Lizzy unlocked the door to her townhouse and walked inside. Soon she’d have to make a decision whether or not to keep the place or if she would move to Quantico full time. However, since finding out her father had been murdered and getting tangled in the web of lies she found herself trying to unravel, the future didn’t seem so futuristic. It seemed more like an hour at a time.

“Valeria and Grant are on a plane to Andrews. They’ll be here in three hours. Alex is meeting us here, and we’ll video call with Tate, Birch, and Humphrey,” Lizzy called out as she set down her keys and turned on the kitchen light. A thin layer of dust covered the kitchen table and all her plants were turning brown.

“Jason will meet us here as well,” Dalton told her as he put his phone on the kitchen table and looked around. “Seems strange that Dave isn’t here.”

Lizzy smiled at the thought of her rescued Bichon Frise being doggy-sat by Snip back in Quantico. “I’m looking forward to seeing that furball again.” Lizzy poured a glass of water into one of her plants but figured it was a lost cause. Her therapist had told her to care for the plants to help her recovery. Then she’d rescued Dave. Dave had helped more than the plants. But what really helped was finding out she hadn’t messed up and caused the death of her ex . . . well, until she killed him in the South China Sea. She didn’t feel too badly about that since she found out Dan was with Mollia Domini.

Lizzy felt Dalton’s arms wrap around her from behind as his lips nuzzled her neck. “We have three hours, and you told me you loved me.” Dalton’s hand slid up under her shirt and cupped her breast. “I can think of a way to mark this milestone in our relationship.”

“Sandra—” Lizzy started to say until Dalton pulled her head back and kissed her.

“Can wait three hours. We need a plan on how to handle her anyway, and right now my plan is to make you forget everything except me,” Dalton said roughly as he spun her around to face him. “In three hours you’ll no longer be mine. You’ll be at the will of the president. Right now you’re mine.”

Dalton lips were on hers, coaxing her mouth open as his hands worked her body. He knew where to touch and how to touch her in ways that left her breathless. Never one to surrender, Lizzy snapped the button of Dalton’s jeans and reached inside. His erection was ready for her as she stroked him, earning a carnal growl for her attention.

Dalton dropped his sensual torture of her breasts long enough to shove down his pants, slip on a condom, lift her onto the counter, and delve into her. Lizzy’s head dropped back in pleasure as his head lowered to pull one taut nipple into his mouth as his thrusts assaulted her senses. Lizzy arched her back, her mouth falling open on a silent cry as Dalton sent her over the edge. When she looked up, his jaw was clenched, his face looking as if he was battling for control. Lizzy clenched her legs tight around him, and his control snapped as he came. They only had hours to be Dalton and Lizzy. And she’d be damned if they spent it sleeping.

---

Valeria woke up feeling warm and safe. She blinked her eyes and realized she was looking at a very close-up view of Grant’s neck. The warmth was coming from his large arm wrapped around her, holding her against him. Her face rested on his rugged chest. The man was a heater, and Valeria wanted to curl up closer to him, but the plane jerking to a stop told her they were home.

“Ah, you’re up,” Grant whispered. Three words . . . yet because of how kindly they were spoken, Valeria felt calmed. After what she had endured for the last week, and then to know two people she cared about had nearly been killed, she welcomed Grant’s gentle tone. It was like a balm to her battered heart. But it simultaneously worried her. She liked banter and arguing, and how it kept people at a distance. Kindness, trust, and respect were things that brought people together. She didn’t need to be on that level with a man again while she was a part of this team. Not when her life depended on it. She’d already made that mistake once, and Valeria wasn’t going to repeat it.

“Sorry. I guess I fell asleep,” Valeria said, sitting up and looking at the sculpted face of Grant Macay.

Grant chuckled easily. “You did more than that. You passed out. It’s okay, though. I also have a weakness for women who fit perfectly in my arms.”

Grant stood, stepped out of the seat, and began walking down the aisle, leaving Valeria once again sputtering.

“Major Washington?” a soldier asked as if it were common for two people to come off a plane at four in the morning.

“Yes,” Grant said to the fake name, with all the command of an officer.

“Here are the keys to your car. It’s sitting over there.” The officer pointed outside the gates surrounding the airfield.

“Thank you.”

Grant walked off leaving Valeria, his assistant, to follow. She let out a deep breath of annoyance and followed. “I’ll drive.”

“No, I will,” Grant countered as he opened the driver’s door.

“You don’t know where we’re going. I do.”

