Page 55 of Baby Take Me Home

Which was exactly why I hadn’t told them.

TJ laid his hand over mine, trapping it to the table. “If you had gotten caught... I can’t even let my mind go there. Why did you take such a risk?”

I pulled my hand out from under his. “To save my career.” Even as I said it, I didn’t expect anyone to understand.

Watching Luka posture in front of me for weeks as if I could be so easily distracted, sitting through lunch while he ordered for me and treated me like a brainless twit, listening to him introduce me as a lifestyle columnist as if it were some kind of hobby and not even a real job, had worn away at me. Having most of my colleagues as well as much of the reading public think I’d lost all credibility had broken my heart.

“I didn’t know if I’d get anything, but when I saw the senator staring at my cleavage all through dinner and laughing at my expense afterward, I figured it was worth trying a little flirting to win him over. That got his attention. Then when the lights went out,” I paused and caught my breath, then braved a look at TJ, “I showed up at his door with an innocent act that would make him instantly suspicious. The minute I left, he made a beeline for Luka’s office. I followed fifteen seconds behind him.”

TJ sat in silence. His disappointment was palpable. I wanted to argue that I hadn’t lied to him. But I hadn’t told the truth, either. I’d walked into that house during his team’s operation with my own separate plan in mind.

I glanced at Cynthia, always a source of support. If I could win one or two of the team members to my side, I might turn the tide. I couldn’t read her expression, but at least she didn’t turn away.

“There’s good information on the tape,” I said. “Kovac mentioned a payment to Calder’s Cayman Island account, and Calder mentioned some names.”

“Those might be good leads,” X said. “It’s too bad we can’t use them, since your recording is outside the jurisdiction of our warrant.”

“We can still use it to stop Calder,” I said.

The room went quiet. Everyone stared at me. I had their attention. Now I had to sell them on my idea.

X shook her head. She wouldn’t be easily swayed. “We’ve already established the recording is outside the jurisdiction of our warrant. Even if we say we obtained it from a source, Virginia is a one-party consent state, so Kovac or Calder would have to have agreed to it.”

“Yes, if it were going in front of a judge.” I glanced at TJ. His expression was also unreadable, which was disconcerting. At least he was no longer scowling. “But if a journalist were to receive the recording from an anonymous source, and it turned out to be the last piece of evidence in the course of a long investigation, based on notes collected over the past year between Aiden and me...”

“You want to write your story, yourrealstory, about Kovac and the Carbonados, with a powerful senator’s name thrown in for good measure?” TJ returned to scowling. “Would you like us to paint the target on your back in hunter orange or blood red?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him, but my message was for everyone in the room. “The danger in my work can’t be compared to yours, but it hasn’t been non-existent. And once Luka goes down, the threat from him goes away, but Calder’s going to feel vulnerable, like a cornered animal. He might start fighting like one, and whether he believes I was part of your operation or just a witness to it, I’ll be in more danger than ever.”

“Unless you’re in WitSec,” Martin said.

“Damnit, Penn,” TJ said.

I laid my hand over TJ’s, beyond caring what X or anyone else thought of my relationship with him. I needed to touch him, to remind him we were on the same team, and to convince him this was a decision I could—and had to—make for myself.

“I’ve realized that was back on the table from the minute Kovac marched me out of the guest room last night. I’m asking for one last chance to fight for my own life.” With my heart in my throat, I hoped he could read what I was trying to convey to him through the warm spot of connection between our intertwined fingers. I wanted to fight for him, too, for the possibility of a future together. “Do whatever you need to do to keep me safe in the meantime, but let me write the article.”

Silence again. This time it was even more unnerving. I’d laid everything on the table. I’d put my entire future—my very life itself—in their hands. Now I waited for the HEAT team to decide my fate.

CHAPTER 23

Ashlee

TJ nodded,and I knew that whatever happened next, he was and would remain on my side. “I can’t make the decision alone. This might take down Calder, but it won’t save HEAT. In fact, it might make things worse for us.” He stood and walked over to X. “You said you would need to cut off the limb to save the rest of the agency.”

I didn’t know what he meant, but apparently, everyone else did, based on the way they frowned and stared at the table, their own hands, the empty screen across the room, anywhere but at TJ and X.

“Fuck me,” X muttered, which drew the attention of the team back to her. “From this moment on, I can’t give you any other HEAT personnel. You won’t have any backup.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. That sounded bad.

“Here’s what I can give you before I cut you adrift,” X continued. “I’ll get the warrant issued for Kovac and his top lieutenants today.”

“The FBI will want to execute the US arrests pre-dawn on Monday,” Cynthia said, her knowledge—I now knew—stemming from her experience there. “They’ll probably make a plan with Interpol to do the same.”

X nodded. “I’ll inform DC’s FBI field office that there’s a delicate situation regarding Ms. Armand, make sure they and surrounding offices are on standby to provide backup if you need it. But you know what that would do.”

“If we call for the cavalry, we’ll set off an investigation of this unauthorized operation,” TJ said.