“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Mendez swore.

Alex “Ghost” Bishop watched the CO pace back and forth in one of HOT’s ready rooms. They’d both been called back to work in the middle of the night, and Mendez was plenty pissed. Not about being called in, but about the situation.

The SEALs were in another room, and Cowboy was half-plastered. But the dude had fought off two attackers and managed to neutralize them in that condition. Too bad the dumb bastards hadn’t realized they’d been sent to grab a Navy SEAL. If they had, maybe they’d have done it differently.

Like maybe they’d have brought six more guys to do the job—and even then Alex figured the odds still wouldn’t have been in their favor.

“Victor Conti is attacking my SEALs? How is this possible? How the fuck did he find Cody McCormick in the first place?”

The other end of the phone was silent for a long moment. And then Samantha Spencer’s voice came through the speaker of the secure phone. She sounded cool, calm—and annoyed. Alex wasn’t sure, but he thought there was an extra level of tension between her and his boss.

“He must have tracked him down from the casino security tapes.”

There was another way and they all knew it. But Samantha wasn’t going to admit that her inability to find a mole could have led to this situation.

And Mendez wasn’t going to let her get away with it.

“Assuming it wasn’t your goddamn mole who betrayed my guy, your people were supposed to take care of those tapes,” Mendez growled. “You promised that my SEAL would be protected—and I agreed to go along with your fucking death scene in exchange for that promise.”

“It had to be done that way,” Samantha snapped. “It was the only way to smoke out our mole. If he—or she—thinks Agent Lockwood is dead, they might act a little more recklessly.”

They’d all agreed at the time that it was best if Cody wasn’t aware the Lockwood girl was alive, but it had been a damned dirty thing to do. Alex hadn’t liked it. Mendez hadn’t either. But they’d gone along with the CIA because that’s what they’d wanted. What they’d insisted upon.

Alex was pretty certain Mendez was done going along with Samantha’s ideas.

“And have they acted recklessly? Or are you as clueless to this mole’s identity as ever?”

“We’re working on it.”

“How do you know this traitor didn’t give Conti the information on my SEAL?” Mendez snapped. “Because I could believe that a whole lot easier than I can believe the fucking CIA forgot to erase some tapes.”

Alex could practically hear Samantha’s teeth grinding together. “No, we don’t know who it is or if they’re the one who passed the information about your SEAL. But we’re close—and we do know he or she gave Conti the information that we were coming for him.”

“And were you? Or was that just a ruse to get him to run?”

“I can’t comment on operations, Colonel. I think you know that.”

Mendez looked ready to punch something. “Listen here—you’ve put one of my operators at risk, which puts HOT at risk. And that, Miz Spencer, is a problem.”

Samantha sighed. “Look, I don’t know what happened—those tapes were destroyed within days, though it’s possible Conti got to them first. Access to the files on Miranda Lockwood, including the interview with your SEAL, was supposed to be controlled.”

“Then you need to be looking at everyone who had access to those files, don’t you?”

“It’s going to take time.” She was silent for a moment. “We fucked up. Is that what you want me to say?”

Mendez’s jaw tightened. “It doesn’t fix the problem.”

“We know where Conti’s gone. We’ll get him before he can do more damage. Once we have him, we’ll find out who’s been giving him inside information.”

“And in the meantime, what? I kill my guy too? Give him a new identity?”

“Send him to the sandbox, for Christ’s sake! You’re a black-ops outfit—put him to work and we’ll finish this thing. By the time he gets back, everything will be fine.”

Mendez clenched his hands into fists as if he was trying to get hold of his temper. And then he dropped into a chair, propped his feet on the table, and put his hands behind his head. Alex never failed to admire how Mendez could go from pissed to calm in a heartbeat.

Except he knew that the calm was the worst part of all. Samantha Spencer had stepped on a land mine and didn’t even know it.

“Tell you what, Agent Spencer—”

Oh fuck, she’d really stepped in it now.

“—since you seem to need competent help over there at the CIA, I’m going to do you a favor. I’m going to send my SEALs to finish the job.”

Samantha scoffed, but she didn’t sound amused. “Thanks, but no. We’ve got this. You don’t even know where Conti is. We do, and it’s a delicate situation.”

Mendez flipped open the file folder lying on the table in front of him. “Oh yeah, it’s delicate all right. Zain Okonjo mean anything to you?”

There was silence for a long moment. “Should it?”

Mendez snorted. “Cut the crap, Sam. Zain Okonjo is the military dictator who overturned the government of Jorwani six months ago.”

“I know that. But what’s Okonjo got to do with Conti? With anything?”

Mendez’s eyes narrowed. “You’re really going to make me say it?”

Samantha let out a long breath, acknowledging defeat. “Fine. No, I’m not. But you tell me what you know, and I’ll tell you if you’re right.”

Mendez’s laugh was sudden and sharp. But he wasn’t amused. Anyone who made that mistake would pay a price for it.

“I’ll tell you this—your boy is under his protection, quite possibly living in his presidential palace, and you don’t have the first fucking clue how to get him out of there. We do.”

