[Ryan]

We thought it’d be fun to spend our one-week fake anniversary doing exactly what we did this time last week. And it was fun. It really, really was. This is the first time Emma has stayed over since last Thursday. We’ve done stuff this past week, a lot of great stuff, but she hasn’t slept over since our first night together.

I stare at the ceiling and wiggle my fingers to bring feeling back. She fell asleep curled against me, which is awesome. I love the feel of her body against mine, the feel of her warm breath tickling my chest, the absolute peace I feel holding her. It’s everything I’d ever imagined it’d be sleeping with someone. Actually sleeping.

It’s the part no one tells you about, like your arm falling asleep from the lack of circulation thanks to the position of her head. It’s the fact that, no matter how uncomfortable you are, you won’t move and risk disturbing her peaceful slumber. It’s also the lack of sleep because you just want to watch her.

I’m scared to close my eyes. If I do, I just might wake up from this dream and Emma won’t be by my side. It’s only been a week, but she’s quickly becoming more to me than a fake girlfriend. I wonder if she regrets coming home with me. She doesn’t act like she has any regrets. About me. About anything. She jumps in with both feet and never looks back. It’s one of the many things that drive me wild about her.

I sigh as I adjust my shoulder to loosen it up. She stirs, and I freeze. After muttering something incomprehensible, she rolls to her side, releasing my arm from its prison. Thank God. I ease up and turn to rest my feet on the floor. There’s no use attempting to get any sleep. I have to be at work in a couple hours and want to get in a run before I’m chained to a desk for the next six hours.

As I silently stumble through the dark in search of my running gear, I contemplate my situation. It was my choice to go into computer science as my degree. I shouldn’t already hate it when I still have another year after this one before I graduate. Then I’ll be chained to a desk eight hours a day instead of six—if I’m lucky enough to find a job right away.

Not for the first time, I question the reason I went with computer science instead of getting a business degree like my brother. And my father. And his father. I think about TREX and wonder how being a part of that agency may change everything. I hope it does. I didn’t realize how much I wanted something more than a computer engineering degree until I had that something more dangled in front of me.

I dress quickly and grab my shoes before leaving the room, silently closing the door behind me. If I stay in the room, I’m too tempted to strip and climb back into bed, pull her against me, and never leave.

As I pass by the kitchen island, I glance at the laptop and my heart stops. Shit. With Emma over, I forgot to log in last night and send the search results of my data retrieval to Bailey. I’m not even in the program one week and I’m already late on an assignment. I open the laptop and sit. This shouldn’t take long. I saved the results on the desktop for easy access.

Except they’re not there.

I dig through the folders. Maybe I saved the files somewhere else in my haste to finish before Emma came over. When my search comes up empty, I run a scan on the entire hard drive. Still nothing. Have I been hacked?

I eye the chat program that will put me into contact with TREX. I haven’t used it and wonder if opening it to find a few files would automatically disqualify me. I’m supposed to be IT. I’m not very good at my job if I can’t find a few misplaced files.

After spending another twenty minutes searching and failing to find the files, I finally open the chat and rest my fingers on the keys. What do I say? It’s not like I’m going to come out and admit to losing what may be classified information.

A new chat window pops up. Hello, Cadet Ryan. How can I help you?

Cadet Ryan. I grin. That’s kind of catchy. I need help locating yesterday’s data retrieval files.

I remoted into your machine last night to retrieve them.

“You did what?” I blow out a breath as my nerves tighten. It must be Bailey. Why’d you do that?

You missed a deadline.

Sorry. I debate telling her why and decide against it. It won’t happen again.

No, it won’t.

What’s that mean? I’ll be kicked out of an internship program I’m not even in? TREX will swoop in and take the super laptop from me? I don’t want any of that. It’s best if I just take it like a man and move on. What are my next orders?

I’ll be in touch once I analyze your results. Also, place the data retrievals in the encrypted folder as instructed. Do not save them to the desktop.

The chat window closes, leaving me blinking at a blank screen. I just got my ass chewed via chat for missing a deadline. TREX doesn’t allow for any missteps.

I still have time to get in a small run and leave the mod before there are any other distractions to stop me, like a beautiful, crazy redhead lying naked in my bed. The sun hasn’t yet risen, and I smile. I love running in the dark. Nothing but the streetlights to keep me company. It’s so peaceful.

Until Jason appears, falling into step next to me. He doesn’t say a word, just keeps pace. We’re two miles in before he turns to me. “Morning.”

“Where’s Jackson?”

“Probably still in bed. It’s o’dark thirty, dude.”

“Why’re you here, then?”

He grins. “Cuz you showed me up last weekend. I’m not about to let some rookie get the upper hand. Besides, as a rule, TREX agents don’t run alone.”

“That’s a rule?”

“A guideline,” he amends. “But you get up so damn early. Today is the first day I’ve been able to drag my ass out of bed early enough to run with you. Having you IM Bails this early helped. She kicked my ass out of the room to talk to you. Can you believe that? She said something about having to nip this in the bud. Any idea what bud she’s nipping?”

I don’t miss the jealous undertone in his question and want to put his suspicion to rest. “She reprimanded me for missing a deadline.”

“Dude, you haven’t even been in the program a week and you already missed a deadline? What the hell?”

“I had company.”

“I don’t care if you had the president over for cocktails. Agents don’t miss deadlines. If sideline agents can’t deliver timely intel, frontline agents go in without all the facts. That’s how agents get hurt. Or worse.”

Jesus. His ass-chewing is way worse than Bailey’s. I repeat what I told her. “It won’t happen again.”

“You’re damn right it won’t.”

“I already got this from Bailey. I don’t need it from you, too.”

“Look, I don’t mean to harp on this. Like, seriously. It’s what my brother Jeremy does. He just won’t let shit go. That’s not what this is. I’m trying to help you understand how important your role is in the big picture. Frontline agents may be the movers and shakers of the agency, but the sideline agents are the ones running the show.”

Jason surprises me at times. One minute he talks like a throwback from the 80s. The next, he’s giving me vocational advice—valuable advice, at that—that helps put things into perspective. “Do you have firsthand experience on that?”

“You bet your ass. I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

I lose feeling in my knees. “Really?”

“No.” He snickers and I’m ready to take him out at the ankles. “But it is classified.”

We run in silence for another half mile before I ask, “Does the running partner have to be TREX? Or can it be anyone?”

I think about Emma and how badly I want to get her running with me. She’s so out of shape. I mean, she’s got great shape, but she gets winded running from the sidewalk to the mod to avoid being hit with water balloons from the Deltas in the house. Brad put a hit out on us. If either of us are spotted in the yard, Deltas have orders to strike on sight.

Jason’s grin widened. “You really think you can get her running?”

“I, uh…”

“Don’t act like you don’t know who I’m talking about. Your girl isn’t a runner.”

I slow and look at him. “How do you know that?”

“It’s my job to know.”

This time I stop. “Is TREX keeping tabs on me?”

“Of course we are. Every rookie is under tight scrutiny the first year.” He keeps running. “See you tomorrow, dude.”

“What if I’m running with Emma?”

He laughs. “Yeah, okay.”

“I’m serious.” I really am. I’m going to get her running.

He turns and runs backward to regard me. “If I see you running with your girl, you won’t see me.” He laughs louder as he disappears into the darkness of the morning.