Toni would feel a lot more comfortable if there were more houses around her. But as her cell phone GPS led her farther and farther from the downtown area, she found herself in a heavily wooded area with a dirt road. There weren’t even any streetlights to illuminate her drive. She just had to hope that no deer or bunny rabbits were going to hop in front of her car, because she was pretty sure the gravel would never allow her to slam on her brakes.

She leaned forward in her seat and turned on the brights as she kept an eye out for the driveway that her GPS insisted was only a few hundred yards away. Almost too late, she saw the turnoff and just barely managed to make it in time. Even though this was the “address,” she didn’t see any house. So she continued down the deserted road until, about half a mile down, the house finally came into view.

The house was a big, ugly thing. There was almost no character to it and few windows to break up the vinyl siding. There was an outbuilding that she thought was a guest house, but then she realized it had no windows.

She didn’t even want to think about what went on in there.

In front of the house, there was a wraparound driveway with a series of cars lined up. So she knew the place wasn’t deserted. Unless those were the cars of a bunch of people who had been brought out here and killed.

Nope. She wasn’t going down that train of thought. She stopped as close as she could to the front door, even though that meant pulling alongside of the parked vans and blocking the driveway. She didn’t care whether she was being rude as long as she could make a hasty exit if she needed to.

Once she turned the car off, she stayed put for a few seconds, building up the courage to actually leave the car. She could do this. She needed to do this. Isobel wouldn’t be afraid. Isobel could make her way into any room, building, party, or gala and get everyone under her spell. Toni had never been nearly as talented in that respect as Jennifer, or even Melody, but for now, for this job, she needed to channel her mother and pull this off.

After taking a deep breath, Toni stepped out of the car. She looked at herself in the reflection of the driver’s side window and brushed her hair behind her ears and straightened her t-shirt that was wrinkled from being in a suitcase for so long. She’d avoided a feminist t-shirt this time and gone for a concert shirt with some funny lyrics on it. She didn’t really know what kind of image she wanted to convey. She wasn’t curvy enough to play the seductress angle. She didn’t want to come off as a badass because she didn’t want anyone to be threatened by her and, in all honesty, she was a horrible shot with a gun and couldn’t fight worth a damn.

She supposed she looked nonthreatening and innocent, which was half true. Isobel would be ashamed that Toni was basically incapable of pulling off a character, but she supposed her other talents made up for it.

Her image wasn’t going to improve miraculously in the next few minutes, so she was just going to have to work with what she had. She stepped away from the car and really wished that her legs weren’t shaking. It was so easy to talk a good game while in that hotel room yelling at Scott, but now that she was here and all alone, some of that bravado slipped away.

Jennifer had told her once that bravery wasn’t the absence of fear, but being able to act despite the fear. So now she needed to pull up her big girl panties and face her fear.

Leaving her luggage and the few new supplies she’d bought on the way in the backseat, she climbed up the new-looking porch. When she reached the door, she didn’t let herself hesitate before she knocked. Belatedly, she wondered whether she should ring the bell. She could always ring it now. But if she rang it so soon after knocking, would that seem desperate?

The door opened and all of the stupid thoughts fled from her mind as the guy from Sterling’s office stood in front of her. Instead of being cool and collected, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “You’re not going to kill me, are you?”

The guy frowned and looked her over. After a few seconds, he hesitantly said, “If I were, why would I tell you?”

Toni glanced around her at the dark, deserted property. “Because there’s no one around to help me and I’m unarmed and, without my computer, relatively helpless. So if you’re going to kill me, I think the least you can do is give me some warning.” Isobel had to be rolling over in her grave right now....

The guy cocked his head as he considered her. But instead of doing her the honor of giving her a straight answer, he just held the door open farther and stepped aside. “Come on in.”

She really didn’t want to, but considering she’d already made a fool of herself, she tried to appear calm as she stepped over the threshold and the guy shut the door. She was only a few steps in before she realized she wasn’t alone with one terrifying guy. Heavy footsteps signaled more people approaching.

The house was as big and character-free from the inside as it was from the outside. The finishes seemed nice, but it lacked heart or soul. A set of stairs led to an upper level right in front of the entry door. The stairs had the same light hardwood as the rest of the house and a fresh white painted handrail that also served as a balcony railing above. The light floors and white molding and detailing seemed too... innocent.

The footsteps sounded on the balcony and suddenly three guys looked over the railing. It was only when she saw the three guys that she realized how in over her head she really was. Three guys, each a different level of badass.

It was hard to tell exact heights because they were so far up, but each seemed to have a good six inches on her and a hell of a lot of muscle.

“Uhh... hi,” she said awkwardly as she tried to keep the fear from showing in her face.

The guy from Sterling’s office turned the locks in the door, signaling to Toni just how cut off she now was from the world. “I’m Slade,” he said. “Those are your new coworkers.”

She swallowed. “A lot of testosterone in here,” she deadpanned.

“Not a lot of women work in our line,” he said, without missing a beat.

That was something she knew to be true. Before she could embarrass herself by saying something else awkward, he went on with introductions. “This is Tristan, Hunter, and Gage.”

She assumed he was introducing the guys by order of where they were standing. Tristan was tall, sleek, and handsome. His thick black hair was slicked back, and even though he was wearing a plain black sweater, he still looked as if he could walk into any high society function and be right at ease.

Hunter looked like, well, a hunter. He was shorter than Tristan but not by much, and his shoulders were broad and appeared even bigger thanks to the considerable size of his chest. The dude could probably bench-press her if he wanted to, which, at the moment, wasn’t a very comforting thought.

The other man, Gage, wasn’t as muscle bound, but that by no means meant he was weak. He had light-brown, dirty-blonde hair and what looked like a week’s worth of unshaven beard, which did nothing to hide killer cheekbones. Dude could probably be a model if he didn’t already have frown lines, made all the more evident by the way he scowled down at her.

