“I don’t recognize you,” she said, looking up into those intense blue eyes of his.

“I wouldn’t expect you to. I wear contacts and a beard to change my facial features when I go undercover. There are all sorts of ways to make myself look different—sometimes older, sometimes scarred, whatever the job takes,” Linc said.

He hadn’t hurried her out of the bathroom, and instead just stood there, leaning against the doorjamb as if they had all the time in the world. She knew the clock was ticking. But for the moment she wanted to draw out this little bit of peace she’d found.

“I spend a lot of time making myself different too. When I realized what Kaylee had uncovered, I dyed my hair and played around with contacts. With the right contouring and eyeliner, I can make myself disappear.”

“Why didn’t you?” he asked. “You had that data long enough to have gotten out of town before we got back.”

She had asked herself that a million times since Kaylee had shown up with her request.

To be honest she felt…drained. She knew she wasn’t dumb, so beating herself up about what she should have done was a useless exercise and one she wasn’t about to indulge in.

“I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She shook her head. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I’m not.”

“Linc—listen, if you’re on the level about having been there, you must know that Diavolos isn’t the kind of guy that plays by the rules, and he doesn’t follow plans, even his own. If things go even more south for him, he’ll be even more dangerous than he is right now. I appreciate that you want to protect me, but I’m pretty sure no one can.”

He shifted away from the door frame and took a step into the room. He moved slowly, so as not to spook her, but he didn’t scare her. There was something about him that made her feel calm in the middle of the panicked craziness of her own emotions.

“I’m not like anyone you’ve met before, Ella. When I make a promise, I keep it. Unless I’m dead, I keep my word.”

She tipped her head to the side, studying him. He wasn’t that tall, maybe an inch under six-feet. So he wasn’t the biggest, toughest guy she’d ever seen. Diavolos had huge guards to ensure that none of them escaped. But there was something about Linc. His wiry, muscled body under that designer suit. The way he moved that seemed to say that he knew how to handle himself in any situation.

“I appreciate that,” she said. “But I let myself believe someone was coming to save me once before, and wasted time I should have spent planning to save myself.”

Linc didn’t say anything, just stood there watching her, and she started to feel like she might have offended him, but the truth was, she hadn’t been able to believe that no one who knew her or Bri had come after them. It had taken her three months to finally figure out they were on their own. She had a lot of regrets, and that was definitely one of them.

“Fair enough, but I’ve given you my word,” Linc said. “Someday you’ll believe me.”

“This isn’t about ego,” she said. “You were there, you know that Diavolos isn’t the kind of man that lets anyone have hope. Please believe me when I say it’s not personal.”

“I do,” he said. “Are you ready to go back out there?”

“Yes, of course,” she said.

He stepped closer to her, and she felt his body heat surround her even though he didn’t touch her. Gently he reached for her hands and pried her fists open to take the towel from them.

She hadn’t realized she’d been gripping it so tightly, but her nails had dug crescent shapes into her palms. He took the towel and neatly hung it back on the hook, giving her time to rub at the marks on her hands.

She had made up her mind to do this, but she hadn’t realized until this moment how hard it was going to be for her. She’d been so careful to never slow down. She protected kids like her younger self who had no one to watch out for them, and that made her feel like she was healing a part of herself, but now she knew that had been a lie. She hadn’t healed anything. She’d simply tucked it deep inside, and thinking about Diavolos still wanting her and her sister was bringing that all to the fore.

The sophisticated blogger, the lifestyle she’d carefully cultivated, crumbled around her. Her hands were shaking again and she started to ball them into fists, but Linc took her hands in his.

His touch was gentle and she had the feeling that she could easily pull away if she wanted to. He turned her hands over, brushed his fingers lightly over the marks on her palms. Then he laced his fingers through hers and squeezed gently.

“Let’s go talk about the plan. We want this operation to be smooth and fast. So we get Diavolos and you get back to living your life.”

He dropped her hands, walking out of the bathroom, and she followed him, very aware that his touch had comforted her. She hadn’t had that happen with anyone. Ever.

Linc Garrison was more than she expected, and she wasn’t entirely sure that was a good thing.

