EMILY WANTED TO GO UP to her room and hide after Ryan stormed out, but she didn’t let herself do it. Instead, she listened to Ian and Matt discuss the Freedom Force and the possible scenarios in which they’d use the hostages.

“Will they make an example of them, Emily?”

She looked up to find the two men staring at her. As soon as she’d felt stable enough, she’d gone over to sit in a chair instead of on the mattress—Ian had a mattress in his office because he slept there. While it was a pretty sparse setup without any personal touches, it still felt too intimate to lie on his bed.

She cleared her throat. She felt much better than she had, at least physically. Her heart, however, still felt as if someone had stomped on it pretty hard. She could still hear the anger in Ryan’s voice, still see the disillusionment on his face. He’d been furious with her, and then he’d been disgusted.

But she couldn’t let that affect her. She had a job to do. People’s lives depended on it.

“They don’t have scruples, if that’s what you’re asking. Up until now, executing hostages and broadcasting it hasn’t been their style. Bombs in public places, suicide missions—yes. But beheading people on camera is new territory. I don’t think they would shrink from it necessarily. On the other hand, they may not want to be identified with the groups who are currently using that tactic.”

“So we may have some time yet,” Matt said.

“A little bit, yes. Just because they may not want to film an execution doesn’t mean they won’t kill the hostages and leave their bodies to be found somewhere as a message.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Matt put a hand to his forehead and rubbed. “Will they kill a pregnant woman?”

Emily blinked. “I… Yes, I’m pretty sure they would. Are you telling me one of the hostages is pregnant?”

Matt nodded. “Linda Cooper. She’s thirty-one, married, and fifteen weeks pregnant. She was only supposed to be on the dig for the first two weeks, then she was returning to Italy where she teaches in the military adult education program at Aviano Air Base. Her husband is an Air Force major.”

“Oh, God,” Emily breathed. “If they figure that out…”

Ian and Matt looked grim. “Yeah,” Matt said. “We have to get her out of there. We have to get them all out of there.”

Emily put her hand to her belly automatically. That poor woman was pregnant and no doubt scared out of her mind. And then there was the deprivation she was likely suffering at the hands of the Freedom Force. The hostages were probably getting food and water because the terrorists couldn’t demand things if they were dead, but it certainly wasn’t the kind of regular nutrition a pregnant woman would need.

What if she was sick? Suffering from heat exhaustion and morning sickness? She would be miserable. Puking, fainting, tired all the time…

A cold chill rolled down Emily’s spine. Those things sounded remarkably similar to how she’d been feeling lately.

Except that she couldn’t be pregnant. It wasn’t possible. She’d wanted to be once, back when she still cared about Zaran. Before he’d become a monster. Once he’d changed, she’d been more than thankful she couldn’t get pregnant, even if it did infuriate him.

A wave of nausea swelled in her throat, and she swallowed it down again. No, she wasn’t pregnant. Linda Cooper was.

But… when was her last period? Not since before she’d arrived in Acamar two months ago. Emily chewed her lip and thought back to the last time. It was about two weeks before she’d left DC.

Two weeks before she’d spent the night with Ryan. A fresh chill slid over her skin.

No. There was just no way. No freaking way.

It had been a while, yes—but there was the stress of travel and getting acclimated to the heat. Those things messed up a woman’s natural cycle. She’d been through that before.

Her period should happen any day now. Any day.

And if it doesn’t?

It will.

Besides, it wasn’t like she could walk down to the corner drugstore and buy a pregnancy test. Which was fine because she wasn’t pregnant. Her period was coming.

“All right,” Ian was saying. “Get your guys settled and let me work my contacts for a while. If I get anything, I’ll let you know.”

“We’re going to get them out of there,” Matt said. “So long as we all work together.”

Ian looked up and met the other man’s gaze. “That’s my intention. I wouldn’t have passed the information along the chain if it wasn’t.”

“The guys don’t trust you.”

Ian grinned. “I know. But you do.”

Matt didn’t say anything at first. Then he stuck out his hand. Ian clasped it, and they stood there looking at one another for a long moment.

“The jury’s still out, mon ami. But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt until you prove me wrong.”

Ian shrugged. “I’m on your side this time—but I won’t be every time. That much is true.”

Matt started to walk away, but then he stopped and frowned at Emily. She had to drag her thoughts back from the depths of her distraction.

“I don’t pretend to know what’s going on with you and Flash,” he said, “but clearly there’s more here than any of us knew about. You need to talk to him when you’re both calmer. This can’t get in the way of the mission.”

“It’s not going to.”

His frown didn’t abate, and she knew he wasn’t appeased. “Flash is one of the most easygoing guys I know. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this pissed before, and that worries me. If he’s distracted during a mission, that’s not good for any of us. And if I have to remove him from the op, that’s not good for him. You get what I’m saying?”

Emily swallowed. If he had to remove Ryan from the mission, he’d get sent back to DC—and the wrath of Mendez. He could lose his job over her. His career. The fewer issues he had with her being here, the better. “I get it.”

Matt nodded. “Good. Talk to y’all later.”

Once he was gone, Ian sat back and ran his hands through his hair before settling them on top of his head and staring at her.

