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“I’ve been running it and running it,” KC said, “but I haven’t nailed down how it’s come to this, and to the auction tonight. Dr. Brown is definitely off the grid, and I can’t think of why that would be the case unless he’s—”

“—a shifty pickle?” Flynn interrupted.

“Compromised.” That was how Yardley put it.

KC rubbed her temples. “I was going to say… dead. But I don’t think he is.”

“You trust him?” Yardley didn’t. Atlas’s response to Yardley’s question about Dr. Brown’s whereabouts had suggested the agency knew where to find him, but that didn’t mean he was doing what he ought to be doing, wherever he was at.

“I’ve never had a reason not to.”

Yardley drummed her fingers on her crossed forearm.

Despite KC’s faith, she couldn’t ignore her own suspicion.

She didn’t like that he’d recruited KC when she was underage, or that everyone knew Tabasco was his pet agent, or that KC had never made it out of the basement.

It suggested Dr. Brown might not be approaching his work with empathy for the people he encountered, and agents who became jaded were easy to lure off the narrow path of justice with the kind of temptations that usually worked on men.

Sex. Money. Power. “So you’re thinking there must have been a leak? ”

“I can only assume. I don’t know who, because it truly was just Dr. Brown and me until the analysis by NSA and the clearance for the demo.”

“That’s more than enough margin for a leak.”

KC took the laptop from Flynn. “Look, when the president asked me those questions about Kris, I assumed it was because at some point at the beginning of the Guardsman op, Dr. Brown must have pulled any mention of Kris out of my file to protect the project.”

Yardley doubted that Dr. Brown’s motives had been anything so pure.

But it didn’t matter. They had a micro drive to retrieve from the middle of a snake’s nest, and if the agency got confirmation that KC had been the one to make it, she’d be sequestered in a holding cell in the unmapped part of the headquarters building before she could squeak out a protest.

Maybe the intelligence KC could provide from her years of association with Dr. Brown would give the agency what it needed to find him, but it would be considerably more efficient to get their hands on the device now, when they knew where to find it.

“No doubt our ride’s here.” Yardley stepped toward KC.

If the agency had treated them fairly, or if they had been brave enough to tell each other everything, she and KC would have years of experience with a professional relationship by now.

They hadn’t been given that chance.

Without it, all Yardley had known how to build between herself and KC was the energy of their connection—those invisible signals that passed between them and told her how KC felt or what she might need. She didn’t want to have to use that in this setting, but she did need to know how KC was doing.

For every kind of reason. But mostly because she hadn’t gotten over the part where she loved her.

She touched KC’s wrist with the tips of her fingers, stroking the bone with the side of her thumb, watching KC for any trace of evidence that Yardley could affect her, transform her, take her from one state to another.

KC’s fingers curled into a fist. Her throat hollowed out. Yardley could feel that something had unbuckled inside of her that had been cinched way too tight for way too long.

When their eyes met, Yardley knew what to hope for.

She didn’t know if it was what KC hoped for.

She wasn’t brave enough to even whisper it aloud.

But if she could get KC out of this mess, then she would figure out what to do next.

Not for the agency, but for them. For a shot at a future between them that wasn’t just professional.

So this mission had better go smoother than a creek pebble, because Yardley was not in the mood for surprises from bad actors, general delays, or peril. In and out, democracy wins.

She was going to Unicorn this so hard.

The three of them went to the door, and Yardley opened it, showing Flynn what stairwell to take, but before she locked up behind her, every possible feeling in her body crowded up and filled up her heart and pressed into her ribs at once.

She turned to KC, who was set to follow Flynn, and said, “Don’t.”

KC cocked an eyebrow.

Yardley bit the inside of her cheek, trying to think how to express the surge of overwhelming feelings, but there was nothing elegant here.

She put her hands on her hips. “Don’t you dare tell anyone what you told me.

Not one person. To hell with your integrity.

To hell with anything but the protection of every single red hair on your person.

Do you hear me? No one. Nothing leaves that room, and I’m locking it up right now. Not even Gramercy. Do you understand?”

Yardley tasted tears.

KC gently took the keys from Yardley’s shaking hands and locked the door. “Nothing leaves that room. I’ll tell Kris.”

Yardley’s chest opened, and air whooshed in.

She didn’t say another thing on their ride to the airport.

There were only three words left she could tell KC, and she likely wouldn’t get a second chance to say them.