His anger had surged to boiling when he saw her trying to pry a basement window open. He'd come up behind her without her hearing him. What in the hell did GHOST need her for? No one should have been able to sneak up on her if she'd been paying attention to her surroundings.

Grabbing her and dragging her to the back of the house, he managed to get her behind the garage without making enough noise to wake the dead. Once he got her attention and she knew who he was, she stiffened but at least stopped scratching and kicking the hell out of him.

Letting her go, he said, "You're way off base, Jax. What if I was someone who could kill you? You've got to get your head in this game and stop trying to dump me." She spun around and glared at him, as much as she could in the dark, but he could see the whites of her eyes and he saw when they narrowed.

"We've got a mission here, Jax. The diamond first, then stopping the Santarino business second. Are you with me or not?"

He heard her intake a long breath, then let it out before finally responding. "Yes, I'm with you." It wasn't quite spat out, but it was close. Maybe she was warming up to him.

The backdoor opened again and another tall man, wearing black cargo pants stepped out of the house and looked around the backyard. They were crouched behind the garage watching around the corner in silence as he looked around. A third man stepped out, shook hands with the first man and then said, "I'll see you ‘down there’ next week, Ian." He jumped in his truck and left.

Dodge leaned close and whispered in Jax's ear, "We need to find out where 'down there' is."

She nodded, turned to look at him and a few things struck him. She smelled amazing. Her dark eyes practically sparkled and held so much in them. Intelligence and confidence, a heady combination. Then she replied, "Yep, and I know how to do it."

After the truck left and the redhead named Ian stepped inside Dodge whispered, "How?"

She pointed to a window on the far west side of the house. "That's an office. If we can wait out this group leaving, I'll slip into that window and steal the laptop on the desk. We can have Gaige work his magic on it and see if we can get anything from it. A location would be amazing, anything else, would be phenomenal."

"Jax..."

" Do. Not. Say. It. I'm capable Dodge. I've done this hundreds of times. Let me do my job."

She whispered it, but her determination was clear. He took in a breath to tell her that maybe he should be the one but she continued before he got the chance. "You want me to trust you, you need to trust me."

Good point. "Okay. In the meantime, we're stuck here until the crowd clears."

As if he summoned him, the backdoor opened and they both stopped talking and again peered around the back of the garage to watch the same red-headed man usher another guest from inside. They spoke softly, shook hands, and the other man left. As soon as his car cleared the driveway, Jax pulled a small device from her back pocket, turned a switch on it, and a light green glow lit then slowly dimmed out. Quickly glancing at the house to make sure no one saw the light, he turned back to her only to see her hold her finger to her lips as a way to silence him.

His brows furrowed, but before he could say anything the backdoor opened once more and this time the redhead stepped out with Mangus. Jax held the device out in front of her and watched the two men talk. Mangus turned and left. By Dodge’s count that left only one other person in the house with the red-haired man if the pattern of one person per car held true.

He listened as Mangus' car door closed, his car started, and the headlights shone on the garage, then panned the backyard as he pulled out of the driveway. They were once again in the dark. He nudged Jax, then pointed around the side of the garage, letting her know he was going around to check. She nodded.

He stood and made his way quietly around the back and side of the garage and peered along the far west side. It was clear of debris but high weeds would make noise if he chose to walk along to get a look from that vantage point. Crouching down he slowly made his way to Jax, who sat still as stone. He watched her for a moment and had to admit to himself she was pretty good at this. She didn't seem scared or whiny, but confident and actually rather excited.

Still holding the device in her hand she again touched her finger to her lips then pointed to the back of the house. The last guest was finally leaving. When he looked back to Jax she actually smiled. That's when a couple of things hit him at once. She smelled fucking amazing and her eyes emanated intelligence and self-assurance. It was heady. His heart hammered in his chest as a weird excitement raced through his body.

The car left the driveway and they both ducked back as the headlights panned the yard. Looking back to the house, the kitchen light went off shrouding the back of the house in darkness. Tapping Jax's shoulder he pointed to the house, then curved his hand as if motioning that he was checking the front of the house. She smiled at him again, pulled another small device from her pocket that looked to be about the size of a cigarette lighter. Nodding, she hustled to the back of the house without a word. He saw her holding the smaller unit up to the house as she walked around the perimeter slowly, staying close to the outside walls to be undetected. He needed to find out what some of her cool little toys were.

He watched her disappear around the front of the house and he felt rather the fool ‘cause he didn't know what he should do now. Deciding to check the front of the house, as he'd meant to do before, he silently made his way across the distance to the house. Planting himself to the wall, he saw Jax coming from the opposite direction and to him.

"No security system. I should be able to open the window without an alarm going off, that's one good thing." She turned the second device she'd pulled from her pocket and showed him the low light screen. It said, "No security system detected."

She tucked it in her pocket after he'd read it, then pulled up the second device she had in her hand. She once again held her finger to her lips, turned toward the office window and slowly ran the device along the top of the window. As she reached the middle of the top of the window, a soft click was heard. She froze and peered inside and so did he.

His eyes had long ago adjusted to the darkness and he could see into the office from the moonlight that filtered in. Just as Jax had said, there sat the laptop on the corner of the desk. After a few moments she began pushing on the bottom of the window to open it. Finally, something he could do. He tapped her shoulder and she stepped aside to allow him to move in front of it. He slowly lifted the window, grateful that it made no sound and that it wasn't an old painted shut contraption they'd have to wrestle with. The instant he had the window open, Jax hopped up on the sill, lifted her left knee, and silently hoisted herself inside. She was agile, and as stealthy as anyone he'd ever seen. Quietly picking up the laptop, she checked for a cord to make sure it wasn't plugged in, then handed it out the window to him. Taking it from her, he absently held his hand out to help her from inside only to see the quick shake of her head before sitting on the sill, twisting on her ass, and quietly jumping out.

She reached for the laptop and pointed to the window conveying without words that he should close it. The thought flitted through his mind that he was only good to do heavy lifting and grunt work. Which also called to mind that she had done this a few times before, she knew exactly what she was doing.

Once the window was closed, they silently walked across the backyard and out to the sidewalk from one of the neighbor's houses. Keeping their pace steady so as not to call attention to themselves they walked without talking. As they reached the motorcycle and his truck it dawned on him who that sexy ass bike belonged to and he grimaced as he felt he was a bit out of his league with this one.

She pulled a thin knapsack from the pocket of her jacket, tucked the laptop inside and pulled two strings, before tucking her arms into either loop the strings made, wearing the sack like a backpack. She whispered, "See you at the compound." Jax hopped on the sleek black beauty, pulled her helmet on, and rolled away down the slight incline, not starting the bike up until she reached the bottom of the hill, careful to not wake any occupants in the neighborhood.

Walking to the door of his truck he muttered, "Well, fuck me."