She got one last glimpse of him through the window, Cole walking down the front path toward the road. He’d gone out there to join the guys, and whatever they were doing around his dirt bike. The men stood in some sort of huddle around the van.

Mira’s voice from the kitchen pulled her away. “Need another drink?” the host said, her voice loud and lilting.

Annica joined her in the kitchen. “No,” she said. “But why not?”

“Exactly. You don’t have a gun, do you?”

“What? No.”

“You don’t normally, right?”

“Not normally, no,” Annica said. “Not ever, actually.”

“Okay, then,” Mira said, pouring the last of the blender’s lime-green contents into two tall glasses. She looked up at Annica and said, “Straw?”

“Sure.” She normally used them to save her lipstick. She thought about that for a second, almost panicking. She reached up and touched her lips.

“Here you are,” Mira said, sliding the glass over the cutting-board kitchen island.

Annica drew her hand away from her mouth, relieved that she hadn’t put on lipstick earlier. Through all the action of her day, it would’ve likely been ruined long before Cole’s lips.

No, Cole’s lips couldn’t ruin anything—except for a professional detachment from her story.

Mira smiled and said, “It’s nice out there, huh?”

She nodded, mid-drink. “Mm-hmm.”

“Taste good?”

She was still sucking on the straw. “Mmmm . . .” Annica drew the glass away and then smacked her lips. “So good.”

Everything was so good . . .

She felt wonderful. Even standing there alone with Mira. Whatever it was between them felt so inconsequential now. Trivial. Immature, even. A waste of energy.

“I love walking that beach at night,” Mira said.

Annica nodded, imagining Mira walking along with Jackson at her side. Imagining what else they’d end up doing down there, in the sand, in the water. It hardy made a difference to Annica, who, suddenly, felt nothing about what her ex-lover did or didn’t do.

Thank God.

Annica took another cold sip of the sour, fruity concoction. “Life’s been pretty sweet, huh?”

“Right now, yeah.”

“Oh, it’s been good for a while,” Annica said. “We’ve been lucky.”

“We have.”

“They’ve been lucky, too.”

“Who?” Mira said. “The boys?”

Annica knocked on wood, the cutting-board top of the island, followed by Mira’s knock, knock, knock-knock, knock. Followed by Annica’s final two knocks, to answer to the clichéd cadence and to stir up some boozy laughter from Mira. Annica followed up with that, too, joining her in the brainless hilarity. “That was pretty stupid,” she said.

“I know.”

It felt good to be stupid and brainless with her. To not be on guard, or to anticipate some sort of painful memory. Now, Annica felt like she couldn’t find a painful memory if she’d tried. Certainly none about Jackson.

The cage, maybe.

Not Cole’s cage, but the one in Virginia Beach. That memory, and that cage, would always be painful . . .

She took another sip, wanting to be trapped in Cole’s cage once again.

“What do you think they’re doing out there?” Mira asked.

“Cole said something about his dirt bike. Maybe they’re looking at it?”

“Is it some kind of fancy bike or something?”

“I have no idea,” Annica said. “Do they even make fancy dirt bikes?”

“You probably know more about it than me.”

“I’ve never even been on a bike. I mean, one with a motor. You have, though. That trip with Jackson across the country?”

“Well, it wasn’t on a dirt bike.” Mira laughed.

“A Harley or something?”

“Something like that.”

“I’m assuming something more comfortable.”

Mira grinned at her. “So you’ve never handled a gun, or a motorcycle. What are you, some kind of a writer or something?”

Annica rolled her eyes. “Yeah, pretty much. That damn laptop sucks up most of my time. Just typing along all day. You probably know what it’s like. Doing all that translating.”

Mira nodded. “But I switched it up a little bit. I dictate now.”

“I should look into that,” Annica said, flexing her fingers straight from a claw. “Save me some hand cramps.”

“How is it going, by the way?”

“My hands?”

Mira smirked. “Well, I guess I don’t mean to bring up work.”

“No, it’s okay.”

“Tonight’s a party, right?”

