I'D OFTEN WONDERED about the women in Warren's life before me. He was too skilled in bed to have been a complete loner all his life. But unlike some people who need to know all the gory details of their lovers' pasts, I was always too afraid to ask him. The reason? The vision of the woman standing in the doorway of a cage filled with assault rifles. She was exactly everything I'd feared. Lara Croft meets Jessica Rabbit. A brunette Barbie doll in tactical gear.

She was tall with a tan face, plump lips, and shiny chocolate brown hair loosely braided over her shoulder. She wore fitted olive green cargos and a long-sleeve black t-shirt that looked like it had been melted to form to her bulging rack and tiny waistline.

I muttered a swear word.

She stared back, but she wasn't looking at me.

Warren still hadn't turned around. He hadn't budged. Nor was he breathing, I realized, when I went to nudge him. This wasn't good.

"Warren Parish." It was like she was making a declaration to the universe, her voice as smooth as the way she glided across the room toward us—or him, rather. I wasn't even sure she'd noticed me standing there.

He turned slowly to face her. She nearly matched his height, towering over me (still the invisible bystander of their reunion).

"Hello, Allison." His greeting wasn't welcoming, at least. He even folded his arms across his chest and took a step back. The problem was, despite his abrasiveness, one thing was painfully obvious: there was unfinished business between these two. Dirty business. Sexy business. If the tension had been nerve gas, we'd all be dead.

I cleared my throat and stepped in between them, jutting my hand out in her direction. "Hi, I'm Sloan."

Her dark eyes sliced toward me; one was almost black, the other a dark emerald. "I know who you are."

Still preoccupied with her mismatched eyes and what that could mean, I slowly lowered my unaccepted hand when she turned back to my fiancé.

Redness rose in his cheeks; the angry muscle was in overdrive. "Glad to see nothing's changed, Fury, and that you're still a hateful bitch."

Whoa! I didn't think Warren had it in him to talk to anyone that way, much less a woman.

He looked at me and shook his head. "Ignore her."

That was kind of hard to do since she was standing so close that the holster strapped to her thigh kept brushing against my rejected hand.

Fury's lips spread into a thin smile. "Is that what you've been doing for the past year, Parish? Ignoring me?"

He smirked. "Yeah. What are you even doing here? Is there a shortage of insurgent-fueled exhilaration in the world right now, or did you need to drop by to pack some fresh underwear?"

Her mouth laughed, but her eyes did not. "I was recalled to train the latest recruits and then it looks like I'm going back to Afghanistan. So yeah, it's the panties thing. Why? Do you miss them?" She fiddled with the zipper on the front of his coat and he quickly swatted her hand away.

My mouth hung open. I couldn't believe this was actually happening right in front of me. "Oh my god. Seriously? Who the hell do you think you are?"

Warren spoke to her through clenched teeth. "You know, I think you're the only woman I've ever wanted to kill."

She leaned toward him. "I consider that an honor."

Behind us, Huffman chuckled.

Fury pushed through us toward him. "I'll be back later"—she glanced back over her shoulder at Warren—"when it's not so crowded in here. Parish, you know where to find me."

"Bye, Fury," Huffman said, his eyes glued on her ass as she walked out.

I whirled toward Warren, unable to formulate a complete sentence. "What the—? Who…huh…what?" Giving up, I gripped the sides of my skull.

Huffman mimicked warning tones as he walked back behind the counter. "Dun, dun, dunnn…"

I pointed to the door. "What the hell was that about? Who is she?"

Warren's face dropped and he stared at the floor. "She's a long story."

"It's a good story," Huffman added.

Warren looked back at him. "Can you give us a minute?"

Huffman laughed. "Hell no."

Rolling his eyes, Warren grabbed my hand and pulled me outside. Fury was driving out of the parking lot in a black ATV. Warren growled up at the sky as he put on his sunglasses.

I folded my arms. "Well?"

"I'm sorry. There's no excuse for her. She's an awful person," he said.

"An awful person that you've clearly slept with."

He nodded. "I'm not proud of it, but I'm not going to deny it either. I haven't seen or talked to her since long before I met you. She called me a few times last summer, but I didn't answer. That's it, I swear."

I raked my hands through my hair. "Warren, I'm not mad at you, but dang, a little heads up might have been nice."

He shook his head. "I had no idea she was here. The last I heard, she took a contract in Saudi Arabia with another company. I didn't even know she worked for Claymore anymore."

A memory from a conversation with Azrael popped into my mind. "Oh my god! Azrael told you he was going to do this the night you told him you wouldn't."

"I know, but I never dreamed she would accept."

"Does she have powers? Is she part of Azrael's little super group, SF-12?" I asked.

"What?"

I used my fingers to pry my eyelids open wide. "Her eyes, Warren. Can she see angels?"

