Across the street, we saw Saint idling in a car.

  Lock glanced around the street, saw nothing else suspicious, and tugged me forward. As we booked it through traffic, weaving in and out of the oncoming cars, several people honked at us. But once we reached the car, the door swung open and Saint grinned back at us. "Can't take you two lovebirds anywhere. Always causing trouble."

  I rolled my eyes. “Just drive."

  He gave me a wink and a nod before muttering, “Yes, Ms. Daisy," as he sped off.

  I slumped down in the back seat with Lock as he used his whole body to practically shield and guard me.

  In the safety of his arms, with my heart hammering against my ribs, my brain started to finally make sense of what had happened. Drake Webster was here. The man who had killed my parents. I’d had him within my sights. And instead of staying and fighting and killing him where he stood, I’d run. What the fuck did that say about me?

  It says you know how to survive.

  Lock's hands rubbed my arms. “You okay?"

  “Yeah." I sighed. "But we got bad intel. We need to find out why."

  22

  Saffron

  "What the fuck happened?" Gabe’s voice boomed.

  Twenty faces turned to stare at me. I knew what debriefs were like. They were immediate and stressful, and I was the agent who had fucked up in the field.

  Gabe scowled at me. "Are you sure it was him?"

  “Yes. I took photos so we would have proof of a sighting. I didn't just abort a mission for nothing. We made eye contact. He recognized me."

  "Are you sure he recognized you?"

  I glanced around the room. Everyone in there was a senior agent. My team was there. Saint and King, both looking at me with a grim determination to the set of their lips. They were going to back my play, whatever I said. But I didn't want them going down with me if this went sideways. Why didn't Gabe believe me?

  "All I can tell you is what happened. I was working Graciella, and she told me she was having an affair. I gave her the standard we'll take care of you, and if you need a friend, I’m here for you speech. She was asking me to cover for her while she spent time with her new boyfriend, who was on the island."

  Gabe frowned. "We had no intel that Webster was on the island."

  “I don't know what to tell you. Maybe he came in on a boat. Maybe he's got someone on the docks who brought him in quietly. I have no idea. On the way back, we spoke to Ariel on the sat phone. There was no record of him coming or going."

  "He's a ghost. We know that much." Gabe ran his hands through his hair. "What the fuck, Saff?"

  I lifted my chin. “Don't you mean Agent Abott?"

  A hush fell over the room. I shouldn't have said that, but if he was going to ride me like I was just another one of his agents, he couldn't pretend I was his sister today.

  Tabs spoke up. “If Agent Abott says that it was Drake Webster, I trust her instincts. She's one of the few people who has managed to get a recorded sighting of him. Everything else we have is blurry at best. And if she says he recognized her, he did. Which means she's in danger."

  I shook my head imperceptibly at her. I didn’t want Gabe punishing her for defending me. “If we can get to Graciella, we can get to him."

  Gabe laughed. “You are not going back in the field."

  "We have an asset who trusts me. It's ridiculous to pull me now." I wasn’t being petulant; I was making a good argument. At the end of the day, everybody wanted Drake Webster. All of us. My parents were legends, and I was the heir. Webster had taken them from me, which meant I owed him a debt. Whether Gabe liked it or not, he could shuffle this all the way up to Oversight, but they would agree.

  That's if they believe you.

  Lock came to my rescue, which I didn't need. “I broke protocol. I knew the route agent Abott would take, so I waited along that route to provide back up."

  Gabe lifted his brow as Lock spoke, but he said nothing. Because, of course, Lock was new. And a man. Although, half of the best agents in this place were women and could run circles around my brother.

  Lock continued, undeterred. "We were definitely shot at."

  Gabe crossed his arms and eyed Lock up and down. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe it's because of how Agent Abott responded?" he asked derisively.