“Jesus Christ,” Samantha muttered. “You’re an arrogant son of a bitch, Johnny—you know that?”

“Not arrogant. Certain of my boys and their abilities. You want Conti? You need HOT.”

“I’d refuse, but I have a feeling you aren’t going to let me.”

“No, I’m not. And if you try to stonewall me on this, I’m calling in a few favors on the Hill. One way or the other, I will get what I want.”

From anyone else, it would sound like arrogance. But Alex knew that Mendez meant what he said. And since the CO had a damned good track record of getting what he wanted, Alex wasn’t about to doubt him.

“Fine,” Samantha grumbled. “But you’re taking one of my operatives with you. I want someone I trust on the inside.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“Not as far as I can throw you.”

“What do you think I’m planning to do? Grab Conti and turn him over to the FBI once I’ve got him Stateside?”

“Maybe. Maybe you’re just pissed enough to do it. And that won’t suit us at all. We need him—for his informant’s identity, if for nothing else.”

“You think he’ll tell you the truth?”

“Depends on the incentive, doesn’t it?”

She let that hang there, and Alex was sure Mendez must have imagined the same things he did. Immunity. A plea bargain. A deal of some kind—a country club prison sentence, perhaps?

All the things a man like Conti didn’t deserve. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the way the world worked sometimes. Every one of those things was a distinct possibility, depending on the CIA’s desire for information.

Mendez chewed the inside of his lip. “My SEALs are highly trained. They aren’t inserting into Jorwani with a tourist tagging along for the ride.”

“First of all, my agents aren’t tourists. And secondly, the United States can’t officially send anyone into Jorwani, and you know it. If your SEALs are going, they’ll have to go as mercenaries. Which means no American military transport dropping them into the zone. Not even a destroyer. They’ll have to cross the border as civilians.”

“Not my first rodeo, Agent Spencer. I’ve got this.”

“Fine. Then you’ll take my agent with you, and we’ll get everyone out when it’s time.”

Alex knew she was talking about the secret CIA flights that masqueraded as commercial airliners. HOT didn’t have that because they were military and used military transport. Unless the CIA gave them a ride, which often happened depending on the job. Though Alex figured it wasn’t going to happen this time—unless Mendez agreed to take the CIA agent along.

“If you insist.”

“I do.”

Mendez picked up a pen lying on the desk and flicked it open and closed, open and closed. “Send her over quick. We’re bugging out in twenty-four hours.”

“What makes you think the agent is female?”

Mendez snorted. “Because I know you. You’re sending Miranda Lockwood. Is that going to cause trouble for me? Yeah, probably, which is part of the reason you’re doing it. But no matter what, I’m telling McCormick the truth now. If you don’t like that, then too bad. I’m done going along with your schemes. You’ve proven to me that it didn’t matter one bit whether or not Cody knew the truth in the first place. You’ve had time to get your mole, and all you’ve managed to do is lose your high-value target instead.”

Alex could practically hear the frost over the phone. “I needed an unimpeachable witness to her death. He fit the bill, and he convinced those who needed to be convinced that it wasn’t a ruse. I won’t apologize for protecting my agent. And while it’s inconvenient for us both that she’s going on this mission, I don’t have many people on the inside of this operation. She’s the only one I can send. Unless I want to read in another agent—and I don’t want to take the risk. Exposing this operation any wider than it is will only make it harder to complete.” She paused, and Alex could tell by the slight crackling sound that she was sucking on her e-cigarette. A moment later, she blew out a breath. “Agent Lockwood is dead to the world, and that’s what I need. I trust your guy not to fuck her story up.”

“He won’t. But he could have done the job without the deceit in the first place, Sam. That’s what you never seemed to get.”

“It was safer for everyone. He was nearly grabbed tonight—what if they’d succeeded? He could have spilled the truth about my agent if they tortured him enough. And then what? Conti would know she was alive, and he’d tell his informant—who would go underground so deep we’d never find the leak.”

Mendez rocked back in his chair. “You really have no idea what my guys are capable of, do you?”

“He’s human. He has a breaking point.”

“I’m beginning to think you don’t understand HOT at all. Or me.”

Alex wasn’t sure why he added that last part, but it seemed to have the effect of silencing Samantha for a few moments.

“I do the best I can with the information I have. I work with facts, not faith.”

Mendez sat up again, his finger hovering over the disconnect button. “Twenty-four hours. She better be ready to go.”

He disconnected before Samantha could reply. And then he looked at Alex for the first time since the conversation had begun. There was a hint of anger in those dark eyes, and something more besides. But Alex knew he wasn’t going to find out what any of it meant.

“When McCormick sobers up, I want to see him.”

“Yes, sir,” Alex replied before getting to his feet and retreating.

* * *

Miranda put on her sunglasses even though it wasn’t all that bright yet. Dawn had crept into the sky a couple of hours earlier, but there were clouds that morning. She climbed into the back seat of the Town Car sent to fetch her. Sam waited inside, looking up from her government-issued Blackberry the moment Miranda sat down.

“You ready for this?” she asked as the car started to move. There were no preambles with Sam. Straight to the point and that was it.

