On the plane to Crystal City, VA

0430 CET

Mick didn’t want to let her go. There hadn’t been a lot of people who affected him this way, and it was hard for him be objective about Kaylee. He liked her. She was complicated and complex, and there was a good chance that if she ever saw the violence that he kept simmering below the surface she’d walk away and never look back.

But his life had never been easy or certain, and for this moment they were safe and he had everything he wanted in his arms. He didn’t want to go back out to the main seating area of the plane and remember the fact that someone there was more than likely working for Diavolos. But pretending had never been a game he was good at. And if someone on her team was working the other side, then Kaylee was in danger.

His protective instincts were sharp where she was concerned, and he felt that burning under his skin that he had to fight to keep control of. He set her on her feet and stepped away. One of the people she counted as a friend was probably betraying her.

He hoped like hell he was wrong about that.

“Why don’t you grab a shower?” he suggested. “There are some Grimaldi Global shirts and sweats in the closet over there.”

She tilted her head to the side, studying him. “What will you be doing?”

“Checking in with Cory,” he said. “Someone on your team is broadcasting a signal, and Cory wasn’t sure which one of you it was. The signal disappeared at the apartment, but then started back up when we got on the plane.”

“Oh, so is that why you brought me in here? You thought it was me?” she asked.

He wasn’t going to apologize for doing his job, or being who he was. “Everyone had to be eliminated as a possibility.”

“God, I’d hate to be you,” she said.

“Don’t do that,” he said. “You think I wanted to believe you could betray me? Of course I didn’t. There are five people in the world that I trust, and I want to add you to the list, but my instincts make that difficult.”

She shook her head. “Yeah, it is hard to trust someone.”

“And do you trust me?” he asked.

“I do.”

“Really? Then why haven’t you mentioned that patch under your breast?” he asked. “I’ve felt it twice. I’m pretty sure it’s where you’re carrying the intel for the director.”

She wrapped her arms across her chest. “It’s not relevant.”

“It is. We’re both used to doing things on our own, watching our own backs and suspecting everyone else.”

She gave him one of those wry half-smiles of hers. “Fair enough. This world we live in is making me crazy.”

“Me too,” he said. “I’m going to sit in the bedroom and watch your back while you have a shower, Kaylee. You can do whatever you have to with the intel. No one will come in here.”

He turned on his heel and walked out before he made any promises that he couldn’t keep.

He opened the door to the main area. “Kaylee’s having a shower and I’m going to crash in here until she’s done,” Mick said to the group.

Cory shrugged at him from where he sat next to Ramona. “I’m still trying to convince this one to have drinks with me once we’re back in Crystal City.”

“Good luck with that,” Mick said.

His gut tightened as Cory shrugged—if it wasn’t Ramona, then maybe Jeff? He glanced at Cade who subtly shook his head. So they couldn’t find the signal. Well either they were all clean, or whoever had been sending the signal might have finished. Not exactly what he wanted to hear, and Kaylee wasn’t going to be happy when he told her.

He debated for a few moments, but knew he had to tell her the truth. She deserved to know that someone on her team wasn’t what they appeared. But her father seemed to be working for Diavolos, and he wondered how many more defections she could handle. It wasn’t easy being betrayed, and he thought she had probably dealt with a lot of her issues with her father, but this was different. This was someone she considered a friend. A coworker who should have been all that they appeared was actively betraying her.

He went back into bedroom and sat down on the bed. Damn, he was tired. He remembered his commander—the one he’d testified against in The Hague—had once said that leadership was a burden not everyone could handle. At this moment, Mick got that. Normally he shrugged it off.

He fell naturally into leadership because he made decisions quickly and always followed through. That meant he needed to talk to Kaylee when she came out of the shower.

He knew he should have kept her in his arms until the flight ended.

The door to the bathroom opened and she came out. Her hair was damp and hung almost to her shoulders. The Grimaldi Group golf shirt she had on was big and hung on her frame, and she had on a pair of leggings.

She leaned against the door jam. “So…”

“No one. The transmission is over.”

“Maybe Cory was wrong with the signal he picked up. I guess it could be wishful thinking, but I’d like to believe my team is loyal. Maybe you think that’s a foolish hope,” she said.

“My CO was doing something illegal in Afghanistan,” Mick said, because he couldn’t relay the details to her. “This was a man I trusted and had been in battle with, so I didn’t want to believe it. I fought my instincts and let the situation go on for too long because of that. Men died, because I hesitated to believe the proof in front of me.”