  I squared my shoulders, ready for this fight. “For starters, I followed protocol. You can track the routes I took. I made an escape out the window. According to Ariel, someone broke down the door of that loo coming for me, and then broke the window. I didn't break it on my way out. I was chased through the Winston Isles. Last we spoke to Ariel, she was pulling video footage. I'm sure you will find Webster's men looking for me. And finally, we were shot at. I know what I saw, and Graciella is the way to get to him."

  "We'll send Agent Smith then."

  Tabs looked up, frowning. "What the fu— No. I can't identify him. She's the one who knows who he is. And as good as I am in the field with assets, Saff—Agent Abott,” she corrected with an apologetic smile, “is the one who has established a relationship. It doesn't make sense to send me."

  Gabe's jaw ticked. He wasn't used to anyone talking back to him. The other agents in the room said not a word, not even a murmur. But they were all leaning forward, watching the show.

  "Agent Abott has a point. We can send her back with more support,” Tabatha concluded. “I'm happy to support her, but she should be the lead agent on this. I'm sure it's Oversight's call, but this is the closest we've been to Webster in two years.”

  Two years exactly. I would never forget those bright blue eyes as he leaned across the picnic table while I was saying goodbye to friends on the main quad a couple of days after graduation. I’d just lost my parents. He had come to campus where my friends were trying to console me, and he’d told me, plain as day, 'Get the hell out of dodge or you will die too.' I saw it as a threat, but it felt like a warning. Why not just kill me then?

  He'd stalked me for months. How he even knew I was there was beyond me. But he'd stalked me and used me to kill my parents. It was my fault. If I hadn't insisted they needed to see me graduate, they would still be alive, and I lived with that every day.

  I inhaled deeply and lifted my gaze to my brother's. “I know the players. Webster recognized me. I'm the only one who knows what he looks like. You can tell from that video that he is perpetually in a blind spot. He's that good. So I’m your best bet at getting him in the field."

  "Let's see what Oversight says." Gabe was not used to me fighting back… ever. Let alone publicly.

  Saint tried to be helpful. “For what it's worth, I got the distinct impression that they were trying to capture, not kill."

  Gabe lifted a brow. "How can you even discern that?"

  “From the video footage we've watched, it appears they were trying to corral her, using a grid pattern to hem her in. They wanted to capture her, which is... concerning."

  He gave me a shrug, and I lifted a brow. Saint hadn't told me that. Why had he not told me that?

  Gabe nodded. “I’ll speak to Oversight and see how they want us to go forward. Dismissed."

  When we stood, I tried to approach Lock, but all he did was give me a grim nod as he went out the opposite exit.

  What the fuck was that? We didn't have much opportunity to speak alone on the way back and frankly, we were exhausted. Completely shredded from the adrenaline of the day. But I expected him to say something to me. Anything about what had happened with us.

  Fuck.

  Saint approached me. "Sorry."

  "No, it's fine. You spoke the truth. Next time though, tell me first?"

  “Yeah. Got that. I should have, and that's on me. It won't happen again." He gave me a nod and then stepped away.

  It was Tabs who found me after everyone was gone. "Jesus, come on. You look like you're ready for war."

  “I just need to get some rest and get back out there. But you know, Gabe."

  “I think Gabe is worried, love. Something could have happened to you, and I was terrified myself."

  "That's the whole point. I'm an agent. And he doesn't respect that."

  "Well, he might have to because what I said was true. You're the only one who has seen him. And Graciella knows you. She won't trust me or anyone else who comes to her, especially after the madness of everything that happened. Looks like you'll finally be getting your wish and becoming a full-fledged field agent. And honey, we all want him, but we have to follow strict protocol. We'll get him."

  "Not we, I. I will get him. I owe him."

  "And you have back up. Hang tight on Gabe. He'll come around."

  "Well, for once big brother is not going to have a choice."

  As we walked out and headed for the elevator to take me upstairs to my quarters, she frowned and inclined her head toward the rear entrance of the debrief room. “First, are we going to talk about what the hell happened on the island with you and Mr. Sex on a Stick?"

  Despite feeling completely wrung out, I had to laugh. “I don't know. He performed well on the mission."