“I don’t know what it is,” Annica said. “But I’m definitely drinking that way.”

Mira said, “Me, too, a little. Don’t tell Jackson.”

“Ditto.”

The two ladies smiled at each other. Genuinely and warmly. They’d come a long way from the first time they’d met. At Jackson’s headquarters. In his office. An interview about Mira’s trouble with Senator Langhorne, Annica perhaps grilling her way too hard. Annica perhaps a little jealous, even then.

Mira raised her drink and sighed. “I know we’re just about to take on another mission, with you and Cole here and everything. But I guess I’m just enjoying the peace while it lasts.”

“The calm before the storm,” Annica said.

“Oh,” Mira said, dropping her glass to the table, looking at Annica as if she was about to apologize for something. “But you’ve had a little storm already. No wonder you’re so thirsty.”

Annica had almost forgotten about her morning, somehow. And then she remembered Cole, how he helped her, and how her day seemed to get better along the way, with him. She smiled.

“You look great,” Mira said.

“Huh?”

Mira was studying her face. “I mean, considering.”

“Oh, yeah, thanks,” Annica said. “You, too.”

“You look happy.”

It was a surprise to hear Mira talking like this. Annica smiled and said, “Maybe I’m just getting used to it.”

A voice from the living room said, “I could get used to this house.”

The girls turned to see Macy slip into the kitchen. She walked up to the sink holding out blackened hands.

“What is that?” Mira asked.

“On my hands?” Macy flipped on the water with the back of her wrist. “It’s grease. Bike grease.”

Mira laughed and said, “Why?”

“Ah, it happens when you work on a bike.” Macy said, washing up.

“I mean,” Mira said, “why when you’ve got three men out there? Three bike heads.”

“Four,” Macy said. “Cole joined in.”

It was really still three, but Annica kept quiet about Ethan. He was definitely not a bike head. She amused herself, wondering what he was even doing out there.

Macy said, “It was just me and Jackson for a minute, trying to get Cole’s dirt bike out of the van. I watched how Cole and Tucker loaded it, and I guess I figured unloading would be easier.”

“Was it?”

Macy turned away from the sink and found a towel. “Let’s just say I’m glad the others showed up.”

“Good thing they did,” Mira said. “I know you probably weren’t too glad when we showed up.” Mira turned to Annica and said, “Jackson and I sort of ruined their island getaway.”

Macy smirked. “No, it’s fine.”

“They had this cute beach hut in Kauai,” Mira said. “And then we came and wrecked everything.”

“I guess that’s my fault too,” Annica said.

“Guys,” Macy said. “Considering what my life was like for the past few years, before I met everyone here . . .”

“Oh,” Mira said, her face suddenly marred with concern. “I know. I know.”

It was as if no one had to talk about it. Just a silent agreement on how shitty things had gotten for Macy in the years preceding DARC Ops. A DARC overhaul, as the wives and girlfriends called it. Their little sorority understood better than anyone the resourcefulness and courage of their men. And it was okay if they’d kept it that way. No other women needed to know how good they had it.

Annica began thinking way ahead of herself, thinking about Cole. Wondering if Jackson would want him to stick around after Hawaii. And then she wondered if Cole would even want to. She supposed that was just as important as anything else. More so, definitely, than the little fantasy growing inside her mind.

A squeal of laughter pulled Annica from her thoughts, Macy and Mira both fleeing from a blender hysterical and covered in whatever cocktail they’d been trying to make. Margarita, was it? Apparently, one of the ladies had been too thirsty to properly seal the lid.

“It’s okay,” Macy laughed. “Maybe I didn’t need it anyway.”

Annica said, “In your mouth, you mean?”

“Yeah, but all over me is fine.”

“That’s what he said.”

Another round of hysterical laughter from the slightly drunk and considerably horny lady duo.

“That reminds me,” Macy said, turning to Annica. “Talk to me about this Cole guy.”

She startled, nearly dropping her glass. “Why does that remind you of him!?”

They laughed again, Annica too, this time, her face reddening a little.

“Come on,” Macy said. “He’s pretty hot.”