His head pulled back and he looked around, genuinely perplexed. "I don't know." He rubbed his hands over his face and was frustratingly quiet, looking everywhere but at me. "Geez, I really don't know."

I put my hands on my hips. "So you know nothing about this woman. It was just blowing shit up and sex with you two, huh?"

He scrunched his nose. "Pretty much."

I swore again, this time not under breath. I groaned and walked off across the gravel lot.

He quickly came after me, took hold of my arms, and bent to look me in the eye. "Don't freak out about this, babe. It's nothing."

"What if it's not nothing? What if Azrael brought her here to split me and you up?" I asked.

He laughed with heavy sarcasm. "Then he's in for a huge disappointment. I let that ship sail years ago. There was a time, long before I met you, when she wanted to come back, and I wouldn't even return her calls. You have nothing to worry about, Sloan."

My bottom lip poked out. "But she's gorgeous."

He smiled gently. "Gorgeous isn't everything, babe. She's only attractive till she opens her mouth."

I sighed. "That's the truth." There were so many things I wanted to ask and didn't want to ask at the same time. "Why would Azrael bring her here if not to hurt us?"

"Because she's good," he said seriously. "She's damn good."

Of course she is, I thought. "You met her here?"

"No. I met her in Iraq in 2008 when I was still in the Marines. She was with Claymore even back then."

"How?" I asked.

He led me over to a picnic table by the building and we sat. "It was outside Baghdad. My unit was following a lead to a village west of the city, and we stopped to rest and rehydrate in an area that seemed to be abandoned. We cleared this old building and found a crew from Claymore bunkered down inside. They were doing an escort and had stopped for a break there like we had.

"Our guys set up a perimeter, and I was off in position away from everyone, watching through my scope. Some time later, one of my guys inside took a sniper round from out of nowhere. I heard the echo, but couldn't find where it came from. I guess either our team or theirs had been tracked by an insurgent cell. Then the ground fire started. Our unit and the Blackwater team returned fire.

"I was doing my job, picking off who I could from my position, but I didn't realize there was a second, smaller group that was flanking me. Fury saw them before they engaged and took out two of them." His eyes drifted away from mine. "I'd be dead if it weren't for her."

I swallowed hard. Warren had died because of me.

"I saw her again a few weeks later before I came home. We exchanged information, but I didn't see her again until she recruited me to Claymore."

My face fell. "And then what happened?"

He bit the insides of his lips for a second. "I finished training and we had a couple of weeks together before she decided she wanted other things. She took an assignment in Somalia, and I haven't seen her since."

"Ugh."

He laughed. "It's a bad thing I haven't seen her?"

"She left you. It explains the angry muscle when you saw her."

He blinked. "The what?"

"Nothing. Never mind."

With a finger, he turned my face toward his. "Even if she hadn't left, it never would have worked. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."

"You're the boss now. You can fire her," I suggested.

He kissed my forehead and laughed. "I'll let her finish training Nate, and then she's gone."

Snuggled against the cold into his chest, I thought of how tolerant Warren had always been about Nathan. Suddenly, the Allison Fury bombshell (pun intended) felt an awful lot like the business end of what goes around, comes around. And I knew one thing was certain:

We hadn't seen the last of Fury.

* * *

On our drive to Walmart, I did what any girl in my situation would do: I alerted my best friend to the situation at hand. I sent a text message to Adrianne. OMG. I need to talk to you.

When she didn't answer immediately, I did the only other thing that came naturally: I Googled Allison Fury until we pulled into the store's parking lot. Of course, I found nothing on her. I wasn't even sure what her actual name was, and I wasn't about to ask Warren. While we went shopping for archery equipment and dinner (two things sold a few aisles apart at any major department store in North Carolina), my phone finally buzzed in my hand. It was Adrianne.

Sorry.

I'm not ignoring you.

Crazy day at work.

What's up?

I always wondered why she felt the need to split up her sentences. One long text message would suffice, but Adrianne was a 'more-the-merrier' personality in all aspects of life, digital communication included.

I must have groaned or sighed loud enough for Warren to notice because he asked, "Everything OK?"

"Yeah. I don't understand why Adrianne can't send one text message. She has to send every line separately like she wins a prize at the end of the month for meeting a quota of messages sent."

He chuckled. "I've noticed that."

I tapped out a response as he led the way toward the fresh meat section. What do you get if you cross GI Joe and Miss America?

Her reply came faster than I expected. Wonder Woman?

Me: Good guess, but no.

Adrianne: ?

Me: Warren's last girlfriend. :(

Warren was looking at a sale sign over a massive pile of ribeye steaks. "What do you think about having some of the guys over for dinner tonight?"

I nodded. "Whatever you want to do is fine with me."

He started loading steaks into our cart beside the bow and arrows he'd picked out.

My phone buzzed again.

