She laughed out loud as she drove through town. Her activities of the night, seeing the look on Dodge's face as she climbed on her bike, and feeling the warm night air blowing across her face was all thrilling. She'd done what she set out to do. Nabbing the laptop was a bonus; she'd shown Dodge she was capable of doing a great job and by the look on his face, she'd done just that.

Now, to get the laptop to the compound and let Gaige work some magic on it.

At the thought of Gaige her stomach twisted. She'd no doubt be receiving an ass chewing when she got back for ditching Dodge. Hopefully the fact that the mission was a success, or maybe it was, he'd get over his piss-offed-ness, if that was a word, sooner rather than later. The last time she'd made him angry he didn't talk to her for a week.

All that aside, she completely understood that this was a serious situation. What they'd just come upon tonight was quite possibly criminals planning something more than likely illegal. Possibly deadly. Maybe both. She hoped more than anything that the laptop held some information that would be helpful. If not about tonight's activities, at least where "down there" was and hopefully, if Gaige would allow it, she could head to wherever that was and see what was going on. She vowed to herself that she could work with Dodge. He seemed to soften to her while they were on recon tonight and he might be useful in his big Tarzan kind of way. Since there was no danger of any kind of entanglement between them, it should be no problem. At least if she told Gaige all of this he might soften to her insubordination earlier tonight.

Pulling into the garage, she set her helmet on the mirror and inhaled a deep breath before hitting the elevator button. No doubt Gaige was watching her right now, so she didn't want to show fear. The doors closed her into the metal cubical and the slow ascent gave her a private moment to steel herself for what was to come. She whispered to herself, "Be contrite and sorry."

The doors opened and she jumped when Gaige stood before her, arms crossed over his massive chest, legs spread wide, jaw tight. Shit.

Locking eyes, she waited a beat without saying anything. When the doors began closing she reached out and stopped them, then stepped into the hall. Gaige didn't move which meant they were now standing quite close to each other. So close she could smell the spicy scent of his aftershave and if her hearing was accurate, he just ground his teeth together. This was bad.

"Gaige, I'm sorry. I was mad." He stepped back, but only slightly and she continued. "He messed up my mission last night and I didn't want to work with him."

Finally he responded. "I'm team lead. Not you. Me. When I partner you up, you listen. That's one of the first rules of this whole group. We don't survive if someone goes rogue. We don't survive if agents begin deciding to act without the group in mind. Do you understand me?"

"Yes." It came out as a whisper.

"Say again."

She straightened her shoulders, cleared her throat and loudly responded. "Yes, I understand. I'm also very sorry."

His nod was slight, almost imperceptible but it was there. So, she continued in hopes that she brought good news. "We got a laptop from the house."

Tugging on the strings of the knapsack, she pulled it from her shoulders, pulled the laptop free from inside and handed it to him. "Also, there's a meeting happening next week. The only thing we heard was, "I'll see you down there next week." Tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear her excitement bubbled up. "I'm hoping wherever that is it's on that laptop."

Gaige turned with the laptop without saying anything more. So it would be the silent treatment for a while. She'd deal. He entered the computer lab and a buzzer sounded on the intercom. He pushed the button, "Yeah."

"It's Dodge." The familiar voice sounded and a little chill ran through her body. She moved her shoulders back and forth to dispel the feeling and quickly walked to the elevator and tapped the override button. Waiting for the elevator to descend she smoothed her hair back into its ponytail and swiped under her eyes with the pads of her forefingers.

The doors slid open and her breath caught in her lungs. For the first time she noticed that his hair was blond with the ends lighter than the base. Must spend a fair amount of time in the sun. And had she ever seen eyes so green? Almost catlike. He exited the elevator and walked to the computer lab door without a word, but she noticed that his brows furrowed and his full lips frowned. Opening the door, he stood back allowing her to enter the room before him. His masculine scent was part musk and part something akin to Old Spice. Her dad always wore Old Spice. It was one of her favorite smells to this day.

"Dodge, welcome back. Just taking a look at the laptop Jax brought back. What are your thoughts of the evening? Let's debrief."

Gaige pointed to a chair next to his and she watched as he gracefully sat, surprised that a man his size didn't flop down and grunt. She pulled another chair up from the conference table and tried not to be irritated that Gaige was all but ignoring her.

"We witnessed four parties leaving the house besides Mangus, one at a time. Nothing of note. Their various modes of transportation are an '06 Ford Fusion. Silver, nothing special. A newer, possibly a '13 Dodge Avenger black in color. A '12 or '13 Ford Focus. White, an older, possibly 2000 or so Buick Regal. Deep red or burgundy - that's the car Mangus left in alone. All of them have Indiana plates. All the men looked younger, maybe in their early twenties. My guess is this is a recruiting ground for Mangus. Invite the young ones over. Tell them how excited he is to be working with them, tell them how important of a role this is, and then they'll give them the jobs that are the most dangerous. Likely loading or transporting product because they'll be expendable. Since Victor’s men have scattered, they’re likely trying to refill the void.”

Gobsmacked. She couldn't believe he'd gathered all of that information in the time they were there. It was difficult not to be impressed.

"Great intel. I gave Ford log on information for you to access our systems. Please type this into your report when you get home. I'll tell the others and we'll be on the lookout for those cars. I'm guessing the fact that they met somewhere in town and not on the Ryker Mountain that your assumption is correct. Mangus is keeping the newbies ignorant of any information that could get him caught."

Dodge nodded slightly, looked at her and their eyes locked. He nodded at her once then stood. "I'll let myself out. Do one of you need to get me into the elevator?"

Gaige interrupted her admiration of Dodge, "Jax, help Dodge get out of the house. I have his pass for the elevator and the code to get into the house on the desk upstairs in the office. Make sure he gets that information on his way out." He finally turned away from the computer he was working on, "Dodge, welcome aboard and great job tonight. Sorry it started out rough, but that won't happen again." He rubbed his chin then said, "You guys need to be here at 8:00 a.m. to meet the others."

Figures, he had to say it. Without looking at her Gaige turned back to the laptop, plugged it into the unscrambling device to access the password as she walked to the door. Dodge quickly stepped around her and opened the door for her. Once they were in the hall, she waived her access card in front of the elevator then looked into his eyes. "You don't have to open the doors for me, Dodge. Around here, I'm one of the guys."

"I wasn't raised that way. Can't change forty-something years of training, Jax."

She shrugged and found it hard to look away from him. "Just sayin' you'll get teased from the others if you keep showing me deference."

The elevator doors opened and he waited for her to step in. She stifled a chuckle as he responded. "I can handle myself."