Chapter 19

“It’s good to see you again, Ella.”

Ella glanced at the hand held out in front of her face and reached for it. She was encased in ice, but she could do this—look at the woman she’d helped Dresden and Savidge go after. She could do it and act like she wasn’t ashamed to have confirmed the other woman’s identity to a monster. An act of desperation, it still left a bitter taste in Ella’s mouth.

The danger she’d put this innocent woman in! Even though she’d done it to keep Jude safe.

“How you doing, Allie?” Ella was proud her voice didn’t break.

The petite woman with white-blond hair shrugged and leaned back into her man. King McNally wrapped a hard arm around his woman’s midsection and pressed a kiss to that sunlit hair. They fit. Like pieces of a puzzle. Ella had seen the hint of it in Spain. It was even more apparent now.

Deep inside Ella, anger burned. She wanted her puzzle piece, but Jude had been gone for a day and a half with zero contact. Ella had begged Vivi to help her find him. Vivi had refused, and Ella knew why.

Her team didn’t trust her.

Ella didn’t give a shit. Her man was out there hunting a madman, and he was doing it alone. Dresden was dangerous. When he was cornered, hunted, he was insanely crafty. Ella didn’t doubt Jude’s ability, but Dresden was a monster. If he caught Jude before Jude caught him… Well, he’d make Jude suffer. And that would destroy Ella. Everybody had a reason—for living, breathing, putting one foot in front of the other. Jude was Ella’s.

She had to get to Dresden before Jude. That was proving impossible because her teammates, including Brody, were with her every single minute. Nobody called it guard duty, but that’s exactly what it was.

“I’m good,” Allie Redding said with a grin, pulling Ella back to the conversation.

Ella decided she had to take a new tack if she wanted to evade her team and get to Ukraine. She’d gone over every scenario she thought Dresden would engage in. He’d suffered losses in New Mexico. But men were a dime a dozen for Dresden. He seemed to have an unlimited supply. He’d hole up in Ukraine because he had oil to sell.

Allie cleared her throat. “Don’t know that I ever thanked you for the help in Spain.”

Ella snorted. “Considering I helped put you in the hot seat, it’s the least I could do.”

“You talked to Vivi yet?” King asked.

Ella narrowed her gaze on him. “Why?”

“Well, I think it’s time you gave us a debriefing, right? I mean, it’s been a year, Ella.” His voice communicated a vein of distrust, but Ella knew he wouldn’t let Allie anywhere near her if he thought she was a danger to the team.

She nodded, but her words belied the action. “Maybe.”

“Maybe, hell,” Rook said from the doorway. “Time is now.”

“Still pissed about Russia, Granger?” Ella asked, keeping her voice low.

Rook grinned. “Damn straight, Ella-Bella. Ain’t no chick gonna take me down and not suffer for it.”

Speaking of chicks, her cat, Chica, strolled into the room, jumping into Ella’s lap and nudging her nose against Ella’s chin. “Hey, baby,” she whispered, burying her hands in the cat’s soft fur.

The cat had taken to Endgame Ops like a cat to, well, milk. The team complained. Sometimes King fake sneezed, but for the most part, they’d accepted Ella’s surprise animal like they did everything else involved with the team—easily. Besides, Vivi had a cat too. Knight liked to feed him Twizzlers.

“It’s time, Ella,” Vivi said from the door, alarm in her voice.

Ella’s head snapped up, her gaze pinning Vivi.

“It’s not good,” Vivi responded. “I’ve got everything set up in the war room.”

Ella was up that quickly, following Vivi to the house’s former ballroom. It had been converted into a large communications room, similar in feel to Jude’s in New Mexico. His old one anyway. The entire house had been fortified with steel, the windows bulletproofed. It was a mini Fort Knox, each member having donated their specific skill set to ensuring it was as safe as any building could possibly be.

