It was almost 8:00 when Tasha and Dan strolled into the hotel. They’d returned to the restaurant and had a dinner of grilled chicken with rice, yams, and bananas. As they ate, Tasha took pictures of the papers with her phone and sent them to… wherever she sent them.

They’d sat in the back of the restaurant, but he was still astonished at how bold she was, going about her business as if she had nothing to hide, and then tucking the papers away when she finished. During their training, she kept telling them that acting like you had something to hide only called attention to the fact you had something to hide. She certainly lived by that motto, and not one person in the place gave her a second glance. At least, not a second glance at what she was doing. She’d had plenty of second, third, and fourth glances, especially by the men, as they ate.

Working with her today, he had become almost mesmerized by her. She could change from a soft southern belle to a hard-charging New York bitch in the blink of an eye. And it wasn’t only her accent, it was her entire demeanor. She made him realize how little they knew about the spy business and how much more they had to learn. He also wondered how many other women were packed into that taut, athletic body of hers.

As they ate, chatting about their day while leaving out any details that would give away what they were actually doing, he’d felt the tingle of desire for her. Being with Tasha would be like making love to a different woman every night. She intrigued him like no other woman he’d ever met, but he felt the desire fade as his past gripped him by the throat again. He had to remain focused.

Rich and Derrick were in the hotel bar, nursing a beer as they entered. “Great job, today,” Natasha said as she and Dan settled at the table beside their teammates.

“Find anything?” Rich asked.

“Maybe. I’ve sent some paperwork to the university. We’ll see what the head of the department has to say.”

“How’d you get a hit so fast?” Dan asked. “We couldn’t find shit.”

“Raw, natural talent,” Derrick said with a grin. “The minute that guy started talking, I knew he was hiding something.”

“How’d you get him to spill it?” Tasha asked.

Derrick grinned as he leaned in a little closer. “Rich and I, we explained how we thought it would be in the best interest of everyone involved to tell us what he knew.”

Dan watched as Tasha’s face went hard. “Goddammit!” she hissed. “You can’t do shit like that. You’re going to blow our cover.”

“We didn’t touch him,” Rich protested. “We didn’t tell him anything either.”

“Doesn’t matter. Ornithologists don’t go around threatening people.”

“We didn’t threaten him.”

“So he just volunteered the information out of the goodness of his heart?”

“All we said was we were looking for hard-to-find lab equipment for the study of bird eggs, then we leaned on him a little when he said the stuff we were looking for wasn’t available for import.”

Tasha shook her head, her lips tight.

“They did get us our first lead,” Dan said, standing up for his team. After watching Tasha work today, he finally understood what she had been preaching and could see why she was upset, but it didn’t sound like the SEALs had crossed too far over the line.

“Yeah, that’s something,” she said with a sigh. “As big as you two are, merely walking into a place you probably intimidate half the people in there.”

Dan nodded at Rich. “Tomorrow, I’ll go with Derrick, and Rich, you can go with Tasha,” he offered. “Watching her do what she does was a real eye opener for me today. You’ll have a whole new appreciation for what she has been trying to teach us after watching an expert. After Rich, you’ll be next, Derrick.”

Tasha nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

Dan noticed that Derrick wasn’t paying attention to them anymore and looked to where he was staring. At the bar were two stunning women, and they were watching their table intently, a small smile playing on their lips.

Derrick smiled as he rose. “I’ll get us another round of beer.”

Dan felt a sinking in his stomach as Derrick stopped at the bar, spoke to the bartender a moment, then turned his attention to the two women.

Rich grinned when Derrick glanced at their table and jerked his head. “Excuse me,” he said as he rose. “My wingman needs support.”

Rich walked to the bar, spoke to the women a moment, then picked up two beers, delivering them to their table, setting one each in front of Tasha and Dan as Derrick and the two women moved to another table.

“If you’ll excuse Derrick and me,” he said with a grin as he backed away.

“Rich,” Dan hissed. “This isn’t right. Something’s off.”

Rich’s smile spread. “Not yet, it isn’t, but I plan on getting something off a little later.”

“No!” Dan said sharply. “You and Derrick need to—”

“Whoa there, Hoss,” Rich said, his smile fading. “We’re having a drink. Nothing wrong with that. Tasha said blend. Derrick and I are blending.”

“I’m telling you, this doesn’t—” Dan tried again.

“Dan?” Tasha asked. “What’s up?”

“This is wrong. We’re here for a reason and we need to stay focused.”

She sighed and gave Rich a small nod. He smiled again as he moved to join Derrick at the other table.

“Part of blending in is acting natural,” Tasha began. “If two women who look like that hit on a guy, giving them the cold shoulder is going to stand out.” Her eyes narrowed. “What’s eating you?”

“This could go to hell so quickly. We’re here to…study birds…and they’re over there trying to fuck some bimbos they picked up at the bar.”

