He was American. No accent. Landon slammed his fist into the guy’s jaw. The man grunted. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. “Not the answer I’m looking for.”

The attacker spit out a mouthful of blood. “Look, I don’t know nothin’, ’kay?”

Landon lifted him three inches off the floor and slammed him back against the hardwood. “My guess is, you know a hell of a lot. And you can cooperate and we can do this here, or I can let the Feds beat it out of you. But I’ve seen the shit they do to terrorists, and trust me, you’re a hell of a lot better off with me. Now tell me about the girl.”

“I ain’t no terrorist,” the guy coughed in a defiant tone. “All I did was let some pricks rent the house. That doesn’t make me no terrorist. I didn’t know who they were until the shit hit the news tonight. I came over here to see what was going on and found you. For all I know, you could be the terrorist.”

Landon was losing his patience. He jammed his knee into the guy’s stomach. “The girl.”

The man groaned. “Stop. Dammit, stop, okay? Look”—he coughed—“they had a girl with them yesterday. She was kinda banged up, but it’s not my place to ask questions, you know? They must have taken her out of here earlier. I don’t know where they went.”

“Bullshit.” Landon lowered his knee, ready to nail the prick in the balls.

“Wait!” He held up both hands in a frantic motion. “They said something about a place in Fremont.”

Fremont was an artsy district of Seattle. Way more upscale than Yesler Terrace. “Where?”

“I-I don’t know.”

Landon pulled his fist back.

The man cringed. “I-I have a phone number. That’s all, though.”

A cell number he could track. “Give it to me.”

“It-it’s in my phone. In my pocket.”

Landon reached into the guy’s jacket pocket and pulled out the phone.

“It’s under ‘renters.’ The most recent number. They didn’t give me a name. I just wanted to get some cash for this dump, you know? You’re not gonna report me, are you? I don’t know nothin’ else.”

Landon pushed to his feet and hauled the guy with him. After dragging him toward the bed, he pulled zip ties from his pocket and cinched them around the guy’s wrists, anchoring him to the bed frame.

“Hey!”

Landon shoved on the guy’s shoulder, forcing him to sit on the end of the bed. “You’re gonna sit your ass here and tell the Feds everything they want to know. And if you’re lucky, and you’re honest, they won’t charge you with aiding and abetting a terrorist cell.” Crossing the floor, he picked up his gun and holstered it. “How many were there?”

The man slumped down. He was maybe five foot eight and a hundred and sixty pounds. And the missing teeth told Landon loud and clear that he was more interested in money to fuel his drug habit than anything else. “I don’t know. Three, I think. I only saw three.”

Landon pulled out his cell phone and dialed. Marley answered on the first ring. “Miss me already?”

“Always. Look, I need a GPS track on a number.”

“I can do that. Did you find the sister?”

“Almost.” He eyed the man on the bed, and disgust rolled through him over what some people would do for a quick buck. “Then I need you to call the Feds for me. I’ve got some trash they need to pick up.”


Eve blew out a deep breath.

This wasn’t working. She’d been lying here staring at the ceiling for the last hour and wasn’t anywhere closer to falling asleep than she’d been when Archer had come out of the bathroom and climbed into the other bed.

Counting stains on the ceiling, she reminded herself not to think about how fresh he’d smelled or how damp and muscular his skin had looked when he’d walked out wearing only those low-slung jeans he’d picked up at the mall. So they had a past. So she still felt something for him. That didn’t mean she was going to be stupid.

She rolled to her side and punched the pillow near her head. When that didn’t work, she flopped to her back, the mattress springs creaking as she moved.

“God Almighty, Wolfe. Could you be any louder?”

Great, now he was awake. She heaved out another sigh. “Sorry. I’m just”—agitated, hot, sexually frustrated—“keyed up.”

From the corner of her vision, she watched as he laced his fingers behind his head, his arms catching what little streetlight was shining in from outside, highlighting the muscles and planes she’d had her hands all over this morning. “Miller will find your sister, don’t worry.”

Eve scrubbed the heels of her hands over both eyes to block the image of all his sexy goodness. “I’d feel better if he’d just call.”

“He will when he has news. There’s nothing you can do but wait.”

