Carson peered at the front windows. Ryan had been out there a long time. She’d heard the murmur of voices a few times, but could never make out who was speaking. She wasn’t keen on bringing the discussion in to where the kids would hear, but she desperately wanted to know what had been discovered while they’d slept. Or at least been in bed.

She pushed those memories down deep before her cheeks turned that mortifying red color.

The front door opened and three men entered, led by Ian.

“Girls go get dressed,” he ordered.

Ryan came to her and offered her a hand up while the two girls scampered from the room.

“What did you find out?” Carson asked glancing between the three. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

“This is Owen, he’s a friend the FBI recruited.” Ryan nodded at the unfamiliar face.

“Hi,” Carson said.

“Agent King.” The newcomer offered his hand. He had intense blue eyes, dark hair and was shorter than both Ryan and Ian, but there was a kindness to his face that made her want to like him.

“Or you can call him Owen like the rest of us,” Ian said.

“Come over here and sit.” Ryan gestured at the dining table partially covered with text books and papers. “Did you ever eat?”

“No. I just want to know what’s going on.” She could eat later. Right now she wanted answers. Some kind of security.

He led her to the table and held her seat while the other men found spots and even cleared some of the toys to make room. Their smiles slowly vanished and their grim expressions offered her no comfort. Ryan sat at the head of the table.

“Here’s the deal.” He spread his hands, his attention on her. “There’s no FBI record of Walker’s arrangement with you. Right now we know you’re at risk and that’s probably not going away on its own.”

Carson blinked at him.

No documented proof. The deal Walker had extended to her didn’t exist.

“What does that mean for Frankie?” It all sounded big and scary. Too much for her to deal with, but she had no other choice.

“She’s safe. The FBI can’t deport her. She’s a legal citizen,” Owen said.

“Oh.” Carson slumped in her chair.

Frankie was safe.

That was what mattered most to her.

Ryan placed his hand on the back of her chair. “I called Detective Blew to come here and tell him that we’ve identified three of the men we believe were there yesterday and they are dangerous men. You and your family need protective custody. Our hope is that they will be able to document and establish a threat on record against you that the FBI has no knowledge of because they sure as hell aren’t helping us right now.”

“Tell me about it.” Her last meeting with Walker hadn’t been pleasant, and she didn’t believe he’d do anything to help her. At this point Carson didn’t care where help came from so long as her family was kept safe. “Who were they? What did they want?”

Ryan glanced at Ian then back to her.

Why did she have a sinking feeling about this? What kind of evil had she gotten wrapped up in?

“We’re stretching the truth a little,” he said.

“I’m not hearing this, by the way.” Owen spread his hands and bowed his head as though that would impede his ability to listen.

“We ran the picture we had of the guy without the mask through several databases with varying degrees of accuracy. We got a hit on him in one of the databases that’s not as accurate as the rest. We can’t be entirely certain the ID is positive.”

“Well, who is he?” Maybe she’d know him from other clients or connect him to someone else.

“His name is Kawa Dwek, and he’s a Syrian terrorist.”

Kawa.

Dwek.

Syria.

Only one of those words even registered to her. She’d seen the news about the horrors the people of Syria lived through, what their government did to them, how war had torn the country apart. But that was a world away. It was distant. Nothing that happened there touched her little, remote corner of Seattle.

“What would a Syrian terrorist want with me?” Carson sat back in her chair and blinked at the three men.

“It actually makes sense.” Owen winced. “I’m not listening. I’m not hearing this. Coffee?”

“What Owen means is, the connection does make sense,” Ryan said. “See, Syria has heavy sanctions on them. They can’t do business with American companies or in America. If they want to, they go through someone like Ben. He launders their money into dollars and handles all transactions here. If they want to buy anything, do anything, they will keep it going through a front man like Ben who brokers those deals and handles everything for them. A lot of people don’t want to be connected to what’s going on over there.”

Ben did the buying for a terrorist. She didn’t know how Syria and this man Kawa fit together, but it wasn’t good. And she’d been doing the accounting for these people. Her.

What had she helped them do?

She covered her mouth as the realization that she’d been complicit, even unwittingly, in terrorism hit her.

“Do I want to know what he was buying?” Carson’s hands shook. Ignorance didn’t absolve her of her role in this.

“We don’t know.” Ryan reached over and took her hand in his. “You’re innocent in all of this. Understand?”

“I helped them.” She closed her eyes.

