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T he following night, Jake was talking to Nick about his testimony and telling him, in broad, general terms, how the FBI was going to handle the case against his father. Jake assured Nick that his father wouldn’t get out of the Henderson County Correctional Facility before his trial, and that any phone calls or visitors he had would be monitored.

But when the bar went silent, Jake turned in the booth. Olivia Williams had just walked in. Nick tapped the table to get Jake’s attention and said, “I’ll send Olivia over here.” He slid out of the booth, but Olivia reached the table before he could intercept her. “Booth’s all yours,” Nick said. “I’m heading into the kitchen to talk to my fiancée.” Nick nodded at Jake and Olivia, then pushed through the swinging doors into the kitchen.

Olivia scowled at Jake, then stared at the booth, as if she was afraid it would bite her. Jake took another drink of his beer as he watched her, then set it on the table. Everyone at the bar swiveled on their chairs and watched Olivia walk across the bar toward Jake. Noah leaned across the bar and murmured something, and everyone turned to face the bar again. No doubt every single one of them would be straining to hear whatever he and Olivia had to say.

Jake watched Olivia slide onto the seat across from him. She folded her hands on the table and stared at Jake, and he saw nothing but anger in her eyes.

“You want a beer?” he asked her.

“Thanks, Dunbar, but I can buy my own beer,” she said, her mouth curling into a sneer. “I don’t need anything from you.”

Jake shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He curled his fingers around his own glass of beer, irritated that he’d let Williams’ snarky rudeness rattle him. Shifting on the bench seat, he said, “Helps to have something to hold onto. Unless you use it as a weapon. Which I wouldn’t recommend. Hiram has standards. He gets real angry if someone throws a beer. They’re banned for life.”

“Thanks for the tip, Dunbar.” Olivia snorted. “I don’t need to throw glasses in a bar to make my point. But I’d be willing to make an exception for you.”

Just then, a waitress came over. “Can I get you something, ma’am?”

“I’d like a Guinness, please,” Olivia said.

“Coming right up,” the young woman said with a smile.

Jake leaned back in the booth. “You wanna tell me what got your knickers in a knot? Or do you want to wait for your beer?”

“I’ll wait. It’ll be good to have something to hold onto. Or to throw at you. Depending on how the conversation goes.”

Jake took a drink of his beer. The silence was heavy as he waited for the waitress to set Olivia’s glass of dark beer on the table. “But you might want to keep in mind this little tip. This is the best bar in Helena. If you lose your temper and throw that at me, you’ll have to find another bar. And since everyone at Blackhawk Security drinks here, you’ll be drinking alone.”

“Not planning on throwing anything,” Olivia said. But her fingers whitened on the glass, making Jake wonder if she was thinking about it.

“Good to hear.” Jake set his beer on the table and folded his arms across his chest. “So, okay, tell me what you think I did to piss you off so much.”

“There wasn’t any ‘thinking’ about it,” she said, slashing air quotes a little too close to his face. “It’s what I know you did.”

“Spill it,” Jake said. His hands curled into fists on his lap.

“I was undercover,” Olivia began. “Bargaining with the Russian Bratva. Our boss, Donald Nelson, said you were my backup. Said you’d be outside the building I was going into. And that if I got in trouble, I was supposed to send you a text. I had that text all written out and waiting on my screen so I could hit send and it would immediately go to you.”

Jake frowned at her. “You were in D.C.?” he asked.

“Hell, no,” she said. “I was in Brighton Beach. You know, where all the Russians are.”

Jake leaned back and stared at her. “I’ve never been in Brighton Beach in my life. Nelson never said anything to me about the Bratva or backing you up. What was the date that I supposedly screwed up?”

Olivia pulled out her phone and stabbed at the screen. “May 7 th . This year.”

“You sure about that date?” He pulled out his own phone.

“Positive. Not like I would forget the case that almost got me killed.”

Jake’s hand tightened around his phone. Pulling up his calendar, he scrolled to May 7. Stared at his schedule for a long moment. “On May 7, I was in Tennessee, testifying at a kidnapping trial,” he said. “I was one of the agents who recovered the kidnapped kid.”

