Page 17 of Ground Zero

Maverick didn’t move. “What are you going to do, Agent Mendez? Arrest me? Turn me over to the same people who tried to kill us an hour ago?”

“I’m going to follow procedure.” She reached for the handcuffs at her belt.

Maverick still faced her. “Even if procedure gets us both killed?”

Her weapon never wavered, but something in her expression shifted. A crack formed in the professional facade, letting him see the scared, angry woman underneath.

He saw the woman who’d lost her partner and was desperate for answers . . . even if those answers destroyed everything she believed about the people she trusted most.

Maverick prayed she was ready to handle the truth once she learned it . . . but few people were.

Including Maverick.

Sheridan’s phone erupted with an incoming call, the shrill ringtone cutting through the tense silence like a blade.

She glanced at her screen.

Assistant Director Cook. Again.

She stared at her phone, her weapon still trained on Maverick.

She’d been dodging her boss’s calls for more than an hour, but she couldn’t put him off forever. Eventually, he’d send a team to track her down, and that would complicate everything.

Besides, if she answered, she could hand this headache off to him. She could be rid of Maverick. He wouldn’t be her worry any longer.

Was that really what she wanted?

Maverick continued to watch her with those unnervingly perceptive green eyes. “You going to answer that? You need to decide, Mendez. You have to decide who you trust.”

“Shut up.” But even as she said the words, Sheridan knew he was right.

Shedidhave to make a choice.

Trust the system that had trained her, raised her, and shaped her into the agent she was today.

Or trust the man standing in front of her—the man who might be a terrorist.

Or he might be the only person telling her the truth.

She swallowed hard.

The phone stopped ringing. Then immediately started again.

“Agent Mendez . . .” Maverick stared at her, each of his words careful and precise. “Whatever you decide right now is going to determine whether we both live through this.”

Sheridan closed her eyes a brief moment. Then she lowered her weapon slightly—not enough to give Maverick an advantage but enough to signal a temporary truce.

“This isn’t over,” she finally said. “One wrong move, and I’m taking you in.”

Maverick’s shoulders visibly relaxed, though his hands remained raised.

She prayed she didn’t regret this.

But the jury was still out on that one.

CHAPTER 9

“I’m going to have to answer,” Sheridan told Maverick. “The longer I wait, the more suspicious it looks.”