Page 2

Tired, sore, and battling a fissure of suspicion spreading in his gut, Tommy propped himself against the door frame, eyes locked on Tessa. She’d been cleaning her gun, the parts now reassembled. Seeing his gaze burning a hole in her, she picked up her cup of coffee, all casual-like, and sipped.

The hand holding the cup trembled slightly, though. That’s what made the fissure of suspicion deepen. Her expression stayed smooth, giving nothing away, and her eyes slid over him with a warm appraisal. The corner of her mouth quirked as she met his gaze. She could disarm people like that—distracting them with nothing more than a careful assessment or interested yet neutral expression. Appearing so in control that most never noticed the cracks underneath.

Tommy had learned how to see the cracks. He’d honed his ability to sense danger. It was the only way he’d been able to survive so far.

“Who are you talking to?”

His voice came out rough and groggy from sleep. He wondered if she noticed the suspicion layered under it.

She disconnected the call. “No one important,”

she replied, slipping out one earbud. She didn’t explain further, which meant the answer was important, probably someone she didn’t want him to know about.

Not tough to guess. Meg Carson.

He was running for his life, every step shadowed by the CIA and dangerous terrorists. All of them playing games.

But it was one of the reasons he’d come to her. She was used to dabbling in these kinds of games. Not dabbling, per se, but never genuinely invested in undercover work. He wondered if she ever invested all of her interest in anything. Yet, here he was, relying on her.

The one person he shouldn’t trust.

What has she told Meg? That he was here? That she’d stitched his wound and was letting him sleep in her bed?

Nothing had happened between them, and a part of him was sorry about that. Under different circumstances, he would do just about anything to strip her naked and get her under him, but right now, he had too many killers breathing down his neck. There was no way he had time or energy for a relationship.

Besides, she would become one more weakness. One more person he needed to protect.

“You talk in your sleep,”

he said, pushing off the doorframe and sauntering into the kitchen. He ran a hand through his hair as he found a mug to fill with coffee.

“No, I don’t.”

He turned, inhaling the dark brew, and braced a hand on the counter as he leaned against it. “You didn’t know? I suppose it’s a bad attribute when you’re a spy—spilling secrets to lovers without even knowing it.”

She cocked her head, feline-like. Unconcerned but curious. “What secret did I reveal?”

“Nothing actionable.”

He dropped into the chair at the island next to her. The aftertaste of coffee sat on his tongue, as bitter as the thought she might have betrayed him. “You were muttering about Hager and Jessie.”

He gestured with his chin toward her phone. “I’m guessing this early morning call wasn’t about a recipe swap.”

Her gaze flipped to her Sig Sauer, then back to him. He could almost see the calculations going on behind those beautiful eyes. Should she deny calling Meg? Deflect his question? Come clean?

He’d been around plenty of spies, including his sister, but Tessa was the one that consistently fascinated him. She seemed to walk between worlds, never committing fully to any.

Setting aside her cup, she picked up the cloth and wiped nonexistent grime from the gun barrel. “Do you think Jessie knew something about the EMP attacks?”

Deflection it was. He’d overheard what she’d said to Meg. He also understood where that suspicion about his sister came from. He’d been wrestling with it himself.

Saying it out loud and discussing it, even with Tessa, somehow made it real. His gut tightened, but he pushed past the hard, unforgiving lump. There would be no relief until he confronted it directly.

He wasn’t one to shy away from unpleasant and disturbing revelations. “It’s the only thing that makes sense: that she was investigating the possibility, searching for proof, and following leads.”

Or worse, something far more sinister.

That was one revelation he wasn’t ready to divulge yet, though. He’d never known Jessie to be anything other than upstanding and loyal to the Black Swans and The Agency. To even suspect her of wrongdoing went against every fiber of his being. She would never do such a thing.

He hoped. Prayed. Insisted to that nagging voice inside his head. Never.

Staring at her gun but seeming lost in her thoughts, Tessa nodded once. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

What she really meant was, Why didn’t you tell me?

He hesitated, then pushed past the heaviness of betrayal again. “It’s not every day you discover your sister might have had knowledge of such a devasting event being planned and realize she didn’t trust you enough to share it.”

Her gaze shot to his, locking on him like a laser. “Jessie trusted you. Out of all of us, you were her best friend. Her confidant.”

