“Yeah.” He nodded, looking around. “Terk gave me the rundown on some of that. I certainly wasn’t expecting such a huge place.”

  “We need it,” she stated. “Our group is expanding.”

  “I heard, and I’m kind of stunned.”

  “Well, you can be stunned,” Tasha agreed, “but the fact of the matter is that almost everybody has a partner—or at least most of us do. And, depending on how it goes with Naira here, it looks like you do too.”

  “That’s all conjecture at the moment,” Scott stated, “and I don’t mind saying that I’m not exactly sure myself.”

  Tasha nodded. “You know what? The path is never straightforward, but, as long as you get there eventually, the journey itself is worthwhile.” It sounded cryptic, and she acknowledged it as she looked up and grinned. “Yep, I know. As I said, things have changed.”

  “It sounds like it,” he murmured. “I’m not exactly sure what to think of that. That’s not usual talk for you.”

  “Nothing could be considered ‘usual’ anymore,” she noted, “and that’s one of the biggest lessons learned in all this. It’s a whole new world. We have several injured members who are still recovering and some who just need rest and relaxation. And,” she added, “Terk’s trying to hold it all together. Meanwhile he’s got a mess going on in Texas that he’s still trying to figure out.”

  “Tell me about Celia,” he said. “Jesus, who would even do that to a woman?”

  “Not to mention a pregnant one,” she reminded him.

  Scott winced at that. “And to think she’s carrying Terk’s child somehow, though of course he doesn’t know for sure, does he?”

  “It’s his,” she confirmed, with a weird smile. “You know perfectly well that, if Terk’s certain, he’s certain.”

  “I know, but, in something like that, you would think you’d want a little bit more than his version of certainty.”

  “He would never put the baby at risk, so any traditional testing will just have to wait,” Tasha stated. “Anyway, the bottom line is that no one is really 100 percent, and it’s not been all that easy for any of us.”

  “Got it. So, you and Damon, huh?”

  She beamed. “Finally. It took long enough.”

  Scott grinned. “Sure, but we all knew it was headed that way.”

  “Maybe so, but Damon was being stubborn about it.”

  “Of course he was,” Scott agreed. “He was trying to protect you.”

  “You know what? We do get a little tired of this trying to protect us business,” she shared. “I get it. I really do, but, at the same time, it’s kind of annoying.”

  Scott walked over when he saw a coffeepot and poured himself a cup, then turned and looked around. “This isn’t a bad place to be.”

  “It’s temporary,” she murmured. “Alfred helped us get it. As well as Levi and Ice.”

  He looked at her with interest. “Alfred’s involved?”

  “Only on the periphery. So is MI6.”

  He winced at that reminder and sent a text to Sam. I’m no longer at hospital. Your friend Stoop was fine when I left. He immediately got a thumbs-up in return. “Somebody I know from MI6 was at the hospital, asking me to keep an eye on his buddy, who got shot recently. I’m not even sure when all that happened.”

  “Terk was going to meet the group, but, before he ever got there, they were shot.”

  “And are they thinking it’s part of their meeting with Terk?”

  “He’s not sure how it could be anything but that,” she murmured. “I mean, when you think about it, all of this appears to be connected.”

  “Which is why I also don’t know why they went after Naira twice,” he said. “What was the purpose of that?”

  “The only thing we can think of is the connection to you.” Then she looked back toward the others. “There was a thought that maybe she has abilities.”

  He looked at Tasha in shock.

  “We do have a couple other women here, particularly Cara,” Tasha noted, “who kept Rick alive, while he was not doing very well. She’s also been contacted by Brody, and she’s reverted to using breadcrumbs to try and find him again.”

  Scott blinked several times, trying to take that in.

  Tasha laughed. “Sorry, it’s a lot of information. So, if you don’t get it the first time around, I understand.”

  He shook his head. “So they think that maybe Naira’s similar to Cara?”

