If someone would have told Zane three days ago that he would be a tag-along on his first love’s date—the first love who had broken his heart, no less—he would have laughed his butt off. Yet, here he was.

They went to a nice Italian place. Of course, she was dressed to the nines. After all, it was Sarah. He had showered and worn decent slacks and a button-up shirt.

It hadn’t helped matters that she’d mostly given him the silent treatment all day. He’d tried to explain about Cheryse, how she worked for him, but true to Sarah Sommers form, she hadn’t believed him. Since it hadn’t been true anyway, he quit trying. Cheryse was the FBI contact, and she hadn’t been patient enough to wait for him to meet her elsewhere. She’d traipsed right over to the Sommers home. It was an amateur move, one Zane hadn’t been happy about.

After he and Sarah had dropped Tyler off at school, she’d allowed him to hang out at the coffee shop all day as she met with clients. She’d given him the client list, but he hadn’t told her he’d gotten it the night before. Blayze had helped him hack her computer. All it took from Zane was inserting a tiny USB dongle into her laptop for about two minutes. He had felt bad about snooping for half a second, but then he thought of how much privacy he’d given her by destroying the bugs, so overall, he was still way ahead. Besides, it wasn’t like he was going to do anything unethical with the client list.

So while she’d had her “client appointments,” he’d spent most of the day in the coffee shop, sitting a nice distance away from her and the morons that had, in fact, been referred to her by Harris. Zane didn’t think they were as shady as Harris. They all checked out as business owners around San Diego, but he still didn’t like them. At all. Maybe it was the fact they all flirted with her. He did his best to glare at them as they walked past, and he jumped into line when one of them had gotten up and gone to the counter to order. He’d accidentally spilled his coffee on the guy. Too bad the guy had already asked her out. He’d felt like a stupid jerk the whole day, all testosterone-ridden and wanting to punch guys in the face for no reason.

Not that he had to have a reason to punch a guy. Where was Corbin when he needed to pick a fight with a hothead? Maybe River was available for a good pounding? Cannon was always fun to wrestle with, but his smile got old after a while and made Zane feel like he wasn’t accomplishing anything.

In reality, the frustration stemmed from his lack of interaction with Sarah. She had stoically ignored him all day and had only given brief answers on the way to pick up Tyler after school.

The soothing balm to his soul had been when Tyler had hugged his mom, then ran into his arms. It’d felt so natural to laugh and put the kid over his head and tickle him under the neck when he put him down. It was strange how quickly he’d bonded with the kid.

Zane hadn’t made a peep as they’d dropped Tyler off at the clearly harmless Mrs. Morris’s house. Of course, he had done a background check.

Sarah hadn’t had to introduce him to the lady. Tyler had rushed ahead and told Mrs. Morris about an old friend of his mama’s that needed a place to stay for a while. Yeah, that stung, but he’d only laughed and shaken hands with Mrs. Morris politely.

Now, as he waited with Sarah in the restaurant, he reminded himself this was still an op. He couldn’t lose sight of the fact that he needed to extract information about the arms dealing. That was his big problem. Not the lemony scent she wore that made him want to lean into her neck and get a good whiff. It annoyed him how distracted he was by her physical presence. He felt like he was sweating on the back of his neck, and he was not a sweater.

“What’s the story?” she asked, after picking up the menu as if it was a shield and looking at it.

He didn’t answer, but opened the menu in front of him. “I don’t know your date. What do you want to tell him about me?”

She let out a light scoff. “Please don’t do that. I told you he’s not my date.”

It did sound a bit jealous, but there wasn’t really anything he could do about that. He sighed. “You can’t tell him the truth. You know that, right?”

Whipping her menu down, she searched his face. “What is the truth, Zane?”

The look on her face almost unraveled him. “I don’t know, Sarah. You tell me what the truth is.” Were they going to do this right now? Go through all the crap between them? Because honestly, he didn’t think it was a smart move. Not after the way she’d clearly been ticked when she’d thought he and Cheryse were together last night. It made him think of the last day he’d seen her. The day they’d broken each other’s hearts. This was not the place or time to go there. Sarah and Tyler’s safety was on the line.

“I’ll let you make something up.” She shrugged, then looked away. “You’re the one that insisted on coming.”

He laughed, thinking about the way she was calling his bluff. She knew he didn’t want to be known and was acting all prissy about it. “Fine,” he said. “He could potentially be the one breaking in, though, remember?” Checkmate.

