they got out safe. Keep me in the loop?” She knew her CIA handler was going to have a cow over this, but she couldn’t turn her back on Alec.

She did need to put distance between them. At the very least a door and some walls would do. Six years and there was still that magnetic pull in her gut drawing her toward him.

“Can we talk?” Alec’s voice was softer, as though he struggled with the words.

“About?” She swallowed, her mind scattering in a dozen different directions.

“Us.”

“There never really was an us.” At least not in the way Vara had wanted. Minimizing the role he’d played cheapened what they’d had, but it also helped her keep going.

“There was Thailand.”

“For two weeks. That’s a vacation fling.” She shook her head.

Alec stared at her, his gaze unreadable in the near darkness. The starlight made his face seem harder, the shadows deepening the lines creasing around his mouth.

“I guess you’re right. Never mind.” He turned to look out of the window.

Vara felt his quiet acceptance like a knife between the ribs. She’d always wanted a real reason, an answer for why he’d flipped on her so fast. This was her chance. But she had to admit that for a while there’d been a them, and that meant allowing that bit of her mind he occupied to grow. And that was dangerous because her heart had never quite given up on him.

“What about us did you want to talk about?” She curled her other leg under her and resigned herself to the emotional torture of reliving her first heartbreak all over again.

“I’m sorry about how things ended.”

“Six years ago?” She knew her heart still ached, but it seemed silly he thought about that, too. “Look, if you think I’m not going to help you because we had a fling years ago that didn’t end the best way—stop now. I can see the bigger picture. I get what you’re doing.”

“This conversation has nothing to do with now.” Alec leaned toward her and she thought he might make a grab for her hand.

“Then what happened? What went wrong?” Vara steeled herself for his answer. She’d fallen for him so hard and stupid parts of her had never truly healed.

“I caved.” He eased back, his jaw set in a line.

“You...caved?”

“When we got back, your mom was all over my CO’s ass. That... It didn’t go well for me.”

Vara gaped at him.

He wanted her to believe that her mother had organized their break-up?

“You’re lying,” she blurted.

“I’m not.” His voice was soft. “They were right on one point. There was a high probability that I’d die. Making you live through that would have been selfish.”

She knew he was talking, making rational points, but her brain was stuck on that first bit.

Her mother had wanted them to break up. That wasn’t news. She’d known that, but Mom wouldn’t have done that to her.

“I don’t believe your bullshit.” Vara glared at Alec. “I asked my mother if she had anything to do with it and she said no. I’m supposed to believe you over her?”

He stared at her for a moment then said, “I guess not. I think I’d better get some sleep while I can, right?”

“That’s a good plan.” Her voice was wooden, stiff sounding.

The skin on the back of her neck prickled as Alec walked out of the room, leaving her behind yet again.

She remembered standing in her mother’s kitchen in the small apartment they shared at the embassy. Mom held out a box of tissues, she’d said soothing words. Vara had batted the box away and demanded to know if Alec breaking up with her was Mom’s doing. She’d told Vara no, but she hadn’t looked Vara in the face.

Alec’s explanation wasn’t a surprise.

Had Vara suspected that truth all along?

Her relationship with her mother had always been complicated. They were doing better with half a world between them. That didn’t change the past or what was ultimately Alec’s decision. He hadn’t wanted to oppose his CO when it came to her. Maybe breaking up with her was following orders?

The how of it didn’t really matter.

She hadn’t been enough for him then. He hadn’t cared about her enough to make that stand. She’d been young and in love for the first time in her life. It was simply a perfect storm for a disaster. The only good thing about it was that it was in the past.

Vara was master of her present. Alec couldn’t distract her from tomorrow or the days to come. Besides, she had somewhere to be in a few hours and she couldn’t exactly explain it to him.

THURSDAY. NOUR DELIVERY Service, Damascus, Syria.

Wyatt Boregard didn’t know why he was awake, only that the unsettled feeling knocking around inside of him had grown over night. He paused outside of Vara’s quarters and listened.

Had she slept here?

He knew she kept a house not far away, but seeing as they all had secrets she’d never invited him or the other guys over. He’d been content to give her those secrets because she didn’t poke around in his past. But things were changing and his gut was talking.

No sound came from behind the door.

Wyatt glanced up and down the hall before sticking the key in the lock and twisting. He pushed the old door open and peered inside.

The window cast just enough light for him to see the rumpled bed.

If she’d slept tonight, it wasn’t here.

So where was his leader and what was she getting into?

THURSDAY. SIBKY PARK, Damascus, Syria.

Vara strolled along the gravel boulevard leading toward the reflecting pool. The last summer blooms perfumed the air. The horizon was highlighted, heralding the new day. People hustled home or to work from the pre-dawn prayer, consumed with the day to come.

That was why Vara liked this time of day. People didn’t pay her much mind. She was just another figure in the rush.

Only this morning she wasn’t.

Tension knotted her shoulders.

She’d slept, but only in fits. Memories kept waking her. Stolen moments with Alec at the embassy. Highlights of their trip.