The question she had been wrestling with echoed her earlier one. “So why didn’t she tell me?”

Tessa reached for his hand, resting beside his cup, and squeezed it. “She was brutally logical. Maybe she didn’t have enough evidence to proceed, so there was no reason to burden you with it.”

He felt her surety, her confidence in Jessie through the squeeze. She wanted it to be true, just like he did. Maybe between the two of them, they could will it into being. “She did have proof.”

“How can you be sure?”

He swung around on the barstool to face her, his knees bumping her leg.

They were so close, their current living situation so intimate, yet he couldn’t take advantage of it.

He wanted to kiss her, to taste the coffee on her tongue, to drag her back to the bedroom and do what he had wanted to do these past few nights—peel the straps of her nightgown off her shoulders, kiss her collarbone, cup her breasts.

He wanted to kiss her until her lips were swollen.

Do things to her that made her cry out his name.

But he couldn’t.

Not only had she been Jessie’s friend, but she had no interest in him.

Not like that.

The warm appraisals of his body were to keep him off guard.

To determine if she could trust him.

She might have appreciated his male physique, but he knew underneath that it was just another game to her.

Where did her true loyalties lie? With her friend’s brother or with the swans and the CIA? Should he be suspicious of that phone call? Was someone going to show up here any minute to arrest him and take him back to the States?

“The USB,”

he told her. “She did come to me, just not directly. I found it in my desk a few days after her funeral. She must’ve hidden it there before Vienna.”

“And you figured out what was on it. The information about Hagar.”

“I was digging into an investment firm in Russia and following a money trail I believed backed up my suspicions about his involvement in the impending EMP attacks.

Attacks that Jessie knew about.

She knew about the superconductors for the military’s computers being tampered with.”

EMP bombs—e-bombs—had been around for years, the US being one of the countries at the forefront of designing non-nuclear tools to destroy information systems.

They’d created devices small enough to fit in a briefcase, making them feasible and practical.

The Defense Department’s reliance on satellites and commercial computer equipment to command military forces and operations worldwide was threatened.

Much had been done to take precautions to offset such attacks.

Still, if what Tommy, via Jessie’s intel, had uncovered, the superconductors used in military computers having been tampered with would leave the bases fucked.

America’s infrastructure, as well.

It would bring on a type of apocalypse that could cause the collapse of many countries’ systems worldwide.

“Like you said, Jessie was logical,”

Tommy continued.

“She had proof, but she wanted all the players exposed so that when she handed this information to Flynn and the others, they had everything they needed to round up the entire ring.

She knew that leaving even one of them free could still jeopardize our military and our country.

He swung back to face the counter, toying with his coffee cup. “She traveled off the grid for two weeks, meeting with someone before Vienna. I’ve been chasing her steps ever since.”

“Where did she go?”

“Ilford, outside of London, then she went to Arizona.”

“I know where Ilford is. What’s there?”

“An energy company.”

“And Arizona?”

He rubbed his thumb up and down the side of the cup. “There are two computer companies outside of Tucson. Both commercial organizations.”

She must have heard the doubt in his tone. “But…?”

“MediSune is a cover for Cal Line, a secret branch dedicated to researching and developing supercomputers for the military. MediSune makes and sells computer systems to the public, but they focus on city and county governments. Their private branch is undocumented, and I have no idea how she uncovered the information, but probably through an informant inside the CIA or Department of Defense. They are the only ones who know about the site and would have that information.”

“That’s where it all started, the sabotage of the superconductors.”

He nodded. “That USB is heavily encrypted, and there were parts of it that I couldn’t even get to, but there was more involving a Russian shell company funding paramilitary groups and a man named Viktor. No last name. I believe it was an alias. The same alias popped up on some financial transactions linked to that Russian shell company.”

“Jessie was tracking the network behind the EMP plot, and she knew Hager was their lead guy. She probably figured he might know Viktor’s true identity.”

Tommy gestured at her phone. “That’s why she taunted him. You’re right to suspect it wasn’t simply defiance. Jessie wanted Hagar to slip up and confirm something—possibly Viktor’s identity or something else. I don’t know, but I need to retrace her footsteps. Follow her path to Ilford and Arizona.”

