by Trish Loye
“Because in cases like this,” Ryan said, “the government tends to lock people away until they’re proven innocent. We haven’t found definitive evidence that she killed either Agent Rollins or Agent Costa. But you can bet she’d be locked away.”
“Don’t be naive, Marchetti.” Edworthy shook his head. “Sutton McRaven just isn’t the same agent she used to be. I’m not sure either one of us knows her anymore.”
He almost agreed with the man, but he knew it wasn’t that she was a different person, but rather she was someone who just never got close to people. It was what made her an ideal CIA agent. But it didn’t mean she was a murderer.
Either way, he had to derail this investigation without tipping his hand any more than he had already. Ryan rubbed the bridge of his nose. He needed a delaying tactic.
“We have a lead,” he announced. “Pavel Volkov. I want to know everything about him, including where he is right now.”
“Why?” Tony asked. “Because McRaven looked him up?”
“Yes. And that makes him a suspect in the killings of Rollins and Costa.”
Tony and Edworthy both frowned.
“He is?” Edworthy asked.
“Yes,” Ryan said. “Dig into him. I want to know everywhere he’s been for the last six months.”
He waved Dante over toward the door.
“You’re leaving already?” Edworthy’s frown deepened into a scowl.
“I need to update DHS about our progress.”
“Or lack of it,” Edworthy muttered.
Ryan stiffened. “Do you have a problem with the way I run things?”
The other man heaved a sigh. “No offense, but we should have found her by now.”
Ryan held back his grimace. He would keep his patience for now. This man was used to running his own show. Ryan would listen, but if the man tried to push Ryan further, he’d drop him from the team. “Would you do anything differently?”
“I’d issue an alert on her to the public and let them know how dangerous she is. We shouldn’t be taking chances with the public’s safety. And with that many eyes, we’d find her quicker.”
“And the chances of some civilian or police officer gunning her down goes way up.”
“She’s a deadly threat not just to the average citizen, but to the whole country because of what she knows.”
Ryan needed to end this conversation. “Find Pavel Volkov.”
Edworthy shook his head. “Fine. But if she kills someone else before we can capture her, that’s on your head.”
“I’ll take full responsibility,” he said. “I just believe a top CIA agent deserves the benefit of the doubt.”
“She wouldn’t be the first one to go rogue or turn on her country.”
Ryan ignored Edworthy’s warning and went for the door. “Dante, walk with me.”
His younger cousin moved with him. Ryan waited until they’d gone down the hall a ways before speaking. “Secure any camera footage or evidence from the CIA break-in this morning.”
Dante gave him a sharp look and then gave a small chuckle. “That was a ballsy op. I want all the details when this is over.”
He snorted. “It’s classified.”
“What’s your next move?” Dante asked.
“We have to sort through the information we retrieved. I need you, Mack, and Lexi to identify the four men who attacked us. And to track down Volkov’s movements. See if any of those men have a link to anyone in the DHS or CIA. We need to figure this out before that list gets into Russian hands.”
“Has anyone warned the agents on the list?”
“CIA is reaching out, but evacuating that many people takes time and no one wants to blow years of undercover work if we can recover the list.”
“We’ll find the traitor.”
“Good. Because we’re running out of time.” He pulled a burner phone from his pocket and handed it to Dante. “My new number is in here. Call me when you’ve got something.”
“Wilco.”
He left Dante and the building. Sutton could take care of herself just as well as he could, but all the same he didn’t like leaving her alone. She’d probably kick his ass for thinking like that, but whether or not she wanted a relationship with him, she was going to learn to work with a partner. Or rather, she was going to learn to work with him. There was too much going against them for her to do this alone, no matter how much she wanted to.
He took three taxis to get back to the hotel until he was sure he wasn’t being followed, and then walked the last four blocks.
When he opened the door, Sutton stepped out from the far corner and lowered her weapon. “Next time you leave, we should have a signal for when you come back. I don’t want to blow the head off my only ally.”
“We’re more than just allies, Sunshine.”
She ignored his comment and slid her weapon back into her shoulder holster. “You can’t call me that anymore. My hair is brown.”
He looked at her now mud-brown hair. “I don’t call you Sunshine because of your hair.”
“Then why?”
He smirked. He’d known she wouldn’t be able to resist asking. “It’s because when I first met you, you let me know that you wouldn’t accept any backtalk or questioning of your commands, that you were in charge on the op and no one else.” He laughed. “And all I could think was...weren’t you just a fun little ray of sunshine.”
“Seriously?” She looked almost indignant.
“Yup. It had nothing to do with your hair and everything to do with your way-too-serious-and-slightly-crabby attitude.”
“I’m not sure if I should be more offended or less.”
He laughed. “I kept calling you Sunshine because I could see how it irritated you.”
She sat back at her desk. “I thought I hid that.”
“Not from me you didn’t.” She stared at him a moment and he wondered whether she would take a chance and open up to him. But she looked at her laptop instead. So he changed the topic to something she’d consider safe. “Find anything useful?”
