Archer climbed into the driver’s seat and closed the door, and she steeled her nerves and looked his way. “I need to call ADD Roberts.”

He started the car and glanced into the rearview mirror. “I want you to wait until we hear back from Carter.”

They both trusted Carter. When someone put his life on the line—like Carter had done for both of them more than once in Beirut—it solidified that trust. Eve knew Carter would do whatever he could to help them, but she didn’t believe that about the organization he—and she—worked for.

“Carter isn’t going to be able to help us the way Roberts can.”

He backed out of the parking spot and shoved the car into drive. “And what if Roberts is in on all of this?”

“In on what? This conspiracy you’ve cooked up?”

He frowned sideways at her as they wound through the parking garage. “Someone leaked my name to the press. Someone sent a wet team after us. And your security clearance has been revoked. I think it’s safe to say I don’t have to cook anything up.”

She looked out the front windshield and frowned herself. None of this made sense. “You yourself said that wet team probably wasn’t government sanctioned. There could be a logical explanation.”

“Yeah. That the Agency wants us both dead.”

Archer’s cell phone rang before Eve could tell him he was higher than a kite. He glanced at the screen, then lifted it to his ear. “Dude. Tell me this is a secure line and that you have good news.”

He was silent as he listened, and Eve found herself digging her fingernails into the seat while she waited.

“When?” Archer asked. Then, “And you’re sure about that?”

They pulled out of the parking garage and turned right onto the city street. Eve had no idea where Archer was heading, and right now she didn’t care. She just wanted answers.

“Okay,” Archer said. “We’ll do that. Yeah. Thanks. I’ll tell her.”

“Well?” Eve said as he hung up.

“That was Carter.”

“Duh. I got that. What did he say?”

“He said not to piss you off.”

“Smart man. Keep going.”

Zane sighed. “Your contact? Smith? He’s been linked to a Chechen terrorist group with ties to al-Qaeda. And that laundry list of compromised agents he was supposedly selling you? It wasn’t a list. There was something bigger on that drive.”

“Like what?”

“Carter doesn’t know. But he said shit’s hitting the fan at Langley. Four of the terrorists were picked up at a safe house in Seattle. None is talking. Smith is still unaccounted for. Along with you. According to Carter, the Agency’s launched a full-out search for you, and Assistant Deputy Director Roberts is heading it up.”

The knot in Eve’s stomach grew even larger. “They think I was involved in whatever Smith was doing.”

“Or that you double-crossed him.”

“Perfect.” Her stomach twisted. “Someone’s setting me up to take the fall for whatever’s on that drive.”

“They’re setting us up to take the fall.”

The way he said “us” made that feeling grow in her chest again, and she looked quickly away to avert her gaze.

They passed a fast-food restaurant, and her stomach grumbled. Distracting her—thankfully—from other things she didn’t want to be feeling. “Where are we going?”

“Someplace we can lay low for the next few hours. We need to figure out what was on that drive if we have any chance of clearing our names. Which means you need to set up a meeting with your CSIS contact.”

“She already told me what she thought was on the drive. I doubt she’ll be much help.”

“She lied to you.” Zane glanced her way. “I want to know why.”

The hard look in his eyes told her loud and clear what he’d do to anyone who lied to them again, and as she stared at him, Eve was reminded of the sweaty, sexy man who’d met her in the kitchen of that vacation rental this morning after taking out three black ops soldiers in only a matter of minutes. Yeah, he’d washed out of the CIA, but not because he wasn’t skilled. He’d left because he actually had morals. Something most agents lost after a few months on the job.

Herself, obviously, included.


They headed up Highway 92 and found a small motel outside Granite Falls.

After checking in, Zane left Eve to take a shower and ran to get food. They’d picked up a few supplies from a grocery store earlier—mostly water and medical supplies for his shoulder—but the best he could find for dinner was a mom-and-pop burger joint. The food was hot and smelled good, though, and his stomach rumbled, telling him he’d gone way too long without sustenance.

Granite Falls was a small community in the foothills of the Cascades, and Zane felt confident no one would find them there. It was also close enough to the Canadian border so if they had to make a run for it, they wouldn’t be trapped.

