HANDS ATTACHED TO a handsome man she recognized lifted her from the floor. Her usual partner, tall, beautiful, and right there in front of her. “Alec!”

Her teammate grinned at her. “Hey, kitten. Get a bit tangled up in the yarn?”

“Thank God. Is PAVAD...” The idea that it could be gone had terrified her.

“Perfectly fine. Evacuated, as is the St. Louis field office, but everyone is safe.”

She started sobbing. Shannon always had been a crier. It took her a moment or two to stop. “Carrie Lorcan?”

“She and J.T. were just waiting for you to send your secret message. Received loud and clear. Everything worked exactly like policy stated,” a voice said from behind her. Shannon turned.

Ken stood there, looking ragged. “We’ve searched for three days for the two of you. Your message this morning gave us a direction to turn.”

“Carrie worked in a small script that backtracked anyone using that protocol. All we had to do was type in our particular passcode. It worked.” She didn’t realize she was repeating it over and over again until Ezra’s hands went around her shoulders. He shook her lightly.

“Snap out of it, babe.”

“We’re alive. I get to be crazy for a while, Hahn.”

“No shit. Think you can hold off on that until we actually get out of here?”

“You’re an asshole, Ezra Hahn. But I am glad you’re alive.”

“Me, too.”

His hands lingered for a moment. “We made it. I say we get out of here.”

Ken nodded. “We have an ambulance on its way. The two of you are going in for full work-ups. Shannon, Leina is waiting at the hospital now with some of your things. Clean clothes.”

“They were in my apartment.” Her stomach turned when she thought about it. “That is my blanket. Made by my aunt. I don’t want it getting lost into evidence, Ken. I don’t want them to take it from me.”

“Gotcha. I’ll have it photographed, processed, and then I’ll talk to Kelly Compton. You’ll get it back. I promise.”

“Thanks.”

“Enough. She needs the hospital and food. Something to drink.” Ezra interrupted. Shannon looked at him quickly.

“He’s in worse shape than I am.” They had only messed with him when she hadn’t been cooperative. But he’d barely been given water, he hadn’t had any food at all, and they’d kicked him whenever they could.

It had been one of the hardest things in the world to pretend cooperation when she wanted to fight them. Stop them.

It was hard to believe that she had.

And it was over.

At least for now.

“I think he was working for someone else. Someone they called the company. Someone with a serious grudge against the bureau.”

“Tell me.” Ken said.

“Some of the things he wanted me to get him into in the databases. He had no idea what they were.” And that had made it easier for her. She’d been able to lead him right into the dummy database she and the rest of the computer investigative services agents had been able to create. It had been her, J.T. Thompkins, and Jazz Therez before she’d gone on maternity leave, under the supervision of her real PAVAD supervisor, Carrie Lorcan.

PAVAD’s structure had changed when they’d added teams Four and Five. Carrie Lorcan had taken over all the computer investigative services agents—which was Shannon’s actual title for the bureau now—and handled all their training, weekly case reports, and team assignments. Ken was her acting supervisor, but she was technically on Carrie’s team.

They’d discussed abduction and threat scenarios at every training meeting they had.

Members of the geek pack were notoriously paranoid. It had paid off this time.

It had saved every PAVAD and FBI agent in St. Louis that day. And possibly every other person in the area between those two buildings.

The enormity of what could have happened had her shaking. She looked at her supervisor. “How many people? How many were in the PAVAD building today?”

“Three hundred and eighty plus thirty-nine support staff. We had twenty plus searching these hills for the two of you,” Ken answered. “They’re safe, Shannon. I promise.”

“For now. Someone’s out there. And they have a real beef with the FBI.”

“With PAVAD?” Alec asked.

“I don’t know. It could have been. Or it may have just been the FBI in general.” Motivation would help them find out the rest. She knew that. And that it would was going to take a lot of time to really get to the bottom of things. It wasn’t like it was on television. Investigations of this magnitude could take weeks. Months.

But Shannon couldn’t think about that right now. Her stomach was telling her the truth—they hadn’t fed her or Ezra in nearly forty-eight hours. They’d barely given her any water. Him, not at all. And she was starting to feel it.

Adrenaline was wearing off. She’d be crashing at any moment.

She wasn’t about to do that in front of everyone. Not today.