“You didn’t mention a romantic entanglement with a HOT operator. I could have made sure he wasn’t on the team.”

Emily’s face was warm. “I didn’t think it was anyone’s business but mine and Ryan’s.”

“Maybe not, but he’s here now, and you have to work with him. Are you going to be able to do that?”

Emily sniffed as if it was nothing when in truth her stomach was still churning, and not just from nausea. “Of course I am. It was just a brief fling.”

She got to her feet and picked up the abaya, her fingers trembling from the lie. “If there’s nothing else, I have some things to do.”

Ian’s eyes narrowed. “Nope, nothing else.”

---

Ryan was lying on a bunk in the room he was sharing with Fiddler when Matt appeared in the doorway. He’d known his team commander would visit him, but he’d hoped it would take a bit longer. He was still processing everything that had happened with Emily, and he was still pretty pissed about it. His first instinct was to go find her and throw her over his shoulder like a caveman. Then he’d take her to the airstrip and load her onto a C-17 headed for Germany.

After the plane was gone, he might calm down, though he had no idea how long that would take. Days, at least.

So the last thing he wanted to do right now was answer questions about him and Emily, but he knew he had no choice. He was a soldier, the man frowning at him was his superior, and Ryan obeyed orders.

Matt came inside and sank down on the bunk opposite. “So, you and Emily. Care to explain?”

No dancing around the subject there. Ryan sat up and leaned against the wall. “Not especially.”

Matt’s gaze didn’t falter. “You realize that isn’t an option, right?”

“I do.” He huffed out a breath. “There’s not a lot to explain. She confided in me after the mission in Qu’rim. I didn’t cut it off when I should have because I seemed to be the only person she could talk to…”

“And?” Matt prompted when he didn’t keep talking.

Ryan felt his skin growing hot. Not because he was embarrassed but because he really didn’t want to talk about what had happened in his apartment that night. It was personal. And while he might have talked shit in the past about getting a piece of pussy after a night in a club or something, it felt wrong to talk about Emily that way.

“Flash, I have to know.”

Ryan scrubbed a hand over his scalp. “It was only once. The night before she left with Black. She’d tried to date a guy in her class, but it didn’t work out. She needed to know if she was still capable of… She needed to know if she was normal. I didn’t say no.”

Matt nodded. “All right. Now explain to me why you lost your cool back there.”

Ryan’s throat was tight. “What’s there to explain? Ian Black isn’t trustworthy—and he lied to Emily to get her out here for his own reasons. He put her in danger, and she was stupid enough to believe him. She hurt Victoria by leaving—and Brandy too because he loves Victoria.”

“And you. She hurt you too.”

Fuck. He could deny it, but what was the point? “And me.”

“I need to know if you’re going to be able to do this job with her here. Because she’s not leaving. Black isn’t forcing her to stay, and she doesn’t want to go. Not only that, she understands things about the Freedom Force that no amount of intel in the world can tell us. She lived with them, and she knows how they think.”

Precisely why he wanted her gone. He didn’t want her to have to endure those people again. To relive the hell she’d gone through with Zaran bin Yusuf. It had to be costing her something to be in such close proximity to the life that had nearly broken her once before.

“You don’t care that Black lied to her?”

Matt’s eyes sparked. “How do you know he did? Maybe he has the connections to do what he promised.”

A flash of anger rolled through him. “Now you believe this motherfucker? After what he did when he sent Victoria and Brandy after that Russian scientist?”

“What did he do? He turned the virus over to us instead of selling it, which he could have done if he’d wanted. I don’t like him or trust him, but I believe we’re on the same side.”

“We play by rules. Ian Black has no rules.”

“Nope, I don’t think he does either. He’ll do whatever it takes to get what he wants, no matter how unscrupulous.”

“Working with him is like teaming the police department with a vigilante group and giving them the same powers.”

“Not gonna argue with you there. But this is the job, Flash. You know it as well as I do. Mendez sent us here to get a job done, and we’re going to do it. Those people out there who are scared and in danger—they take precedence over any feelings we have for Black. They also take precedence over this situation between you and Emily. I need you to be in control of your feelings about this.”

“I am in control. How many missions have we done together? Have I ever failed the team in all that time?”

“No, but a woman can have a way of fucking with a guy’s head.”

Ryan closed his eyes and rolled his neck. “She’s not fucking with my head. I was surprised and pissed. I’ll get over it.”

Matt leaned forward, his palms on his knees. “I have to report this to the colonel, but unless you give me a reason to remove you now, I’ll wait until the mission is over. The safety of the hostages takes priority.”

Ryan hated that the overwhelming feeling coursing through him at the mention of Mendez was relief that Matt wasn’t telling the colonel yet. He’d have to face the music eventually, of course, but he was glad it wasn’t today. Even half a world away, the colonel was one badass, scary motherfucker. Ryan didn’t know what it was like to be on the man’s bad side, and he didn’t want to find out.

Though he suspected this situation between him and Emily would push his relationship with the colonel into the danger zone. Mendez didn’t like surprises, and he certainly didn’t like having to clean up messes made by his own men.

“I’ll do my job, Richie. Like always.”

Matt stood and nodded. “Knew I could count on you.” He looked down at his watch. “Team meeting in twenty.”

“I’ll be there.”