Ella had spent the last thirty-six hours searching for clues to where Jude had gone. She’d also searched for clues that Dresden was back in Ukraine. She’d researched Noah Caine and his daughters, along with Gabrielle Moeller, to the nth degree. And she’d begged Vivi for help. Ella wasn’t eating, was barely sleeping—because how could she sleep without Jude surrounding her? She was close to breaking.

King must have realized it and demanded they do this right now.

Ella walked into the room, noticing nothing had changed since she’d been here last. It would have felt like home if Jude had been there with her.

But he wasn’t, and it was time to go to work.

King, Allie, and Brody sat on the left side of the war table. Rook and Ella sat on the right side. Vivi stood at the head.

“Where are Black and Knight?” Ella asked no one in particular.

“Looking for Chase and Dr. Gabrielle Moeller in Burundi. Apparently, Abrafo Nadege took a liking to the lovely Dr. Moeller, and Chase has had a bitch of a time keeping her safe,” Brody informed her.

Gabrielle Moeller is just another pawn on the chessboard, Ella thought. She wondered what the woman’s role would be in the game. Her gaze sought the big, white boards behind Vivi. On one board were pictures of Moeller, Anna Beth, and Cameron Markov, and of course, their father, Noah Caine, the Piper. On a second board were pics of Dresden, the prime minister of Russia, and Anton Segorski. A map of Crimea was highlighted in yellow between Dresden and the prime minister, and a line went from one board to another, delineating the connection between Dresden and Anna Beth Caine. On the third board was a picture of the White House, several lines coming off it with a picture of Noah Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, in the middle. Ella wondered who the other lines were for.

Vivi cleared her throat, and it was so quintessentially Vivi that Ella felt a smile almost curve her lips. Then Endgame’s chief analyst started talking, and the potential for a smile lessened significantly.

“Let’s start with Africa, shall we? Burundi is a hotbed of unrest, along with most of Africa. Dresden has cemented his foot right in the middle of it, and from everything I have been able to dredge up, he’s aligned himself with Abrafo Nadege in an attempt to secure weapons and, get this, diamonds.” Vivi tapped her lips with her marker as she moved to the second board and pasted a grainy photo of Abrafo Nadege on the board beneath Dresden.

She consulted some notes on her iPad and said, “Nadege was born in Rwanda forty-three years ago, but his parents escaped the political and social unrest, fleeing to London where Nadege was raised among the elite of London society. Schooled at King’s College of London, he graduated cum laude with a PhD in political science. He’s traveled extensively his entire adult life—moving back and forth between Africa, London, and the United States. He began as a professor and somehow insinuated himself into London politics for a time. Long enough to forge political ties in his home of Rwanda anyway. He falls off the face of the earth about seven years ago, leaving a wife and three small children in London, not showing up on my radar until Ella gave Brody his name a month or so ago.”

Ella speared Brody with a look. He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. He cleared his throat, and Ella knew the action hurt him. “You were in trouble. Shit was speeding up. I needed Vivi. Hell, you needed Vivi.”

She couldn’t be mad at him. “Thank you.”

He nodded and turned his gaze back on Vivi.

Vivi and the rest of the team looked at Ella.

“Nadege came on the scene with Dresden shortly after I entered his tender, loving care. Nadege is well spoken, attractive, a big man with big aspirations. He has no conscience, which Dresden adores in his subjects. He’s also a master strategist, and he’s formed solid bonds with tribal leaders all over Africa. When you speak with him, he comes across as sane. When you see him deal with his people, he’s a despot. He controls his people with fear and rage. He’s made a fortune in his own right through diamond mining and running guns for Dresden.

“Diamonds are the trade in Africa. Diamonds and people. Money doesn’t mean much, but diamonds mean power. And to reach the upper echelon of that power scale, you must go through Dresden. Nadege is intelligent enough to realize that he’ll get further with Dresden than without him, and he’s effected a change in the scenery of terrorism in Africa. He owns a lot of land as well. Possession is everything. His hands are on it; it’s his. Rumors are that terrorists are setting up shop to train all over Africa.”

