SHANNON SHIVERED. EZRA saw the tremor go right through her, but he didn’t shift his gaze toward her more than it already was. He knew Chas was just waiting for the instant his attention shifted to make his move. “What do you really want, Chas? I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to put it all together. Why Geoff and Nils?”

“Why not Geoff and Nils?” Chas smirked at him, the expression designed to burn right through him. Chas had changed since Afghanistan. He’d put on a few pounds. His eyes were duller. But he still looked beyond forgettable. Invisible. No doubt people looked right by him on the streets. “After I’m finished with you, I’m on to the rest. Do you know what I lost that day?”

“Yes. I do.” Ezra hadn’t forgotten Amelia’s eyes. He’d been too damned far away to stop what had happened to her. If he had been a hundred yards closer, he might have been able to hit the man responsible for killing her before she was hit. Maybe. He’d run the scenario over and over in his head so many times over the last six years since it had happened. The logical, rational part of his brain told him that there hadn’t been much anyone could do to change the situation as it had fallen.

“Amelia was pregnant.”

Ezra nodded. “I know. With Hollace’s baby. He told me.”

“Mine. The baby was mine.”

“I didn’t realize the two of you were that involved.” No one had given any indication that Chas and Amelia had ever been involved. No sign. Not that it mattered; the woman was dead. Any answers were now lost. “I’m sorry. I tried to get there in time that day.”

“You think I don’t know that? It’s the only reason I haven’t shot you yet. But you told us to be there. Hollace said...”

“Hollace lied. He was the one giving the orders that day, not me.” Because Schneider had told Hollace to take the west. “Schneider ordered Hollace to the west, and Leghari and I to the east. We heard the warning calls and tried our best to get there in time. But we were too late.”

“No. Hollace was in the east. He told me he was.”

“Hollace was in the west, Chas.” Shannon remained still; Ezra didn’t dare look at her. “Let Shannon go, Chas. You and I can figure this out between the two of us. We can talk. Really talk about what happened over there. I know I want to. I haven’t ever put it behind me. I wish I had been closer to her that day. But I wasn’t. And before I was, I took a bullet to the gut, remember? I did my best. Shannon has nothing to do with it. And she’s never hurt you or anyone else. Although she did kick me in the shin once.”

“You deserved it.” Shannon said softly. He didn’t dare look at her again. Not with that rifle pressed against her neck.

“No doubt I did.” He stared at Chas. “Let Shannon walk out of here, Chas. It’s the right thing to do. She has never hurt you. She never hurt Amelia. The only thing she did was be unlucky enough to know me.”

“That’s not true.” Shannon said huskily. “I’ll never regret it, Ez. Never. You changed my mind. It’s that whole vulnerability thing Cam’s always talking about.”

He got exactly what she was saying. “Just let her go, Chas. Just let her go now.”

“Someone has to pay for Amelia.”

“I think Geoff and Nils have. Jaynice still might. She has two grandchildren. How is she responsible for what happened to us in that hellhole? How were the others?”

“Jaynice Miller was a job, Ez. Nothing more. Something your friends need to consider. Someone has a major grudge against all law enforcement and government in this city. Starting with PAVAD.”

“You became the monster in those families’ nightmares. How is that right? What did they ever do to you? One of them was a kindergarten teacher. He worked with kids from the worst parts of town to make sure they had a better future. How is that right? You changed the world that day. He was just eating ice cream with his daughter. She’ll never be ok. She’ll remember it for the rest of her life.”

“They were just examples, Ez. Victims of our own governmental training. Just like Amelia was. She wanted to make a difference in the world. To help people. Instead, she was murdered. Her blood is still on my hands. Every single time I close my eyes. If hers is already there, do you think it matters that there is more on mine now? Even Shannon’s. I shot Shannon just because I could. She looked so pretty that day. She always looks pretty, doesn’t she? Pretty, sweet, sexy. She has this thin, little T-shirt. It has Mickey Mouse on it. I love her in that shirt. I bet you do, too. Tell me, why is it right that you get her, and I have nothing? My everything is buried in Virginia. Dust by now. I have nothing. Had nothing. Until I found Shannon. You, you’ve had her. I know you did. I know she let you into her bed. Made everything perfect for the two of you. None of you bastards deserve a woman like her. Nils’s slut got what she deserved, and so did Geoff’s.”