How often had she watched the news and shook her head at the coverage? She’d flipped the channels to something else because the news was uncomfortable or too sad after a long day. What if something Ben had purchased for this Kawa person caused that destruction? What if she was watching the devastation she’d caused?

“Oh my God.” Carson pushed to her feet and paced away into the kitchen.

How did something like this happen? She was an accountant in a firm. She did boring work for a decent amount of money for small companies, mom and pop stores. Not for terrorists. And now they knew where she lived. They probably knew her name. Were they looking for her? If they were, it wouldn’t take much to locate her family.

She turned toward the two men at the table watching her.

“What does that mean for my family?” If they were hurt as a result of this she’d never forgive herself. Not even if it was from ignorance. She couldn’t take that.

“Depends what they want, and that’s what we don’t know. Best we can tell they lost a lot of money. That’s motivation enough for a lot of people to do some very bad stuff. However, it might not be about the money. It could be that they needed to tie up Ben’s loose end.”

“They killed Ben because he couldn’t help them with the money.” Carson closed her eyes. “They want the money. That’s what this is about.”

Her family was very much at risk, and completely ignorant. Frankie was looking for men in suits, not terrorists. She’d never see them coming.

The doorbell rang, startling her into jumping.

“That’s Blew.” Ian got up and headed for the door.

Ryan pushed his chair back and came to her. He took her hands in his and pulled her to him.

“What am I going to do?” she whispered.

“We’re going to handle this,” he replied.

We.

He was still talking about them as a couple. This wasn’t what he’d signed on for. It wasn’t the kind of thing he should be responsible for, and yet here he was. He’d told her he loved her after she’d lied to him and hurt him. What kind of person did that?

Ian and Detective Blew crossed the living room. The cop didn’t look too thrilled about being here Hell, he’d deleted her recorded interview yesterday rather than document everything.

“King. I should have fucking known.” Detective Blew shook his head.

“Nice to see you, too,” Owen replied, his tone cool. He held up his coffee cup before taking a sip.

“I need to call my parents. My family has to know.” Carson would figure out how to tell them the bigger story later.

“There’s a unit sitting outside. They’re good,” Detective Blew said.

“That’s two men?” Carson asked.

“Yeah, two patrol officers.”

“There were four men who broke into my apartment and then two in the cars waiting for us.” She did math for a living. Two against six were not great odds.

“Calm down—”

“You do not get to tell me to calm down.” Carson jabbed her finger in the man’s direction and glared at the detective. “I have had two FBI agents telling me they’ll deport my sister if I don’t break the rules and give them information. I was kidnapped at gunpoint. I saw my client killed in front of me. You don’t get to tell me to calm down.”

“Why don’t I get Detective Blew up to speed and you get Carson some breakfast?” Ian suggested.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Ryan wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her toward Owen.

Her whole body shook.

This was her fault.

She’d made the wrong choice.

But where had she missed the right one?

In the very beginning she should have gone to a lawyer about the threat. She should have found someone who knew what the FBI could or could not do in terms of deportation. If she’d done that she’d have known Walker was full of shit. Instead she’d caved to the pressure and gotten everyone wrapped up in this.

“Sh. Come here. Don’t do that.” Ryan pulled her into a tight hug.

She buried her face against his chest and squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears in.

“We’ve got you,” he whispered.

Carson didn’t deserve this. There wasn’t anything she’d ever done in her limited life to warrant a man’s loyalty like this. And yet here he was, bringing in every friend he had to get to the bottom of her problems.

Who did that?

Ryan did.

“Come on. Eat something.” He squeezed her again and dropped on arm.

She let him guide her to the small buffet Chloe had set up. Carson wasn’t keen on eating, but she let Ryan fix them both a plate while Owen poured her a cup of coffee.

“I’m going to take this real quick.” Owen flashed his phone screen at them before ducking out the back door.

She stared at the food and knew she should be hungry, but eating wasn’t something she could do.

“Hey?” Ryan leaned on the counter, his back toward the others, and stared down at her.

“Hm?”

“Last night...”

She glanced at the table then back at him. Which part of last night was he talking about?

“Was everything okay?” he asked, his voice pitched low.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” Or that this was the place to have any kind of talk about last night.

“You passed out pretty hard for a while. I just wanted to...see if you were okay.”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about, so—yes?”

“It wasn’t too much?” he asked slowly.

“Ryan, you’re always too much.” It was what she liked about him. He made her uncomfortable and comfortable.

“I’ll take that smile as a good thing then.”