  “Yes, and no. There are lots of different abilities, as you well know. But Cara arrived with Terk, and he set up the plans for her to look after Rick.”

  “Wow,” Scott said, startled. “So these guys after the team are taking out anybody connected to us—just in case?”

  “It seems like they’re trying to take out anybody who’s related, leaving no help for us,” she agreed. “Almost as if they’re petrified that somebody else would have these abilities and could be keeping us alive, as everybody here is supposed to be dead and gone.”

  Scott took his coffee, walked over to the far side, and sat down. He looked at all the others on the other side of the room, where little groups of people formed at various spots, talking. Scott looked around. “You know that, if anybody were looking for a way to take us all out, this building would be it.”

  “And we know that,” Terk noted, as he separated himself from one of the groups and walked toward them.

  Scott looked up at his friend and smiled. “Hey, I forgot to ask. Did you find anything at the hotel?”

  “I never made it there,” Terk replied. “After she was attacked at the hospital, it just seemed like the best idea was to bring her here.”

  “I agree with that, but I’m not so sure that she’s on board,” Scott admitted. “She really wanted to go home.”

  “That choice was taken away from her with that bullet to the lung,” Terk stated, “and we understand that she might not be very happy about it, but, at the same time, she’s alive, and that is due to you.”

  “And yet it seems like all I’ve done,” Scott said, “is hurt her.”

  “And now you get a chance to help her,” Tasha added at his side.

  He looked down and frowned because, of course, they didn’t know. She squeezed his arm gently, as if she had a better understanding of what he was going through, and he wasn’t exactly sure how any of that worked. But she’d always been a very intuitive, caring person, even more so now.

  Just then Damon walked in, caught sight of Scott, then walked over and gave him a big hug. As soon as he stepped back, he looked around, and Tasha was right there. He gave her a hug and kept her tucked up against him. “Good God,” Damon said to Scott, “all of us are a mess.”

  “Yep,” Scott agreed, with a nod. “Even when we think it won’t be, it’s a disaster.”

  “But why? That is the question I have,” Damon noted, crossing his arms. “What in the hell is going on here?”

  By the time they finished explaining everything to Scott, he sat here, completely shell-shocked. “You’re seriously thinking our government might have hired a contractor to take us all out, and you’re thinking that contractor might have been the group we hit in Iran? So somebody survived the Iran attack? Am I following so far?”

  At that, Terk nodded.

  Scott shot him a look. “What’s the point behind all this? Why would our own government want us dead? I just don’t get it.”

  “If I knew the answer to that,” Terk replied, “I might sleep at night.”

  That was the first mention he’d made about not getting sleep, and Scott realized, from the look on everybody else’s faces, that they recognized that as a problem as well.

  “You need sleep,” Damon noted harshly.

  “Yeah, well, hopefully one day I’ll get it,” Terk murmured, “but that day isn’t today.”

  “And why not?” Scott asked. “There’s only so much you can do right now.”

  “A lot of threads need support, and Brody is still lost.”

  At that, everybody gasped.

  “Cara said she found him,” Terk added. “Well, she left him breadcrumbs, which he may have found,” Terk corrected. “However, he’s not surfaced again.”

  “And what about you? Can you contact him?” Scott asked Terk.

  “He’s still alive. I can tell you that much,” he shared, “but I’m not getting any other response.”

  “So … it was a one-time event, and Cara blew it?” Wade asked.

  At that, Tasha looked over at Wade, a hard expression on her face. “Come on. It’s not Cara’s fault. You don’t get to blame her.” He had the grace to look ashamed, while Scott was filled in with an overview of the rest of the information that he was missing.

  “So, outside of the fact that Brody is still lost in the ethers,” Scott noted, “what are we doing to find this Iranian group?”

  “I’ve got satellite surveillance on them,” Tasha offered. “There is a little bit of traffic, but nothing that really means anything.”

  “You’re still looking at the same location?”

  She nodded. “Yes, but from the building across the road.”