* * *

“What did you say to her?” Mick asked while they waited for Kaylee to finish embedding the micro tracker under Ella’s skin.

Linc didn’t want to talk about it. “Just told her not to worry. I think the plan is pretty solid. Cade’s been undercover with them for almost two weeks now.”

“And we haven’t heard from him since he went in. I’m not sure I like that,” Mick said.

“You know Cade. He’s not going to risk exposure just to check in. Did Cory help you get the tracking up set up on your laptop?”

“He tried. I hate that stuff. And I don’t like not knowing where one of my guys is. I know this is modern warfare and all that crap, but I prefer to have Frank sitting somewhere high up, watching Cade through a pair of binoculars.”

Linc laughed. “Damn, you are so old school.”

“I’ve yet to meet anyone I couldn’t take down with my fists, and every time we use tech, it backfires.”

“On you.”

“On me,” Mick agreed. “Are you sure you can do this?”

Linc glanced at his boss and realized he’d been staring at Ella. He was starting to see her now, instead of the girl he hadn’t saved ten years ago. He saw her long blonde hair, her eyes—which he wasn’t sure were her real color. Back then, she’d had violet-colored eyes like a young Liz Taylor, and ebony-colored hair. Her twin Bri had white-blonde hair and the darkest eyes, almost jet-black. The two of them had looked like yin and yang to him.

“I don’t know,” Linc admitted. “The thing is, I can’t not do it.”

“Fair enough,” Mick said.

“I’m itching to get this thing in motion. I’m glad she agreed, and now I just want to be in action.”

“You will be soon enough,” Mick said. “Frank has the team in place. All you’re going to have to do is slip into character and take her.”

“I wish there were a different way,” Linc said. “Like a decoy from Aphrodite Team playing Ella.”

“We already went over that,” Mick reminded him.

They had. The women on Aphrodite Team weren’t Ella, and it was clear whenever anyone got close to them. Though Ella had a certain strength, there was also something vulnerable about her and the women of Aphrodite Team couldn’t pull it off. Though they had tried.

Kaylee had been reluctant to go to her friend, and Linc, who spent all his time around men and understood the bonds of fraternity, had still been surprised. He knew he shouldn’t have been. He’d just never known any women well enough to see their friendships up close.

Linc turned his back as Mick went over to talk to the women. As soon as everything was set up here he was going to have to take Ella. He told himself she knew the plan, but there was no way for her to truly be ready. He’d been working in both the real world and the dark underworld for a long time now. He had a reputation that wasn’t as dark as Diavolos’s, but he was known as a purveyor. The man that others went to when they wanted something.

He looked down at his watch. The Omega timepiece that had been passed down to him from his grandfather when he turned twenty-one. His family had a long history of traditions in their personal and professional lives, and though Linc didn’t like to think of it, part of their family history had been in the slave trade.

He was ready for John Cockram to retire. Or to be put out of commission. Linc rubbed the back of his neck as tension settled there.

“Linc? You here?” Mick asked.

“Yeah, I’m here. Are you ready, Ella?” he asked her.

“Not really,” she said.

She’d changed from the flowy skirt and peasant top she’d had on earlier to something that had to have come from Kaylee’s wardrobe. Slim-fitting khaki pants that hugged the curves of her hips, a black t-shirt that he knew had been chosen because it could be worn for days, but it also fit her perfectly. The black leather jacket that he knew had all kinds of tech sewn into it.

“They’ll take your clothing,” he warned her.

“I’ve used some skin patches to hide things on her as well,” Kaylee said.

“I’m as ready as I can be,” Ella said. She glanced at their faces and then gave them a sad smile. “I’m better prepared than I was the last time, and I survived then. I’ve got this.”

“You’re a part of Ares Team now,” Mick said. “We don’t leave anyone behind. Linc is carrying backups of everything you need, in case your clothes are taken. Why don’t you go and get into your gear so we can get this operation started, Linc? Frank is in position.”

“What about Cory?”

“He and Jeff have added some kind of code that can track your face even after it’s altered. He’s scrubbing Linc Garrison’s digital footprint right now. Ella Kennedy, you’re about to disappear as well.”

