Chincoteague, VA

2000 EST

Kaylee wanted to punch something or someone. Again. But she wasn’t going to have sex with Mick. It had been incredible. But it was a mistake. And she prided herself on learning from her misdeeds and moving on.

Stronger.

Smarter.

Yeah, right.

She crossed her arms over her chest. Mick might not fully believe in her because of her connection to her dad, but she knew that she could trust him.

“I suppose I should be glad she did that, so I’m not the only suspect you have,” she said at last. She was still processing how someone on her team could be working against them. They all knew the evil that was Diavolos. No one in their right mind wouldn’t want him stopped and put behind bars.

“I don’t suspect you,” he said, spreading his arms open. She’d seen him in action a few times, but in this moment, she realized she was seeing the real man. This was who he was. He’d told her violence was his legacy, and she was beginning to understand what he meant by that.

“Maybe not. But you still don’t trust me, do you?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think you’d deliberately harm the team.”

She shook her head. Why was she trying to get him to admit he trusted her? He’d said he didn’t do emotions, and wasn’t that what trust was?

“Where did Ramona store the device you saw her using?” Kaylee asked.

“In the bottom of that sweater she’s wearing,” Mick said. “It would have to be no thicker than a credit card. Is that even possible?”

“Yeah. There have been a lot advances in micro-tech. Like your earbuds, for example. She must be using a signal from something else,” Kaylee said. Focusing on what Ramona had used helped to distract her from the fact that her friend might have sold her out.

“I wonder why Cory’s device didn’t detect it,” Mick said.

“Me too. She might have simply switched it off. I went first when we were in the flat, so she would have had time to do it,” Kaylee said, thinking of the good times she’d had with Ramona. The two of them laughing until their sides hurt over some silly joke. The late nights working and talking in the office. Trying to stop someone they both thought was the vilest person in the world. It was no coincidence that his codename was Diavolos. “I hope you’re wrong about what you saw.”

Mick reached over and put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it. “Me too.”

She was tired and felt like she’d been put through an endurance test. The worst part was, it wasn’t over yet. The director was going to want to look at the information they had acquired. Suddenly she didn’t know if she could take much more. She turned away but Mick stopped her, pulling her into his arms instead.

She could take care of herself. She didn’t need anyone, but losing a friend like this was going to hurt. She wrapped her arms around him and he hugged her close. “I think you might have the right attitude toward relationships.”

“In what way?”

“Just not doing them,” she said. “If you never care for anyone, you can’t be let down.”

He sighed, and it wasn’t a comforting sound. He kept one arm around her waist and leaned back, tipping her head up toward him. “Or one day someone starts to slip past your defenses, and you realize how lonely you’ve been.”

She wanted to believe he was talking about her, but at the same time she hoped he wasn’t. She’d been betrayed by so many people in her life. She didn’t want to let that happen again. “Mick…”

“You don’t have to respond to that. Just know that it’s not as easy to be an island as you might think. Most of the time the choice isn’t mine.”

She put her head in the middle of his chest and hugged him. She had no idea what was going to happen next, but she was scared and sad. And now she knew that more was at stake than she’d guessed. The director had warned her when he sent her to Madrid that the information they were after was going to come at a cost. But she had arrogantly thought she could handle it.

“Do you want me to get the device?” she asked. “Should we confront her?”

“I want to see what happens when we leave here and head back to Crystal City.”

He was so calm and cool. She wanted to shake him or do something to rattle him. But that would be ill-advised, she thought. They need Mick like this. Right? She had no idea what he’d be like if he slipped the leash and went rogue.

“Will the director be ready and waiting for them?” she asked. She didn’t mind playing games in the cyber world, but in real life she hated it. She wanted to have a code she could use to unmask the bad guys and then point Mick at them so he could take them out. But the world didn’t work that way. Something she was ignoring because she was tired.

“She already knows where he is. Someone might be working with her from inside Grimaldi,” Mick said.

“Are we going to change where we’re going?” Kaylee asked.

“It wouldn’t matter. They know how Grimaldi Global analyzes data once it’s found. They’ll be expecting us to clean out this place and take it back to headquarters.”

“What can I do?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

“I don’t accept that,” she said. “I have to do something. I’m not like you, I can’t bury my feelings and ignore them.”

“I wish it were that easy,” he said, kissing her hard on the lips and then pushing her behind his back as three men walked into the clearing and headed toward the house.

* * *

Mick knew that if he waited long enough, whoever was after Kaylee and the geek squad would show up. He didn’t know if Ramona had called them in, or if his team had tripped a silent alarm. But he knew this op had been too easy.