She sighed. “I’ve read almost all the documents that I could snag. So much of the files are redacted that it’s hard to pinpoint any viable connections.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “The timing of the leaks correspond to the missions on Mark’s flash drive, except for the last mission.” Her face went bleak for a moment. “So I’m going to assume someone on those missions is the traitor. There’s only seven people who were on every mission. One is undercover and was during the time of Rollins’s death, another was on vacation in California—which I verified—and two are...dead.” She grimaced, as if it hurt to say the word.
“And the others?”
“Me, Tony, and Edworthy. I trust both men with my life. But I have to check everything.” She tapped the desk. “I downloaded all data transmissions from each team member for the missions on Mark’s file. I went through every detail of Tony’s and Edworthy’s. I couldn’t find anything suspicious.” She shook her head. “I can’t figure out how they would have transmitted them. So technically, they’re both cleared, but...I’d still be careful of what information you share with them.”
She flopped back in her chair. “And, of course, this is all assuming Mark was killed because he found out about the leaks. But what if he was connected to these guys somehow?” She rubbed the back of her neck. “How the hell are we supposed to figure this out?”
Something inside him eased when she used the word we rather than I. “We’ll figure it out.” He came up behind her, brushed her hand away and began kneading her shoulders and neck, trying to ease the tension that had built up there.
She stiffened at first but moments later, her shoulders went slack and her head dropped forward. “That feels so good.” Her quiet voice vibrated with a suppressed groan and sent a ripple of need through him. He forced it back. Now was not the time.
He used his thumbs to ease the tight muscles in her neck. She gave a small groan when he pressed and relea
sed a particularly big knot.
“We need to find Volkov,” Ryan said after a moment. “He’ll lead us to whoever the traitor is.”
She murmured something he took to be an agreement. He shifted his hands to the base of her skull, rubbing and pressing away the tiny tension knots. They were both quiet as he continued to rub her neck and shoulders, not that he thought she needed it anymore, but because he didn’t want to stop.
But he had to stop. There were boundaries between them—big, barb-wired-and-electrified boundaries. He stepped back. “How about I read through the files while you hit the rack?”
She glanced at the bed, then the laptop and back again.
“You need sleep, Sutton.”
She slumped. “You’re right.” It almost surprised him that she agreed. But she had trusted his decisions and advice at one time; maybe she would again. She crawled into bed and curled on her side.
He held her gaze for a moment. “Sleep. I’ve got you.”
Her eyes closed. And satisfaction went through him at her trust.
He sat at the laptop and started reading. An hour later, he sat back. Sutton was right. Whoever the traitor was, they’d covered their tracks incredibly well. In his heart, he didn’t want to believe it had been any of the SEALs attached to her unit and he might have focused more of his attention on the CIA agents instead, but either way, he couldn’t figure out who the traitor was. Unless the traitor hadn’t been on the team at all and had been using it as a cover.
He ran a hand over his bald scalp, the bit of stubble there catching him by surprise, the bristle-like sensation still new.
The slide of fabric from the bed made him turn. Sutton had rolled on her side and propped her head on her arm, watching him. His heart gave a little leap, looking at her. He wanted to join her.
“Anything?” she asked quietly.
And he hated that he couldn’t say he’d solved it. He shook his head.
“I’m hungry,” she announced. “And I need a shower.”
“I could use a break too,” Ryan said. “You shower and I’ll work on food.”
He tried not to watch her too intently as she slid from the bed and walked to the bathroom, shutting the door on him. This was good. They were staying professional. Acting like they’d never had a relationship. He could do this.
But his heart rallied against it, even as he turned back to files.
Sutton stepped into the shower. The hot water sluiced over her bruised and battered muscles. It had been a rough few days, even for her. She spent a couple of minutes just enjoying the water and loosening up, even doing a few stretches. The investigation weighed on her more than her sore muscles, though, so she grabbed the soap.
She didn’t have time for a luxurious shower, no matter how much she wanted one. The answers were in the files she’d snatched and pampering herself wasn’t going to find them.
She hated sitting on her hands or being stalled in the middle of an op. She’d never been good at waiting for others to come up with a solution. She scrubbed shampoo into her hair, hissing at the stretch and pull of her ribs when she put her hands over her head.
Her whole body ached and yet a fine tension also ran through it. A tension that centered in her core and related to the man who’d vowed to help her, even though it probably meant drowning in this mess with her.
She tilted her head back to rinse her hair, letting the heat of the water do its magic. She shoved thoughts of Ryan away so hard that they bounced off the wall of her mind and fell. She had a mission to finish.
She shut off the shower and grabbed a towel to dry off before combing out her hair. She cursed when she realized she’d forgotten her clean clothes out in the room. Not that it mattered considering Ryan was gone, but the bathroom was warm from the heat of her shower. She wrapped the damp towel around herself and opened the door.
Her breath caught. All of her thoughts and worries of the mission vanished. In fact, all of her thoughts vanished.
Ryan sat at the laptop, but his dark-chocolate gaze zeroed in on her like a sniper taking aim. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t look away either.