Annica tried to shrug it off.

“I think so, too,” Mira said. “Like in a legit bad-boy kind of way. I mean, he almost killed you.” She laughed but then quickly stopped herself. “Sorry. Too soon?”

“No,” Annica said. “And . . . fine. He’s hot, in the most professional way, yeah.”

“Just professional?”

“I just met him,” Annica said.

Mira shrugged at her like it hardly mattered.

“What did you guys talk about?” Macy said. “I didn’t really get a chance to because Tucker and I, at the time, still thought he was part of the problem.”

“Problem?” Annica said.

“Like bad boy for real,” Macy said. “Like too bad.”

“What if he still is?” Mira said. “Is that possible?”

“Well, that’s what I mean,” Macy said. “So what did you talk about?”

Annica said, “At the beach, you mean?”

“Or was it a non-verbal exchange?” Macy held back a laugh.

Annica hoped her cheeks wouldn’t darken when she thought back to their . . . exchange. Even the verbal parts of it were unprofessional. “It was very enlightening,” Annica finally said.

“I bet it was,” Macy said, snickering.

“Okay, let’s ease up on her,” Mira said, winking at Annica.

“Thank you.”

“Fine,” Macy said. “But I still want to know his story. Skip the romance.”

“There’s no romance,” Annica said.

“Is there even a story?”

“Cole is the story,” Annica said, glad to see Macy looking somewhat satisfied. “He’s the main whistle-blower to this thing. The smuggling operation. We’ll take it down as long as he survives for the subpoena, and as long as we can bring enough evidence. That’s what we’ll be doing in the next few days.”

“But why does he want to take down his company?” Macy said. “Why is he suddenly coming out with this?”

“He thinks it’s drugs,” Annica said.

There was a slight pause. And then Macy said, “So?”

“Not just drugs, but some seriously destructive shit. Like heroin.”

Another slight pause. A pained silence from Macy, who seemed to recoil initially at the word. “Damn,” Macy said. “Mira, have you met Jasper’s brother, Kyle?”

“No,” Mira said.

“He had a big problem with heroin a few years ago. It actually started overseas when he was deployed. In the Middle East. You know they have rat lines going all across Asia.”

“They have what?” Annica said.

“Rat lines,” Macy said. “That’s what they call it. Smuggling routes for drugs, money, human trafficking, and whatever else moving through these established paths. Rat lines, for rats.”

Annica shivered. “Stop saying that.”

“Stop saying rats?”

“We get it,” Mira said. “Thanks.”

Annica put her drink down and sat on a stool by the counter. She thought back to Cole’s emails. She may have only met him in person a few days ago, but it felt like she’d known him for a lot longer than that. He’d shared things in his emails, things beyond what she needed to know for the case. “Cole has some firsthand experience with heroin, too. Well, not heroin itself so much as its effects. He lost two friends from it back home.”

“Back home?” Macy said.

“He’s from Washington,” Annica said. “The state of Washington. A small logging town. All the jobs are gone and I guess you know the rest.”

“Idle hands,” Macy said.

“So I think part of this, for Cole, is about conscience. I’m still trying to learn the rest.”

Mira had also found her way to a stool. “How did he first contact you?”

“Online,” Annica said. “Through some proxies.”

Mira said, “A human proxy or a server?”

“Server.”

“Oh,” Mira said. “I thought Cole wasn’t very . . . tech.”

“Well, I guess it’s both tech and human. It’s his roommate, or I guess housemate. Some guy named Tommy who knows a thing or two on the web.”

“The dark web,” Mira said.

“I hope Tommy’s in hiding by now,” Macy said.

“I forgot to ask.”

“And I hope he unplugged everything and took it with him.”

“I’ll ask him that, too,” Annica said. “What else?”

Macy chuckled. “You can tell I’ve been hanging around nerds lately. You should probably have me sit in on the interview.”

“Yeah,” Annica said, “You can make sure we stay on topic.” She fought to make sure her smile didn’t grow too big. The girls already had their suspicions. There was no need to give the whole story away.