“So?” She watched the other table a moment. “I don’t see anything except a couple of whores looking for a mark.”

“That’s my point.”

She sighed again. “When was the last time you got laid?”

“What?” he asked, his head jerking about to look at her. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Maybe nothing,” Tasha said quietly, “but men and women fuck, Dan. Because you’re not interested in it anymore—”

He began to burn in anger. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“Then tell me.”

“Okay. They’re endangering the fucking mission,” he hissed as he leaned in close.

“How? What do you see that I don’t?”

“Call it a feeling.”

“Okay, good. Listening to your gut can save your life.” She looked at the other table again. “What has your alarm bells ringing? Derrick and Rich have been burying their cocks in every woman they could find for three months. You didn’t seem to have a problem with it then. Why now?”

He ground his teeth. Maybe he was overreacting. “We weren’t on…studying birds before.”

She nodded. “Point taken.” She looked away as the four rose, the women snuggling in close as Rich and Derrick led them out of the room. “I’ll talk to them, okay? You’re right, this isn’t a booty trip. But if I call them back now, that’ll turn some heads.”

He took a hard pull from his beer and banged the glass on the table. This was just like Mexico. Or was it? Here, nobody knew who they were and nobody was looking for them. Maybe Tasha was right. Men and women did fuck, and he’d done his share of picking women and fucking them. But that was before.

He knew what happened in Mexico had affected him. He could feel the cold hand of death still gripping his guts. Gretchen was dead because of him, and he hadn’t been able to get past that. Perhaps it was clouding his judgement. Tasha was clearly better suited to this than he was. She was far more expert in fieldcraft, and she didn’t seem alarmed. He pushed his reservations down.

“Yeah, okay. Thanks.”

She smiled, but it was slightly sad. “When this is all over, you and I need to talk, okay? Just you and me,” she said, pointing back and forth between them with her pointer finger. “I’m expert at keeping secrets. You can trust me. Let me try to help you.”

He felt his heart squeeze. He hadn’t told anyone what had happened, and the thought of admitting his shame terrified him. But at the same time, he wanted to tell someone, unburden himself and let go of the darkness that was consuming him.

He smiled as he looked at the table and nodded. “Okay, thanks. Maybe I’ll take you up on that.”

She patted his hand gently. “Do. You’re a good man, not to mention hot as shit. You’re breaking a lot of women’s hearts by being the way you are.”

“Yours?” he asked with a teasing smile.

She giggled. “No, not mine. Remember, I’m the nasty, ball-busting bitch. But I hear Sergeant Starm is still crying in her beer every night.”

“Right,” he said, drawing the word out in a slow drawl. “The other thing that bothers me about this is Fug.”

Tasha nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but we don’t know the arrangement she has with Derrick. Maybe she’s fine with him fucking someone else. Maybe she’s doing the same. Or maybe he’s going to break her heart. Either way, it’s really none of our business.”

Dan took another pull from his beer. “Yeah,” he muttered.

They finished their beers and returned to their rooms. They each had a room, with Tasha’s room between Derrick’s and Rich’s. If Derrick was as loud as Rich, whose room was next to Dan’s, she was getting it from both sides.

“You suck that big cock,” Rich snarled, his voice strained and breathless, clearly audible through the paper-thin walls.

“I love your big American cock,” a woman’s voice replied, her tone dripping with sex.

After few minutes of quiet, he heard the woman cry out in pleasure. “Oh… fuck! You’re making me come. Eat that pussy. You eat that pussy so good.”

Dan groaned as the bed in the next room begin to squeak and bump against the wall. It sounded like Rich was pounding the shit out of her. Listening to Rich and the woman go at it like they were made him ache for the touch of a woman.

“Fuck me. Fuck me!” Rich roared as the woman cried out in pleasure again.

“Goddammit,” Dan muttered, trying to shut out the noise.

Maybe he should walk down the hall, pound on Tasha’s door, and see if she wanted to get loud too.

“Fuck, I’m coming!” Rich roared.

There were sounds of particularly hard fucking, a heavy thump, more hard and fast fucking for a moment, then Rich roared again as something fell to the floor with a popping snap. Then it was quiet.

Dan grinned to himself as he wondered if the woman, or Rich, would be able to walk in the morning.

After a few minutes of quiet, he banged his hand on the wall. “You two okay in there?” he called, his grin spreading as he wondered what they were doing now.

His imagination was still running away with him when his door burst open and the woman who had left on Rich’s arm burst into his room. That was shocking enough. The fact she was as naked as the day she was born was more so. But most shocking of all was the deadly, silenced pistol she held in her hand. Dan threw himself off the bed as her pistol spat death, the sound of a loud hand clap accompanying each rip in the bed.