Ella drew in a rough breath. She remembered a time when she’d made a pickup for Dresden in Burundi from Nadege. His courier had been missing four fingers from his left hand and his right ear. He’d handed Ella the bag full of diamonds and fallen to his knees pleading for mercy. Nadege had laughed and laughed and laughed. “Tell your Boko Haram leader I let you live because I’m gracious, but if he interrupts my supply line by invading any more villages, I’ll kill you all. Tell him, and I’ll continue to let you live.” She shuddered.

“Nadege controls all terrorism in Africa, and if Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, or anyone else thinks to step on what he considers his, he destroys them. They don’t move unless they’ve approved it through Nadege. That’s the kind of control we’re speaking of. Yes, they’re training all over the continent. Because he allows it. There are rumors of other activities going on in Africa as well. Always there are rumors.”

“You’re telling me he’s stronger than Al-Qaeda?” King asked in disbelief.

Ella glanced at King. “He’s not as diversified or as zealot-driven, but yes, he’s stronger—in Africa at least—than Al-Qaeda. Might is right in that area of the world. And right now, Nadege, with Dresden’s backing, has the might.

“Nadege brings us to Dr. Gabrielle Moeller. Twenty-eight years old, graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Said to show great promise, she was slated to perform her residency at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, but never followed through. She’s the daughter of Harold and Caroline Moeller, deceased some twelve years ago. Her father was at one time the ambassador to China, and he was a two-time senator from Maryland. Gabrielle Moeller went to an all-girl private Catholic high school, and here’s where things really get interesting—she met Anna Beth Caine at Saint Pius, and they became inseparable until two years ago when they both disappeared off the face of the earth.”

“Lots of people falling off the face of the earth, Vivi,” Rook said, an edge to his voice that displayed his concern.

“Yeah, Granger. They disappear, but they don’t realize I’m the one looking for them,” Vivi said with a grin.

Rook grunted.

Vivi huffed. “I really hate when you do that.”

Ella just wanted her to hurry the hell up. She needed to get to Jude. It was a driving mantra in her head. Every second her teammates traded loving quips or secret grins was another second she was without him.

“Okay, what’s the connection between Moeller, Anna Beth Caine, and Dresden?” Allie Redding tossed out.

“I’m not sure where Moeller falls in other than her connection to Anna Beth. And let’s talk Anna Beth Caine,” Vivi said, taking a deep breath and once again consulting her iPad. “Born twenty-six years ago, second daughter of Noah Caine,” Vivi said, pulling her glasses down as she looked each person in the eye. “Our Piper.”

Everyone nodded. By the pall in the air, everyone understood the weight of his picture on the board.

“Anna Beth is Caine’s second daughter. Cameron, married name Markov, was born two years previous. The Piper’s wife died in childbirth with Anna Beth. Caine took the loss hard and moved his daughters to the Maryland countryside, buying a property that butted up against… Anybody?” No one answered, and King made a motion with his hand to hurry Vivi up. She huffed again but continued. “He bought the property beside Harold and Caroline Moeller.”

“Is there a reason for that information?” Ella asked, a queasy feeling in her gut.

“I’m not sure. Maybe we can figure that out. But allow me to continue,” Vivi answered. “Caine was just beginning his stint on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Harold Moeller was the ambassador to China. I’m digging, but I’m thinking we’ll find out these two families were close, and no, I don’t know what role that plays in things.

“Anna Beth and Cameron were schooled at Saint Pius, and there are hints that when the Moellers died in a car crash, Piper took on the raising of Gabrielle Moeller. Gabrielle and Anna Beth both dual-enrolled at Johns Hopkins University their senior year in high school and entered medical school the summer after they graduated from college. Gabrielle’s focus was plastic surgery. Anna Beth’s was psychiatry. But again, though they graduated, they never completed residency. Where was Cameron through all this though? I searched and searched and couldn’t find Cameron, and then I turned to your dad’s files, Allie, the ones you sent me last night?”