Adrianne: How did you find that out?

Me: I just met her.

Adrianne: Shut up.

Me: :'(

Adrianne: That sucks so hard.

Me: She's perfect.

Adrianne: I'm sure that's not true.

Adrianne: If she were perfect, Warren wouldn't have dumped her.

Adrianne: I'm sure you have nothing to worry about.

Me: She dumped him.

Adrianne: Oh. :(

Adrianne: Still.

Adrianne: You have nothing to worry about.

Adrianne: Warren loves you.

Adrianne: Where did you meet her?

My eyes drifted down the long aisle of blood red meat, realizing I hadn't even told Adrianne we were at Claymore, much less what we'd found out about the supernatural love of her life. "Warren, she doesn't know we're here, does she?"

He shook his head and pushed the cart toward the marinades and spices. "I haven't told her. See if she's heard from Az."

Me: We're at Claymore. We drove up here for a couple of days. Have you heard from Azrael?

Adrianne: No. Isn't he there?

Adrianne: I've left messages.

Adrianne: I feel like he's ignoring me.

Me: He may not have cell reception. He's out in the field.

It wasn't a complete lie. 'The field' could be anywhere, and I wasn't even sure Azrael had a phone when he vanished or if it would work wherever he was going. The last thing I wanted to do was explain everything that happened to Adrianne using only my thumbs, and there weren't adequate angel emojis to properly explain our current predicament. "She hasn't heard from him."

"No surprise there," he said.

Me: Let's have dinner when I get back.

Adrianne: When will that be?

Me: Not sure yet, but I'll let you know. Sometime this weekend because we close on the house on Monday. I'll call you later.

Adrianne: XOXO

I dropped the phone onto my lap. "She's going to be crushed."

"Don't worry about it till you have to." He nudged me with his elbow. "There are pressing matters at hand. Sweet potatoes or white?"

* * *

"Knock, knock," a familiar voice said as we sat down to dinner in the downstairs common kitchen of Echo-10. I turned as Nathan walked into the room, holding up his index finger. "Guess who has a magic fingerprint and retinas with security clearance now." He was in civilian clothes and smiling from ear to ear.

"Guess who's had it all along and only found out about it today?" Warren asked with a grin as Nathan pulled out the chair next to Reuel at the end of the table.

"Really?" Nathan asked.

Warren nodded. "Enzo told me this afternoon."

"You talked to the boss man about me, huh? Checking my report card?"

I pointed at Warren who was carrying a slab of butter to the table. "He talked to him so he could break you out of boot camp for dinner."

"Thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate it."

Warren laughed. "Yeah, I do."

"It smells amazing in here." Nathan looked over the table that was filled with fresh grilled ribeyes, a pile of baked potatoes I almost couldn't see over, and a salad bowl big enough to feed the rest of Claymore.

"We did some shopping in town today, and Warren picked up food while we were there." I picked up a potato with a set of tongs and put it on a plate with a steak before offering it to Lamal.

"Gratalis," he said as he accepted it.

"I've never felt so manly in my life," I said. "We walked out of there with a bow, twenty-four arrows, and ten pounds of ribeye."

Nathan looked confused. "Do you feel manly often, Sloan?"

I smoothed my shirt over my belly. "Not lately." I picked up a fresh plate and pointed the tongs at Reuel. "Do you want one steak or two?"

Reuel held up five fingers.

I laughed and put two steaks and two potatoes on his plate. "You can have more after everyone else has eaten. Warren, did Enzo ever say how many guys to expect?"

Warren cringed as he poured honey mustard over his salad. "I decided not to tell him."

I moved my hand wide and almost smacked Melinda in the head with the juicy tongs.

"Hey! Watch it!" she bellowed.

"Sorry." I put another steak on a plate. "Warren, why did you do that?"

He cut his eyes over at me. "After talking with Enzo this afternoon, I decided if we couldn't invite all of the team, we probably shouldn't invite any."

I'd almost forgotten about Fury. But not quite. My stomach turned in a knot. "Oh." He'd confirmed it. She was a member of SF-12. "What else did you find out?"

"He got a call. Said we'd talk more later," Warren answered.

Nathan was too concentrated on his plate of food I was holding to notice the shift in the conversation. He reached over the table and took it from my hands. "Warren, why did you buy a bow? Bow season has been over for months."

"I'm going to teach Sloan how to shoot," Warren said.

"Oh my god," Melinda whined. "You can't serve dinner without almost killin' somebody. Keep me the hell outta wherever you're gonna be handlin' weapons."

Nathan perked in his seat. "I have to come watch."

I spun toward him. "You'd better not. I'm nervous enough without an audience."

Nathan looked at Warren. "What is it? A thirty pound draw weight?"

Warren smirked and shook his head. "If that. Maybe less. It's a basic compound bow, might even be for a kid."

