Nora pulled her Prius into the lot and stepped out of the car. She was heading toward the entrance when she heard Mike’s voice behind her.

“Every day I’m surprised you make it here alive in that tin can.”

She laughed, slowing a little to let him catch up. “Ha-ha. We’ll see who’s laughing when gas goes up to four dollars a gallon again.”

“I’ll still be laughing,” he said. “Because I’ll have banked hundreds of hours driving my Mustang and I’ll just hitch a ride with you.”

“You wish.”

They entered the building, showed their IDs to security, and moved through the checkpoint. They continued to the elevator, stepping to the back and waiting as a throng of employees crammed in after them. The doors shut, the elevator rising in the old building.

“What’s up for the weekend?” Mike asked, dipping his head toward hers.

“The usual,” she said. “Errands, laundry, beach.” She didn’t know why she omitted her drinks with Braden that night. Was it because she didn’t want Mike to invite himself along? Because her feelings about Braden weren’t as innocent as she tried to pretend they were?

“Exciting,” he said.

“Hey!” She scowled at him. “I like my weekends.”

He kept his eyes forward, plastering a look of placid acceptance on his face. “Your weekends are fine.” He broke into a grin. “For an eighty-year-old grandma.”

She laughed and shook her head. “You’re such a dick.”

“You mean that in a good way, right?” he asked as the door opened on their floor.

They pushed through the crowd to follow two other people out of the elevator.

“No. I just mean you’re a dick,” she said.

“You love me and you know it,” he said.

Something in his voice made her look up, and she caught a flash of innuendo in his eyes. It wasn’t unfamiliar. He flirted with her pretty much constantly, and he’d hinted at the fact that he was more than open to the idea of taking their friendship to the next level.

She was a fool not to take him up on the offer. It was a great match on paper. He was a great-looking guy. He made her laugh, was fun in a douche-y kind of way. And he was someone who wouldn’t ask too much of her, who wouldn’t make her stupid.

But the thought left her cold. Which didn’t make sense.

They stepped through the glass doors into their division and Nora immediately slowed down. Something was up. Everyone was too quiet, their eyes directed on the glass walls separating Alvarez’s office from the bullpen where everyone else worked.

She followed their gaze, her eyes coming to rest on Braden’s wide back in front of Alvarez’s desk. They were alone in the office, Alvarez’s face drawn, a look of defeat in his eyes that Nora could see even from across the room.

“What’s going on?” Mike asked no one in particular.

“Don't know,” Miller said. “Kane walked into Alvarez’s office and closed the door. They’ve been in there for almost half an hour.”

Nora walked to her desk, trying not to stare at Alvarez’s office. She wondered if Braden was being assigned another special project. It had happened a lot in the past couple of years, and she’d watched with a mixture of professional and personal jealousy as he’d flown from Rome to Paris to Switzerland. He’d even gone to Spain and Algeria. He hadn’t been able to talk about the assignments, but he’d somehow returned looking tan, healthy, and oddly resigned.

She took her seat and shuffled through her reports from the raid the day before, trying not to stare as Braden stood on the other side of the glass walls. He and Alvarez shook hands and Braden stepped out into the bullpen. She expected him to wear an expression of determination, the expression that settled into his features when he was already anticipating a mission. Already planning for it.

Instead she was surprised to see that his expression was relaxed, his shoulders unusually slack. He walked to his desk, pulled a box out from underneath it, and proceeded to open drawers and throw stuff into the box while everyone watched.

“Dude, what’s going on?” Perelli finally asked.

Braden closed the bottom drawer of his desk and stood, picking up the box. “I’m out.”

He headed for the door, his eyes on Nora as he passed her desk, some kind of unspoken communication passing between them. She wanted to stop him, wanted to ask what was going on, but she was in shock. Paralyzed by the unlikelihood of Braden Kane quitting the FBI with no warning whatsoever. Her throat closed as she watched him go, her breath growing shallow as she ran through everything that had happened in the past forty-eight hours, searching for something, anything, that would lead to one of the Bureau’s most promising Special Agents walking out.

She had nothing.

The elevator dinged, pulling her out of her stupor, and she pushed away from her desk and hurried out into the hall. The elevator was already on its way down when she got there, and she opened the door to the stairwell and took the stairs two at a time, racing around the landings on each floor until she finally reached the ground floor.

She burst into the lobby in time to see Braden disappearing out the front doors. Racing past security, she pushed the glass doors open and spilled out into the warm September morning.

She found him in the parking lot, bent over the backseat of his Saab as he shoved his box of belongings into the car.

“Braden, wait!”

He straightened, his eyes coming to rest on her as she hurried toward him. Was there relief in his eyes? Had he been hoping she’d come after him?

“Hey!” she said, coming around his car. “What are you doing?”

He shrugged, the gesture looking strangely boyish in his big man-body. “I quit.”

She shook her head. “What do you mean? Why would you do that?”

He drew in a deep breath, pulled his eyes from hers to look at something over her shoulder. “I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.”

“Then don’t quit!” she said. “You can take it back!”

He returned his gaze to her face, his expression softening into a smile. “I meant that I don’t know what I’m doing here anymore. It’s just… not working for me.”

“Did something happen?” she asked.

He hesitated and she knew she’d hit a nerve. Could see it in the too-still set of his features designed not to give anything away. They’d all learned it. Don’t blink too rapidly or too slowly. Don’t look away. Don't look up (people often looked at the ceiling when they lied). Don’t fidget.

“No,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about it for awhile. I’m not sure I’m doing any good here anymore.”

She swallowed, stuck between sorrow and a strange kind of fear. Something wasn’t right. “What are you talking about? You’ve done more good than all of us put together. I don’t understand.”

He looked at her for a long moment, and she felt it stretch between them, all the things they hadn’t said. All the chances they’d had to say them.

“This is just something I have to do. It’s the best thing for me — and for the Bureau. You’re just going to have to trust me on that.”

She wanted to scream at him. She didn’t trust him. The Bureau would suck without him. He was the best of them, and he was doing something crazy. Making a decision he would later regret.

But she saw the resolve in his eyes. Knew him well enough to know he had made up his mind.

She tucked a piece of loose hair behind her ear. “Dammit. I’m going to miss you, Kane.”

He lifted a hand, and for a moment she thought he was going to touch her. Then he looked up at the building looming over them and dropped his hand to his side.

He grinned and it was like feeling the sun on her shoulders after it had been hidden behind a particularly cold bank of clouds. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” he said, opening the door to his car. “We have plans tonight remember?”

She nodded, the vise around her heart easing up just a little. “Rosa’s?”

“Rosa’s. I’ll pick you up at seven.”

He slid into the driver’s seat, closing the door before she could reply. She was still standing there when he pulled out of the lot. It was only then that she realized the strangeness of his final words. They were friends. They usually met at the restaurant. When the weather was especially nice, they’d meet on the corner and walk the rest of the way together.

He’d never picked her up before.