“Then you can tell me. Now get in. We’re being watched, and you’re injured.”

Valeria looked over her shoulder and saw the soldier watching them as he made his way to one of the nearby buildings. “Fine,” she grumbled.

Grant winked at her again, and she flipped him off. At least she’d be back with her team. The thought surprised her. She was never a team player, but she found herself wanting that camaraderie. She shoved it aside. With what she was going to show them, they didn’t have time for warm fuzzies and bonding.

---

At this time of morning, the drive went quickly. Val hated to admit it, but Grant drove like he flew—with utter confidence and competence, and she found herself relaxing into the seat as they talked about their Scottish histories.

“I’m so jealous you competed in the Highland games. I always wanted to see them, but our trips to Scotland were rare, and I never got to see one,” Val told Grant.

“I’d spend every break from school there with my grandparents. I’ll show you around if you’re ever up for going.”

Val was about to say her automatic no, but taking in Grant’s profile and sincerity, she said instead, “This is the place.” Val pointed to Lizzy’s townhouse.

“We’ll park a block away and cut through the back,” Grant said before she could suggest the same thing. “Has anyone ever told you that you are cute when you make that pissed-off face?” Then Grant touched the wrinkled bridge of her nose and smiled. “Cute as a button.”

Valeria growled. If she had a gun on her, she’d have shot him right then. No one had ever called her cute before.

Grant parked and looked around as he got out of the car. “You can jump that, right?” he asked, pointing to the privacy fence. Valeria responded by pulling herself over despite the recent wounds and flashing him a victorious smile before dropping to the ground on the other side.

“There’s my lass,” she heard Grant chuckle as he easily bounded over it. For being such a large man, both height and muscle wise, Grant certainly had moves.

“Val!” Lizzy cried as she pulled open the sliding door and raced out into the backyard. Valeria stood stiff as Lizzy wrapped her in a hug. “I am so glad to see you. I was so worried about you.”

Val brought her arms up and patted Lizzy awkwardly. “I should have told you where I was going. I’m sorry.”

Lizzy pulled back, her blue eyes flashed with annoyance. “I won’t lie and say it didn’t piss me off. But I figured you thought you were doing what was best. But now that attacks have been made on the group, I think it’s time to be all in. If you can’t be part of the team, it would be best if you left.”

“But there’s so much to do,” Val blurted out, realizing she let her tough demeanor slip.

“Then no more lone-wolfing it. Are you ready to be part of the team or not?” Lizzy stepped back, crossed her arms over her chest, and stared her down.

“After I show you what I have, you’ll need all the help you can get. You’d have to kill me to get me to quit.”

“Good. Then before you do anything, run it past me.” Lizzy held up her hand as Val opened her mouth to complain. “In or out?”

Val closed her mouth and took a deep breath. Lizzy wasn’t her ex-boyfriend, Anthony. Lizzy was maybe the only person who truly knew Valeria’s pain after being scapegoated and dumped from her life’s calling. Valeria had to take a step of faith and trust again. “In.”

“Good. We’re all inside.”

Grant was already at the door pounding Dalton on the back before his grin grew. “Jason! You old pain in the arse. I’m damn sorry to hear about Michelle. She was one hell of a woman.”

The light quickly dimmed in Jason’s eyes at the mention of his wife. Val knew that look all too well. It was a look of not caring about life any further. She’d had it before Humphrey had broken into her house to recruit her. There was never an option to simply block out the pain. But she had learned to move forward when she became a part of this team. Maybe the team would give Jason something to live for as well.

Val walked into the small kitchen and headed for the living room as she said hello to Jason and got a hug from Dalton. Alex sat on the couch with his head bent and his hair falling in his eyes as he worked on the computer. He looked up at her and frowned. “Hey, dude.”

Val stopped dead in her tracks as the normally hyper Alex went back to work. Apparently he wasn’t ready to forgive her for leaving yet. “Hi, Alex. What are you working on?” Val asked, taking a seat by him.

“Calling the prez.” Suddenly Alex sat up and looked at her. “That wasn’t cool, dude. You shouldn’t ditch your team. Lame. Real lame. Do you know how worried we were? How much time I took trying to find you, hoping you weren’t dead? Not cool, dude. Not cool.” Alex shook his floppy-haired head and went back to work.

Somehow his words hurt even more than Lizzy’s. Maybe because Alex wasn’t like her or Lizzy. He was somehow innocent, even though he’d served time in prison for hacking. Valeria imagined this was how a mother felt when a child was disappointed in them.

