Despite her aunt not exactly liking when various members of the family went AWOL, Holly had to do it. She at least told her she was leaving, but by no means did she mention where. She probably wouldn’t have believed the truth, anyway, that she found a last-minute flight to San Antonio, Texas. How could she explain that, or her taxi to nearby Lackland Air Force Base to meet up with and an old friend and the leader of a band of black operatives hiding in plain sight as a cybersecurity company? She could hardly believe it, herself.

Holly had stalked him enough through social media to know what the latest version of Logan Williams had to offer. He greeted her with that same smile, as if he’d saved it just for her, locked it up in a time capsule and only now resurrected it out of sympathy. God, she needed sympathy, among other things.

And he was nice enough, right off the bat, to offer his big shoulder to cry on. They met that way, in a big strong hug, her leaning against him and letting it all out, wet, on his shirt.

“Jesus,” he said jokingly, “is it that bad?”

“It’s bad.”

He held her head against his firm chest, and she could hear him mumble, “I’m sorry.”

They were surrounded by strangers, military men walking by without a glance. They were perhaps used to seeing the drama of families reuniting after long deployments. Their reuniting came after a long deployment, too. Technically, DARC Ops worked out of Washington, a stone’s throw from her offices in Virginia, but it didn’t seem like the guys liked to sit around in the office much. Before that, he’d been God knows where. Had he been just a short ride over the bridge the whole time?

“Thanks,” she said, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed at the waterworks.

“Hey,” he said, with a mild shake of her shoulders. “You’re gonna be alright. Okay?” He directed her down the hall. “They’ve got a conference room ready,” Logan said. “They set it up for us, for some privacy. Unless you want to go somewhere else?”

“Where?”

“Well, does it feel weird for you, being in an air force base?”

She didn’t want to answer. It was a little weird, period, meeting him for the first time in seven years, and under those circumstances, in a military base, in perhaps her darkest hour. He gave her a kind smile as if he understood. Holly followed it up with, “Could we meet somewhere private?”

“This is private,” he said. “Super private.”

She knew it might have been private in some sense, but nothing, especially the matters going on in a government building, were ever really private at all.

“You want to get a hotel room or something?” Logan asked.

“What?”

“Or go get lunch? I don’t know, help me out here.”

“I get you wanting to meet here because you just flew in,” Holly said. “But, it sort of gives me the creeps, to be honest.”

“Well, this is where we’re meeting Jackson.”

“We’re meeting Jackson?”

Logan nodded.

“Today?”

“Yes, today. What’s wrong?”

She needed their help, and needed it immediately. She knew that. But it was hard enough to control her emotions just meeting Logan at all. Hard enough to feel his gaze on her. She wasn’t ready to reveal everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours in front of someone she barely knew. She was still catching her breath. Holly wanted desperately to get back to the comforts of their relationship, as if time had never passed. If only for one single afternoon, to snuggle up to him, her six-foot-four security blanket.

She was a fucking idiot. She didn’t have time to catch her breath. Beth didn’t have time. Holly sucked in a breath. She had to do whatever it took to get her cousin back, and the countdown had already started.

“Wherever you think is best,” she said. “Let’s get started.”

“Let’s go for a walk,” Logan said. “Maybe we can go outside without being harassed too much by the guards.”

“When is Jackson getting here?”

“Any minute now.”

“Then I guess we’ll stay.” Her legs suddenly felt weak, the height of her body feeling like it had suddenly doubled and overwhelmed her. “I’m sorry I’m so frazzled.”

“You’re fine,” Logan said. “This way.” He showed her across the hallway, into a small, well-lit room with a long table and a dozen empty chairs. There were bottles of water congregated around the middle of the table. A low humming noise in the background. It was an old building, as was most of the infrastructure at the air force bases. She remembered one of the last times she’d seen Logan was in one of these places back on the East Coast. That meeting had almost been as sad as today’s.

“Do you have anything?” Logan asked.

“Huh?”

“A computer or anything? Files? A tablet?”

“There’s this,” she said, pulling her tablet from her purse. “But there’s not much on there except for some stuff about a man named Andrei Godev.”

“We can start there, then, and then—”

“—work our way up,” she said, taking over with the same thought and sentence. It felt good to be on the same page.

“Yeah,” he said, smiling, “but work our way up to where?” His gaze pierced her. “What’s going on, Holly?”

She held his gaze. She had to know if he’d keep his promise. She’d know if she looked into his eyes. “Someone’s got Beth. A Russian trafficker.”

His gaze never left hers, but something cold sparked deep in his eyes. “And?”

She took in a deep breath. This was it. The moment she’d get the help she needed, or when it would all go to shit as the world collapsed around her. “And they’re blackmailing me into helping them in return for her release.”

Logan’s jaw flexed, and his mouth set in a firm line. God, the man was nearly vibrating, sitting across from her at the table. Her heart raced. Had she misjudged him? Had she done something wrong?