He left it sitting there—an invitation.

But it was more than that. He needed Tessa’s help.

She sat back, crossing her arms. “You’ve been on the run for weeks, and you’re still recovering from being shot.”

Her gaze flicked to his bandaged side and back to his face. “Assassins, Russians, the CIA…they’re all after you, and now, you want to waltz into London and then fly to America to chase this Viktor fellow? Do you have a death wish?”

“You think I don’t know what the risks are?”

“I think you’re being foolish. The CIA has the thumb drive, and they’re decoding it. They’ll have all the info Jessie put on it in a matter of days, maybe a week or two, tops. Your quest is not only dangerous, it’s stupid. Go to Langley, talk to Flynn, and let the professionals handle it.”

He slammed a hand on the counter, causing the cups to jump. “Hagar’s dead, Tessa. I didn’t even get to pull the trigger. And the network that put all of this in motion has probably accelerated their timeline because of it. We may not have weeks, and the Agency moves like a crippled dinosaur. If I turn myself in, I’ll end up spending months being interrogated, and nothing will be accomplished.”

“Flynn fully understands the emergency this creates. He’s already got the heads of Homeland, the Justice Department, and the Feds working to ensure those computers are confiscated and the bases secured.”

“It’s not enough,”

he growled. “Even if they deter the e-bombs, they won’t bring down the network. Those involved have probably already gone to ground. They’ll begin eliminating anyone who can identify them. I have to flush them out. Now. Or everything Jessie did—her death—will have been in vain.”

Her expression didn’t soften, but guilt and sympathy flashed in her eyes. “You’re good, Tommy, but you’re not a trained undercover operative. You need help.”

It was a gift—his ability to sense when someone was crumbling. “Help me, Tessa. You owe her that much.”

She glared at him, then looked away, jaw set. “Don’t you dare.”

“We both made promises to our country and to her. Ones we didn’t keep.”

“You don’t get to use her to manipulate me.”

Frustration boiled over, and he stood, nearly toppling the stool. “I’m reminding you of what’s at stake. Jessie gave her life to bring down this organization. The work is left undone. It’s up to me—and you—to see it through. If she were here, she’d ask you to do it.”

“She’s not here.”

Her voice cut like a blade. She dropped her head into her hands, her voice lowering. “If you keep charging into every fight like this, you won’t be either.”

The kitchen was silent for a moment, except for their breathing.

He’d thought she was crumbling. That she would give in. Stupid of him. He headed for the bedroom to pack. “I’ll be out of your hair in a minute.”

His frustration continued to boil until his head felt like it would explode. Jamming the few clothes he had into his backpack, he checked his weapon and stuck it into the waistband of his pants. He was out of money, had nowhere to go in Ilford, and his side hurt like a son of a bitch.

But his own words rang in his ears. If Jessie were here, she would keep going until she uncovered every last bastard who was part of the plot. She wouldn’t wait for the Agency, the Department of Defense, Homeland, the FBI, or anyone else to do what needed to be done. She would do it.

“What exactly do you need from me?”

He whirled to see Tessa standing on the threshold. Her shoulders were tight, her mouth, too.

Relief flooded him, but he kept his tone even. “I need you to help me retrace Jessie’s steps. I don’t have the contacts to navigate London and Ilford. You do.”

She kept her feet braced and crossed her arms. The movement boosted her breasts. “If I do this, it doesn’t mean I’m returning to the CIA or avoiding them. I will not betray them or my country. I’m not letting you drag me into your personal vendetta, but I realize the enormity of the situation. If I can do something to prevent it from happening, then I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t do it.”

“If you have to tell Meg the truth, I understand. But doing so could compromise my mission.”

“You leave Meg to me. There’s always a way to work with the swans without compromising anything, and I’ll take care of that. Ilford and the technology company are probably a dead end. You know that, right?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

She marched across the room to her closet and grabbed a go-bag. “In fact, I do. We do this my way. No improvising and no lone-wolf stunts. Understand?”

Was it possible he wasn’t alone in this fight for the first time since Jessie’s death? “For now.”

She smirked at him, rolling her eyes, and he trailed after her as she returned to the kitchen, retrieving her gun. “Don’t make me shoot you, Tommy.”

He grinned. Not teasing her was too hard. “No promises on that.”