  Scott frowned. “There wasn’t a hell of a lot in the way of roads or buildings there, as I recall.”

  “And there isn’t now either,” she admitted, “but there is some movement.”

  “Enough to make you suspicious?”

  “Enough that we’re keeping an eye on it,” Tasha replied. “Honestly, with so many other attacks and killings of anyone we get close to, I haven’t really had much chance to do more than keep an eye on this satellite location,” she admitted. “I also haven’t ID’d any of the people who have gone in or out there.”

  “But between the drones and the other IT people hired and the gunmen contractors, all out to get us,” Wade shared, “we’re not short on suspects, except that they’re always killed off before we’ve had a chance to even talk to them.”

  “That’s just crazy,” Scott said, “but highly effective at tying up any threads we might have.”

  “Even the ones we did get a chance to talk to,” Damon interrupted, “they didn’t know anything. Everybody’s been kept away from the bosses.”

  “Well, that’s pretty standard with these guns-for-hire guys to keep them compartmentalized,” Scott noted, as he stared at everybody. “So what’s up now? Does MI6 have any leads on who attacked Naira at the hospital?”

  “I have the video camera footage up right now, and I’m going through it,” Sophia shared. “The only person who went into that room was a young woman,” she noted, “and you passed her in the hallway.”

  Scott winced. “Damn. I wondered if that was her,” he said. “I got there just minutes too late. We need to find out who that woman is,” he snapped.

  “I’m on it,” Sophia confirmed.

  “And the man she met in the hallway,” Scott reiterated.

  At that, everybody turned and looked at him.

  “No man is in the video,” Tasha said.

  Scott frowned at her. “He met her near the stairway then. While I watched, they gave each other a kiss, as if he’d been waiting for her.”

  “Chances are he was waiting for her all right,” Terk stated, “but not for the reason that you think.”

  Scott frowned at that, then got up and walked over and looked at the video. “That’s her,” he noted harshly, then he tapped the corner of the screen. “He was waiting for her up here.”

  “So the question really is, was she a part of it, or will we find her body in a dumpster now?” Damon asked.

  Scott looked over at his buddy. “Well, I sure as hell hope not. I have a lot of questions I want to ask her.”

  “Stand in line,” Terk said, his voice equally hard. “We’ve had exactly the same problem every step of the way.”

  “So, that means they have to be right here in town, following what everybody’s doing. No other way they could take out every one of their team members before we do,” Scott suggested, his voice hard and angry. “I’m tired of being in defensive mode, it’s definitely time to go on the attack.”

  “You think we haven’t tried?” Wade asked bluntly. “Do you think we’ve been doing nothing but sitting here on our butts, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for another death? We’re trying. Believe me,” he said, “and it’s frustrating as hell. It’s not our normal kind of problem, and it even looks like these guys are also trying to take out any women they suspect of having any abilities to keep us alive. So, if they do another attack on us, we won’t have them to help us survive.”

  Scott nodded slowly. “That’s what I was wondering about with Naira,” he shared. “So you’re thinking that’s why she was attacked?”

  “That’s as close as we can figure, unless you’ve come up with any other motivation or if she’s got enemies you haven’t told us about.”

  “I have no idea on that,” he stated bluntly. “I haven’t seen her in years.”

  “And yet when Terk called, she came running,” Wade noted.

  “Well, we do have a history,” Scott admitted. “Not a terribly unusual one, just one full of misunderstandings and mistakes.” Scott shrugged. “When she was contacted about me, I think she figured it was her chance at redemption or some bullshit.”

  “And is it bullshit?” Terk asked him. “Or are you trying to work things out?”

  “I don’t know where we’re at,” he said, frustrated. “I never expected to see her again, and, when I woke up from my coma, there she was.”

  Terk nodded. “And I get that I put you on the spot about it, but I won’t apologize. I believe her presence kept you alive, and, if only for that, we owe her.”