A sour look crossed her face, the kind where someone eats lemon when they expect sugar. “That’s why you’re here? Because my client, the guy who owns a car dealership, is such a threat? I mean, Zane, this guy is all suave and salesman-like and is clearly horrible with women, but he’s not the kind of person who would break into my house.”

A slow smile played at his lips, and satisfaction rolled through him. It almost felt normal, like it used to be when they would go to the burger joint in town after basketball practice with Jeff. He and Jeff would eat, and she would pick at their fries, and they would talk about everything. The memory stung him. He hadn’t thought about that in a long time.

“What?” she asked. Apparently, he’d made some face.

“Nothing.” He averted his eyes back to the menu and tried to remain calm. He tried to distance himself emotionally from this situation. View it like he would a movie. “It’s fine.” Taking a look at the big picture of her life and needs, all he could think about was how she’d said Jeff’s life insurance had been denied. Obviously, that was part of the reason she was living in her parents’ home, and why she did this business.

It ticked him off to think of her so vulnerable and of her parents languishing in the care home. On top of all that, this jerk was pursuing her. Harris, yeah, Zane knew all about him. She’d given him more meetings than she usually gave clients. He’d seen it in her “confidential” files.

Zane couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Do you need money? Because I can help you out.” The words were barely out, and she was already looking offended. “You don’t have to deal with clients like this.”

Before she could say anything, her eyes turned.

He followed her gaze to the man he’d seen the other day in the coffee shop. The man he knew pretty much everything about. Yeah, they couldn’t pin him for being behind the arms transactions, but Zane had a gut feeling he was involved. If Zane knew anything, it was that most people played to a persona. Most adults were bad at sniffing it out. Not him.

He felt her tense before she put on a fake smile and stood. “Harris,” she said.

First names. Great. He pasted on a smile.

The man took her into a hug, taking a deep, deep sniff of her hair. Zane wanted to ram his fist into something, preferably this guy’s face.

“Hmm.” Harris pulled away and stared at her like he wanted to eat her. “Thank you for meeting me.” Noticing Zane, he looked surprised and, for a second, ticked off. To his credit, he masked the discontent quickly. “Oh, you brought the man in the coffee shop the other day.” He gave Zane a fake smile and held out his hand.

“Uh—” She swallowed. “This is my brother, Zane.” She faltered. “He’s, well, he needed a place to stay for a bit.”

Zane didn’t bat an eye, although it bugged him Harris had noticed him the other day. At least his undercover ops had given him the ability to stay calm in hard situations. “Hey,” Zane said.

Harris’s eyebrows went up, and he looked obviously relieved. “A brother. Well, this is good news. I mean, that you could come for a visit.”

Zane took his hand and gave him the same fake smile back. “Yeah.” Disgust oozed through him. A brother? A freaking brother? But he played it perfectly, not squeezing Harris’s hand hard enough to break bones. He pulled back and sat with them.

Sarah shrugged. “Yes, he surprised me by coming into town the other day. I haven’t seen him in a few years. He just rolls in and leaves his dirty socks around.” She gave Zane a smile that made him think she was a good actress. “But Tyler likes him.”

“Ah.” A smile widened across Harris’s lips. “How is my boy?”

Zane’s shoulders tensed. Did Harris know Tyler?

“He loved the new lightsaber, thank you.”

What the—

“I thought he might.” Harris smiled, and Zane commanded himself to calm down. Harris sighed. “I would love to go to do Star Wars things with a son one day. I’ve heard Disney has a great Star Wars exhibition.”

Zane really wanted to punch the guy in the face now. Did he think he would be taking Sarah and Tyler to Disneyland?

“Thanks again.” Sarah smiled at him and looked uncertain.

Harris hesitated, then picked up the menu. His gaze swept over Zane. “Are you … military?”

Zane frowned, thinking of how he looked the military type. The soldier type. He’d been told that, and he didn’t mind it. “Ex-military,” he clarified.

Sarah cleared her throat. “He’s between addresses right now, so he’s staying an indeterminate amount of time.”

“Oh.” The way Harris looked at him like he was some loser got under his skin.

“Yep.” Zane made a loud popping sound with his lips at the end of the word. “Just hanging out.”

Sarah’s gaze jerked to him, and she looked unsettled. Focusing on the menu, he told himself not to blow this whole thing.