Allie nodded, disquiet marking her features.

“Dresden wants Gabrielle Moeller because of her specialty,” Ella said aloud, the possibility too great to ignore.

“He wants to disappear under another face?” Brody asked in horror.

Ella nodded. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

Silence reigned for a few moments as everyone absorbed that tidbit.

“Big risk to take…letting someone who never even completed their residency carve on your face.” King pondered the thought.

“Back to the files.” Vivi spoke up again. “Cameron is mentioned once and never again. She entered a CIA training camp at age seventeen at the behest of her father.”

“My dad took a seventeen-year-old on to train?” Allie asked in surprise.

“Guess who trained her,” Vivi urged.

Allie swallowed hard, but it was Ella who answered. “Loretta Bernstein.”

Vivi slow-clapped. “Bitch shows up everywhere. But I don’t know where Cameron went after training. There’s no mention of her again, and there’s not enough information for me to build a code to search for her aliases or operative code name.”

“She married Yevgeny Markov, now deceased. And Cameron, known as Svetlana, is dead now. I think Dresden is responsible for the sniper that took her out in Moscow. She took a bullet to the chest and head, but not before she gave up the thumb drive’s location and asked me to tell her dad to protect her sister,” Ella bit out. God, it played out like a bad movie behind her closed lids. Svetlana Markov, a.k.a. Cameron Caine, had married the devil to get further into Dresden’s organization. Had her father groomed her for that duty? And if he had, that meant he’d known Dresden was about to go rogue. How would he have known that ten years ago? And why in the hell would he use his daughter to keep track of the bastard? Maybe Dresden hadn’t been his initial objective.

Ella’s head hurt trying to figure it all out.

“Jesus Christ,” Brody muttered. “Who are we working for?”

King held up his hand. “There’s more, Vivi. I can see it in your face.”

She nodded. “While Cameron Caine was becoming Svetlana Markov, her sister, Anna Beth, was hitching her flag to our good old buddy, pal Horace Dresden. They became engaged shortly after Dresden graduated from BUD/S training. There are no society pictures, only a small announcement in the Washington Journal, but it’s there.”

“Something happened though,” Ella began. “Because they most definitely are no longer engaged, and that was six years ago. Move forward two years from their engagement, and Dresden is betraying his teammates in the Hindu Kush and moving on to world domination. Four years later, Anna Beth Caine is a prisoner in Dresden’s cells.”

Vivi mumbled something around her pen tip before she sighed. “I’m trying to account for their whereabouts the last two years. It makes no sense that they simply disappeared, leaving their lives incomplete and hanging, and now they’re both back on the scene. Moeller in Burundi, right in the heart of Abrafo Nadege’s backyard. And we all know where Anna Beth Caine is.”

King turned to Ella. “Tell me how you found out about Anna Beth.”

“After I left you, Rook, and Jude in Russia, I returned to Ukraine. Dresden was going to want answers about what happened in Moscow, how his grand deal had gone to shit. When I arrived, he said he had something to show me. It was Anna Beth Caine—living in the same cell I’d resided in after Beirut.”

“You okay, Ella?” Brody asked. He’d know what thinking about that time in the cells would do to her.

She gave him a small smile. “We’ve got to get her out, Brody.” Ella tapped her finger on the table and swallowed hard. “Dresden told me about Svetlana Markov being Cameron Caine and how Anna Beth was his former fiancée and Cameron’s sister. The connection to the Piper was right there, and Dresden taunted me with it.”

“The link was there the whole time, but we had no idea to look for it. The Piper has a connection with Dresden—and it’s so goddamn personal he created an entire team to take the bastard down?” King asked in exasperation. “It doesn’t play out to me. There’s information we’re missing.”

Ella both agreed and disagreed. “It’s more than personal, but don’t any of you fool yourself, it’s also very personal. So Rook, you guys want to share what happened in the Hindu Kush?”