Before she could ask, he stood and strode around to her, sweeping her up in his arms and crushing her to his chest. He dropped a kiss to her head. “We’ll get these fuckers, Holly. I promise you that.”

He held on a final moment, her skin tingling as his hard muscles flexed through his shirt. God, she hadn’t realized how much she needed that. Just to be held, to be believed. For someone to promise her everything was going to be okay.

Logan pulled back but didn’t walk around to his side of the table. Instead, he held her chair out and then sat right next to her.

Right. It was time to get down to business. She looked around the room again, checking for where they could hide microphones and other recording equipment. Being in the CIA had given her a bit of a complex, the suspicion of always being observed. Still, maybe it was safer that they did this on an air force base. No one would know what to expect from her there. Would they?

She powered on her tablet and opened a blank document. She typed and then tilted it for him to read. Do you think they’re listening?

Logan typed, They?

The military, gov’t, etc.

Logan typed, and the CIA?

When Holly didn’t respond, either typing or words, or even body language, Logan typed again. She read it after he was done. If you feel uncomfortable, I know a good place for Mexican food and a cerveza. It’s basically part of the base, minus the surveillance.

She liked the idea. Even if it was just temporary, a little escape. They could still talk. It just wouldn’t make her feel so afraid of how they talked about it and what they proposed.

“What about Jackson?”

“It’s no problem. We can meet him after.”

“Won’t he be mad?”

He got up from his chair. “I’ll stay in touch with him. I’ll tell the guys here something.” He looked over at her, his gaze softening. “It’ll be alright, Holly.”

“Okay,” Holly said. She needed that. Needed it to be good.

Their departure from the base went without notice. As they passed several men in uniform, then the gate guards, it occurred to Holly that maybe her crisis wasn’t the center of the universe. Neither was Beth’s kidnapping, which was the depressing truth of it. Still, whether they were recording or not, she wanted this bit of time with Logan. To get reacquainted and familiar before they met with Jackson.

They were standing together in front of his rental car, Logan reaching over first to beat her to the door, to lift the handle and hold it open for her.

She thanked him and slid inside while he went around with another smile. Inside the car, he said, “Once we get Jackson involved, and the rest of the DARC Ops and all of our capabilities, it’ll be a cakewalk. And wait till you get to meet some of their hackers.”

She appreciated the spark in his eye—whether real or manufactured—and the excitement in his voice. She knew he was tired from his mission and probably feeling even more awkward than she did about their meeting. Holly knew he just got out of a rough experience with the DARC mission, and this meeting with Jackson was probably the last thing he’d wanted to do. But here he was, with that sweet, reassuring smile of his, putting the car in gear and pulling away from the air force base overflow parking area.

“Have you been here before or something, or?”

“Yeah,” he said simply and without elaboration as he drove the car down one of the service roads around the base. “Yup,” he said again, sighing.

Holly figured he’d been to a lot of military installations over the years, and many countries, too. She’d done traveling, too, but mostly through fiber-optic cables. Logan, on the other hand, had lived a life of experience. Often rough experience. He was out there, in the tangible, dangerous world. He could touch and feel his way through while she just guessed at the concepts. It was nice knowing how well he could handle himself. He must have no doubt handled a lot of women in his travels, too. He’d been single, as far as she could guess, for the great majority of those years. Another tidbit from social media. But she wouldn’t ask about that, yet.

“I’m glad you called me,” Logan finally said over chips and salsa.

“Are you sure about that?”

“I’m sure now,” he said. “Maybe ask me in a week and we’ll see.”

“I’ll be so glad if we have her back by then. If we can take care of this between us and DARC Ops.”

“The quieter we are, I think, the easier it’ll be. Once you start getting official agencies involved . . . I know it might sound like bad advice, but, we really can go ahead and do things that the usual suspects can’t even dream of.”

“You mean, break rules?” she said.

“Most definitely break rules.” He grinned. She knew breaking rules was Logan’s forte, especially after the latest example in Mexico.

“You think Jackson will forgive you for breaking the rules again? I feel like he might not be too excited.”

“He’s already forgiven me,” Logan said. “Now I have to prove to him that he made the right decision. As far as breaking rules again, with you and Beth, well, this is different.”

She nodded and reached for a chip in the basket. Yes, it was very different.

As she finally ate enough chips to get some energy back in her body, Holly began feeling the mild beginnings of excitement at the idea of meeting Jackson, the famous cybersecurity maverick. He had some media coverage, mostly newspaper stories and news bulletins about political espionage. For the most part, he was in hiding, slipping in and out of God knows where before anyone noticed he’d been there at all. There’d been no more interviews or television appearances. No appearance at all, really. His latest one there at the airbase would be a big boost for her, for finally getting their strategy rolling. If he agreed to take it on.

“How much does he know?” she asked.

“Less than I do. And I hardly know anything.”

“Sorry.”

“Do you want to make this a business lunch? Or would we still just . . .”