Carson shook her head and pressed her hand to her cheek. She was smiling. Then again, why shouldn’t she? The private moments with Ryan were special.

“Ryan? Carson?” Ian gestured for them to join them at the table.

“You catch him up?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah,” Detective Blew grumbled.

“What do you want to bet he lied on the report yesterday?” Owen said under his breath.

“I’m not a fool. I’m not taking that bet,” Ryan said.

They took the food to the table where the other two men waited.

“You ain’t offering me any?” Detective Blew asked.

“You haven’t done anything to earn your breakfast yet,” Ryan replied.

Carson choked on a laugh at that statement.

“Tell them.” Ian nodded.

“Fucking hell,” Detective Blew muttered. He cleared his throat before addressing the table of people. “The FBI has already confiscated everything from yesterday’s crime scene, including my phone with our interview.”

“My laptop?” Carson leaned forward.

“Everything.”

She still had her phone with the recordings, but now Walker would also know those recordings existed. What would he do about that? She didn’t want to know.

“I’ve got to go back and take all of this to my chief, but I agree. The Adairs need to go into protective custody before someone else gets hurt.”

Gets hurt?

Was that what happened to Ben?

“What I’d like is for Carson to call her family and then hand it off to me. We can coordinate protective custody for all of them and work with the FBI.”

“The FBI is part of the problem,” Carson said.

“The rules have changed now that there’s evidence and case files.” Owen leaned forward. “Walker is running a really sketchy op, and that’s not going to fly.”

“But what does that mean? What’s happening?” Carson didn’t understand what good protective custody would do with the bad guys still out there.

“It’s the number one rule of personal security.” Ryan turned toward her. “Secure the client, then address the threat. Until you and your family are locked down, safe and secure, resources are split. We can’t focus on finding Kawa and his guys until then.”

She nodded. That she understood. Multitasking meant dividing resources, and she wanted everything thrown at finding these people and stopping them.

“So, you ready to call them?” Blew asked.

Carson stared at the man.

Now? What was she supposed to say?

Hi, it’s me. Some very bad men are trying to find me and you’re in danger. Think you can drop everything and go into protective custody with me?

Yeah, that was going to go over well.

“Don’t worry.” Ryan took her hand. “We’ll do this together.”

A lump lodged in her throat and she blinked at him.

“HE’S CALLING AGAIN.”

Kawa grimaced and took the phone. He’d put the senator off and made excuses for a week. The truth wasn’t going to help them. They were no closer to finding the sister or tapping resources that would allow them to reclaim the woman to trade. Without that bargaining chip, Senator Neilson could destroy Akkadia’s chances at independence. The burden of this rested on Kawa’s shoulders.

This trip was supposed to be easy. Sign some documents. Deliver a message. Make a few phone calls.

He hit the answer button on the phone and lifted it to his ear.

“Senator, good to hear from you.”

“Good to hear from me? You haven’t called me back in two days.”

“This is true.”

“What about my sister? How is she?”

“We are still locating her. Like I said before, we missed our opportunity to rescue her due to our delay. These things take time.”

“How much time?”

“It’s hard to tell.”

“The Aerospace investigation is going to attach your people to the case soon. I can’t stop that unless you make good on the offer.”

“As a friend I thank you for that warning. I appreciate that you’re looking out for us.” Kawa rolled his eyes. The man did not make threats well.

“When will I know more?”

“Soon.”

The call ended.

The man was angry and frustrated.

Kawa could relate.

He’d lost family and friends. More than once, but he could still recall that first time. The senator was lucky his sister was the only person who’d been taken from him. He had the luxury of living in a safe world with laws that protected his family. Kawa and his people didn’t have that.

“Let’s go,” Kawa announced.

He’d known that the battle for independence would take him places he wasn’t prepared for. Today was another one of those lines. He was forced into this by powers bigger than himself, but he wouldn’t sit back and be powerless.

CARSON CRADLED THE cordless phone in her hands. This was a phone call she’d hoped she wouldn’t have to make. Her whole goal had been to handle this. Their parents had taken on a massive load when they adopted Carson and Frankie. They shouldn’t be drug into this, too. But they had. Because the FBI had seen Frankie as an easy target. A troubled kid they could manipulate.

Carson dialed the house number. It was early enough everyone would still be at home. Mom was going to balk at not going to work. She was very proud that she rarely missed a day. Dad was practically retired. He was still working through December, but his entire office had already shifted his responsibilities so most of the time he didn’t have anything to do. They were calling this his home stretch. It was the company’s way of showing him how important he’d been over his thirty year career there.