  “I get it.” Scott nodded. “Obviously you do what you can for us.” Scott ran his fingers through his hair. “But she was attacked twice now, and I can’t just sit idly by and do nothing,” he cried out.

  “Nothing else to do right now,” Terk noted. “Sophia’s still tracking street cams to see who shot Naira. That will take a while. We brought Naira here where she’s safe—or as safe as we can make her for the moment. And whether she believes in what you can do or she believes in what she can do is irrelevant. Whoever it is who’s attacking us has probably singled her out because they assume she has abilities, like the rest of us.”

  “Which is very unfair,” Scott snapped.

  “Agreed, and we’ll do our best to figure this out before somebody else gets killed,” Terk stated.

  “So, how safe are we here?” Scott asked, looking around. “It’s a very odd space for us.”

  “It is, but it’s huge, and we’re doing our usual checks and balances, security wise,” Terk noted. “But is it 100 percent? No. Nothing ever is.”

  “Have we had people here? Has the building been breached?”

  “Yes,” Terk replied. “When they were after Lorelei, someone got in. We are doing everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Everything that matters to us is here, including your partner.”

  “She’s not my partner,” Scott snapped.

  “Well, she probably would be if you would stop being so damn stubborn about it,” Tasha suggested. “Everybody here can see that you two have a very strong connection.”

  He stared at them, watching as several hid their grins. “Seriously?” he asked in astonishment. “I haven’t had anything to do with her in a very long time.”

  “Yeah, and you’ve also had nothing to do with anybody else in a very long time, probably because Naira was out there,” Tasha noted. “We are all dealing with our histories and the relationships that we had fall apart,” she explained, looking over at Damon with a hard look. “We were separated because you guys are natural protectors and felt it was unfair or unsafe for us to be with you, to the detriment of everyone involved, even those who have children,” she added.

  Scott stared at Tasha. “Children?” At that, Mariana walked into the room. He was quickly introduced to her, but his gaze locked on the little boy in her arms.

  “Little Calum,” he repeated immediately, and the little boy turned, looked at him, and smiled. “Good God,” Scott gasped, suddenly feeling weak at the knees, something he would never have expected. He sat down at the table. “Why?” he asked, looking over at Terk. “Why now, why all this?”

  “I’m sorry,” Mariana interrupted. “I didn’t realize this was a meeting of the team. I’ll take Little Calum to our room for a while.” The others smiled and waved, as Little Calum was taken away.

  “I don’t know,” Terk admitted. “Maybe it’s just time.”

  “What about MI6?”

  “Not only are they barely talking to us,” Terk replied, with half a smile, “I think they’re trying to figure out how to kick us out of the country.” He grimaced at that.

  Scott nodded. “I gather there have been lots of bodies.”

  “Too many,” Tasha said, “for all of us. At this point in time we just want this over with, but, in order to have it happen, we need to know who’s targeting us.”

  “You’re not getting anywhere on the government leads?” Scott asked her.

  “No, they’ve pretty well locked us out of everything. Lorelei’s here,” she murmured, nodding to another woman who Scott hadn’t recognized until her name was mentioned. “She’s technically still working for them, and they think that she’s holed up in a hotel, just doing her job remotely. She’s tracking as much as she can from the other side.”

  At that, Gage got up, walked over, kissed Lorelei on the temple. She smiled up at him.

  “Hey, if anybody takes a wrong step online within the government,” Lorelei declared, “I’ll know. The problem is, I’m not sure anybody particularly cares, now that Bob is dead.”

  Scott’s heart failed him. “Bob in the defense department is dead—our boss?”

  “Well, yeah, one of our bosses.”

  He shook his head. “Why is he dead?”

  “The murder happened early on, the first one we had learned of, but it’s been reported to be a heart attack,” Lorelei relayed. “Odds are it was just a case of cleaning up.”

  “Jesus,” Scott said. “Are we thinking he had something to do with this?”