Crystal City, VA

0830 EST

Kaylee was glad to be showered and changed and back in Virginia. It was a nice, early fall day—she wished she could enjoy it, but until she handed over the micro USB to the director and her superiors at Grimaldi Global, she wasn’t going to be able to relax.

She’d heard nothing more from her father. Well, it wasn’t like she had heard anything from him to begin with. It was just that she’d seen that code. That little line at the end of the program that was his signature.

She left her apartment early and caught the bus to Crystal City. She felt safer on the streets than taking the Metro. She should be early for her meeting, which suited her because she wanted the intel delivered and out of her hands as soon as possible. She remembered the day she’d come to Grimaldi Global headquarters for her interview. She’d been wearing a suit she’d cobbled together. Ella had loaned her a pencil skirt and they’d scoured the second-hand shops until they’d found a blazer to match.

She smiled to herself. For the first time in her life, Kaylee had felt like a normal girl. She had a best friend and they were shopping for clothes for a job interview. It had been foreign to her, and yet it had felt fun and almost a bit exotic. She’d been to places other people wanted to go. She’d done things that would titillate most people—running from the law, hiding out, jumping onto trains—but she’d never had normal.

She owed Ella something that she knew she’d never be able to repay. Ella had made her feel like she wasn’t broken and damaged beyond repair. And the information on her micro USB would help Ella feel the same. This was a path to the man who’d left his scars deep on Ella’s soul.

She felt someone watching her as she got off the bus and started toward Grimaldi HQ. She was still several blocks away from the building. Damn. Glancing over her shoulder, she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just morning commuters on their way to work. Most in suits and ties, carrying laptop bags, some with their breakfast in a paper bag and a to-go cup of coffee clutched in their spare hand. Was she just being paranoid?

Better paranoid than dead.

Ella said she needed to have a better motto than that, but it worked for her. Uncomfortable now, she moved down the street toward a nearby Starbucks. Surreptitiously she glanced over her shoulder to see if she was being followed, but she didn’t notice anyone.

She ducked into the Starbucks and went toward the bathrooms at the back of the store. She had been in this coffee shop before. The workers left the back door that led to the alleyway propped open so they could go out for a smoke without setting off the alarm. She walked past the bathroom, glanced over her shoulder to make sure she was alone, and then let herself out the back. She glanced up and down the alley and saw a large dumpster off to the side and cursed under her breath. Of course the only cover was the dumpster.

She ducked behind it, positioning herself so she was shielded from view from the doorway and the alley entrance, but where she could still watch and see if anyone came out.

She glanced at her Timex. From her experience, surveillance always seemed faster than it really was. About a minute later a man entered the alley. He had thick black hair, wore dark glasses and sported a thin moustache. He glanced both ways, then spoke into his watch before moving toward the street.

She waited a good five minutes to make sure he was alone, and then stood up and walked cautiously to the end of the alley and glanced around the corner. The man was across the street watching the entrance to Starbucks. She sighed. She hadn’t worn the right clothes for climbing over anything, so going back into the alley and climbing over the fence that led to the building on the other side wasn’t much of a choice. She should continue on to Grimaldi and alert the security team.

That seemed the most sensible. Even though she’d just fought her way out of Madrid with a team of bad-asses, she wasn’t one. She was a computer analyst these days, and the baddest thing she’d ever done was hacking. Like Ella said, street smarts were honed from living on the street, not playing with computers.

She straightened, adjusting her messenger bag across her body in case she decided to run for it. She turned to walk back into the Starbucks and ran smack into a solid, muscled chest.

Arms like steel bands came around her and she squirmed and twisted, opening her mouth to scream when she felt a heavy hand cover her mouth.

“Dammit, it’s me.”

Mick.

Of course it was.

“What are you doing?”

“Making sure you stay out of trouble, which you clearly aren’t,” he said.

She was glad to see him, and justified it to herself because she wasn’t going to have to face the guy across the way on her own.

“I was just going to meet the director,” she said.

“Which explains why you’re a block away in the alley,” he said, dryly.

“Someone was following me,” she told him. “Other than you.”

Mick took her hand and drew her back against him, turning so she was pressed between him and the brick wall. He leaned in close, like he was kissing her neck, and she felt a shiver go down her body.