I smiled. "It's purple."

Nathan laughed. "Of course it is."

"I'm hoping it will help her direct her powers easier," Warren said, sitting at the table's head.

I tried to discreetly nod toward Melinda. "We have company tonight for dinner, darling."

Melinda made a sputtering noise with her lips. "Powers, shmowers. Bet I've seen Abner do worse. No need to mind your tongue around me, cupcake."

"Good to know," Warren said.

"How's Taiya doing?" Nathan asked, splitting open his potato and slathering it with sour cream and butter.

Melinda nodded. "All her numbers are better. Doc says we're just waitin' on the lightbulb to flip back on."

Unfortunately, Taiya's lightbulb had never been all that bright to begin with. "There's no telling when that could be, I guess?" I asked.

"I wish there was. Me and my girl have a lot of time to make up for," she said.

"What are your plans?" Warren asked.

She pointed at her own face. "Do I look like a planner to you, Mr. Parish?"

He grinned.

Nathan moaned with satisfaction as he chewed a bit of steak. "Oh man, real food. This is so good."

"They don't feed you real food?" I asked. "The cafeteria isn't bad."

He shook his head. "We have a separate mess hall, and we eat a lot of MREs." He looked at Warren. "That shit's gross."

Warren laughed. "Yep."

"What do you think about your instructors?" I asked.

Nathan stopped mid-chew, looked around, then slowly finished chewing the bite in his mouth before swallowing with a lot of effort. The corners of his mouth were bending upwards.

"I met Fury today," I added.

He coughed and covered his mouth with his fist.

I rolled my eyes as he started laughing.

He looked at Warren. "Dude."

"Did you know Warren used to date her?" I asked.

Nathan's eyes doubled. He clearly didn't know. "Seriously?"

Warren wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Date isn't the word I would use."

"That's lovely," I said, suddenly nauseated.

Nathan slowly clapped his hands. "Bravo."

I stabbed a piece of steak so hard that my fork tines chimed against the plate. "She's a nightmare."

Nathan's head tilted. "She's certainly made an appearance in my dreams a time or two."

I thought about chucking a potato at his head. "Do you know if she has any kind of abilities?"

He smiled. "I'm sure she does."

"Nathan, be serious," I said. "Does she have any supernatural powers?"

He shrugged. "Don't know. Her eyes are crazy though. Is that what you're talking about?"

"Yeah," I said.

"She might have. Az told me before he disappeared that someone would be training me on the supe stuff but didn't say who." He looked up toward the ceiling and folded his hands in the prayer position beneath his chin. "God, I hope it's her."

I sighed. "Men."

"How long are you guys staying?" he asked.

"I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday," I said to Warren.

"We'll leave tomorrow," Warren said.

"So no shooting tomorrow?"

"We can practice for a while in the morning before we head out, or we can shoot when we get home. Set up a target in the backyard at the new house."

"Please practice tomorrow," Nathan said with a laugh.

I looked at Warren. "We can practice tomorrow, but Nathan can't come."

"Nathan has work tomorrow, anyway," Warren reminded him. "When do you graduate boot camp?"

Nathan thought for a second. "The week before your wedding."

Warren made a sour face.

Nathan held up his hands. "You don't want me at the wedding?"

Warren put his fork down. "Of course I do. That's not what I was thinking about. I was hoping you'd be done sooner."

"Why?" He sat back and scowled. "Need me and my truck to help you move?"

I groaned. "I wish it was that."

My grim response stirred Nathan's curiosity. "What's going on?" he asked, balancing his elbows on the table.

"I found a letter from Azrael this morning." Warren took a deep breath. "We may have problems in the spirit world sooner than we expected."

"What happened to the first day of summer?" Nathan asked.

"It looks like that could have been a tentative plan," Warren answered.

No longer hungry, I dropped my napkin onto my plate. "I could have a week left on the planet, boys."

Nathan rolled his eyes, clearly unsusceptible to my melodrama. "Are you going to come back and stay here?"

I sighed. "I really don't want to, but it does beat the hell out of Asheville when it comes to security."

"Also, Taiya is here, and we can't move her like she is right now," Warren added. I knew he was trying to make me feel better about it.

I nodded. "I know."

Warren caught my eye across the table. "This is only a temporary solution, Sloan. We're buying that house and I intend for our daughter to grow up in it."

"You're right. It's only temporary." I forced a smile. "Let's do it."

Warren looked satisfied, but my brain was turning on all the reasons I hated the thought of living at Claymore. My dad and Adrianne being first among them. The list had only gotten longer since we arrived, and Allison Fury was now racing toward the top. But the thing that irked me the most was Azrael. We'd discovered the truth of his lies and manipulation, and here he was, still the master puppeteer.

Only now, it was me dangling at the end of his strings—exactly where he wanted me to be.