She pressed the phone to her ear and closed her eyes.

How many times had she called home because she was in trouble?

As a teenager she’d caused hell for a few years before some switch inside her head flipped and she realized these people weren’t going to hurt her. They didn’t want anything from her except love.

The floor creaked and soft footsteps came closer. The sofa cushions dipped and a strong arm wrapped around her shoulders.

Ryan was still there.

“Hello?” Mom drew the word out in her sing-song way. Her early morning cheer had often grated on Carson’s nerves in the beginning. Now she found it comforting.

“Hi, mom.”

“Carson? Honey? What’s wrong?”

“Is Dad and Frankie there?”

“He’s about to take her...somewhere. Why?”

“Can you put them on speaker?”

“Sure. What’s going on?”

“It’ll be easier if I tell you all at once.”

Something rustled over the line and Mom’s voice grew muffled.

Ryan stroked her back. Except for them, the house was quiet. Everyone had left to run errands or move to the next step in the process.

“Here we go,” Mom muttered.

“Give that to me.” Frankie sighed and something clicked. “Carson?”

“Hey, Frankie. Dad. Mom.” Carson’s voice wavered.

“What is it?” Frankie’s voice was strained. She had to know a call like this wasn’t good.

“I don’t have a lot of time to explain. Something’s happened and there’s some dangerous men that have threatened me. The police are worried that they’ll go after—” Her throat closed up to the point that she couldn’t squeak the next words out. Ryan squeezed her, wrapping her in comfort. “They’re worried they’ll go after you. They want to put us all in protective custody. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

“What?” Dad said.

She could picture him standing there, blinking at Mom, his mouth hung open. He was such a good man that evil in the world genuinely shocked him.

“It’s not Carson’s fault. It’s mine,” Frankie said.

“Girls—what is going on?” Mom was quicker on the uptake. She’d always swerved with their crazy and headed them off.

“She’s not telling you everything. It’s really my fault.” Frankie’s foot-stamp could be felt from where Carson sat.

“What’s your fault?” Mom asked.

“Mom?” Carson needed them out of the house soon.

“You—hold on. Frankie?” Mom’s tone was stern. She wanted to hear it all, or she’d balk. It was her Latina temper coming out.

“Remember when I went to the festival with Libby and her parents? They let us go to a few of the shows by ourselves. We slipped into one of them through the back because we’re under eighteen. Half an hour later Libby’s in the bathroom and these two old dudes with badges came up to me. They took me to a back room and went through my stuff. Said I had a fake ID and drugs that weren’t mine. I didn’t have those. They weren’t mine. I called Carson because I was scared and they said she could make it all go away.”

“Wait—two cops arrested you and questioned you? Alone?” Mom’s hackles were up now.

“It wasn’t my stuff. I swear,” Frankie pleaded.

“We know,” Dad muttered. Carson could see him hugging Frankie.

She was the last person who’d get involved with drugs. The fake ID was a possibility, but Carson had always thought the drugs were planted.

Ryan nudged her and tapped his watch.

“Mom? Dad? I have to go, but—the cops, the good ones, are going to be there soon to pick you up. Please, pack a bag and go with them? I can explain everything when I see you.”

Carson pleaded with them a bit more before everyone agreed to play it safe for now. Mom was riled up. Someone had harassed her babies. Dad would get angry later. He was a slow build fire once he’d thought it all through.

She hung up the phone and buried her face in her hands.

Ryan stroked her back.

“You never mentioned they arrested Frankie for planted evidence.”

“Yeah. Sorry. It’s just—we were more afraid of the deportation threat.”

“Carson, this is serious. Walker and his partner could get fired for questioning a minor. Why not go to the police with that?”

“Because.” She straightened and glared at him. “If I did that and then they seriously looked at Frankie—what if that sped up deportation? Yes, okay, now I know it was stupid to believe them. I should have, I don’t know, gone to a lawyer or something? I just didn’t know, Ryan. I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay.” He pulled her to him. “We need to keep track of these things for after. I want to nail their asses to the wall.”

She shouldn’t take comfort in violence, but Ryan’s vicious sentiment was sweet.

“Come on, let’s go pack up. We’ve got a couple hours before we meet to go to the safe house. I think you should rest.”

“Rest? Is that what you’re calling it now?” She chuckled and let him pull her to her feet.

Things weren’t okay, but they might be. Because of Ryan. Without his guidance and strength she wouldn’t be here.