He turned the phone around and showed it to Olivia. “I was several states away from Brooklyn on May 7.”

Olivia stared at the screen for a long moment. “Did you just put that on your calendar today? After I agreed to talk to you? When you realized you’d screwed up?”

“What?” Jake scowled at her for a long moment. “Hell, no, Williams. Are you always so paranoid?” He turned his phone around and tried to make an entry for May 7. “The damn phone won’t even let me do that. And even if it would, I had no idea what date you were talking about. Nelson couldn’t have sent me as your backup on May 7. He knew I’d be in Tennessee. That trial had been on my calendar for months.”

Olivia stared at him, frowning, as if she needed a moment to think through the events of that day. “Are you sure you were in Tennessee that day?” she finally asked. “Why would Nelson tell me you were my backup when you were several states away?”

Shaking his head, Jake stared at Olivia for a long moment. Finally he said in a low voice, “Excellent question, and I have no answers. Just more questions.” He leaned closer to her. “Since you thought you needed backup for that meeting, how did you manage to escape from the Bratva?”

Olivia stared at him a moment, her gaze boring into his, as if looking for answers there. Finally she said, “I told them I’d take their concerns to my boss and get back to them. I had no plan to do that, of course, because they never really said what they wanted.” She frowned. “I had no idea why Nelson had sent me there. It made me wonder why he’d sent me all the way to Brooklyn for what felt like a nothing meeting.”

“So how did you get away without any backup?” Jake asked.

“There was a kid there. Young, maybe sixteen or seventeen. The guy in charge, who I think was his father, told him to walk me downstairs.

“The kid said something in Russian to the older guy. The older guy nodded. Then the kid left with me. I made him walk down the stairs in front of me, and I had my gun on him the whole time.

“As we approached the door to the street, he pulled a gun. Didn’t take a genius to know he was supposed to kill me. So I kneed him in the balls, and when he was bent over, I kicked him in the head. He dropped to the floor. I dashed out of the building and ran across the street. Ducked into a butcher shop and went out the back door. Bolted for my car, feeling lucky to be alive.”

“Wow,” Jake said, shaking his head. “No wonder you were pissed off at me. I’m pissed off at me, and I didn’t even know I was supposed to be there.”

When a tiny smile flitted across Olivia’s face, Jake had to stop his automatic fist pump. “And clearly you got away from Brighton Beach in one piece.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t stop shaking until I was out of New York.” She frowned. “You must have seen my text. Didn’t you wonder about it?”

“I did, yeah,” Jake said. “But I figured you must have sent it to me by mistake. Hit the wrong contact.”

Jake shook his head. “I’m real sorry you had to deal with that. But I had no idea I was supposed to be your backup. Nelson never said a word to me. But even if he planned to, he knew I’d be out of town.” Without waiting for Olivia to respond, he leaned a little closer to her. Lowered his voice. “Do you remember Cliff Kingsley?”

“Of course I do,” Olivia said immediately. “That case was all anyone at the Bureau could talk about for weeks. And it was one of the reasons I went to work for Mel and Dev at Blackhawk Security. They were the people who took Kingsley down.”

“Yeah, they were.” Jake leaned across the table, after looking around and making sure no one was sitting close enough to hear them. “Kingsley was working for the Russians,” he said, his voice a low murmur. “It all came out after he was arrested. The Bureau tried to keep it quiet, but I have some good friends who are higher up the food chain. Apparently, the Bureau had suspected for a while that there were Russian assets in the ranks. After Kingsley was exposed, one low-level guy was arrested, but the powers-that-be always thought there were more of them. But after Kingsley and the other guy were arrested, any other Russians went deep, and no one was able to sniff them out. And Kingsley wasn’t talking.”

Olivia stared at him for a long moment, frowning. “Are you saying that Nelson might be a Russian asset?”

“No idea.” Jake shrugged. “But it’s not as preposterous as it sounds. Kingsley didn’t flip on anyone, because he knew talking would sign his death certificate. And I know Diana Redfield, the FBI director, was certain he wasn’t working alone. But other than that one low level guy, no one’s ever been identified.”