“Nils’s fiancée is a pediatric cancer specialist, Chas. Geoff’s is a social worker for disadvantaged kids, specializing in runaways. Neither of them is exactly the scum of the earth. Thankfully, they’ll both recover and go on to help the world. Like Amelia wanted to.”

There was the slightest flicker of light behind Chas’s head. Just a deliberate movement of a tiny laser light that Chas would never be able to see.

It was another prearranged signal.

Jones, Jones, Brockman, Alessandra Lorcan and Chalmers were all in position. It was just a matter of Ezra making the call. Of getting Shannon out of the way and to the floor, where he could protect her with his own body.

“So what exactly are you going to do about it? Are you going to kill me? Take her? What do you really see happening here?” Ezra took that first step closer.

“I see...you losing the woman you love. Like I lost mine.” Chas’s voice broke. He was covered with sweat. His eyes were reddened, wide, the pupils dilated from his agitation.

Yet he never looked away from Ezra.

“I’m not going to let that happen. I will never let Shannon be hurt. Especially because of me. But...I saw the photos you took of her, Chas. I’d forgotten you were a skilled photographer. You saw her and wanted her, too. Didn’t you? The same way you wanted Amelia, even though she and Hollace had a thing first.” He was making a wild guess, but it was starting to make sense.

Amelia Sandoval hadn’t been the type who would have been attracted to Chas Sefton. Not by any means. He knew that by experience. She’d hit on him her first week with the unit. He’d never believed that way was a smart choice—he’d turned her down and she’d moved to the next guy on the roster. Hollace. The one man on the team who’d enjoyed her particular brand of drama. The guy had been married, but that hadn’t mattered. Hollace had enjoyed letting Amelia chase him. Ezra had no doubt about that.

It most likely had been Hollace’s baby. He highly doubted she’d ever slept with Chas. Then again, they had been in high-stakes situations nine times out of ten. Maybe she had.

Or maybe Chas had just made more of what had between him and Amelia than what was there. The guy had done that a lot in the field. Chas just couldn’t handle what they’d had to face over there.

Hell, Ezra could understand it to a great extent.

Shannon was the escape from the world Ezra had wanted. Still wanted.

Needed.

Like he needed air.

“Don’t hurt her, Chas. You don’t want to hurt her any more than you ever would have hurt Amelia. We both know that’s not the kind of man you are. You’re not like Geoff or Nils or Hollace; especially with women. Look at how small she is, Chas. Amelia was a good six inches taller than Shannon. Taller, stronger. She wouldn’t want you to hurt Shannon. Definitely not like this, and not because of her. That’s not the legacy Amelia would have wanted. We both know she just wanted to help people. Don’t do this. Not like this.”

He needed Sefton to lower that damned gun away from her neck. Then he could act.

But Sefton wasn’t a fool.

Or he hadn’t been before.

Instead of letting Shannon go, he tightened his hold on her. Then Chas dropped his arm around her narrow waist and pulled her closer to his body.

Not an inch of space existed between them—Ezra didn’t doubt that, at all.

Ezra was going to have to think this through somehow.

He had to trust the agents out there, ready to help.

Chalmers, Al, Carrie Lorcan, Mal Brockman, Max, and Jac. Others.

People who weren’t just colleagues, but friends. Those who cared about him and Shannon. Who would do anything to protect her.

He took a step closer. “Chas, you have to know I’m not going to let you hurt her.”

“I have the gun, Ez. Or have you missed that?”

“Hard to miss when you’re pressing it into her neck like that.”

“Yeah, a bit hard to breathe here,” Shannon said. “Whatever is going to happen here, can we move it along? I...need to go to the ladies’ room. And I’m losing circulation in my fingers. I need them to type—and hack for the FBI, which is kind of my thing. And...you gentlemen realize that I’m here, don’t you?”

“Babe, I know without a doubt that we aren’t alone here. And there is no way I would ever forget you—not with the Jones I have for you.”

Her eyes narrowed when he glanced at her quickly. She blinked. “I always did like doing things by committee.”

“Does she ever stop? From the moment she opened her eyes, she’s been snipping at me.” Chas almost looked bewildered for a moment. “I didn’t think she’d be this way.”

Shannon had been making Ezra feel that way since the moment they’d met.

“No. She doesn’t.” He wanted to look at her more fully but resisted.

He couldn’t afford the distraction.