Scott leaned forward to look out the windshield.

“Sit down,” muttered Hunter from the driver’s seat, where he drummed his fingers along the steering wheel.

“Who is that?” Scott pointed to the limo that Slade stepped out of. He scanned the plate and stored the numbers in his memory but knew it would lead to the car company, and that would probably be a dead end if the limo held who he thought.

“None of our business,” said Hunter in a short, clipped tone. Which meant Hunter probably suspected Sterling was in that limo too.

“Does your boss always have secret meetings with Sterling?”

Hunter drummed his fingers faster. “I don’t know. I don’t care.”

“Don’t you want to know the entire plan?”

“Need-to-know basis. Now sit down.”

“Everything is need-to-know in your line of work. It’s your life on the line. You deserve—”

In a flash, Hunter pulled a handgun from a side holster and pointed it right at Scott’s forehead. It was a Glock, which meant there was no safety, and Scott was willing to bet that Hunter didn’t travel anywhere with an unloaded weapon.

Scott held up two hands, signaling that he didn’t mean to cause trouble, and he backed away. “Sometimes questioning things keeps you alive,” he said as a last rebellion as he sat down.

“And sometimes it gets you killed.”

“I make it a life goal to keep from working for someone who will kill me if I question too much.”

Tristan let out a small laugh from the back. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but you failed that life goal, buddy.”

Hard to argue with that. Tristan had a laptop open in front of him, and Scott not so subtly moved to sit on his side of the van so he could look over his shoulder.

Tristan rolled his eyes and glared at Scott. “You don’t give up, do you?”

“Character flaw,” said Scott dryly. “Are you monitoring Toni with that?”

“I don’t need to tell you anything,” Tristan pointed out.

“Yeah, but is there really any downside? I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

Tristan shook his head. “That’s stupid, you know.”

“Checking in on Toni?”

“No. Getting involved with someone in this line of work. I mean, I get it. I have a special connection with the ladies myself—”

“Shut the fuck up!” called Hunter from the front. Scott had a feeling it wasn’t the first time Tristan had gone on about his success with the ladies.

“But,” continued Tristan, “I know better than to mix business and pleasure. Not when we’re in this line of work. You used to be a cop, right?”

He hated that these guys knew that about him. “Yes,” he admitted reluctantly.

“And did you ever have a relationship with another cop? Like, not a fuck ’em and leave ’em relationship. Lovey dovey kind of shit.”

“No.” He’d been with Catherine long before he ever entered the academy, but he wasn’t going to give Tristan that piece of personal information. Even though he understood what he was talking about. When you had to deal with life-and-death situations on a regular basis, relationships only complicated things and muddied the waters.

“And do you think now that you’re on the other side of the law that it’s any better to be getting emotions involved?”

Scott didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. The answer was already evident, but he couldn’t protest that he and Toni weren’t actually together. And he also couldn’t honestly say that there were no emotions involved. Hell, he never would’ve chased her down here if he didn’t feel some sort of responsibility for her. But that didn’t explain what had happened between them that morning.

Not the fight with Slade. If the son of a bitch had treated any of his friends the way he treated Toni, he would’ve punched his lights out. But afterward was inexplicable. One minute he’d been trying to cool off and get to his normal levelheaded self, and the next he was kissing her.

He never should’ve done it. He never should’ve thought about it. This was Toni. Isobel’s biggest pain in the ass daughter. She was selfish, reckless and, most importantly, dangerous. He had to remember that at all times.

But when he kissed her, he hadn’t remembered a damn thing. He hadn’t remembered all the reasons she should be untouchable, and worst of all, he hadn’t remembered Catherine. He hadn’t been celibate since her murder. He’d tried to convince himself to do the normal thing and get out there and work off some of his stress. And every time he’d found a nice girl who he could see himself moving on with and he allowed himself to take it to the next level, he’d imagined Catherine. Every kiss, every touch, had been a way for his tortured mind to reach out to his forever untouchable wife.

But for the first time, with Toni, he hadn’t felt as though he were reaching for a ghost. He had been touching a real woman who went on fire in his arms.

Which was a terrifying thought in its own right.

“Boom,” said Tristan, pulling Scott out of his thoughts.

“What?”

“They got it. Your girl pulled through with her end of the deal.” Tristan looked over at Scott, but he didn’t seem happy. If anything, there was pity reflected in his eyes. “I guess it’s official then. Welcome to the team.”

Scott couldn’t bring himself to pretend to be happy. He just leaned back and rubbed a hand over his head. “For better or worse.” That was truer than he ever intended it to be.

Toni took the small sheet of paper from Gage and didn’t bother to say thanks before she turned and took the stairs two at a time to get back to her room. She’d more than earned the Wi-Fi password from him, and now she was itching to get back to the freedom of the Internet.