Rook closed his eyes before he drew in a deep breath and opened them again. Ella swore she could see the memories in them, violent and ruthless.

Vivi covered her man’s hand and looked over at King. “Let me handle this?”

King and Rook nodded at her.

“When I first met Rook, he was at Leavenworth Correctional Facility. Rook had saved my brother long enough for me to say goodbye. That alone merited my help. But when I started looking into the reason behind his incarceration, I discovered he’d been tried and imprisoned on faulty information.” She took a deep breath. “I busted Rook out of prison.” She glanced at her man and smiled. “You were a right ass when I first met you.”

“But sexy,” he responded with a grin. “Don’t forget sexy.”

“Too much for my own good,” she answered with a grin of her own. Her expression hardened. “And don’t think for two seconds I’m not pissed as hell about you not letting me have access to that file. I can crack it, Rook. I know I can!”

Ella cleared her throat. Loudly. “Can we keep it moving?”

Allie laughed. King grunted. Vivi smiled.

“During the course of trying to clear Rook, we also found Jonah Knight. He wasn’t dead at all, but that’s a story for a different day.”

“I’ll finish this, Viv,” Rook said. He glanced at Ella. “Knight and I were on that failed Hindu Kush op. It was a joint team operation. Dresden and another man were the SEALs of the group. Me and Knight were the Rangers. There were two CIA agents with us as well as four Force Recon marines. We were to meet with a tribal chief, Abu Bakr-Kabal, for information on Al-Qaeda and another shadowy group that was making waves on the terrorist map. We couldn’t get a bead on them or the organization, but it smelled bad so we needed the intel. We had about two million on us. Bakr-Kabal wasn’t giving up information for free.

“Once we arrived at his village, sugar went to shit. We were targeted and viciously attacked. Knight, the other SEAL, and the four Force Recon soldiers didn’t make it out. Dresden disappeared, and for a while we thought he was dead. Only the two CIA agents and I walked out. I headed home and continued with life. I never heard anything else about the failed operation or Dresden until Endgame started being bandied around with Vivi. Endgame was the name on the disk Vivi knew of. It was the name of the Piper’s privatized black ops outfit, but it was also the name of the operation we ran in the Kush.”

Something Rook had said stuck with Ella. “What were the names of the marines?”

Vivi shot her a look and put her glasses back on. “Gimme a second,” she said. Two minutes later, she said, “David Small, Warren Gent, Henry Grant, and…oh shit!”

Vivi’s eyes went round, and she leveled them on Ella.

“Drake Cain. No e on the end.”

Ella nodded. It made sense. “In your research of Caine, you never ran into a son?”

“There’s nothing. He’s buried so deep that not even I turned him up.”

“Probably the e,” Ella mused.

“So the Piper, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had a son on our op?” Rook asked, his gaze on King.

King ran a hand over his forehead. “Makes sense why he was buried so deep now, doesn’t it?”

“Dresden betrayed us, made off with the money, is responsible for the Piper’s son’s death, so he sets up an entire team to take the bastard down? Risked his daughters?” Rook asked in disbelief.

“I still think the big picture is unfolding. You forget, he’s lost two children to Dresden, and his last one is in Dresden’s hold. There’s something bigger the Piper is after,” Ella warned.

“Ask him,” Allie said as if it were the most logical thing in the world. “Just ask him. It’s obvious this is much bigger than any of you realize. If people in the White House are doing everything they can to silence and come after you, it’s apparent that Noah Caine is an island under attack. I don’t think the Piper is the enemy.”

Ella agreed. But… “Doesn’t excuse his methods. He’s playing with our lives.”

“Agreed,” Allie Redding admitted. “But outing him at this point doesn’t serve any purpose. And we have no way of knowing who’s friend or foe at the moment. My dad was betrayed by his second-in-command. Best course of action is to just pin the Piper down and ask him.”