But Miranda had been born ready, so she answered the only way she could. “I am.”

She was also tired of waiting. Tired of sitting around and hoping the traitor in the CIA would make a wrong move. Since she’d been declared dead, she’d been waiting for that to happen. It hadn’t. She’d somehow thought she’d barrel right back into the agency and help smoke out this person, but of course that wasn’t the way it worked.

She’d gotten a new name, a new hair color and cut, new contacts to change the color of her eyes. She was Jane Wood these days. Sam had asked her back in Arizona, when she was still sticky with fake blood, if she was ready to do the work to catch a mole. She’d said yes—and then she’d been sent to Luxembourg where she’d spent a month doing nothing but following the money trail Victor Conti left in his wake. It had been important work because it had led them to Jorwani, but it still hadn’t gotten them anywhere closer to tracking down the leak in the agency. Two weeks ago, she’d returned to DC to wait further instruction.

Now Victor had fled the country and they were no closer to catching the mole. Whoever it was had managed to warn him without leaving a trail. It was almost enough to make a girl lose faith that justice would ever be served or that she would ever get her life back.

Until last night when Sam had called her and told her she was about to work with HOT. Her heart had lodged in her throat. Because HOT meant Cody. And Cody meant a whole range of feelings she hadn’t yet managed to sort out.

She’d thought about him a lot over the past six weeks. She’d caught herself thinking about how he’d touched her, about how good she’d felt with him. About how much she’d trusted him. It had been a shock to think back on it, but she really had trusted him with her life.

And then she’d betrayed him by pretending to die. She’d done it because she’d believed she was protecting him. When Sam had told her he might be in danger too, well, she’d swallowed her doubts and done what she was told. She’d had a lot of regrets in the weeks since, but it was too late to fix it.

She’d often wondered how he’d taken her death. Had he shrugged and moved on because that’s what he did? Or did he blame himself for not protecting her well enough?

And what was he going to think when he saw her again today? That was the worst of all, the part that she kept trying to imagine and couldn’t. What would she say to him? Would he be pissed?

Probably, but dammit, she could be pissed too if she wanted to be. Because he’d been planning to take her in—she’d heard it from his own mouth as she’d lain there in the dirt—and he wouldn’t have told her he was doing it. He’d have obeyed orders just like she had.

However you sliced it, her day was about to get really damned awkward.

Sam handed her an envelope. Inside was a Canadian passport for Jane Wood. A fake, of course, but a good one.

“You’ll need this to get into Jorwani. The Canadians are still sending aid, and Okonjo is still allowing them access.”

“Why are you sending me?” That was the thing that had been puzzling her since Sam called last night. They’d gone to a lot of trouble to fake her death and make Cody believe it. And now it was about to be undone. Oh, she’d still be dead to the world—but not to Cody. As Sam had pointed out once before, the CIA didn’t control Cody. But maybe Sam trusted the person who did. Whatever the case, Miranda was about to come back to life for someone who believed her dead.

Sam sighed and pressed her lips together. “The truth?”

“Yes.”

Her shoulders lifted in a half shrug. “You’re expendable, Jane. You’re already dead, and if anything goes wrong and you’re caught— Well, we have deniability.”

It was brutal, sure, but it also made sense. “Then I’ll do my best not to get caught.”

Sam grinned. “I sure hope so. I want Victor Conti’s balls on a spit, and then I want whoever this bastard is who compromised us. I want justice for Mark Reed as much as you do.”

“Not quite as much as I do,” Miranda said. Because if Sam had wanted justice eight months ago, Miranda had no doubt it would have happened by now.

Sam spread her hands. “All right, not as much. But I still want it. I don’t like losing good agents—and I really don’t like it when it’s so fucking senseless.” She looked at her phone. “We don’t have a lot of time before we arrive, and there are still a few things you need to know about where you’re going and who you’ll see.”

Sam didn’t stop talking until they reached the plain building sitting behind yards of razor wire. The car drew to a halt, but the engine didn’t stop. Two military guards in uniform stood by the gate to the compound, M16s resting across their chests. Miranda turned to Sam as the driver got out and went around to the trunk where he fetched her small rolling suitcase.

“You aren’t going in?” Miranda asked.

Sam shook her head. “Best if the colonel and I don’t meet right now,” she said. “Good luck, Agent Wood. You couldn’t be in better hands than with HOT. I look forward to your return from a successful mission.”

“I won’t let you down. I want that son of a bitch too much.”

Her smile was soft. “I know you do. Now go—and watch yourself with those HOT men. They have a way of getting under a woman’s skin.”

As if Miranda didn’t already know it. She climbed from the car and faced the guards, her belly churning with anticipation. They didn’t betray any emotions as they stared stony-faced into the distance. And then one of them looked at her.

“Please come with us, Agent Wood.”

Miranda stepped through the gate behind the guard who’d spoken. The other guard fell into position on her heels. The metal clanged shut and a chill slipped through her as if she’d entered a lion’s den and couldn’t escape.

Too late to back out now. The only way forward was through.