The waiter came and took their orders. Harris had to have everything special. Special sauces, special vegetables, special cooking instructions, blah blah. Zane hated him even more. The poor waitress.

Sarah smiled at Harris and opened her notebook. “Are you okay to talk about your situation in front of my brother, or should we do a phone call tomorrow?”

Zane could tell Sarah was uncomfortable. He turned to Harris expectantly. Yes, please bow out of this date nicely.

Harris frowned and then lifted a hand in surrender. “I guess it’s fine.” He smiled at Zane. “You won’t say anything about my dating habits, will you?”

Zane felt awkward and regretted coming at all, but he still didn’t trust Harris. “Pretend I’m not here.” He pulled out his phone. “I’ve got a very important game to get to.”

Sarah and Harris both gave polite laughs, and Sarah got down to business. “So tell me what didn’t work with the date a couple of nights ago.”

Zane spent the better part of ten minutes listening to Harris talk about his problems with women, how most of them just liked him for his money and he never trusted them. Zane had become more and more interested in this jerk who had been married to Sutton’s sister. He’d found his online presence came off the same slick way he appeared in real life—salesy, braggy, just like Sarah had mentioned.

Finally, Sarah said, “Okay, I’ve got some good notes here. I’ll get some other women lined up for this week.”

Zane wanted to say, If you would quit selling weapons to the enemy, maybe someone would want to talk to you. Of course, he didn’t.

“That would be wonderful,” Harris said.

The food arrived, and the conversation turned to other things. Harris talked about the dealership he owned.

Halfway through the dinner, Harris turned to him. “So, tell me about yourself, Zane.”

This wasn’t Zane’s first rodeo undercover. He gave him a fake smile. “What do you want to know?”

Sarah cleared her throat. “Zane doesn’t like to talk much.”

The way she said it made both men take pause. It was like she was talking about her disabled brother in front of him. Sarah obviously wasn’t good at undercover.

Zane stabbed a piece of food with his fork and grinned at Harris. “Sis is right. I’m not great at conversation.”

“Oh.” Harris made an apologetic face, then sighed. “I can understand not wanting to talk about the military. It’s so violent and a tad out of control. Man, American military.” He let out a derisive laugh. “I had a nephew that lost his life in the military. A tragedy, truly. He died for no reason other than to serve his violent needs.”

Jig was up. Zane knew the look he gave Harris was murderous, but he didn’t care. “It was a privilege to serve my country, and I think anyone who doesn’t bow down and kiss the ground where the men and women who served this country walk should leave it. No one’s keeping you in.”

The air thickened with tension.

Sarah barked out an uncomfortable laugh and stood. “Well, gentleman, let’s calm it down. I have to go to the ladies’ room. Please be civil when I get back.”

Harris matched the anger in Zane’s face, and both men just stared at each other for a few seconds.

Usually, Zane had complete control. Now, though, he was all but ready to kill this man. He hadn’t wanted to kill a man in a long time. Commanding himself to stay civil, Zane turned away, trying to refocus himself.

Harris let out a long breath. “Look, I know you might be her brother, but I have found that asking siblings or family for things isn’t good for the relationship.” He pulled out his wallet. “How much do you need?”

Zane scoffed. “You’re giving me money?”

Harris shrugged, feigning sincerity. “I want to help Sarah, so just tell me what it would take to get you out of her hair.”

Zane wanted to tell him no amount of money, coercion, waterboarding, or torture could take him away from this woman. Those thoughts hit the center of his chest like an avalanche of bricks. He was already a goner … again. He swore and looked away. “Keep your money.”

Harris tsked his tongue and put his wallet away. “I guess I’ll just wait you out and pick up the pieces when you’re gone.”

Control was slipping fast. Zane glowered at him, but kept his voice soft. “Let’s take it outside.”

Just then, Sarah appeared. “You know what? I’m sorry, Harris. We have to go. I just got a text, and we have to go get my son from the sitter.”

Harris pulled his gaze away from Zane, and his face changed. “Oh.” His tone was soft, deflated. “Okay.”

She collected her things and touched Zane’s shoulder. The touch felt too close, and he jerked back, still riled up. “Come on,” she ordered, leaving the table.

Slowly, Zane got up. He glared at Harris, feeling like he was back in the military with a first year who needed his teeth knocked out for disrespecting an officer. “Nice to chat with you.” He pulled out his wallet and removed some money.

Harris stood as well, matching the vinegar in his voice. “Oh, I’m paying. Anything for a soldier.”