“You’ll have to find him,” Brody interjected. “He’s on a tour for the president that’s taking him all over the Middle East and, oh yeah, Russia.”

“How has he evaded Dresden?” Vivi asked absently.

Ella knew this one beyond a doubt. “It’s a game to Dresden. He’s keeping Caine on the line to hurt him. It’s deep between those two. Also, Dresden is part of a group that I can’t get a bead on. It sounds mysteriously like the group Rook was just telling us about.”

“Man, this is a cluster,” King said around a sigh. “I haven’t heard from the Piper in a week. Strange. Worrisome. But we aren’t shut down. We still have access to our accounts. It’s almost as if he’s telling me something without telling me.”

“Maybe he figured you’d discover the truth. Especially now that I’m back with the team,” Ella added with a shrug. “Vivi, I need Jude.”

Every gaze slammed into Ella.

She stood. “If Dresden gets him first, I’ll lose him. And if I lose him, I’ll set the world on fire, team leader.”

“Vivi, do you know where Keeper is?”

Vivi glanced uneasily at Rook.

“I’m right here, Vivi,” King said in a hard voice. “I’m your team leader.”

“Don’t talk to her that way, King,” Rook warned.

“This is my team, Granger.” He shot Rook a hard look. “Tell me, Vivi,” King demanded in a softer tone.

God, these men, Ella thought. Alpha. Badass. But so soft on the inside it defied expectation. She wanted hers back. Now.

“He’s in Ukraine. According to my sources, he met up with Georgia Banks, FBI agent on loan to the CIA for covert ops. She’s known Jude for a while,” Vivi said, her eyes on Ella.

“She’s the one who knocked me out and brought me to Jude the other day.” Ella grimaced. She would not get pissed off that he’d met up with another woman when he’d refused to let Ella go with him. “What’s their location in Ukraine?”

“Sevastopol in Crimea,” Vivi answered.

“Vivi,” Rook warned. “No more.”

“I told him where she was. Right is right.” Viv was emphatic.

Rook shook his head. King laughed. Allie looked uncomfortable.

Brody stood up. “We headed out, Ella-Bella? Sounds like we got two folks to corral now.”

She looked at Brody in shock. “No way, Madoc. You’re here. I’ll not—”

“What you’ll not do is tell me how to live. I get it, Ella. I do. But I won’t hide from that motherfucker. Now when do we leave? If Keeper is setting up to give that bastard some, I’m going to be in on it,” Brody stated patiently.

She gave up. She couldn’t protect everyone. She loved Brody like a brother, but she wasn’t his keeper. Keeper… Damn you, Jude, she thought. “Do you still have that contact in Sevastopol?”

“Yeah,” Brody replied with a grin breaking across his face. “She’s probably missing me.” He rubbed a hand down his stubbled jaw. Brody was a huge dude and attractive. The scruff covered the scars on his lower face. Savidge had ravaged her friend’s face like he’d ravaged Ella’s back.

“Tap her and set up a puddle jumper. We’ll head out tonight. Adam Babic owes me another favor. I’ll tag him for transpo…get him to set us up on board his next flight to Odessa. From there, we’ll hit the puddle jumper to Sevastopol,” Ella said, giving details as she rose and planned in her mind.

Brody nodded.

“There’s one more thing, team,” Vivi called out.

“There’s more?” Rook asked in disbelief.

“I got a kickback on one of our burner cards two weeks ago. I had put a trace on it because it wasn’t in Nina’s things when we picked them up from the hospital after she…” Vivi trailed off. There was no reason to say it.

Ella rubbed her chest. Nina and Micah. She missed them.

“And?” King prompted when Vivi didn’t continue.

“It was used in Utah to purchase a plane ticket to Anchorage, Alaska.”

Nothing niggled at Ella about Alaska. “Were you able to get any footage of who purchased it?” she asked Vivi.

“Yeah.” Vivi turned around and pulled up the email, clicking on a link to the requested footage. “I just got the email response as we talked.”

