“Looks like everyone’s busy next door. Guess the weekend is over.”

Logan followed Vivian’s gaze toward the Zaman’s house as they drove into the driveway. Sighing, he knew she was right. The weekend had been perfect, including room service breakfast in bed—along with other activities in bed—before having to leave. He knew they had turned a corner in the relationship over the weekend. Her doubts seemed to melt away, hopefully realizing that, while their marriage might be a cover, his feelings for her were not. Meeting up with Iggie and Sadie for the uneventful flight back home had been the perfect end to a perfect weekend.

Now, parking behind Vivian’s little car, his mind jumped to the inevitable stepping up the mission and getting his hands on what was cooking in their neighbors’ makeshift lab.

Moving inside, he walked to the bedroom and dumped their bags onto the floor. As he came back into the living room, he saw her already firing up the laptops. Her eyes met his and she nodded as she said, “I know. We’ve got to get back to work.”

He walked over and kissed the top of her head. “I need you to give me as much as you can, Viv, ‘cause I’ve got to get inside to get what they’re working on. We have to have hard evidence that what they’re working on is illegal, dangerous, and needs to be taken out.”

“Can’t they just be arrested on suspicion alone and then we go in and search the area?”

Shaking his head, he said, “That’s not how it works. We need to know specifically what they’re working on. For all we know, this might not be their first batch of substances and they might have tried them out somewhere.”

At that, Vivian gasped, her eyes widening in fear. “I never thought of that. They would have to test it out, wouldn’t they?”

“That’s why I’m searching their correspondence, emails, monitoring their phone calls, studying their talks in the house, checking on their visitors. You name it, I’m on it. Until we know for sure what they’re working on, going in could set off a firestorm if we’re not right.”

“Okay,” she nodded, realizing her inexperience gave her no idea what all he needed to do. So that left her with figuring out what he could take from their lab the minute they could. And then hoping she would be able to analyze it before the Zamans decided to test it on humans somewhere.

* * *

Another week. Full of long days of sitting in the house, staring at the screen on one laptop, researching on another, and all the while agonizing over making a mistake.

Logan walked in, that day being one where he kept up his cover by going to the airfield. But, really, he spent most of his time studying the cameras, as well as everything he could get his hands on about the Zamans. He observed Vivian, hunched over the kitchen table, her hair pulled up into a messy bun with two pencils somehow holding it in place and her fingers tapping on her keyboard. The same position she had maintained for days, so he was stunned when she twisted around, her eyes bright as they landed on his.

Her smile illuminated her face as she pronounced, “I’ve got it.”

Hurrying over, he gripped her shoulders as he peered over them, staring at the screen. She took a pen and pointed to Nafisa sitting at a table. “She’s the one. She’s the key. Malik and Rashad are there, but for the most part, they seem to be creating the different solutions for her to actually do the experimenting. Everything, over here,” she pointed to one area of the room, “is just what they are working on. Basic solutions, basic compounds. There is nothing of interest there. But here,” she said, pointing to where Nafisa was sitting in the back corner, “is where the real work is going on. These vials have the different solutions in them, but they also have whatever she is working on. She is now taking what they have created and is using it. When she is done, she sets everything here.”

He watched as she pointed one last time to the area of interest. “So, when I get in, this is what I need to get.”

She sucked in a deep breath, letting it out slowly, before she spoke. “Logan, we need to talk.”

He looked down at her, his eyes narrowing at her tone of voice. “About what?”

She moved her chair back slightly, indicating her intention, and he stepped back, his hands staying on her shoulders as she stood. She turned in his arms and said, “Can we sit down? Get comfortable first?”

Allowing her what she needed, he moved to the refrigerator and grabbed two beers before following her into the kitchen. She sat on one end of the sofa but, with her legs tucked up underneath her, she was facing the side he sat on.

“Okay, Viv, you’re making me nervous. What is this about?”

She played with the beer bottle label for a moment before she asked, “Were you ever on missions where you had to change your perfect plans because things didn’t play out exactly the way you thought?”

Her question caught him off guard and he stared at her for a moment, recognizing her nervous fiddling, as well as the pleading in her eyes. Nodding, he said, “Yeah. Lots of times. Sometimes, there were things we hadn’t planned on. Other people around that we hadn’t anticipated. Other times, there was incomplete, or even inaccurate, intel.”

She seemed to take this in as she thought for a moment before asking, “What about with personnel? Did you ever have to change up duties or responsibilities in the middle of a mission?”

Now, he was quiet. He understood what she was getting at. She was trying to tell him she was not able to handle the stress and was thinking about resigning. She wanted out. Out of the job. The only thing he wondered about was if she also wanted out of him.