The weight of all of their attention was starting to get to her, and she turned back to Slade. She was way too awkward at the moment, so she went to her default setting and turned into her normal smartass self. “Slade? That can’t be your real name, right? Like, people don’t look at their adorable newborn and think ‘let’s name him Slade!’” He didn’t look amused, and instead of shutting up like she should, she went on. “But the question is, did you think it up yourself? Or did someone give it to you? I always thought people who give themselves nicknames are kind of trying too hard.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “But you don’t look like you try too hard. You make it look effortless, actually.” She finally remembered how to stop talking, and she clenched her fists as she tried to get some control over herself.

“Follow me.” He walked past her and down one of the hallways. He led her into an office-like room. Office-like, because it seemed particularly unlived in. There were built-in bookshelves on two opposite walls, but the shelves were almost completely empty, save a phone book and what looked like gun accessories. There was a desk with an ancient-looking desktop computer that was particularly depressing and a few mismatched computer chairs and a lounge.

Slade rolled a chair closer to her and signaled her to sit down. She would really rather stand but figured at the moment it would be better to be accommodating. Luckily, he sat down on a chair across from her so at least they were on a similar level. Then he handed her a manila folder. For a second, there was just silence.

She wasn’t sure whether he was waiting for her to read the folder or not, so she ran her fingers along the edge and waited for some sort of social cue to give her an idea of what to do.

Finally, Slade started to talk. “What are you doing here?”

“Umm....” Of the thousands of different scenarios she’d run through her mind of how this meeting would go, that wasn’t one of the questions. “You know. You were in the same office I was.”

He nodded skeptically. “Listen, I’m not stupid. And neither is Sterling. If you are going to try anything, I will have to kill you. That’s what I do for a living. And I’m good at what I do.”

Toni took another nervous gulp. “If I wanted to try something, it would be kind of stupid for me to walk right into Sterling’s office and announce my presence,” she said, recognizing the irony of the statement completely.

“I live with stupid every day,” said Slade. “I’m going to give you a one-time pass. If you want, you can walk out that front door. I’ll say you never showed and the guys will back me up.”

Toni frowned. “They’re more loyal to you than Sterling?”

Slade sighed and she could tell he was upset that she hadn’t immediately jumped on his offer to get the hell out of Dodge. “Depends on the situation and the day. Do you have any idea what’s going to happen now?”

“No. I must’ve missed my orientation email.”

He tilted his head in annoyance and she bit the inside of her cheek. She wasn’t used to having a boss at all, let alone one who had full permission to kill her if she got out of hand.

“You’re going to be tested first. At some point in the next forty-eight hours, we will be given an assignment that you will need to carry out without question. If you refuse, you’re out. If you fail, you’re out. Those are the terms and they’re nonnegotiable.”

No wonder he didn’t have a sense of humor. Human resources was no joke here. “I’m not going to refuse and I’m not going to fail. Do you know what I’m capable of?”

“You’re into computers, right? Gage is our resident tech guy, so you’re going to have some competition. Careful with him.”

She raised a brow at that. Careful as in he was touchy? Or careful as in if she was worse than him, she would be “out”?

Before she could ask anything else, Slade continued. “This is our temporary housing provided by Sterling. You do not leave here without permission. You will be provided a room with a private bathroom because you’re the only woman here. None of the guys are going to touch you. If one makes a pass at you, you will let me know and I will handle them. If you want one of them to touch you, tough shit. No distractions while on the job, and as long as you are here, assignment or not, consider yourself on the job. Is that clear?”

“Keep it in my pants. Got it.” She drummed her fingers along her leg. “Is there liquor here? Because I think I’m going to need a drink.”

“No drinks. At any given moment, we are on call and ready to go. You are to be rested. You will train with the rest of us. We will work as a unit together, and as of right now, you are part of that unit.”

“You’re telling me everyone in this house is sober?”

“No. I’m telling you that you’re going to be sober. I know how the guys do under the influence. I know jack shit about you.”

And if she had her way, it was going to stay like that. “You’re just a pocket full of sunshine, aren’t you?”

Unsurprisingly, Slade didn’t appreciate the comment. “You and the guys are allowed to be friends. You’re allowed to joke and allowed to get along. I don’t have that benefit. I’m not your friend. I’m not your ally. I’m here to facilitate and make sure the gears are spinning like they need to be. Depending on your behavior, I can be your ally or I can be your enemy. That is up to you.”

She was not going to be his favorite person. She could tell already. Considering she wasn’t about to agree blindly to all of his terms and conditions, she changed the subject. Leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees, she looked Slade in the eye. “Was it you who killed Jadon Belli?”

If he was surprised by the question, he didn’t show it. “That doesn’t matter.”

It really did. Because she knew whoever killed Jadon Belli was no friend to Sterling. An enemy of my enemy and all.... She couldn’t have Willa tell her whether one of these four guys was the one responsible for the assassination, so she would have to figure it out herself. “Well, I happen to have a particularly bad relationship with the man, so if you were the one who killed him, I wanted to say thanks.”

Before he could say anything, the doorbell rang. The loud noise was so unexpected that Toni jumped in her seat and looked behind her even though the door was closed. Slade stood, pulled out a handgun from his side holster, and walked out of the office. Toni was trying to figure out the odds of someone wandering up to the door all the way out here until she realized the odds were damn good it had something to do with her.

And the only possible person who would follow her out here was....

She ran to the entryway right as Slade pulled open the door. And there, like a scene from her worst nightmares, was Scott Hart, standing on the porch as though he didn’t have a damn care in the world. “No...” she breathed.

Instead of looking terrified like he damn well should, he looked Slade right in the face. “I’m here for the girl.”