Linc left them to discuss logistics and went into the bathroom to change his face and his clothes. He pushed away everything that had been stirring inside of him. He couldn’t look at Ella and see a woman, he needed her to be a victim, someone he could protect.

* * *

Ella wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but the tiny implant under her skin that would allow the Ares Team to track her movements wasn’t it. She’d also been given a small communication device that was to be used in emergency only. The device was smaller than a freckle, which was what they had hidden it under on her arm.

She put on the boots that Kaylee had given her, and frankly they made her feel like Frankenstein’s monster. They were huge combat boots that had more gadgets hidden in the heel, the laces, and the sole than James Bond’s shoes. And while she suspected this stuff was all for her peace of mind, and appreciated it, she was also aware that what they were doing was very risky.

She was still a little hazy on how Linc fit into the picture until he walked out of the bathroom and she recoiled. She knew that face. She’d seen him when she’d been held by Diavolos. Not in person, but on the monitor of the man who brokered all the deals.

Linc’s clean-cut, all-American preppy was gone. And in his place was a dark-eyed devil. He had on a moustache, and his beard was trimmed closely along the edge of his mouth and came to a vee on his chin. His eyebrows were thicker and his hair darker than it had been earlier. There were lines around his eyes and on his forehead that showed his age.

He wore a leather duster over dark jeans and a silk, button-down shirt that he’d left the top two buttons undone on. Nestled in his chest hair was a large gold medallion, and even though she was across the room from him, she didn’t feel safe.

Kaylee took her hand and Ella jerked it away from her. It didn’t matter that her rational mind knew that the man in front of her wasn’t one of the pirates of the dark web. That he was Linc. He looked like one of the men who had kidnapped her and Bri when they’d been playing in the park across the street from the group home they lived in. He looked like the stuff of nightmares, and in that moment, she wanted to kill him.

She remembered the knife that Kaylee had shown her was in the sleeve of her jacket and reached for it, had it drawn before Mick stepped in front of her.

“What are you doing? Linc’s on your side. He’s one of the good guys,” Mick said.

“He’s not. He’s…he’s the man who took us. The one who took me when I was little. I can’t…Kaylee…I can’t do this.”

“You can.” Linc’s voice was the one she heard, though Kaylee and Mick were both trying to reassure her. “I killed the man who took you. I took on his appearance in order to infiltrate Diavolos’s ring. I’ve been using this appearance to save kids, Ella.”

She pushed past Kaylee and Mick and moved toward Linc. She went right up to him, the knife still clutched in her hand. The first thing she noticed was the slightest hint of his aftershave. It wasn’t something she expected, but she remembered it from when he first walked in.

“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” she asked. “You knew I’d go berserk when I first saw you.”

“I didn’t know,” he said.

She was trying to see Linc through the camouflage of the man in front of her. She reached out to touch him and saw the knife still clutched in her hand. She opened it, letting it fall to the floor with a clatter. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” he said. “This guy…he was distantly related to my family. Six times removed, but it still doesn’t wash away the stain. I need to make this right for you and for the others he took.”

“You don’t have to make up for anyone’s actions but your own,” Ella said. “I have to believe that, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.”

He nodded.

She knew then that they were both going back into their own personal hell. She had always hated Diavolos, well, feared and then hated him. She knew she was going back for Bri, she’d never let her sister fall back into Diavolos’s hands, but she also wanted him gone for people like Linc and herself who worked so hard to put an end to the dark web.

It was past time that children felt safe in their beds at night. And even if they didn’t know the threat that Diavolos and Reece Hammond presented, she did.

“Ella?”

“It’s okay,” she said, but she knew it wasn’t. She looked over Linc’s shoulder instead of at his face. She knew she was going to have to figure out how to look at him and not freak out, but for right now she’d settle for this.

He nodded. “Then I’m ready to go.”

She shivered at his words, because he’d dropped his voice. Hell, even his tone was that of the man who’d taken her. She wanted to believe that Linc wasn’t that man. Knew he wasn’t, because he’d be at least ten years older than Linc’s real age.

But everything inside of her was having a hard time with that. And if seeing him was giving her this many flashbacks, imagine how she’d feel when she came face to face with Diavolos.

She was going to have to use Linc to get over her fear of Diavolos so she could kill him.