Scott was in the bedroom and sat on the bed. But not sitting like a normal person. Sitting cross-legged with his back flush against the wall next to the mattress where the headboard should've been. His eyes were closed, but she could tell from the tension creeping through him that he wasn’t sleeping. She eyed him warily but decided not to interrupt whatever funk he was in and continued on her original quest. After slipping her laptop out of her bag, she plugged it into the wall and, as quickly as the limits of her state-of-the-art computer allowed, she’d entered in the password and there it was. The beautiful, beautiful Internet.

As soon as she was in, she started to run diagnostics on the type of Internet and the number of connections through the house, trying to get as much of a feel for the security system of the house without alerting anyone to what she was doing.

“How did tonight go?” asked Scott from the bed without opening his eyes.

“Umm.... Well, we’re still alive. But I lost major karma points so I have to add some good deeds to my to-do list. You’re a Boy Scout. Maybe you can help with that.”

He ignored her Boy Scout dig. “I think we should work out an escape plan.”

“Escape? We just got here. We just got the guys to kind of trust us. If we leave now, we’re going to lose all the ground we’ve gained.”

His eyes popped open. “Something is wrong.”

“Is that a hunch you have or do you know something I don’t?”

“Our cars are gone. Did you notice?”

She tried not to be insulted by the basic question. “Yeah. I noticed that. Hardly surprising, though.”

“Slade got out of the van at one point and talked to someone in a limo.”

That got Toni’s attention and she sat up straighter. “Did you see who it was? Do you think it was Sterling? Have you talked to Slade about it?”

“I think we need to have an escape plan,” he said simply. “Can you put a tracker on these guys or anything? Some way for this whole thing to be worthwhile?”

Toni looked down at her computer and wished she’d learned something more helpful from her search. “The security system has flaws. I’m pretty sure I can get past the firewalls and leave a Trojan horse program. Kind of like what I did tonight for Sterling. But if I did it, systems would go down for a while. It wouldn’t happen without Gage picking up on it.”

“You’ve taken plenty of risks in the past.”

“Yeah. I’m all for risks. Doing this would be stupidity. I avoid stupid.”

Scott nodded and fell quiet again. Somehow his silence bothered her more than his foreboding tone.

“We can’t leave,” she insisted. “We just got the all clear. If we’re going to get anything we can use against Sterling, it’s going to be soon.” He didn’t say anything or react, which didn’t make her feel any better. So she went to work, looking for any other weakness in the system she could exploit. Gage had done a good job setting things up. There were about fifty ways she could get in, but none that would allow her to sneak past the safeguards unnoticed. And considering Gage knew she just got the Wi-Fi password and could ride the Internet right to the front door, he was going to be on high alert for at least the next few days.

After that, she spent a few hours checking all her accounts, making sure none of her sisters had tried to get a hold of her and to check in in on world events. She’d felt too cutoff since she’d come here. Isolated in a small room with Scott. It made it easy to forget that there was an outside world.

Once again she found herself looking up Hearts and Homes. A fresh wave of guilt washed over her for what she’d done. She’d screwed over plenty of people in the past, but none like that.

She was no Robin Hood. Her motto was steal from the rich and give to herself. That being said, she had never ripped off a charity. And whatever Sterling’s motives were for spying on the nonprofit, she knew it had something to do with his sinister dealings. Which now made her an accomplice in those sinister dealings. Fuck.

She also checked her bank account balances and then looked at the large transfer that had gone into the bank account number she’d given Slade. It was big. Concerningly big. Considering she’d agreed to work for Sterling in exchange for him leaving her family and Scott alone, there was no reason for him to pay her at all. Let alone the six-figure amount she was looking at now.

This was undoubtedly dirty money. One more string she needed to follow up on.

She blinked a few times and it didn’t help the burning behind her eyes. She’d been so happy to get her computer back that she’d forgotten to do anything else. Like, say, sleep. She glanced to the bed and saw the lump where Scott was under the blankets. Maybe there were other reasons why she was procrastinating going to bed.

She’d done a damn good job at not thinking about the kiss from earlier, but as soon as she shut her computer, it was going to be her and him alone together in a bed, and damn it, she didn’t want to have to go through that right now. More specifically, she really, really wanted to go through that right now but under completely different circumstances. Circumstances where he wanted it too.

Finally being able to kiss Scott, to touch him in a way she’d only imagined, had been ten times better than she ever thought it would. But this was hardly the space to strike up a new romance. And he seemed more than happy to pretend nothing ever happened. It was hard to be offended when she knew he was making the best decision for both of them. But her logical mind and passionate mind were at war with each other.

She couldn’t focus on how much she wanted Scott when she needed to focus on Sterling right now. With that thought first and foremost in her mind, she flipped her laptop shut and rolled her neck. After going to the bathroom and brushing her teeth and hair, she was as ready as she’d ever be for bed. If Slade was going to make her run again in the morning, she’d need all the sleep she could get.