Sucking in a deep breath, he knew he owed her honesty. “Yes. Sometimes we had to change up personnel, for a lot of different reasons. If someone became incapacitated and unable to complete their part of the task, then others would step in to take over.”

He watched as she mulled over his answer, his heart pounding in a way he had not felt in...well, he could not think of a time he felt this way. Other than his family and then, later, his team, no one had ever meant something to him, not like this. “What are you thinking, Viv? You want out?”

He watched as she blinked twice—slowly—before scrunching her face in surprise. “Out? Out of what?”

Now it was his turn to be surprised. Lifting his chin, he said, “I thought you were asking about new personnel because you wanted out.”

Giving a quick shake of her head, she threw her hand up to the side as she barked, “No! Why on earth would I want out?”

“I don’t know,” he responded in defense. “I know this isn’t exactly what you signed up for. I know Alaska’s not your favorite place to be. I know things have moved fast with us and I know for a while that flipped you out. I know this is far more dangerous than you ever expected—”

“Good grief, Logan. Stop with all the excuses for why you think I want out,” she argued, huffing before taking a long swig of her beer. “Geez, I can’t believe you thought that.”

Uncertain how to proceed given her obvious pique, he scrubbed his hand over his face before joining her, downing half his beer. Setting the bottle on the coffee table, he twisted his body back toward her. “Okay, babe, you’ve got to spell this out for me. Why the questions about changing missions midstream and changing personnel?”

Her face softened as her shoulders slumped. “Oh. Wow. Hearing you put it that way, I can see why you thought I might want out. I’m sorry.” Heaving a huge sigh, she said, “Okay, here it is. The reason why I wondered those things is because I want to present something to you…a change in how we make our next move. And, I’ve got compelling reasons but I’m afraid you’ll shut me down before you even hear me out. So, I wanted to know if you had past experience that you could fall back on.”

He almost laughed, but kept his face neutral. If she only knew how SEALs were trained to change in an instant. Alter plans. Rethink missions. Step in when someone else was better suited or in proximity to do something. Clearing his throat, he said, “Okay, good. I can work with this.”

“Promise you’ll listen to everything?”

“Viv.”

“I suppose that one utterance of my name is to indicate that you will,” she quipped, pursing her lips. “Okay, here it goes. In a nutshell, I need to be the one to go inside the Zaman’s house—”

“Abso-fucking-lutely not!”

“Logan! You promised!”

“Viv, if you think for one minute—”

“You promised to hear me out! You owe me that,” she pleaded, plunking her bottle on the table next to his.

Not one to renege on a promise, he dropped his chin to his chest, silent for a moment. Lifting his gaze, he saw her staring at him, her focus not wavering. “You’re right. I promised. It won’t change my mind, but go ahead. I’m listening.”

“Listen and absorb what I’m saying, okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed, but already knew his answer would not change.

“In order to create the samples I need, I have to have a certain amount of the solutions in certain combinations. I need them to be marked carefully, or I won’t be able to tell anything about what I’m looking at or, it will take a lot longer to determine what they are. By studying the cameras of them working in their lab, I understand what they’re working on and how their space is utilized. They have codes on the labels that won’t mean anything to you, but will to me.”

Vivian eyed him warily, but he was listening. His face was all hard lines, stormy eyes, and frowns, but he was listening. Continuing, she said, “If I send you in, I will have to give explicit instructions and, since biochemistry isn’t your thing, it will be much harder for you to instinctively know what you’re looking at. Yes, I could be watching and I’m assuming you’ll have some kind of ear-thingie so I can talk to you, but that’ll take time. Precious time.”

Leaning forward, she placed her hand on his leg, “And honey, you can’t make a mistake. That’s what scares me…there is no room for error. If they come back before we expect them, and you’re still inside, you can’t just rush out, jiggling the samples. Too much is at stake. And I sure as hell don’t know how to create a diversion…unless I set the grill on fire.”

His lips twinged, but he fought to remain stoic.

“You, on the other hand, would make a much better outside person.” Seeing him about to speak, she said, “I’m not finished. You gotta give me this.” When he settled back on the sofa, his eyes still on her, she continued, “You could get me in, then stay on watch outside. I go in, quick and efficiently get what I need and get them labeled in a scientific shorthand, while leaving enough that they don’t suspect anything…hopefully. Then I can get back out to you. You do your super-spy lock up and they’ll never know. Or, God forbid, they come back early, you would know what to do to give me time to get out.”

Sitting on the worn sofa in a little, somewhat shitty house, in the middle of nowhere Alaska, Logan stared at Vivian, his heart filled with everything she was. Smart. Funny. Daring. So beautiful. And resourceful. And he hated like hell to admit, but she had a point. A really fuckin’ good point.