  Tabs smirked. “I’ll bet he did. So was the first time a fluke?"

  Heat rose up my neck and splashed into my face. "No, Tabs, but that’s none of your business."

  "If that means no, it was not a fluke, are you going to talk to him about it?"

  "Well, it doesn't look like he wants to talk to me. And I am wrecked and tired. So I am going to rest. If I’m going to war with Gabe over this, I need to be fully armed."

  "Okay. I’m on rotation tonight until six, and you can come home with me if you want."

  “I might do that. I need to get the hell out of here."

  "All right, I’ll text you."

  She left me and headed down toward the training tunnels. When I turned left toward the elevator to the main house, I found Lock suiting up for what looked like target practice outside the weapons department. “You're going to do more target work?"

  “Yup."

  “You don't want to come down after the mission debrief? That was stressful on all of us."

  "Nope." It seemed one-word answers were all I was getting out of him.

  I frowned at him. “Is something wrong?"

  "No, nothing is fucking wrong."

  I squared my shoulders. "Lock, maybe we should—"

  "Let me stop you right there. You're going to say something about 'Hey, we should talk.’ There's nothing to talk about. We did what we had to do for the mission. That's done now. We're safe."

  I jerked as if slapped. There were many other agents milling about, so I lowered my voice and deliberately kept my distance. “Do you want to actually have a conversation about this, or are you going to go off and sulk?"

  He smirked. “I think I’m going to opt for sulking. Except in my case, it won't be sulking." He leaned forward then. “I'll be too busy pondering why the woman I haven't been able to get out of my head for fucking weeks is the entire reason I’m here. You and I have fucked before." A cold wash of tension and anxiety slipped over my body, like a suit coating me in electrified jelly. I gasped and his silvery gaze searched mine. “Deny it. Go ahead."

  When I couldn't, he smirked and nodded. “Yeah, so instead of shooting you, I’m going to go shoot a target, and we'll pretend it never happened."

  All I could do was stand there. The shock of it hitting me, word for word. You and I have fucked before. He knew.

  And like my worst nightmare, he assumed I’d done it on purpose.

  Lachlan

  Two hours later and I still hadn’t calmed down. I lined up my targets and fired, trying to put all my focus and my anger to directing exactly where that bullet was going to go.

  I couldn't talk to her. Not yet.

  The things I had to say, I couldn't take back.

  Or maybe you'll beg her to take you back.

  Nope. For weeks now, she'd lied to me. We had definitely shagged. She was lying. Pretending she didn’t know me, pretending I didn’t know exactly how her pussy tasted.

  So there was nothing to say. Nothing to do except to stay the fuck away from her. No matter what I did, I was still going to be haunted by the dream of her. Because life wasn't fair. I finally gave a shit about someone else since Charlie died, and it turned out she was a liar.

  But at least I could have some semblance of sanity. Fucking hell. What had I done to deserve this? For weeks, we'd been training together. We'd been getting close.

  Or maybe only you thought you were getting close.

  Maybe she wasn't getting close at all. Maybe she was doing her damn job.

  All the scenarios ran through my head, every single one, as I tried to force an outcome. But every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was Saff laughing, smiling at me, rolling her eyes, doing that pursed-lip thing that she did when she was trying really hard not to laugh at me.

  The more I focused on her, the more I could see snippets of me and her in my flat. I’d danced with her. I had fed her cake? Frustrated, I blasted my last bullet into the target and then dragged my headphones off as I called it forward. Waiting for the sheet, already knowing that half of my bullets had gone wide.

  I needed to get a handle on this. If I couldn't get a handle on my emotions, I was screwed.

  “You are certainly in a mood, aren't you?"

  I frowned at the sound of a familiar voice. "Agent Smith."

  "Oh, shut up. Call me Tabatha."

  "Tabatha, anything I can do for you?"

  “You just came back from a mission. Standard protocol is down time, forty-eight hours, whether you like it or not."

  “I don't need it."

