Oliver’s words rang in my head. “If you would have been a little more responsible instead of wandering around here with your head up your ass, you’d know what was going on.”

He was right. And I hated it when I was wrong.

Josh. Sweet, innocent, country-boy Josh, I thought as I pressed my forehead against the wall. He’d done well on the last mission, but we hadn’t really been in play either. With little-to-no training, Josh not only would need my support, but my guidance as well. And I had no idea how to give either of those things to him when I was still trying to piece myself back together.

It wasn’t for lack of training. I had plenty of that. And plenty of field experience too. On my own. Before Trent. Once Trent and I were partnered, and then married, we were an unstoppable force.

My first mission with Josh had been a test I’d almost failed. And the only way I’d managed to see it through until the end was by pretending that Josh was Trent. It sickened me because the two were as different as night and day. Trent being a force of nature who dominated everything around him and did things his own way was nothing like how it had been with Josh. He’d stepped in when Paige had freaked the hell out and brought her around, but then he stepped back and watched everything unfold, never once trying to assert any sort of authority over everyone and everything.

Trent popping up had been something like a nightmare and a dream. It was as if by pretending he was with me, I’d somehow resurrected him. Only that wasn’t the case, because he’d never been dead.

I could still see his face as he said my name for the first time since I’d thought he was gone. When I closed my eyes, I could feel the tips of his blunt fingers, rough against my own skin. I’d loved him with everything I had. Loved him so much that when he’d died, I’d lost a piece of myself as well.

Where did that piece go? If he wasn’t gone, shouldn’t it have come back to me? Or had he selfishly claimed that too?

With a sigh, I pushed off the wall and inhaled. There was nothing to be done about it except to move forward. Once the mission was over, I’d slip out of Cole Enterprise and find him no matter what it took. And when I did find him, I’d get the answers to all the nagging questions I had.

Until then, I could hardly keep myself locked up in the tight confines of the airplane’s bathroom. Not while there was so much to go over before we landed.

Oliver was right about one thing, damn him. I needed to get it together before my actions created consequences neither Josh nor I would survive.

Head in the game, Ella.

Squaring my shoulders, I left the bathroom, determined to have a plan before we landed.

“You didn’t flush,” a prim-looking woman said as I turned sideways to get by her.

Call it ingrained sarcasm that made me pat her on the cheek as I replied, “I didn’t wash my hands either.”

She sputtered, slamming the bathroom door closed behind her.

Served her right for being such an uppity bitch.

When I sat down in my seat, Josh gave me a quick glance. Probably gauging if I’d pulled myself together or not.

I didn’t waste words of apology. There wasn’t time for any of that.

“Who’s the client? What’s our mission, and what cover did they come up with for us?” I asked.

He blinked. “Garret Baron. Keep the bride safe while we cruise the open ocean for four weeks. Cover to be determined by us,” he answered in a rush of words that hit me all at once.

“Bride? Garret Baron? Are you sure?” I asked, thinking I had to have misheard him.

He nodded. “That’s what the file said. The file also said that the bride, Allyson, is a friend of yours.” He leaned in. “How much does she know about you?”

I was at a loss for words as each thought hammered away. One chiseling into another. Of all the missions. Of all the people. And why now when my head was so damn screwed up? What karma had I projected into the world to have it bitch slap me? Carrying a cover around strangers was hard enough. But lying to someone I knew and had history with? That wasn’t in my field of expertise.

Then again, Allyson had no idea who I’d become. We’d talked only a handful of times after I enlisted in the Army and set out for boot camp. She’d been pissed at me for joining. She couldn’t understand my decision when her father had offered to send me to the school of my choosing. While I appreciated the generosity, I wasn’t a fool. Taking Garett’s offer meant I owed him. And I didn’t want to owe anyone anything. I didn’t want someone else holding the strings of my life and making me dance to their tune. She’d cried when I left, and we’d promised to stay in touch. It had been almost a year since I’d last talked to her. A thought struck me then.

“Wait a minute,” I said as I turned in my seat. “We can’t just show up on her honeymoon. I wasn’t even invited to the wedding! How am I supposed to just show up and be like ‘Sorry I missed your wedding, but hey, I’m here for the party’? What was Garret thinking?”

Josh flashed a quick grin at me, clearly enjoying being the one in on the know. “The ceremony was private. Invitations for the cruise went out to the bride and groom’s nearest and dearest. We won’t be the only ones who didn’t attend the wedding. And really, the invitation is two-fold… you get to see your friend and keep her safe from the threats Garret Barron has recently received.”