“And Nelson telling me you were supposed to be my backup practically assured that I’d be killed if anything went wrong,” Olivia said.

“Exactly.”

Olivia took a drink of her Guinness, and Jake watched as her throat rippled. Then she put her glass on the table. “But why try to have me killed? I don’t know anything about Russian assets in the Bureau. I knew Cliff Kingsley, but we didn’t work together. I was just as shocked as everyone else in the Bureau when he was arrested.”

“No idea what happened there, either, Olivia. But apparently someone was worried about you. Someone thought you knew more than you did. Maybe whoever Nelson reported to told him not to send backup for you. That’s why he gave you my name as your backup when he knew I’d be out of town -- hoping you’d be killed and couldn’t report to anyone else that your backup didn’t show up.”

Olivia frowned. “I did tell Nelson that my backup didn’t show up. He said he’d look into it. It wasn’t too long after that he told me you’d resigned. I figured it was because you hadn’t shown up that day.”

Jake leaned toward her. Trying to make her see that he was being honest. Telling her the truth. “But I hadn’t resigned,” Jake said, frowning. “And that was a problem for Nelson and whoever he’s working with, because you were still working for the Bureau, too.” He tilted his head. “Did anyone pressure you to leave? Hint that your career wasn’t going anywhere since you’d screwed up that assignment?”

“No,” Olivia said slowly. “No one ever even mentioned it. But I felt as if I had a target on my back. Like everyone was talking about me. When I’d walk into a room, everyone immediately stopped talking. And I was concerned about my next undercover job -- afraid that the same thing would happen. That whoever was supposed to back me up wouldn’t show. I saw the handwriting on the wall, and I finally left. I’m really glad I did. I love working for Blackhawk Security.”

Jake put his hand over Olivia’s and was shocked to feel a spark fly from his hand to hers. He snatched his hand away and curled his fingers into his palm. “I’m glad you resigned, as well,” he said. “Because if you hadn’t, you’d probably already be dead. A tragic fatal accident.”

“So why are you still working for the Bureau?” Olivia asked.

“Because until you showed up here at The Trailhead, I had no idea there were issues at the Bureau. No idea you’d been set up.” Jake’s nails dug into his palm. “Might have to re-think that plan.”

“Maybe you do,” Olivia said. Her throat rippled when she swallowed, and he wanted to trace that muscle with his finger. Before he could act, Olivia leaned closer to Jake. “Are you going to keep working there?”

He raised one eyebrow. “Someone has to figure out who those other Russian assets in the Bureau are. Besides Nelson, of course. Because someone had to tell Nelson to send you into that meeting with no backup. There must be something you know that you don’t realize you know.”

Olivia sucked in a breath. “Yeah, since you’re still an FBI agent, you have to figure that out, but you can’t do it alone.” She swallowed hard. “And you can’t ask around,” she said, fear filling her eyes. “You can’t tap people on the shoulder and ask, ’Are you a Russian asset?’ That’d be a good way to end up in a shallow grave somewhere.”

“I think I can be a little more subtle than that,” he said, rolling his eyes.

She reached across the table and grabbed his wrist. Her fingers tightened on his skin, sending heat through his nerves. “You can’t trust anyone at the Bureau,” she murmured.

The sensation of her fingers on his arm made him shiver. He fought the impulse to run his fingers over the place she’d just touched. Finally managed to say, “There are a few people I trust. Men and women I’ve worked with.”

“Would you have trusted Cliff Kingsley?” she asked.

Jake tilted his head as he studied her. “Maybe,” he said, blowing out a breath. “But probably not. I never liked Kingsley. He always gave me the creeps. He liked to sneak up on people.” Jake shook his head. “Anyone who likes to sneak around like that? Makes you wonder why. What’re they trying to hide? Or overhear?”

“Yeah,” Olivia said. She let his wrist go, and he missed the pressure of her fingers on his skin. “Kingsley gave me the creeps, too. But I always thought it was because I was a woman and he had that… that predator vibe. He was always one step too close when he was talking to me. Pretty sure he did it to other women, as well.”