She sat down next to him. “I will be vigilant. I know the intel I’m carrying is very dangerous and that Diavolos will stop at nothing to keep the director from getting it. Normally, I’d have transmitted the data to the director over our encrypted servers, but when I accessed the location I had to immediately shut down our servers to keep from being tracked back to Madrid. I know I could ask Cory to set up a secure link now that we are in the air, but if someone on my team is working for Diavolos I want them found and stopped.”

He agreed with her. The information she had was critical to shutting down Diavolos and his entire operation and it had taken years to get even this close.

“I think you should be careful who you trust until Diavolos is caught,” he said.

“I will be.”

* * *

Kaylee contacted the director on the secure phone that Mick had pointed out at the front of the plane. Ramona was having a shower and Jeff was still talking to Cade about the drone.

She waited while it rang and remembered the phone call that had changed everything for her. God, was it only this afternoon? She felt as if she’d lived a lifetime since then. That her entire world had narrowed to simply running and staying alive.

Not something she ever wanted to experience again.

“Director Truehart.”

“Agent 0322.”

“Go ahead, Kaylee. This line is secure.”

“Sir, Ares Team noticed that someone was broadcasting a signal from the plane, but we were unable to determine who it was. I wanted to find out if I should still come directly to the meeting with you when we land, or should I transmit the location to you now?”

“I think we need to verify who was broadcasting. Is Mick nearby?”

“I can get him,” Kaylee said.

“Go ahead, I’ll wait.”

She leaned around the partition and met Mick’s gaze. He’d been watching the partition and was seated so he could put himself between her and the rest of the group. She tipped her head to the side, beckoning him, and he got up and joined her.

She handed the phone to him and he listened and said yes a few times, then handed the phone back to Kaylee. What had the director told him?

“Sir?”

“I asked Mick if the signal Cory found was still being broadcast. He said no.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay. I don’t want to alert anyone on your team that we suspect them. It’s possible they could lead us to Diavolos himself, and not just the server farm that you located. Can you keep the information safe overnight? We’re currently experiencing a heavy spam attack on all of our servers. I think Diavolos is trying to find out exactly what intel you uncovered. I may have inadvertently given away the importance of your find by sending Ares Team to retrieve you.”

“I can do that, sir.”

“Good. Then I’d like to see you tomorrow morning in my office at oh-nine hundred hours. Go home when you get to the airport. Keep the intel safe, but act like things are normal,” Director Truehart said.

“Um, Director?”

“Yes?”

“My dad might be involved,” she said. She trusted the director and wanted to be square with him. Her dad was a man of questionable judgement who spent most of his time chasing a fortune that was just out of reach.

“Why do you think he might be?” the director asked.

“There’s a piece of code in the masking program that I cracked to find the location that’s pretty much his digital thumbprint. It’s the kind of algorithm that he uses almost exclusively. It’s an older code…”

“Interesting. I hadn’t realized he was still in play. Let me do some digging on my end. If he contacts you, let me know immediately.”

“I will,” she said, hoping the fatigue and disappointment she felt wasn’t obvious in her voice.

“It’s been a long night, hasn’t it?” the director asked.

“Longer than you’d imagine,” she said. “But I’m good. I’ll see you tomorrow morning at oh-nine hundred hours.”

The director disconnected the call, but Kaylee stayed where she was. She felt like she was alone. She didn’t want to let her guard down for a second. She couldn’t trust her father, but then she’d known that at fourteen when she’d run away from him and never looked back. Ramona and Jeff were coworkers and casual friends, so trusting them…well, she would have until Mick told her that one of them was broadcasting a signal.

And then there was Mick.

She put her head against the partition. What was she going to do about the feelings she had for him? It wasn’t like they made any kind of logical sense. She and he were opposites. There was an undeniable attraction between them, but Kaylee had to acknowledge that part of it stemmed from the danger they were in, and the fact that he was protecting her.

How anti-feminist was that?

She knew she could take care of herself, but the constant running and worrying that someone close to her was betraying her was taking its toll.

And then there was Ella. No one else but the director knew she had Diavolos’s server location except for her. And if anything happened to Kaylee, she knew her friend—the one person in the world she truly trusted—would disseminate the information. But given Ella’s past experience with law enforcement, she knew that her friend would go straight to her blog with the information. That was dangerous too.

She should warn Ella, but hadn’t had the chance to talk to her since she’d sent her the intel.

“Kaylee?”

She glanced up to see Mick standing there.

“Sorry. Just needed some time by myself before rejoining everyone.”

“No worries,” he said.

There was something in his expression, like he wanted to say more, and she stayed quiet, waiting. Wanting to hear him tell her sweet little lies that would make her feel better about a situation that was getting more complex by the hour.

But he wasn’t that guy.