“What—”

“Shh…your friend came back for a second look,” he said. “Kiss me.”

He didn’t give her a chance to think, just turned his head, putting his mouth over hers. And though she knew this was to distract the man following her, the kiss felt…too good. It wasn’t real, she told herself, but her body argued otherwise.

* * *

The job wasn’t finished until the information she carried was delivered to Sam. The connection to Kaylee was business. Job related.

But as his mouth brushed over hers, Mick knew that he was lying to himself. He was aware of the man who’d been following Kaylee looking at the two of them, then walking down the street past them. Mick was bigger than Kaylee, and had blocked her completely with his body.

She pulled her mouth away from his. Probably a good thing, so he could concentrate on making sure the guy who’d followed her didn’t do any further damage, but he wasn’t ready to stop kissing her. Wasn’t ready to let her go.

Their eyes met and he tried to convey that she should stay quiet and still, which she did. He lifted his head and turned it toward the street. The entrance was clear. He glanced the other way and noted it was also empty.

He stepped back.

She stayed where she was, leaning against the wall. Her mouth was slightly swollen and she ran her tongue over her lips. He groaned.

“What?”

“That was close. Come on, I’ll escort you to your meeting,” Mick said. The sooner he got her safely to Grimaldi Global’s headquarters, the sooner the information she was carrying could be delivered. Then he could walk away and pretend she was just like every other woman he’d met and slept with.

She stopped him with her hand on his wrist. “Hey, Mick?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. I’m glad you’re here with me,” she said.

He nodded. If he opened his mouth he’d probably say something he shouldn’t. Like tell her how pretty she looked today. She’d pulled her long hair up in a ponytail, which accentuated the long line of her neck. She had on a pair of fitted trousers and a button-down shirt that hugged her curves. She looked professional, of course, but also sexy.

“Back to not talking to me, I see,” she said.

“What is there to say?” he asked, glancing up and down the street before taking her hand and leading her toward headquarters. He was dressed for D.C. in a pair of jeans, some solid boots, a blazer and his shoulder holster. He was licensed to carry concealed in the US, and he never went anywhere without a weapon. He had knife in his boot, which might not be necessary for the metropolitan area, but he always felt safer when he had it on him.

“That maybe you’re glad to be here too,” she said.

“I am. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be,” he said at last. He took his sunglasses from his inner jacket pocket and put them on. They were high-tech glasses that Cory had issued him before they’d left the plane. They were made of augmented reality glass and could send a signal back to his tablet as they recorded everything on the street he saw.

She didn’t say anything as they walked back up the street, weaving through the crowds of people who were heading to work. “True. I can’t imagine anyone making you do anything.”

“I was career military,” he said. “I can take orders.”

“Yet the day we met, you were in court for disobeying one,” she said.

They turned up the sidewalk toward the steps leading up to Grimaldi Global headquarters, and walked into the lobby. Once inside, he pulled her to the side so that others could get past them. “I’m not dumb. If something doesn’t feel right I won’t do it, no matter what the orders are.”

“I like that about you,” she said. “You don’t follow blindly.”

“No, I don’t,” he agreed. Life would be a hell of a lot easier if he did. For example, he’d be home enjoying his leave—vacation time, he mentally corrected himself, instead of here with her, if he followed orders.

“I guess this is where we say goodbye,” she said. “Thanks for coming along this morning.”

“No problem,” he said. He wasn’t leaving until he saw her safely through security, and then he decided he’d wait for her to come back out. Diavolos had sent men to kidnap her twice, and Mick wasn’t too sure that he was going to give up simply because both Kaylee and the micro USB she carried were back in the States.

She gave him a little wave, adjusted the strap of her bag—the one he’d fixed for her—and walked away. He stood there watching her. Realizing how many times in his life he’d done this. His offices were in another part of the building and he had no reason to follow her up to her meeting, but he wanted to. She walked over to the security desk, and then he glanced away from her, making eye contact with a tall man he’d never seen before, but his augmented reality glasses alerted on him, flashing red and pulling up data on the screen.

He tried to keep up with the information download, but the guy had a long rap sheet…or rather, wanted sheet. As the words stopped scrolling, the man’s name flashed on the screen.

