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He started to move toward where his assistant lay, but nearly jumped out of his skin when her seemingly dead body sat up.

Deanna looked around, a wild look in her eyes. “Where’s my gun?”

Nina moved to her and noticed there wasn’t a drop of blood on Deanna’s T-shirt, though it sported a nice hole in the chest. She held a hand out. “Body armor?”

Deanna took it and let Nina haul her up. “Of course. What? You think I would walk into some criminal shit without protection? My dad was a cop. And I am always prepared.” She winced. “Though I wasn’t prepared for how much that would hurt.”

“You’re all right?” JT stood back as though he wasn’t exactly sure what to do.

She wanted to wrap her arms around him, but the job wasn’t over yet.

Deanna looked down at Patrick’s body and pointed. “Am I all right? No, I am not fucking all right. You gave this asshole my promotion. Mine. You want to go find Jordy now that Patrick’s gone and hand the job to him? He’s out looking for drugs, you know.”

JT shook his head. “Nope, it’s all yours. As of right now you are the VP in charge of operations.”

Deanna glared his way. “I want ten percent more than what this asshole was making. And I want the company to pay me the five grand I spent on PIs and all the crap I needed to do this job.”

“Done,” JT said.

“And a budget to redo the office because his is nasty.” Deanna brought her foot back and kicked the dead body. “Try shooting me again, moron. That was my fucking job.”

The cops would love processing this scene. Not that they would actually ever get to the scene. The Agency would have a cleaning crew here in no time.

The door came open and Nina brought her gun up only to breathe a sigh of relief as Hutch walked through.

His eyes widened as he took in the body on the floor and the petite blonde who was kicking and cursing at it.

“Don’t mind her,” Nina said, striding over to the table and opening the bag there. “She’s over-stimulated. It’s been a rough night. Ah, here’s what we’ve been looking for.”

She pulled out the small prototype. Such a tiny thing to have caused so much trouble, but then technology came in all sizes.

“I’m sorry,” Hutch said, sliding his gun back into his holster. “When I realized Patrick had used the woman in the bar as a distraction, I started making my way here. But he wasn’t contentto let her go. He’d knocked her out in the stairwell. I had to make sure she was breathing. Are you all okay?”

She glanced over and JT was watching her warily. It was obvious he wanted to talk.

But she still had a job to do and she wasn’t sure what they should talk about. It was almost time to leave.

Almost time to leave him.

Could she leave him? She wasn’t sure how she could possibly stay.

And she was doing it again. She was letting her feelings stop her from doing her damn job. “No problem, but you need to call Sandra and Drake back. I know where and when to catch our spy. We have to hurry.”

“They’re already on their way.” Hutch slid a glance JT’s way and then back to Nina. “I can handle this if you need some time.”

She shook her head. Time was the one thing she didn’t have. “No. Come on. We need to get down to the beach before our spy does or we’ll lose him. JT, I need you to lock yourself in. I don’t think anyone else is coming, but I can’t be one hundred percent sure. I’ll send Sandra up when she gets here.”

Deanna had her gun in hand again. “I’ll handle whatever happens. He caught me off guard. I’m actually really good with this thing.”

“Nina,” JT began.

She took the prototype and started for the door. “Not now. Stay here. I need to get down to the beach and find the spy.”

“Or you could tell me where to go,” Hutch started. “He’ll be looking for someone like Patrick. I’m far closer in build. I think he’ll run if he sees a slender female walking his way. I put on a hoodie and he won’t be able to tell the difference.” He touched his earpiece. “Sandra and Drake are on their way up to the hotel. They’re already on property. They can back me up.”

He wanted to shove her out of the op? “This is my mission.”

“But it doesn’t make sense for you to go,” JT argued.