Yeah, she knew that, but she sucked at the waiting game. Which was ironic, because in her line of work, there was a lot of sitting around, watching and waiting. “So Miller was DIA, huh?” she asked, trying to take her mind off how she’d filled all those boring hours with Archer in Beirut. “Not what I expected. I would have thought marine from his demeanor.”

“He’s that too. Ex–Special Operations Command. In addition to his tactical abilities, they quickly realized he had a certain . . . moral ambiguity . . . that fit in well with DIA, and they recruited him. He signed on. End of story.”

But it wasn’t. There was always a story with these guys. “Why’d he leave?”

“I don’t know. You’d have to ask him. He joined Aegis just after I did.”

Which would have been about a year and a half ago, Eve calculated. She knew why Zane had left the CIA, but a man like Landon Miller was wired differently, especially if he’d been trained as an assassin, and she couldn’t help but wonder just what had been his tipping point.

Not your concern. You have enough other things to worry about.

Muscles tight, Eve pushed from the bed and crossed the floor to get a bottle of water. She downed half of it, but the cool liquid did little to settle this uneasy feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. She needed to do something. Something physical. And since the only physical activity she could think to do in this room meant crossing a line she wasn’t about to cross again, she capped the water and began pacing. “Why’d you quit?”

“What?”

Zane’s surprised voice drifted to her ears, but she refused to turn and look his way. Keep walking. Don’t look at his naked torso or that damn sexy scruff on his jaw. “Aegis. When we were at the house on Bainbridge, Miller said you’d quit. You told me you’d tell me why later. It’s later, and I can’t sleep, so you might as well answer the question now. God knows I’ve answered enough of yours.”

“Motherfucker,” he muttered under his breath. “Miller should learn to keep his big mouth shut.”

Eve’s interest was piqued. Whatever the reason, he obviously didn’t want her to know. And focusing on that gave her something to think about besides sex. “I figured you’d like defense contract work way more than Agency work. We both know that wasn’t your cup of tea. So why’d you quit?”

“Not my cup of tea? Bullshit. We both know I was a damn good officer.”

She frowned. The last thing she wanted was for him to get all agitated. She was agitated enough for the both of them. Reaching the wall, she turned and paced back across the dingy carpet. “Bad choice of words. I didn’t say you weren’t a good officer. I just meant we both know your heart wasn’t in it. You’re a doer, not a watcher. So why did you leave? Did you have an argument with your boss?”

“Sort of.”

Sort of. That didn’t tell her a lot. She glanced his way. His arms were still laced behind his head, but he was now staring up at the ceiling with a serious expression. One she couldn’t read. “About an assignment?”

“You could say that.”

“What happened?”

“Ryder told me not to get personally involved.”

Eve stilled in the middle of the room, and her mind tumbled. Personally involved . . . There was only one way you could get personally involved with an assignment.

Her heart picked up speed, and her skin grew cold and clammy. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear more, but some twisted place inside needed to know what kind of woman could get him to quit his job. “And you didn’t listen?”

“Nope.”

Her heart beat hard. Drumbeats against her ribs. “What happened?”

“He told me not to go after her. Said if I did, I wouldn’t have a job to come back to. I told him it wasn’t his fucking business and to shove the job.”

Ouch.

“Then he told me I needed to cool the hell off and that when I was ready, we’d talk again, but not to do anything in the meantime. I didn’t call him back.”

Obviously, whoever this woman was, she had meant a lot to him. “Was—” She cleared her throat because it was suddenly thick and sounded funny. “Was she worth it?”

“I don’t know.” He continued to stare up at the ceiling. “She sure has fucked my life up good, though.” He chuckled, but the sound held no humor. “Shot in the leg, shot in the shoulder, and my face is plastered all over the news linked to a terrorist bombing. You tell me. Is she worth it?”

Eve froze. The air caught in her throat. And his words from this morning ran back through her mind. Words she’d heard but had been too angry to process until right now.

“If I didn’t still want you, I sure as hell wouldn’t have spent the last year trying to track you down.”

Her. He’d been talking about her moments ago, not some random woman. Her chest constricted until it was hard to draw air. And somewhere deep inside, a warmth began to blossom, all around her heart.