He grabbed the edge of the bed and flipped it high with a crash. Two more bullets ripped through the mattress as the woman stumbled back. Dan charged her, leaping over the bed as it continued to crash to the floor. Another clap and the window behind him spiderwebbed. He grabbed her arm and pivoted, draping it over his shoulder as he pressed his back into her. A quick jerk down and he heard her elbow explode. She screamed in agony as the pistol fell from her numb hand.

He dropped, grabbed the weapon, and pivoted and fired two shots into her torso, a third into her head, the wall behind her red with her blood.

As she fell, he scrambled to his feet and charged out of his room and into Rich’s. Rich lay naked on the bed, a single bullet hole in his head, his eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling. He pounded out of Rich’s room before skidding to a stop at Tasha’s door.

The door was open. His weapon popped up as he entered, but he couldn’t fire. Tasha was in a fierce battle with the other woman from the bar. The woman had Tasha pulled onto her chest with her arm around Tasha’s throat, the two women’s faces twisted into a snarl of pain and effort. Tasha fired an elbow backwards into the woman’s face, causing her to release Tasha and stagger back, blood gushing from her nose. Freed from her assailant’s grasp, Tasha pivoted and threw a hard right into the woman’s stomach, following up with a left to the face.

The woman gasped as she staggered back then fell over the bed. He entered deeper into the room, his weapon on the woman.

“Don’t shoot her!” Tasha panted.

Tasha was bleeding from the bottom lip, and her chest had a smear of blood over one breast, the red lurid against her pale skin. He glanced at her, but other than her lip, she appeared unhurt. The blood must belong to the other woman.

“You okay?” he asked as the woman on the bed tried to get up. He stepped up close and pointed the pistol at her head, the threat clear. She stared at him with wide eyes as she stilled, her hands at the sides of her head.

“Yeah,” Tasha said as she wiped her lip, then picked up a pistol from the floor that matched the one in his hand.

“Watch her,” he said. Tasha quickly checked the weapon and then pointed it at the woman, ignoring her own nakedness.

Dan entered Derrick’s room. He was as dead as Rich. He’d been shot twice in the chest and the bed was covered in blood.

His jaws clenched tight, he closed all the doors to their rooms before he returned to Tasha’s.

“Are they…” Tasha asked as Dan closed the door behind himself.

“Yes. Both of them.”

She whirled on the woman. “Who sent you?” she snarled.

“Fuck you, bitch.”

Tasha handed the gun to him and hauled the naked woman off the bed before driving a hard right into the woman’s stomach. She doubled over as she groaned and fell back to the bed.

“You’re going to tell me what I want to know,” Tasha growled as she loomed over the woman. “Who sent you?”

“He’ll kill me if I tell you.”

“I’m going to kill you if you don’t.”

“I’m not telling you shit.”

Without warning, Tasha drove a right straight into the woman’s pussy. He winced in sympathetic pain as the woman screamed in agony and curled up into a fetal position, her hands clasped between her legs. Tasha was one tough bitch, and she obviously didn’t mind using brutality to get the information she wanted.

“Talk!”

“Kangka,” the woman sobbed.

“Why?”

“I don’t know!”

Tasha rolled the woman onto her back, forced her legs open, then drew her hand back as if she were going to throw another punch.

“No!” the woman cried, cowering and covering herself. “I don’t know, I swear. He never tells me. He told me to get those two men alone and kill them. That’s all I know. I swear!”

“Did you tell him about us?” Dan asked.

“No. I didn’t have time. Don’t hurt me anymore. I just do what I’m told.”

Tasha looked at Dan, her lips thin. “Think she’s telling the truth?”

“Maybe.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” The gun in her hand popped twice as the woman’s chest exploded in blood. “We need to get out of here. Now!”

“What about this mess?”

Tasha began wiping the weapon on the bedsheets. “Wipe it down and leave it.”

“What about Rich and—” Dan began.

“Nothing we can do for them now.”

She hurried into the bathroom and wiped the blood off her chest and lip as Dan wiped down his weapon and left it on the bed beside the other. She was shrugging into a shirt when he paused at the bathroom door.

“Do you have your weapon?” she asked.

“No. In my room.”

“Go get it. Get your phone but leave everything else.”

“My passport?”

“Leave it. We’re burned. I have backup IDs.”

“But Rich and—”

“Forget them,” she snarled, pushing past him into the room. “If we don’t get out of here, we’ll be dead too.”

He left and returned to her room with his phone and weapon. She handed him a new passport, shoving three others into her pocket. He tucked it away without looking at it.

She stepped out of the room and paused as she took a deep breath. The hardness, rage, and pain that had been on her face since he’d burst in on her melted away. She turned to him and smiled.

“Let’s take a walk and enjoy the night air, dear,” she said, looping her arm through his.

They walked out of the hotel Vispin. Tasha moved and chatted away like she didn’t have a care in the world, but he was seething inside. He’d fucked up again, and this time it had cost him the lives of two of his friends.