“You talked to my boss,” Damon said, sliding his arm over the back of her seat. The car wasn’t really big enough for all of them, but neither Damon nor Ian thought it would be a good idea to split them up. So she was stuck with too-big Damon invading her space.

“I talked to someone who said he was your boss,” Candice replied.

Damon sighed. “But you believe her. You understand how utterly insane that sounds. You believe that Penelope is an undercover agent but you question me.”

“I think you’re probably a really good liar,” Candice said primly. “And you won’t give me an exclusive.”

Penny forced herself not to lean into him. He was so strong and warm against her. She’d woken up plastered against his body this morning despite the fact that she’d hugged the side of the bed before falling asleep. She’d woken up and just for a minute, she’d forgotten about what had happened the night before. She’d started to lift her face up for her morning kiss. Damon had sighed as though he’d been relieved, his hand stroked her hair back and then…

She’d rolled out of bed and gotten into the shower before she could make a complete fool of herself.

“Candice, I’m sure you’ll be allowed some access since you’re involved and cooperating. I’ll make sure to give you any information I possibly can.”

Damon leaned over, his mouth close to her ear. “Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.”

It seemed a warning, or perhaps he was simply reinforcing his lesson. She’d promised herself she could fix him but he didn’t want to be fixed, very likely didn’t even see himself as broken in the first place. “How do you know Baz won’t have men waiting in the church?”

The last thing she wanted to talk about with Damon was broken promises. He hadn’t made her any so why did she feel so betrayed?

“We don’t,” Taggart said from the driver’s seat.

Damon sighed, a frustrated sound. “Baz struggles to work with anyone. He prefers to work alone, but more than that, he really is paranoid. He didn’t even trust me. Most of the time he went off on his own and tried to one-up me. If he had a team with him, he wouldn’t have needed a distraction. He would have swooped in and taken the prize. The group he works with has more than enough resources, but I suspect Baz is attempting to make an impression. His group might not even realize he’s got the target in his sights. Baz would be afraid they’ll send someone else in and then he would get cut out. It happened to him more than once during his time with SIS.”

“But don’t worry.” Penny felt it was her job to keep the reporter calm. No one else seemed to want to do it. Damon just pointed out how bad the situation was and Taggart growled at everyone. It was only through her efforts that the woman had remained calm and somewhat helpful. “You’ll be perfectly safe. You were smart to choose a tourist location. I think even Mr. Champion would likely think twice about opening fire there. He needs to stay under the radar. We all do.”

The car had come equipped with their handguns, thanks to Simon. She’d checked hers and watched as Damon had strapped weapons onto his body, her eyes greedy for any hint of skin.

After today, it would be over and she wouldn’t have to fight her urges. Being close to him and not being able to touch him was making her crazy. She didn’t trust herself to not give in. There was an ongoing argument in her head about simply accepting who he was and never disobeying him. She could do it.

She would come to hate herself and him.

“Do you think he’s already there? Waiting for Mr. Bennett?” Penny asked.

Damon nodded. “I think he’s certainly got eyes on the place. We have to be very careful. We need to stay with a tourist group. I’m going to stay close to Candice. I have the cap Robert is supposed to wear.”

“But Baz knows you.”

“And I know how to keep my head down. It will be fine.”

Penny wasn’t so sure, but he didn’t leave her with a choice.

Ian turned down the street. Helsinki was laid out in front of her, clean and neat. As he stopped at a light, bikers lined up in the lane beside them. A green and yellow train barreled by.

They drove in silence, Penny lost in her own world. She knew she should be thinking about the upcoming operation, but she couldn’t seem to forget the fact that Damon would be out of her life soon and she wasn’t sure how to handle it. How she could watch him every day?

It was time to think about changing her career.

Long before she was ready, Ian pulled into a small underground parking garage. Everything had been arranged, likely by Nigel or someone from Taggart’s organization. Simon was standing by a van with the cruise line’s logo on it. She hadn’t seen him leaving the boat, but knew it was his shift off and he and Jake were supposedly going sight-seeing while Jake was helping pick up supplies for the kitchens.

At least they had backup.

Simon stepped forward, his big body in a jacket that likely concealed the weapons he was carrying. “It’s a clusterfuck of a situation. I don’t like it at all. Is Jesse off all right?”