Dirk Thomas.

Kaylee’s father. He pivoted around, looking for the man, but he’d disappeared. He searched the faces in the lobby, but didn’t see Dirk. Kaylee noticed him looking and tipped her head to the side.

He signaled her that they needed to talk, and she headed back over to him, but really, what was he going to say? That her father had followed her here? And how had he disappeared so quickly? Mick was worried that Kaylee might be walking into a trap.

But how could that be?

Sam had never betrayed them before. Could he be compromised? Mick knew only way to find out, and that meant Kaylee wasn’t going to the meeting on her own.

“I’m going with you.”

“I think I can handle this,” she said.

“Oh, I know you can, but I’m still coming,” he said, flashing his security badge to the guard at the desk, who logged him in.

“I’m carrying,” Mick said.

“You’re cleared to, sir,” the guard responded.

Mick cupped his hand around Kaylee’s elbow and led her past the security desk to the private elevator that only went to the top floor and the director’s office.

“What’s going on?”

“I just got a hit on your dad, that’s what. And then I lost him, maybe somewhere in the building. If he’s here, that means trouble.”

“Or maybe he’s trying to protect me,” she said.

He shook his head, taking off his sunglasses and tucking them away in his jacket pocket. He knew she wanted to believe that, but experience told him that Dirk Thomas was here to save his own skin, not hers.

“Your faith in others is your weakness,” he said.

“I’d rather have faith and be weak, than be cynical, alone and strong,” she said as the elevator doors opened.

* * *

Before they got in the elevator, Kaylee looked past Mick, trying to find her dad among the workers streaming into the building. Everyone had to stop at the security desk. She glanced at the escalator that took people up to the second floor, but didn’t recognize him among the people using it. There were two banks of elevators and again she didn’t see him among those waiting for them.

Damn. Had Mick really seen him?

Her hands shook and she knotted them together to stop it. She was mad at Mick for being so stubborn when it came to her father, but even more mad at her dad. Had he been the man on the stairs at the apartment in Spain?

“Are you sure it was him?” she asked.

He didn’t say anything until they got on the elevator. The doors closed.

“Yes. You know that Cory is good with tech, and he’s using a facial recognition program that you helped develop.”

“Nice. Using my own tech to catch my dad,” she said, trying to sound sarcastic, but really she was glad that her code was working as it should. That had been the program that secured her last promotion. As much as she enjoyed hacking, she really liked working for the good guys.

“Are you mad?” he asked.

Honestly, she wondered why she had let herself care about him. He was clueless about so many things.

“Yeah.”

“I’m mad too,” he said. “Your dad really needs to back off, or I’m going to take him down.”

“I’m mad at you, Dumbo,” she said as the doors opened and she stepped out into the hallway.

He grabbed her arm and tugged her back behind him as he looked up and down the hallway. “All clear, you can go now.”

See, she thought to herself, that’s precisely why she liked him. Even though she was mad and called him a name, he still was watching over her.

“Sorry about calling you Dumbo.”

“I wasn’t offended,” he said. “Takes more than words to hurt me.”

But she knew that it didn’t. She’d called him cold and calculated. Incapable of feeling anything, and yet…here he was by her side.

Protecting her.

Not because he had to, but because he wanted to.

She reached out and took his hand, stopping him.

“Really, Mick, I’m sorry. I say things when I’m angry because I don’t have any other way of hurting someone I care about.”

He stepped closer, the heat of his body surrounding her as he put one arm on the wall over her head and the other on her waist. “Do you care about me?”

She bit her lower lip. How dumb could she be? He’d said he didn’t do relationships, only sex. But she did care about him. “I do.”

“God, woman,” he said, leaning down and resting his forehead against hers as he closed his eyes. “Me too.”

She knew that this was the wrong place and wrong time, but she put her hands on his jaw, loving the feel of his stubble under her fingers, and kissed him. Letting him know that she wasn’t going to leave him the way the precious few people he’d allowed himself to care about before had.

She had no idea what the future held, but she knew herself well enough to know that she didn’t fall easily for a man…having never felt this way about one before. But Mick was different, and she wasn’t going to just let him go.