He unmuted his mic. “We’ve got company. Three professionals, street legal.”

He lifted his weapon and felt Kaylee’s breath against his back. “Stay down.”

He moved out of the cover of the trees, shadowing the men as they moved toward the house. He stopped and took aim at the one nearest him. Taking a deep breath he fired, aiming for and hitting the thigh, taking the guy down. The man rolled as he fell, his two companions kept moving toward the house, and Mick clocked them while watching the guy on the ground who fired off a shot that whizzed past him, brushing his shoulder. He felt the burn from the bullet and then heard it hit the tree behind him. He hoped that Kaylee had listened to him, but pushed her out of his mind as he ran toward the guy he’d shot.

He was back on his feet, firing again, and this time Mick launched himself into the air, using his body to knock the other guy down. He wrapped his hand around the man’s gun arm and slammed it hard to the ground, bringing his knee up hard, making contact with the man’s groin as he groaned.

His attacker wasn’t subdued, instead he punched Mick hard in the ribs, twisting his gun hand in Mick’s grasp and using his body to roll Mick off him. Mick wanted the weapon out of his opponent’s hand and went for his wrist, and this time he had a better grip, snapping hard and back, bruising the wrist as he slammed his hand on the ground. His fingers opened and Mick grabbed the weapon, tossing it out of reach as the other guy punched him again. This time under his eye. The impact burned and he saw stars for a minute.

But he hit back, not pulling his punches, and he straddled the other guy, linked his hands together for a stronger punch, and brought them down hard on his nose. He felt the spurt of blood on his hands after the impact, and the guy’s head snapped back. He went limp under Mick.

He rolled off of him, reaching into his pocket and drawing out a zip tie.

He rolled the man to the side and bound his wrists, then glanced toward the trees, signaling for Kaylee to join him.

He knew that he needed to bind his ankles. The man wasn’t out of commission by any means. Just dazed for now. Which was fine with Mick. He wanted to question all of them. Once they were all restrained he’d do it. Cade was the best at interrogation.

This had turned into the kind of mission they were good at. He wasn’t happy about it, but it felt more comfortable to him that just escorting someone. They knew how to get answers.

He took off his belt, wrapping it in a figure eight around the man’s ankles and then tightening it as Kaylee arrived next to him.

“Stay back,” he said in a low tone. “He’s dangerous, even bound. Can you find his weapon?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. Focus. The threat hasn’t passed.”

She nodded and started to stand up. He grabbed her leg. She stopped. “Go low. Just in case.”

She dropped down and crawled in the direction he’d thrown the gun.

He patted down the man he’d knocked out, taking a knife, brass knuckles, another gun, and a cellphone as well as an earpiece from him. He removed the tiny battery from the earpiece to stop it from broadcasting, then took the battery out of the cellphone. He put the stuff he’d collected in a pile to his right. Kaylee came back over with the semi-automatic handgun.

“Put all of that in your bag,” he said, gesturing to the pile.

“Glad I kept it with me,” she said, gathering all of the weapons and tucking them into the bag. “Want me to check this?” She gestured to the phone and battery.

“Yes. But go back to the trees and stay hidden.”

She nodded and moved away.

Mick watched her go, feeling the bruises on his body and the burning from the cuts, but more than that, feeling something else. A warning deep inside that he had gotten lucky this time. Kaylee could have been hurt. This exercise could have been set to draw him out and capture her.

“One clear,” he said.

“Two clear,” Linc said.

“Five clear,” Cade said. “Clean up?”

“Affirmative,” Mick said, knowing Cade would send someone out to get the guy he’d bound. He wanted to figure out how to track the earpiece back to whoever had sent them.

Cory came out and Mick held up the earpiece he’d taken from his opponent.

Mick signaled to Kaylee to rejoin them and she hurried back as Mick stood up and hefted his assailant over his shoulder, handing the enemy earpiece and battery to Cory. He walked toward the house feeling every one of his thirty-one years. He always considered it a victory when he lived another year, but tonight he was feeling each and every one of them. And for the first time he realized he might be getting tired of fighting.

* * *

Kaylee didn’t like seeing the bruises and blood on Mick’s face. She’d tried to pretend that she didn’t feel anything for him but gratitude that he was keeping her alive. But the truth was, she cared for him.

She wouldn’t have had slept with him if it had just been about sex. It hadn’t been casual, and though she’d denied it to herself at the time, there was something about Mick that made her care. Made her want to believe in someone again. He was dangerous. An electric energy vibrated off of him.