“I’m sorry, Alex. It won’t happen again,” Valeria said softly. She went to move when two string-bean arms were flung around her. Alex’s mop of a head was pressed against her as he hugged her.

“Good,” he sniffled as he hid his face from view. She felt him take a deep breath and sit back up. “Are you ready?”

The group nodded, and Alex connected with the laptop in the hospital. He moved it to sit on top of the TV stand as everyone sat on the couch or the floor in front of the coffee table so they could all see the computer.

The secure connection linked up, and Tate was the first person Valeria saw. She sucked in a breath at her friend’s bruised and battered body. “Jesus, Tate.”

The perky press secretary just smiled wide. “Val! Oh, I am so happy to see you. Are you okay?”

“Am I okay? Are you okay?”

Tate nodded and reached across to grab Birch’s hand. “We both are. I channeled my inner Valeria.”

Fuck. She would not cry. Valeria looked at the ceiling and tried to take a breath without anyone noticing she was choked up. But when she looked back she saw Grant had noticed everything. “I’m proud of you, Tate. You bought me enough time to get the evidence we need to blow the whole thing wide open when you talked to Manuel’s man.”

“Not only that, but she took down the entire media arm of Mollia Domini,” Birch said proudly.

Tate shook her head. “No, we did. We all did it together.”

Val cocked her head. “I don’t know what’s been going on. I haven’t been near a television or radio in over a week.”

“I guess this is where we come in,” Dalton said, drawing everyone’s attention. “Thanks to Tate, we knew that Claudia Hughes was following a script of talking points that were setting Birch up to fail and to shake the people’s faith in the country. The talking points revolved around wars that were going to be fought and an economy on the verge of collapse, which wasn’t true.”

“So,” Lizzy picked up, “thanks to Alex running the fingerprints Humphrey helped us get, we found out Secretary of State Sandra Cummings was the person placing the orders for Phylicia to carry out. Sandra fled the country, and Alex tracked her down. And this is where it gets interesting. When you called us, we were in Romania, trying to find Sandra. What we found instead were the dead bodies of George and Helena Stanworth.”

“And at two in the morning, police were called to the Stanworth mansion. Apparently his much younger wife, Christine, hung herself,” Dalton added. “I guess she was the one who found the bodies of Fitz and Hugo that Jason left for George.”

Dalton nodded to Lizzy who picked the story. “We found the house where George and Helena were killed. Alex is working on tracing ownership, but we believe it was a meeting of the inner circle of Mollia Domini. George and Helena’s time of death lines up with a phone call from Christine, most likely when she found the bodies. Our guess is the head of Mollia Domini took them out since they were made. And probably killed Christine as well since she found the bodies. Alex?”

“Yeah, so I found out the house is under an estate, but I’m having a real hard time finding who the relatives are. I’m still working on it,” Alex said, running his hand through his hair, making it stick up more. “Also, there’s something else I need to tell you all before we turn it over to Valeria. Um, so you know I’m like a hacker, right?”

Everyone rolled their eyes.

“Yes, I think we know that,” Birch said dryly.

“Well, I kinda sorta told some hackers about Mollia Domini.”

Lizzy reached out and smacked the back of his head. “Why the fuck would you do that?”

Alex winced. “There was a reason! Dudes, really. It’s big. There’s a small chat room with some of the best hackers from all over the world in it. I have a couple friends in there, and there was already chatter about something big going on. Well, they told me some interesting things. First, there was a bomb stolen from Australia. And second, there were five Russian bombs stolen as well. Third, the Chinese police killed a man outside of the Shanghai Stock Exchange with a bomb in a large duffle bag.”

Everyone was quiet as they looked at each other. They all knew what it meant.

“So, there are five more bombs out there,” Birch said, shaking his head. “This is very bad.”

“I think this is where I come in.” Valeria stood up and pulled off her belt.

“Dude,” Alex whispered with wide eyes.

Valeria rolled hers at him. “I’m not getting undressed, I’m getting you a thumb drive. Can you make it so everyone can see it?”

“Dude,” Alex said in such a way it was obvious Val was underestimating his skills. Who knew one word could mean so many things?

Valeria pulled out her knife and wedged the point into a small pinhole as she pulled hard. The belt buckle popped open, revealing a small plastic baggie with a thumb drive no bigger than half an inch. She tore into the plastic and handed the small drive to Alex.

Valeria looked around as Alex walked toward the computer. “Hey, where’s Brock?”