I sighed. “Like that’s different from any other day. Why now, though? And why not send in his personal bodyguards? God knows he has enough of them on hand.”

Josh hitched one shoulder. “Maybe he thought having bodyguards present would attract more attention. From what the report said, we’ll be joined by about fifty or so of their friends, so it sounds like it’s going to be more of a party than a honeymoon. Besides, I can’t see how any newlyweds would want bodyguards trailing them everywhere. No privacy. But having a friend there wouldn’t put her on guard, and she’d probably go out of her way to spend time with you.”

I nodded. “Well, when you put it that way, yes, I suppose she would try her best to slip her bodyguards. She never did like having them lurking about. I guess that explains my part in it. So, what kind of ship are we sailing on?”

He leaned back in his seat, getting comfortable. “Yacht. Big ass yacht, too, called the Enchantress. Kinda sucks, though,” he said, prodding me to ask why.

I took the bait. “Why? It should be a fairly sound vessel for the open ocean.”

“No waterslides or lido deck activities,” he answered, trying very hard to keep a straight face by the way his lips quivered.

“Less chances for someone to accidentally fall overboard.” I huffed.

He rolled his eyes. “So what’s our cover? Am I gonna be an international man of mystery who speaks with a heavy Russian accent and smokes only Pall Mall non-filtered cigarettes while sipping hundred-year-old bourbon?”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed, and it spread a warmth through my chest I hadn’t felt in a long time. “You’d never nail the accent, Mr. Alabama.”

He put his hand to his chest, eyes widening as he asked, “Are you implying I have an accent?”

I snorted. “Accent? Josh, you’re about as southern as they come. Why do you sound more southern than the people in Florida? I mean, they’re as south as you can go on the US map, but they damn sure don’t talk like you do.”

He shrugged, wearing an easy grin. “No idea. Never been to Florida.”

My stomach tightened. “Where have you been then?” The more I learned about Josh, the more uncomfortable it made me. He definitely wasn’t a man of the world. How would he fit in with the high-society crowd we’d have to blend into?

He thought about it for a moment. “Alabama, obviously,” he said, holding up his fingers as he started counting off the places. “Then there’s Pennsylvania and Chicago. Barbados. And now, Salt Cay, Turks, and Caicos.

A groan slipped out before I could hold it back.

He stiffened in his seat. “You don’t think I can pull this off, do you?”

I chewed the inside of my cheek before answering, “Josh, these people… They’re… well-traveled. Versed in stock market chitchat and politics. Most them have probably traveled the world long before they even learned to walk.”

“And?” he replied as if it were no big deal.

Did he understand how hard it would be? How easy a newcomer could be sniffed out if they made even the slightest mistake?

He leaned forward, hazel eyes searching mine as a slow smile lit his face. Stretching out a finger, he ran it down the bridge of my nose as he said, “I don’t have to be a man of the world to be the one man you just couldn’t say no to.”

I pulled back, scowling. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

His smile deepened, twisting my nerves into a knot. “Tell them we’re engaged. That way, if you’re ever put into this sort of situation again with your friend, you have an out. I could be the one who got away.” He sighed dramatically, gave my nose another tap, and then sat back in his seat.

I contemplated his offer, only to realize one glaring problem. “If we’re engaged, and I’m not saying I agree to this yet, where is my ring?” Did he not understand these people? The first thing they would do was look for a ring on my finger. And it better be a good ring, too, or we’d be shunted off in the corner like the fat middle-class cousin no one talks about.

He seemed unbothered. “That’s easy enough. We can make a pit stop at a jewelry store before we go to the port,” he answered.

I chewed on my lip as a million thoughts zipped through my head. Was that the best cover? Allyson knew enough about me to know I wouldn’t bring just anyone for a four-week cruise.

Four weeks. Jesus, help me.

And damn Garret Baron for being such an over-compensating father who tossed money around like confetti. Why couldn’t he have given them one of his security-enhanced Swiss Chalets and shuttled them off for four weeks in the damn Alps?

There weren’t many options. Either we were married or engaged. Engaged was easier to work with, because Josh was right about one thing—a broken engagement was much easier to toss under the rug as a win some/lose some moment in one’s life. Thank God I’d never told her about Trent.

“Fine. Next question… where did we meet?” I said, giving myself over to the planning so all the details were hammered out and ready to be in play once the plane touched down.