Cory had taken all of the electronics equipment that they had collected from the men and was analyzing it.

Kaylee had thought Ramona would be a good choice to help, but she didn’t trust the other woman now. She was trying to pretend like nothing had changed, but she couldn’t help noticing how quiet and pale Ramona looked as she sat in the corner.

Had she not realized what would happen when she called in the goon squad?

“Stop glaring at her,” Mick said, coming up next to her. She tucked her head down, because if she saw his battered face again she wasn’t going to be able to resist touching him. He needed some medical attention, but Linc had a bullet wound in his shoulder and Cade, the Ares Team medic, was focused on him.

“I’m not,” Kaylee said.

“You are. Maybe this wasn’t her,” Mick said. “We don’t know for sure. That’s why I’m letting it ride.”

“I can’t,” she said, turning to face him. She didn’t care that all the members of Ares Team could see her, she put her hand on his face, gently touching the parts that weren’t bruised and bleeding. “I hate seeing you like this. Linc was shot and we’re all incredibly lucky that you guys are so good at what you do.”

“The other guys look worse,” he said. “And it’s not luck, Kaylee. It’s training.”

“Lame jokes aren’t making me feel better about this,” she said softly.

“I know. I’m not used to having someone…” He turned away from her.

She wanted to make him finish the sentence, but she became aware of Linc and Cade watching her closely. And then she noticed they looked away quickly when Mick caught them staring.

“I’m going to talk to Ramona,” Kaylee said, walking away before she did something really dumb, like take Mick by the hand and lead him to a private spot where she could make sure he was okay by getting him naked.

Ramona looked up as Kaylee approached.

“You okay?” Ramona asked.

“Yeah. Mick made sure of that,” Kaylee said.

“They had guns,” Ramona said. “I think they were going to kill us. All of us.”

“I think so too. These aren’t nice men. We know the extent Diavolos will go to in order to keep his empire from crumbling. He’s not the kind of man who takes his losses and just moves on.”

“I know,” she said. “I just thought… I need to talk to you.”

“Okay,” Kaylee said. “Talk.”

“Not here,” Ramona said. “Can we go into the other room?”

“Nope,” Mick said. “You two stay right there.”

“Obviously, I want to talk about something I don’t want you to overhear,” Ramona snapped.

But Mick just shrugged.

“Mick saw you use some secret device to do something earlier,” Kaylee said. That sounded vague, but honestly, even Mick wasn’t sure what Ramona had done.

She sighed. Lifted the hem of her sweater and pulled out a thin credit-card-sized piece of plastic. “Diavolos has my little brother. He’s going to sell him to the highest bidder if I don’t stop you,” Ramona said. “I used this to let him know where we were so he could come and get you.”

“Are you sure he has your brother?” Kaylee asked. Ramona had five siblings. They all lived in the Washington D.C. area. She knew that Ramona had spoken to them often.

“Yes. He sent me a photo. If you give me my phone I can show you,” Ramona said.

“I’ll get it,” Mick said, walking into the other room where Cory was.

“When did he give this to you?” Kaylee asked.

“Before I met you at the train station in Madrid, I went by my apartment. There was an envelope waiting in my mailbox. I opened it up and to see what it was. Then my phone buzzed with a photo of Manny and the message to stop you or he’d be sold. He’s only six, Kaylee. I can’t let anything happen to him.”

Ramona started crying and Kaylee put her arm around her friend’s shoulder. She patted her on the back and felt her hatred of Diavolos grow. That monster had gone too far. And her fear that her father was involved with him only strengthened. This device was the kind of nanotechnology that Dirk loved to fiddle with. He’d used something only a little larger to communicate with her before she’d left him.

“We won’t,” Kaylee said.

Mick returned with the phone, and Ramona pulled up the text message and the photo, which was heartbreaking. Manny was sitting on the floor of an empty room in just his underwear, his big brown eyes looking dazedly up at the camera, like he’d been drugged.

Mick cursed under his breath. Ramona sobbed and Kaylee grew determined. Tracking people via wireless networks was what she was good at. She’d save Manny, find Diavolos, and bring him to justice.

“Can you track it?” Mick asked.

“I tried,” Ramona said. “There’s a bunch of safety features. Firewall, encryption…”

“Let me see what I can do,” Kaylee said. She went to her laptop and started working, losing herself in the cyber world. A world of lines of code and text. A world where she could handle herself and she knew the rules.