Damon nodded. The information from Baz had come through not an hour before. “He’ll be fine. He has all the information Baz sent. He and Chelsea are taking a train to someplace called Porvoo. They’re supposed to be meeting with Baz in a coffee shop there. I suspect Jesse will get to try some Finnish coffee and have a very boring sight-seeing expedition. They’re supposed to wait in town until Baz contacts us with the exact meet time.”

Jake nodded. “I think you’re right. We showed a picture of Baz to one of the local shopkeepers and he seemed to know him. He doesn’t speak a ton of English so I’m struggling with getting him to tell me if he was with anyone, but I think the trip to Porvoo is likely a distraction. He’s counting on the threat being so terrifying you can’t call his bluff.”

“Yeah, well, if it isn’t a bluff, we just screwed a bunch of undercover operatives,” Taggart pointed out.

Penny shook her head. This very scenario had kept her up most of the night. “I don’t think so. The last thing The Collective wants is to have the SIS and the CIA coming after them. They want to stay clandestine. No product or bump in stock prices can be worth having the government turn their attention on them. It doesn’t make sense that The Collective approves this method. The minute they cause the death of an undercover operative, they become the enemy. Right now, no one actually believes they exist. They can’t want that to change.”

“I don’t know that Baz will care.” Damon checked the clip on his SIG and holstered the weapon. He pulled the cap low on his head.

He wasn’t wearing a vest. There was nothing to stop a bullet from taking him out except his wits and speed, and she’d seen that his speed wasn’t what it used to be.

“He’ll care when his employers decide he isn’t worth the trouble. Somehow I don’t think The Collective’s layoff package is going to include job retraining,” Charlotte Taggart said.

Damon held out a hand, helping her out of the car. “We’re not going to argue about this anymore. There’s no point.”

“The Collective sounds awesome. I mean, that’s a story. You know?” Candice shook out her light brown hair. “I could really break out with that.”

“Or you could find yourself beheaded and tossed into the Thames.”

She was going to kill Damon. “He’s joking.”

Damon frowned. “No, I’m not. They won’t take kindly to some reporter sniffing around. Besides, she works for one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. How do we know her newspaper chain isn’t a part of The Collective?”

Candice froze. “Oh my god. I hadn’t thought about that. What if I’m working for the enemy? Do you think they already know? They’re probably watching me.”

He seemed to almost delight in baiting the reporter. Or did Damon know he was actually getting to her? Penny put a hand on Candice. “Stop. You can’t think that way. It’s very unlikely or they would have picked you up and they would be the ones forcing you to bring Bennett in. So stop worrying about it. Stay calm. It’s all going to be over in less than an hour.”

Candice nodded, taking a deep breath. “All right. And I’ll have a hell of a story. Yes. I’ll be fine.”

Penny left Candice with Charlotte and stepped away, gesturing for Damon to follow her. The minute they were out of earshot, she rounded on him. “Stop trying to scare her.”

He stood far too close to her. “I’m trying to keep her alive.”

“By terrifying her? She won’t be able to stay calm if you don’t stop telling her all the ways she could die.”

A single brow swept up his forehead. “She doesn’t seem to have your fortitude. I’ve told you all the ways you can die and you’re still here.”

She wished he wouldn’t stand so close, but she couldn’t back down now. “I have a job to do. She isn’t trained and she didn’t take an oath to protect her country. You can’t compare us.”

“I compare everyone to you.” His expression didn’t change at all though his voice went deeper. “Why won’t you sleep with me?”

She stared for a moment, utterly taken aback. All she could manage was a quick shake of her head as she spoke. “This isn’t the time or the place.”

He crowded her again, taking a step toward her, forcing her back against the concrete. “It’s the only place. It’s the only time you’ve been alone with me since last night. You pretended to be asleep when I came to bed. You locked me out of the bathroom. By the time you came out, the Taggarts had invaded. Did you text her to come over? I noticed you grabbed your phone during your escape.”

She had texted Charlotte. She’d done it before she’d stepped into the shower because she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t end up right back in bed with the same man who threatened to share her with all-comers. “I thought we all should talk before breakfast.”