“They kidnapped her,” Holly said. “Because of what I do, and what I can do for them.”

Logan leaned forward, hunching over his arms that were crossed on the tabletop. “What do they want, specifically?”

“I worked on a case a few years ago, decrypting the communications between a human trafficker and his clients. It was a global operation. The uber-rich. The powerful elites. They’d use little Pacific islands as their playgrounds. Ever hear of a place called Sugar Island?”

“No,” Logan said.

“One of the places Godev would fly in his wares for the political elites. They’d line them up on the tarmac. It was like window shopping for these creeps.”

“Sounds like the slave trade.”

“That’s exactly it,” Holly said. “They were slaves.”

“What kind of slaves?” He winced almost imperceptibly, as if he just realized they could have been talking about Beth. “I mean . . .”

“Sex slaves,” Holly said.

“Oh . . .” He dropped his latest chip back into the basket, then drew his hand back. It was clenching before he hid it under the table.

“That was his industry,” Holly said. “That’s what he’s into.”

Logan frowned and said quietly, “Is that what they said they’d do with Beth?”

“The guy on the phone hinted at that, yes. But I don’t know. Either way . . .”

“Yeah,” Logan said, “either way . . .”

In the brief silence, they both reached for their drinks. As much as she still half wanted to get absolutely loaded, to forget it all for a few minutes, she held off at one round of cocktails. She had to stay sharp. For Beth and for Jackson. Logan had told her Jackson was always willing to help those who truly needed it. She could only hope he was right.

Beth was certainly in need. Holly had to always stop her mind from unraveling at the thoughts of what may be happening to her. Even at that very moment, in the restaurant, where somewhere across the country—or across the world—they had her. Likely, they were still in the US, but a torture chamber was still worlds away. Definitely worlds away from what Beth had been accustomed to, her life of college and live concerts.

She shrugged at the cold bitterness of her drink.

“You okay?” Logan said.

“I’ll be alright.”

“It’s not fair,” Logan said.

“It would be fair if it happened to me.”

His face hardened again at her remark. “It is happening to you.”

“Almost,” Holly said. “It’s almost as bad.”

“In my line of work, I see bad things happen to innocent people. It seems to happen to them the most.”

“Who were the kidnappers you were after?”

“Members of a drug cartel. Extortionists. They just wanted the money. This, I feel, is a little different.”

“No, it’s the same. It’s an exchange, a person instead of money. That should make it easier, in a way.”

“There’s one problem,” Logan said.

“Yeah, there’s a few problems.”

“Obviously, but I mean on my end. I was ready to resign from DARC Ops. In fact, I had my finger over the Send button right as your call came in last night.”

She looked at her old flame, studying how time had affected his face. How the new wrinkles only aged him in the way a fine scotch would develop in a seasoned oak barrel. She wondered about the internal developments. He was a better man for their years apart. Free of her weight. Free to do as he pleased, where he pleased, with whomever he pleased.

“I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to—”

“No,” he said firmly. “No way, I need to help you. I need to help you and Beth, of course, no, don’t even think it.”

“About Jackson, though. DARC Ops. We could try fixing it ourselves.”

He was frowning again.

“We could leave them out of it,” Holly said, “if you were planning on leaving.”

“No,” he said, almost making it sound like a grunt.

“I don’t want to affect your job. Your future. How you want to live it.”

“It’s a little too late for that,” Logan said, smiling now. “Stop worrying about me, I’ll be fine.”

“You’re not worried about staying on board with DARC Ops long enough to see this through, and then ditching them after? You’re not worried about the optics of that?”

“I’m not worried about anything except for you and your cousin right now. And that’s all you should be worried about, too.”

“I am worried,” she said, no longer hungry as the server delivered her plate. After a moment, she pushed the plate aside and reached for her water.

“You should eat,” Logan said.

“I will. After we talk with Jackson, I will.”

“Well, at least you had some liquids.”

She smiled at that. “Yeah, thanks, a liquid lunch.”

“And some chips.” He shrugged.

It felt so much better to have someone to talk to. Whether or not he or DARC Ops could do anything to help, it was nice knowing he was there. She’d gone for so long having no one.

“Should we get going, then?” Logan asked, waving over the server to get his food packed to go. “I guess I’m a little nervous, too.”

“Should we bring him something? Something to get on his good side?” Logan laughed. “Or will it take a lot more than Mexican food? Or do we want him to forget all about Mexico?”

“Once we get working, I’m sure he’ll forget all about anything else that isn’t finding Beth.”

She noticed how, sometimes when Logan was talking—even when he was talking about Beth—she almost forgot about the reason for their meetup. She almost forgot so many things.

Back at the car, he tried his usual, gentlemanly door hold. Holly thanked him but said, “You know, you don’t have to keep doing that. I mean, I appreciate it, but we’re work partners now, I think.”

“Call it what you want,” he said, starting the engine.

What did she want to call it?

Finally, a question that it was nice not having the answer to.