Finally, he just turned and walked back through the plane to his seat, and she followed him. Trying not to be disappointed that he hadn’t offered her more. Telling herself that he was doing the best he could. Then she wondered—did he suspect her still? Had the director told him to keep an eye on her?

She tried to relax and let it all go, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t going to be able to relax until this was all over. But the longer it went on, the more complicated everything was getting. And she was tired. Tired of always running and never trusting anyone but Ella.

She was also disappointed because she’d thought—hoped—that Mick was different. Her heart wanted him to be, but her mind wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t.

* * *

Deplaning in Crystal City, Mick and his team stood back, waiting until Kaylee’s team was off the plane with the Grimaldi Group security force. They’d be sent home separately in bulletproof cars, and they would have a guard for the next week, to make sure they hadn’t been followed and were safe. Kaylee would as well, but Mick wasn’t ready to say goodbye to this assignment or her. So he was planning to extend his mission.

“What’s next?” Linc asked.

“Go home and wait for orders. I already asked Sam to put us on the Diavolos mission. I think we’re the most qualified to bring him in,” Mick said.

“Lena isn’t going to like that,” Cade said, naming the head of Aphrodite Team.

“Tough. She hasn’t been involved the way we have. Besides, she’s on surveillance halfway across the world right now.”

But Mick knew Cade was right. Lena was as tough as Mick. They’d never really had a comfortable relationship, though they both respected each other. They were simply too similar to ever really be comfortable together. Both of them were leaders and did things their own way.

“So you’re going home?” Linc asked.

“No,” Mick said. He didn’t have to elaborate.

“I’ll take Ramona,” Cory said. “I’m still hoping to talk her around to my way of thinking.”

“We’re off duty,” Mick warned his friend. “You have to be discreet.”

“When aren’t I?”

“Like, all the time,” Linc said. “This isn’t a chance to do your thing, Casanova. She can’t know you’re there.”

“Listen to him talking to me like I’m a newbie who’s never worked a day in my life,” Cory said to Cade.

“Well, you do tend to think with your dick when a pretty girl is involved,” Cade said.

“I’ll watch the girl,” Frank said from the back. “That way Cory can keep the hook-up option open.”

“Dude, I got this. She’ll never know I’m there,” Cory said.

“Okay, Cory. You watch her and keep in contact with us. Who wants Jeff?” Mick asked.

“I got Jeff,” Cade said.

“Now that everything is settled for the rest of the night, at ten hundred hours we have a mission debrief with the director,” Mick said.

He and his men split off, all of them going to their own vehicles and watching the cars that were to take the geek squad to their homes. Kaylee stood near her vehicle talking to her team, and Mick watched the way the wind blew her hair around her face, saw a strand brush her lips, and remembered how her mouth had tasted.

He tried to tell himself that trusting her was a bad idea, but his gut had already decided she was safe.

And he usually trusted his gut.

It had only betrayed him once. He wanted to believe that this time he was right. But he couldn’t.

He wanted her too much. Not just physically, though he’d love to have her in a bed, twisting under him all day and night. Maybe then he would be sated. But he wanted that broken soul of hers too. The one that made him feel like his messed-up pieces were okay. That somehow the two of them were made for each other.

God, what a sap.

His father would have laughed his ass off at him thinking he could be with a woman for anything longer than one night. A woman like Kaylee…she was out of his reach.

She needed a man who was normal. Not one who faked it. She needed a guy who could give her the stable, safe home she’d never had. Not one who was always moving and changing and afraid to settle down.

She needed anyone but him. But the way he felt about her, he knew letting her go was going to be next to impossible.

So he got into his Mustang and pretended he wasn’t watching her. Wondered what the hell time it was, since they’d gone through a few different time zones since he’d been in The Hague, yesterday morning.

Kaylee hugged her team.

He hoped like hell Cory had been wrong about someone in that group contacting someone outside of the group, but he’d worked with Cory long enough to know he wasn’t. The communications specialist was damned good at his job, and joking aside, even a pretty face couldn’t mess with his head.

Also, he still had to consider it might have been Kaylee. It would be beyond stupid to forget that her father was a hacker who was wanted by Interpol. He was a criminal, and the fact that his “fingerprints” were on the code that Kaylee had read made her suspicious of his involvement.

He acknowledged that the way he felt about Kaylee wasn’t helping him want to give Dirk Thomas the benefit of the doubt. The man had hurt Kaylee, and fathers who didn’t protect their children were a hot button for him.

He put the car in gear and followed Kaylee’s vehicle, trying to convince himself that she was just a job. That he was doing this because of professional ethics only. That the way he felt about her had nothing to do with it.

But lying—even to himself—didn’t sit right with him. So he shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind and concentrated on tailing her.