She carefully crawled into the bed, trying her best not to wake up Scott. Once she was in, she lay on her side away from him and closed her eyes. But her mind raced as she replayed the events of the day: the jog from hell, the fight between Scott and Slade, the kiss, Hearts and Homes.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, she rolled onto her other side, trying to get more comfortable. But now she faced Scott, which was distracting in an entirely different way.

How long had it been since she was with a man? She’d never been the type to remain celibate for long. Sex was healthy, and most importantly, it was fun. It relieved stress and helped calm her mind, which always had a tendency to work way too fast. But ever since she met Scott, every other man fell short in some way. Not tall enough. Not smart enough. Not good enough. Standards that had always been fine before were now raised to almost unreachable levels.

Because who could really compete with someone like Scott Hart?

As though he read her mind, Scott rolled over and, his eyes open, looked right at her. “Go to sleep.”

“I’m trying.”

“You’re not trying hard enough.”

“I’m sorry I don’t sleep good enough for you,” she snapped.

All of a sudden, Scott reached out and set a hand on her arm. Toni jumped at the unexpected touch, trying not to freak out about the fact that here she was in bed with Scott and he was touching her. On purpose and not because they’d rolled together in their sleep....

“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” he said carefully. “But we might not be able to sleep again for a long time.”

She took a deep gulp and tried to think about anything but his hand on her. “I’m lost,” she admitted finally.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we’re here to get Sterling, and I don’t feel any closer than we were a few days ago. What if we’re playing right into his hand? What if he is always going to have the upper hand?”

“We’ve taken his revenue stream. We’ve taken his best guys. We’ve taken his allies. Sterling is more vulnerable now than he has been ever since we started this. We’re going to get him.”

“You sound so sure.” She really didn’t want to sound whiney, but here, in the middle of the night and with nothing but her anxiety to keep her company, it was hard to not feel overwhelmed.

“You give me a few more days, Toni. I’m going to get a plan together. I promise.”

“That’s asking a lot, Hart,” she said finally.

“Asking for your trust?”

“I’m a thief. You’re a cop.”

“You’re a hacker. I’m a former cop.”

“I guess I’m trying to stop a bad guy,” she admitted. “And you’re willing to break the law to bring him down. Maybe we’re going to meet somewhere in the middle.” She thought about that for a second and figured that was probably a huge insult to Scott. The last thing he’d want to think of himself as was a thief, no matter what questionable things he did. “Don’t worry,” she added quickly. “Once we’re done here, you can find a way back to your old life. Those Boy Scout badges don’t go bad, do they?”

“I wasn’t a good Boy Scout.”

She snorted at the random thought. “I doubt that.”

“No, it’s true. It took a lot of time and I would rather be hanging out with my friends or going out. My parents forced me into the program and never let me quit.”

Toni rolled onto her back and looked at the ceiling. “Isobel forced me to do a few things I didn’t want to do. But nothing as wholesome as scouts,” she said with a little laugh. “Jennifer and Melody were so much better than I was. They were naturals. Super pretty and back then they both looked so innocent.” Even when she was twelve, she had an air of trouble about her. That’s what Isobel said, even if she would say it with an air of pride. “It’s how I got into computers. I wanted to help but knew I would never be as good at a con as Isobel. My emotions don’t stay hidden for long.”

“I noticed,” said Scott.

“Hey....” Just because she said it didn’t mean he had to agree.

“It’s not a bad thing. Honest to a fault should be a good thing, right? No one wants a life full of lies.”

He and she really did lead different lives. “Did you ever lie to Catherine?” As soon as she asked the question, she wished she could take it back. Catherine was obviously a sore subject for him. And considering his late wife was one of the reasons she was pretty sure she’d never have her own shot at Scott, it wasn’t her favorite topic either. But she couldn’t ignore her curiosity about the woman either.

She thought Scott was just ignoring her, but then he said, “Sometimes.”

She didn’t say anything else. Instead, she waited for him to continue if he wanted to.

“If I worked a bad case or saw something really horrible... I’d always come home and every single day she’d asked me how work was. Every day without fail. And every day I came home and had completely lost faith in humanity and I saw her, my one reminder that not everything was death and destruction, I’d look in her eyes and tell her everything was fine. I know she didn’t always believe me, but there were some parts of my life I didn’t want her to be a part of. But I didn’t do a good enough job of protecting her.”

Toni knew she should just go to sleep. Leave it at that and let the poor man mourn. But, as usual, her stupid mouth couldn’t be contained. “Maybe she didn’t want to be protected. Maybe she just wanted you.” She remained looking at the ceiling but could feel Scott’s gaze on her. She didn’t want to face him. She didn’t want to find out whether she’d passed the point of no return with him.

But he didn’t yell at her or tell her how wrong she was. Instead, she heard him roll over, and he didn’t say another word. And with that, she finally closed her eyes, and after a long time, sleep eventually won over her anxiety.