There’d been years since their fling, and yet Vara’s body remembered his touch as though they’d been together last week or last month.

It wasn’t fair. But she couldn’t choose who she fell in love with. She just had to deal with it.

The walk was good for her. Stretching her legs and breathing in the bite in the morning air helped bring her mind around to right now. She slowed as she reached the reflection pool and turned to look at the water while scanning the people out walking and the cars on the perimeter.

This could be the day.

Maybe it was a good thing she’d been so restless. She’d gotten another ping from her informant contact. The whole mission and point of Vara’s presence in Syria was to hunt down intel. Not so much about Syria, but the puppet master behind it all. Russia.

Vara’s source had fallen in her lap.

Literally.

The headlights of a blue compact car flashed on and off three times.

She drew in a calming breath then turned, checking for a tail or anyone paying her more than a passing glance of attention. Another reason she liked this time of day was because her half-white parentage was harder to discern in low light. At a glance she was another brown girl, not an American in a park she didn’t belong.

Satisfied she wasn’t being tailed, Vara strolled toward the idling car.

The driver wore a baseball cap and long-sleeved shirt. He appeared to be looking at a newspaper, but Vara knew his attention was on her.

She gave the path behind her one more look then dropped into the passenger seat of the car.

“Go,” she said.

Chad Rutherford turned the wheel and accelerated slowly, easing into traffic.

“Why’d you want to meet?” His voice was rough. Annoyed. Chad had never been a morning person.

“I think we’re going to have to pull out. Today. Tomorrow. It’s going to be this week.” She folded her hands in her lap and peered into the mirrors.

“Seriously?” Chad chuckled. “There’s no way we’re pulling out.”

“I’m dead serious, Chad.” Vara turned her head and stared at him. He met her gaze at the next light and that smug smile dimmed. “There is a Navy SEAL hiding at my house with Jules Neilson. Some rescue op went sideways.”

“Impossible.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that they are in my house.”

“If there was a rescue op happening we’d have heard about it.”

“Maybe he’s private security now or something, but when I knew him he was a SEAL.”

“We can handle this. We need you where you are.”

“I’m not finished.” Vara swallowed. “Djinn contacted me. I got more details an hour ago. Djinn’s gig is shutting down. They’ve finished whatever it is they were doing. I’m supposed to do a package handoff, some kind of crucial part of the program they can’t operate without. And Djinn’s going to give it to me.”

“No,” Chad snapped.

“Djinn is scared, and it’s not like they can tell their boss to keep going. The job is over. And Djinn is worried the Russians know how we’ve been getting our intel.”

“God damn it,” he roared.

Vara had much the same reaction when she’d glanced at the message. Her intel gathering operation had only yielded crumbs until she’s crossed paths with Djinn. Without the hacker Vara had nothing more to offer.

“This fucks us all, but let’s be honest.” She stared at Chad. “We’re in our final days as is. At the very best we could be here two, three months, tops. Djinn doesn’t want whatever this tech is in the hands of the Russians.”

“We still don’t know what Djinn was even working on.”

“I think Djinn knows now. Djinn has been...flighty lately. I think the pressure is on.”

“You have a plan.”

“Yeah. Djinn wants to meet just before the midday prayer.”

“In person?”

“In the flesh.”

“Think you could get a tracker on him? We could pick this guy up, get some real answers.”

“I can try.” Vara would do no such thing, but she couldn’t tell Chad that.

“You meet, then what?”

“I meet Djinn, get the package, then you get me, the SEAL and Jules Neilson out of the country.”

“I can’t agree to uproot our best intel operation because your contact is getting scared.” Chad shook his head. “If the job is ending, fine. But Djinn knows more than he’s telling us.”

“Without Djinn I’ve got nothing for you. My other sources have dried up. The table scraps I get aren’t worth the risk without Djinn in place. They’re going, with or without our permission.”

“We won’t offer him sanctuary if he does this.”

“I’m pretty sure Djinn never cared about that offer.”

“What do you know about this guy you aren’t sharing?” Chad peered at her.

“Nothing I can say with confidence.” She shrugged. “I get a feeling about them.”

“I say we stay the course. Do the meet, get the intel, talk Djinn into staying. Those are your orders.”

“That’s bullshit, Chad.”

He eased the car to the curb. That was his signal. The meet was done and he wouldn’t hear her out.

She turned and stared into his eyes. She’d never asked because she didn’t want to know, but she doubted Chad had never been on her side of things. He sat behind a desk or in the dark calling the shots but never taking the risk. He pushed the numbers around until he was happy with his results and that’s what determined her life.

“Fuck you,” she said.

“Only on Sundays,” Chad replied with a smirk.

She got out of the car and gave the tail of her headscarf a yank, securing it into place.

She missed the old school guys. The ones who’d been in her shoes in the old days. Those guys got the risks she was taking. Chad only wanted results. He didn’t see her. If she had to go off book, if she had to make a break on her own, could she do it? How would she do it? And could she get Alec out, too?