  She laughed. "Oh, so you're special. You are a very special agent that somehow has managed to counteract the effects of adrenaline and stress. I didn’t know you had a medical background. I knew you were pretty, and you know, had all the makings of a bad boy with a decent brain. But I did not know you were also a medical doctor. I will make it a point to remember that in the future."

  I frowned. "Okay, I hear you. I just… I needed to blow off some steam."

  "We will get Webster. That's what we do. Gabe is not going to let anyone rest until we get him. He lost his parents too."

  “Yeah, sure, whatever."

  She frowned at me, and I reloaded the clip. But before I could put my headphones back on, she put a hand on my arm. "Listen, whatever your problem is, I saw that little interaction with Saff. What's your deal with her?"

  "No deal."

  "Oh, bullshit."

  "No deal. She's my supervising officer, right?"

  “God, so pretty but so dumb. Your memory starting to come back yet?"

  I furrowed my brow at that. “I don't know what you're talking about."

  “Yes, you do. You know exactly what I’m talking about. I read the brief. And I talked to Ariel. I know that you guys had to pretend for safety."

  I clenched my jaw tight. "The full details were in the report to Gabe?"

  She shook her head. "No, he just has ops details. So the fact that the place was bugged, yes. What happened after it was bugged, no. That's all I’m going to say."

  "Oh, this just gets better and better."

  “It's confidential. Even Oversight doesn't see it, so you're fine. Gabe won't know that you deflowered his sister."

  "Jesus fucking Christ." Had she been a virgin the first time we’d been together? And I didn’t fucking remember? If that didn’t take the cake, I didn’t know what did.

  “Is that or is that not what happened?" Tabatha demanded.

  I cleared my throat. "That is not any of your business."

  "All right. If you say so. But why are you in here with her face on your targets?"

  “You don't know who I’m shooting at."

  "Oh, after a mission like that, either you are real pissed off at Drake Webster because he ruined your mission, or you're mad at someone else. I'd bet cash money that someone who you're mad at goes by the name of Saffron Abott."

  “I'm not doing this with you."

  "Okay, but you should talk to someone because sometimes what happens in the field can get dicey. And it's hard to separate."

  “I'm fine. Everything is fine."

  She laughed. "When did you start to remember?"

  I blinked rapidly. "Remember what?"

  "Let's not do this, okay? Let's not do the thing where you and I pretend that nothing major is going on. That you aren't stupid in love with my best friend. Let's have an honest conversation. So, when did you start to remember?"

  I stared at her and crossed my arms. “I feel like that also falls in the category of none of your business."

  "Okay, none of my business then. But I can tell you're in here shooting because you think she played you. But obviously, you don't know anything about Saff. It's not her style. It's not what you think it is. Maybe you should talk to her before you make judgments."

  "So what you're telling me is, before I judge her, I should go ask her to give me details of what the fuck happened?"

  “Yeah."

  "And completely forget the fact that she's been lying to me all this time?"

  "Has she, though? Or was it that she came to work one day and the guy she hooked up with walked into her place of employment and did not seem to remember her at all."

  I scowled at her, but it didn’t seem to have any effect.

  "But hey, by all means, you feel free to punish her for something she has no control over. You didn’t remember. So if you were her, what would you have done?"

  I frowned. “I know you want me to believe you, but I really don't."

  "That's on you. You can believe what you like. But I’m telling you that’s not how Saff operates. She would have told you, but there was no point. You didn't remember, and there was also the whole no-fraternization thing. So welcome to hell. Now imagine you're Saff and she's been assigned to train you."

  I swallowed hard at that.

  "Ask Gabe if you want. See what he says."

  “Look, I know she's your mate and you want to cover for her—"

  “Don't be a twat! Listen to your instincts. She was horrified to see you here. However you got here, she had nothing to do with it. So if you want to make someone's life hell, make Gabe's life hell. Or your grandfather’s. Or whoever it was that didn’t love you enough. Don't take that out on her. In a perfect world, she would have told you. But the world isn't perfect, so what was she supposed to do?"