The double doors at the building’s entrance slid open, and a woman in a dark suit and crisp white dress shirt stepped out into the sun, her dark hair blowing gently in the wind. She slipped on sunglasses and looked around, and when her eyes found him, she froze.

Moment of truth. His pulse kicked up. Things said or done in a moment of extreme duress couldn’t exactly be counted on. He might have teased her about making things up to him with sexual favors, but whether or not she ever paid up was another matter entirely.

She jogged down the front steps and headed his direction, stopping a foot from his bench. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Play it cool. “A little bird told me you’d be done today.”

“Roberts.”

“Yeah.” He couldn’t see her eyes behind those dark shades. Couldn’t read her expression. Pushing to his feet, he said, “How did it go?”

“Okay. Natalie’s finally talking, filling in some needed gaps about how she and Carter hooked up and how they brought Cross into their plans. Cross is really the hero in all of this. If he hadn’t turned on them, both of us might not be here now.”

Zane nodded. “You give them the file?”

“Yes. But you won’t hear any of this on the nightly news. It’s being covered up. Humbolt’s discovery, Carter’s involvement . . . The Agency’s burying it in the name of national security.”

Zane figured as much. He slid his hands in the front pockets of his jeans.

“The bombing in Seattle’s being blamed on a Chechen terrorist group. By tonight it’ll be all over the media. Along with the headlines: WE CAUGHT ’EM.”

“What about Carter?”

Eve crossed her arms over her chest. “They found a bulletproof vest a mile downstream with three slugs in the front chest plate. But no sign of Carter.”

That didn’t exactly put Zane at ease. But James Dietrick was no longer his worry. “They’ll find him, Eve. It’s what the Agency does best.” He tipped his head and narrowed his gaze. “And what about you?”

“Me?” Eve exhaled a long breath and uncrossed her arms. “They’re moving me out of CI. Giving me my station of choice. Anywhere in the world.”

His heart felt like it stopped, right in the center of his chest. For a CIA operative, that was the ultimate dream. To pick where you wanted to work. He couldn’t remember the number of times in Beirut he’d heard Eve say she wanted to be stationed in Paris or Madrid or Rome.

He forced his lips into a smile when inside he wanted to scream. No way could they make this work with her halfway around the world for months—years—at a time. She’d told him once she never planned to marry because the life of a CIA officer caused too much strain on a relationship with time and distance separations, and he knew from their week together that her thinking on that point hadn’t changed. And why he hadn’t remembered that until right now, he’d never know.

“Congratulations.” His voice was rough. Strained. Screw it. If she didn’t want him, he wasn’t gonna beg. He cleared his throat. “I know that’s what you wanted.”

“I never said that’s what I wanted. I said it’s what they offered.”

He wasn’t sure what she was saying.

A wry smile turned one side of her lips, and she held out her hand to shake his. “The name’s Evelyn Lenore Wolfe. Retired. I think this time we should start from the beginning, without all the aliases.”

For a second, time stood still. And every cell in Zane’s body vibrated with disbelief. Followed by a tiny voice in the back of his head whispering, No way. You have to have heard her wrong. “Wh-what?”

Her smile widened, and with her free hand, she tugged off her glasses. “No ‘what’ about it. I turned them down.”

Relief was the sweetest emotion, whipping through Zane’s body with the force of a hurricane. He snagged her hand, closed the distance between them, and tugged her in tight. His arms closed around Eve’s waist, drawing her trim, toned body flush against his. “Lenore, huh? That one I didn’t see coming.”

Glasses dangling from her fingers, she pressed her hands against his T-shirt and smiled. “That’s what you caught from my whole info dump there?”

“I’m trained to pick out the most important pieces of information.” His expression sobered as he looked down at her amber eyes. “I didn’t want you to quit, beautiful. Not for me.”

“I didn’t quit for you. Geez, it’s like you think the world revolves around you or something.”

He tightened his arms around her. “It does. Where you’re concerned.”

Her smile faded, and she looked down at her hands. “I did it for me. I’m ready for a change. Ready to do something that matters. I don’t want to be responsible for innocent children dying anymore.”

“Evie.” He let go of her waist with one arm and tipped her face up to his with a finger under her jaw. “That kid in Seattle lived. The news updated this morning. No fatalities.”

“Oh, thank God.” Her eyes slid closed.

He wrapped his arm around her waist again, loving the feel of her next to him. Loving that this was the start of something incredible, not the end like he’d feared. “You really quit?”

She laughed and rested her cheek against his chest. “Don’t sound so shocked.”

“I can’t help it. You never do anything I expect.”

“Ha. In a few weeks you’ll be wishing I’d stayed. I have no job now, and I haven’t been without a job since I was fifteen. I’ll probably drive you nuts until I find something else.”

“Baby, you can drive me nuts anytime, anywhere.” And suddenly, he could think of a hundred different ways.

“We’re going to have to start over on a lot of things, you know. I mean, I don’t even know where you live.”

“In Colorado. I’ve got a house there.”

She looked up in surprise. “You do?”

He smiled. “Remember all that money I inherited? I had to do something with it. It’s a great place in the mountains outside Aspen, but it could definitely use a woman’s touch.”

Unease flashed in her eyes, but it quickly faded and was followed by a slow, warm smile. “I think I might be able to help you out there. As long as you do the cooking.”

“Deal.”

Sighing, she sank into him, and he smiled into her hair, holding her close, treasuring every single second. All those long, lonely nights after she’d left him, he’d never once thought it could possibly end like this. But it wasn’t the end. It was the beginning. And he vowed here and now not to screw up their second chance.

“You know,” he said after several seconds, “if you’re serious about a job, I might be able to help you out there.”

Her head lifted, and she eased back to look into his eyes. “What kind of job?”

He shrugged. “I know this security company that’s always looking for the best of the best.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I thought you and Ryder were on the outs.”

“Nah. Ryder loves me too much.”

She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m glad someone does, because I hate you. I really do. I always have.”

“No, you don’t.” He smiled as he leaned down and brushed his lips across hers. “You love me.”

She sighed against his mouth and tightened her arms around his neck. “I’m pretty sure that love will be the death of me.”

“No way. Those sexual favors you owe me, though? Yeah, those might be.”

She barked a laugh and rose up on her toes to kiss him. “Then you better hold on, Archer. Because I’m unpredictable in a variety of ways.”

His lips curled against hers. “I can’t wait to see what you do next.”