Bag of food in hand, he climbed out of the car, slid the key into the door, and turned the lock of their room. The building was an L-shaped structure, with the office on the small arm of the building and no more than sixteen rooms side by side on the longer arm. As he stepped into the room, the sound of water running met his ears, and steam poured from a gap in the open bathroom door.

Relief trickled through him when he heard the water shut off. He’d known it wasn’t in Eve’s best interest to run, but part of him hadn’t totally believed she’d still be here when he got back. Especially not after what had happened between them this morning.

He closed the motel room door at his back, his mind zeroing in on the image of her naked in the bathroom, right this very moment. Blood rushed to his groin, making him hard in an instant.

Not smart. He rubbed a hand over his suddenly sweaty forehead and set the bag of food on the small round table flanked by two cracked plastic chairs. Probably shouldn’t have challenged her this morning. Definitely shouldn’t have kissed her. And he absolutely should have put a stop to things when she’d taken that challenge and torn off his clothes. But he’d been weak. And emotionally strung out. And it was Eve . . .

His entire body tightened and warmed as memories of her riding him filled his mind. Of the way she’d felt against his overheated skin. Of how tight she’d been around him.

“Holy hell, you’re such a fucking loser,” he muttered. “Get a grip.”

He opened one of the bottles of water he’d bought and downed the contents. The last thing he needed was to get wrapped up in Evelyn Wolfe again. Yeah, they had a history, but she wasn’t interested anymore. He’d gotten that sign loud and clear after the fact. And though he’d played along at the mall—even drawn things out just to get under her skin—he hadn’t kissed her because he felt anything for her. Not really. He was too smart to get sucked back in by her again. He’d kissed her purely as cover.

That’s right, pussy. Keep telling yourself that one.

The bathroom door pulled open, and a wave of steam spilled into the room. Eve followed, damp from the shower, wearing nothing but a thin, white cotton towel wrapped around her curvy body from breasts to midthigh.

Shit.

Zane’s blood stirred as he watched her tip her head to the side and use a hand towel to wring the wetness from her newly dark hair. She’d cut and colored it when he’d been gone. Instead of shoulder length, curly blonde locks, it was now closer to chin length, straight, and a deep, rich brown that made her eyes look bigger and more golden, made her chin look sharper. Made her look more like the woman he hadn’t been able to stop fantasizing about for the last eighteen months.

“Food.” Eve’s gaze locked on the white paper bag on the table. “Thank God. I’m starving.”

She tossed the hand towel on the table, eased into the closest chair, and dug into the bag. Water droplets glistened on her shoulders and arms as she unwrapped her burger. And the slit in her towel inched up dangerously high to reveal her toned, wet thigh. Watching her lift the burger to her lips, Zane remembered those long fingers of hers sliding up and down his cock only hours ago, teasing him to within an inch of his life.

“Aren’t you eating?” she asked around a mouthful.

Zane moved toward the queen-sized bed closest to the door and sat, careful to pull a pillow over his lap to keep his hard-on from being freakin’ obvious. “I’m not hungry at the moment.”

Not hungry for food at least. Hungry for her? Yeah. Which he shouldn’t be. He wasn’t going there. Never again.

He leaned back against the headboard while she ate. Crossed his feet at the ankles and his arms over his chest as he stared up at the water-stained ceiling. Think about what you need to do next. Think about who’s setting you up and why. Think about anything except Eve sitting across the room all but naked like an offering.

“Did you get a hold of your contact at CSIS?”

Eve swallowed and reached for the second bottle of water. “Yeah. Tomorrow, oh nine hundred. We’re meeting her in Bellingham. She was in Vancouver, so it’s not that far for her.”

Zane nodded and zeroed in on one rather large ring on the ceiling so he wouldn’t be tempted to look Eve’s way. “Why did she give you Smith? How did that come about?”

Paper crinkled as Eve moved food around on the table. “Um.” She swallowed her bite. “We pass information back and forth when it suits us. One of the officers I’ve been investigating over the last year—Connor Perkins—had worked with a few of her CSIS agents overseas. The last time I talked to her, she told me one of her agents had gotten word that this list had been created by MI6, and that Perkins’s name was supposedly on it. We weren’t sure who Tyrone Smith—the guy I met in Seattle—worked for, but his organization supposedly lifted the list from a dead MI6 agent in London a few months back and was trying to sell it on the black market.”