And she, damn her, just stood there like a deer in the woods, seeing a predator and hoping they weren’t hungry.
But Ryan was hungry. She could tell by the way his gaze darkened to almost black, the way he held himself, tense and ready to pounce. Her heartbeat sped up and her skin seemed too tight, too sensitive, too warm.
Damn it, she was hungry too.
And she had never been anyone’s prey.
“I thought you’d left.” Her voice sounded husky, as if she’d just woken up.
“I didn’t want to leave you alone in the shower.”
Had he wanted to join her? She arched an eyebrow and he cleared his throat.
“I mean, I didn’t want to leave you unprotected while you were in the shower.”
He was flustered. A sense of power thrilled through her. She had made him flustered.
“Thank you.” She held the towel around herself with one hand and walked to the shopping bag with the extra clothes she’d bought for herself. “I need some clothes.”
His gaze hadn’t left her while she’d walked by him close enough to touch. Tension ratcheted tighter within her. Her skin begged her to move closer to him, to brush against him. Her lips tingled with the remembered kiss. She stood near him. The bag of new clothes lay by her feet, but she made no move to grab them.
He stood slowly, as if he was afraid any sudden movement might have her bolting. They stared at each other and with each passing moment, her breathing quickened. And his matched hers, as though they raced each other to an end both wanted, but neither could have.
“Sutton.” It sounded as if her name had been dragged from his lips. “What are you doing?”
What was she doing? Was she insane? Whenever she got too close to him, she ended up hurt and alone. She stared into his dark-and-oh-so-expressive eyes. This was Ryan, the man she’d loved for years and still loved.
Damn it. She still loved him like she had back then. Self-preservation reasserted itself. She couldn’t take the next step and touch him, no matter how much they both wanted it. He’d already proved that he could survive a breakup with her, but...she wouldn’t recover a second time.
“Just getting my clothes.” Her voice sounded hoarse and whispery. She bent down and retrieved the bag by the desk, before fleeing back into the bathroom. After shutting the door, she stared at her flushed cheeks and too-wide eyes while her breath heaved in her chest as if she’d just finished sprinting up a hill.
A knock sounded on the door and she jumped like every horror-movie heroine.
“I’m going out to grab food now,” Ryan said curtly.
“Sounds good,” she said, trying for a carefree voice.
The hotel room door opened and closed. Silence reigned and she slumped forward, not even wanting to meet her own gaze in the mirror.
This was going to be a long night.
15
The early morning sunshine broke through a crack in the heavy blinds, highlighting dust motes floating in the air. Ryan lay awake, like he had most of the night. They’d had an awkward evening of fast food and forced friendship. It had been truly awful.
He kept replaying Sutton coming out of the bathroom. He’d stupidly thought that she had been about to drop her towel and seduce him, which he wouldn’t have been able to resist. But she’d fled back into the bathroom so fast he wasn’t sure whether he’d imagined it or not. Either way, their conversation had been stilted or nonexistent ever since.
His burner phone buzzed from the bedside table, snapping him out of his reverie. Sutton stiffened where she sat by the window on watch. He propped himself on an elbow so he could answer it.
“It’s Dante,” his cousin said. “We’ve got a lead on Volkov.”
Ryan sat straight up, all the disappointment and relationship dreams dropping away as the op took precedence in his thoughts.
“Where?” he said.
“A hotel on the city outskirts. How do you want to play this?”
“Leave Edworthy to handle HQ and bring everyone else. I’ll be there ASAP.” He hung up the phone and turned to Sutton, who had started getting dressed. “They found Volkov. My team will do a snatch and grab, and bring him in for questioning. We’re going to find our answers soon.”
Sutton stopped getting dressed. “Your team?”
Something in her tone made him pause. He nodded slowly, feeling as though he’d just stepped into a mine field. “Yes. My team.”
“So you’re going to do this without me.”
And now he saw the mine right in front of him, but there wasn’t anything he could do to avoid it. “You can’t come, Sutton. Everyone is still looking for you. You’ll be arrested as soon as you’re seen. We don’t even know if this lead will pan out. Stay here. Stay inside.”
“Like a dog?”
He growled his exasperation. “Don’t make this worse.”
“Why don’t you and I just do it together?” she asked. “Forget your team.”
He wanted to. He wanted to forget his team for her, but that’s not what a leader did. He evaluated all of his resources and information and then made the best decision to accomplish the mission. “If I use my team, then the chances of taking Volkov without casualties is greater than if just you and I did it. And we’ll have greater chance of extracting information.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and he knew the stubborn look on her face. “The two of us could take him just fine. Stealth is sometimes better than brute force.”
“Sometimes. But not this time.” He grabbed his jeans and continued to get dressed. “I don’t have time to debate this right now.” He put on his shirt and shoes. “I know you’re used to working alone. To being alone. But trust me, the greater chance of success comes with using the team. Your job is to stay here. Stay safe.” He tried for a smile and failed. “If you leave, I’ll consider it a breach of contract.”