As they watched, grainy CCTV footage at the Provo, Utah, airport showed a woman walk up to the Alaskan Airlines desk and purchase a ticket. She turned back toward the camera, and the shock nearly took Ella to her knees.

“No way,” she said breathlessly.

“Let’s enhance this,” Vivi mumbled, doing her mojo. In seconds, a clearer picture of the woman’s face showed on the screen.

“Nina?” Ella whispered.

“What the hell is this?” King roared. “She’s dead. We buried her outside DC!”

Vivi took the image down. “The plane landed in Anchorage on time yesterday morning. I’m looking for anything I can find after the plane landed. It may take me awhile with everything else going on. But, yeah, that looks like Nina Lassiter.”

“I want to know where that woman is when we return, Vivi,” King demanded, pointing at the screen.

Ella looked at her team leader. “You’re going?”

“You don’t seriously think I’m going to let my team go without me?” he asked in a hard tone.

She shrugged. “You left us in Beirut.” It came out before she could stop it.

“We didn’t know,” King said in her face, his voice tortured. “You are my team. You’re part of me,” he claimed, slamming a fist to his chest.

Ella felt a single tear trek down her face.

King grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to him, hugging her tight. “I would never have left you in Beirut if I thought you were alive, Ella. You, Brody, Nina, Micah…you’re as much a part of me as my arms, my lungs. Hell, you’re not just team, you’re family.”

“I know,” she mumbled against his chest.

King stepped back and lifted her chin. “We’re going to get Jude. I need you all in, Ella. Get in the game. Can you handle this?”

She notched her chin higher, tears drying. “That’s my man walking into danger. I’ve spent the last year trying to keep him safe. Nothing will stop me now.”

He nodded. “Get ready. We leave as soon as you talk to your transport. Rook, get ready. Call Knight and Black and make them aware as you get an update on Chase’s situation. Tell them we’ll upload Vivi’s notes as soon as they have a clear connection. They need to know what we’re dealing with. Oh, and tell them to make sure Dr. Moeller gets back here in one piece. I think she and Anna Beth Caine have a lot of intel we need.”

“On it,” Rook said as he walked to Vivi and pulled out his satellite phone.

“Let’s move, Endgame. We’ve got a player on the board. Let’s get his six,” King called out as he left the room.

Ella glanced at Brody and smiled. “Let’s do this.”

Brody nodded. “I’m point, Ella. Keeper already wants a piece of my ass for the last year. If you aren’t behind me in this, he’ll lose his mind.”

Ella’s back snapped straight. Then her anger deflated.

“Poor Ella. If it helps, I’m not a badass CIA operative either,” Vivi called out with a laugh. Rook pulled her close to him with a laugh of his own.

“Screw you, Granger. I’m as badass as they come,” Ella said in a tone as mean as she could affect.

“Straight up,” Vivi agreed.

“I hear you, Brody, but remember, I’ve trained, and I’m not as weak as you men seem to think. I can handle myself. How about this? I’ll stay behind until I have to move in front,” Ella said hopefully.

“I’ll take it,” Brody agreed. “Now move.”

She did, heading up to her room and grabbing her go bag that she’d repacked the moment she’d reached Port Royal. Chica meowed from the door. “Come here, baby girl,” Ella crooned.

She grabbed her cat and hugged her close, and the cat allowed it. Ella took comfort in the feel of the cat’s fur and purrs beneath her palms. Jude was in trouble, and he’d allowed someone else to have his six. Ella wanted to be pissed, but she understood him. Hell, she had spent the last year doing the same thing.

The cat hopped off her lap and headed for the pillow at the head of the bed. She walked in a circle twice and lowered herself gracefully to the soft, downy pillow, closing her eyes, still purring.

Nina might be alive. Jude was heading for Dresden. Anna Beth Caine needed saving.

And it was all okay, because Ella had her team at her back.

It was time to kick some ass.