She tilted her head to study him. “You sure you’re still comfortable working for the Bureau?”

“To be honest, I’ve been thinking about getting out,” Jake said. “I’ve been an agent for fifteen years. Wouldn’t have a great pension, but I’d look for another job. And after hearing about how you were set up? About how you were almost killed? I might make the leap sooner rather than later.”

“I bet Mel and Dev would give you a job in a heartbeat,” Olivia said.

“Wouldn’t do that to you,” Jake said. “Force you to look at my ugly mug every day.”

Olivia waved her hand in the air. “Now that I know I was set up and you had nothing to do with it, I’d be fine working with you.” She leaned closer to Jake. “But before you quit, maybe you should work on finding out who the Russian assets in the Bureau are.”

“Yeah, that needs to be dealt with and I’d like to do it,” Jake lowered his voice, as if someone might overhear him. “But I’d need a partner, and I have no idea who can be trusted right now.”

“I think Diana Redfield can be trusted,” Olivia said.

Jake laughed. “Yeah, pretty sure she can be. But she’s not a field agent. She’s not going to dig around in the mud with me. She’s more of a big picture person.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Olivia said. She leaned closer to him. “I were you? I wouldn’t trust anyone at the Bureau to have my back right now,” she said.

“Hell, no,” Jake said immediately. “If one of my best Bureau friends offered to back me up, I’d turn him or her down. Only way to protect myself is to not trust a soul in the Bureau.”

Olivia sighed. “Kind of tough to do,” she said. “Most jobs, you work with a partner.”

“Yeah,” Jake said. “I know.” He tilted his head to study her. “Maybe I should talk to Mel and Dev and convince them to send someone to back me up. Low key. In the shadows. And by someone, I mean you.” He took a deep breath and leaned closer to her over the table. “You know more than anyone at the Bureau about what’s going on. You’re already up to speed. I don’t want to waste time convincing another agent that the threat is real. You already know the threat is real and how dangerous it is.”

“That’s a great idea,” Livvy said. “You make the request and I’ll make sure Mel sends me. In fact, why don’t we both talk to Mel and Dev before you have to go back to Washington? Lay out the facts for them. Convince them the threat is real. That Russian assets are hidden in the Bureau, and sooner or later, an agent is gonna be killed because of them.”

Jake stared at Olivia for a long moment. “That’s not a completely awful idea,” he finally said. “Why don’t you check with Mel and find out when we both could talk to her?”

“I’ll do that.” Livvy said. “It shouldn’t be too hard to convince them that you need backup that you can trust. They both know what happened in Brighton Beach, so it should be easy to persuade them.”

“Sounds good.” Jake nodded at the people sitting at the bar, who were all watching them. “Go head and toss that beer in my face,” he said. “Otherwise, our audience is gonna be disappointed.”

“I’m afraid they’re going to have to suffer,” Olivia said, taking a pull of her drink. “No way am I wasting good Guinness on you.” One side of her mouth curled into a smile. “Much rather drink it.”

“If we end up working together, I’ll probably piss you off more than once or twice, so you’ll have plenty of other chances,” Jake said.

“Something to look forward to,” Olivia said, draining her glass. “I’ll talk to Mel and Dev and find out when we could meet with them. I’ll be in touch.”

Jake watched her walk toward the bar, carrying the empty beer glass and some bills. Her black boots tapped on the wooden floor, catching his eye. They ended just above her ankles. Olivia pushed through The Trailhead’s door, and a few minutes later, he heard the distinctive sound of a Harley outside the bar. No one could mistake that rumble that sounded like potato, potato, potato for anything else. What the hell? Williams rode a Harley?

Apparently, the woman had hidden depths.

Depth or not, he needed to stay away from Olivia Williams. But he’d just invited himself to work with her.

What the hell was wrong with him? Did he have a death wish? Because working with Olivia to find the Russian assets in the Bureau would be a very dangerous job, professionally.

And maybe personally, as well.