Ryan stood at ease among the operators chosen by Silas for a mission he still knew nothing about. Even though he wore a suit rather than his uniform, he didn’t feel out of place. Most of the people in the room wore civvies. It seemed an eclectic group of people. Some with the physicality that denoted a career in the military and some who looked as if they’d never been out from behind their computer. Silas had given him a tablet that allowed access to a secure network and all of their files for him to read later.
Silas stood at the front of the room, just to the side of a group of large monitors. Most of the rest of the people sat at a table in front of him. All of them also had a tablet in front of them. Ryan leaned against a wall. Damn, he’d missed this.
“First of all, I want to introduce you all to your team leader, Commander Ryan Marchetti, former Navy SEAL.”
Ryan nodded as he felt all eyes on him.
Then Silas went around the room, pointing to various people.
“Agent Frank Edworthy. Supervisor of a SOG team.” This was an older gentleman with ruddy cheeks and a pronounced bald spot. He nodded at Ryan.
“Agent Anthony Wallis, also of the CIA.”
This man was in his mid-thirties. He gave a little wave to Ryan. “Call me Tony.”
Silas pointed to a woman. “Agent Alexa Williams. FBI tech specialist.” The woman looked younger than the rest by a number of years. Her curly black hair made an appealing halo around her face, highlighting her brown skin. Her eyes held intelligence and experience that belied her appearance. He approved.
“Agent Mackenzie Taylor. FBI profiler and interrogator.” She had long brown hair braided back and large blue eyes. She looked like a sweeter-than-average-girl-next-door type. He wondered whether she’d be useful on the team and then reminded himself not to judge people by their looks.
The two women sat close enough together that Ryan assumed they were friends and had worked together before. That could be useful.
The last two men were from the DHS. Phil and Stan something or other. Both wore suits, buzz cuts, and barely concealed impatience. He assumed they would be his muscle on the team and he wasn’t a fan. His instincts did not trust them.
“As for the mission,” Silas continued. “It’s high priority and time sensitive.
“For some time, we’ve been aware of a leak in the CIA. Top-secret information has been relayed to our enemies on at least five different occasions. We have the Cyber Intelligence Unit from the CIA tracking down what they can. They discovered a list of CIA operatives and assets working in Russia had been copied without authorization from the main database yesterday morning.”
Ryan stiffened. If the list was given to the Russians, the operatives would be as good as dead. “Has anyone informed the agents?”
Silas nodded. “But they’re all staying in place for now. Some of them have been undercover for years. That’s why this team was formed. We need that list back now.”
He clicked a button and brought up an image of a man in his late thirties. Balding. Thick mustache. “This is CIA agent John Costa. He was murdered yesterday afternoon, execution style, in his car at a local cemetery. He worked for the Cyber Intelligence Unit and we believe he was the one who copied the list.”
“So whoever has the list killed Costa,” Alexa, the tech specialist, said. “Are the local police involved?”
“Yes, but we’re taking over their investigation, Lexi, because there’s more,” Silas said.
“How much more?” Phil asked.
Silas pressed another button. Another image came up on the screen. This time of a man in his late thirties, with a strong jaw and a hooked nose. “This is Agent Mark Rollins. He was found murdered in his apartment this morning. We’re still getting details from the scene.”
“Did he help steal the list?” Stan said.
“We don’t have that information yet,” Silas answered.
“What do we know?” Stan asked. The impatience he wore now tinged his tone.
Silas’s eyes narrowed just slightly and Ryan knew his face mirrored the other man’s.
“What’s their connection besides the CIA?” Mackenzie, the profiler, asked.
“Good question, Mack.” Silas waved a hand at Edworthy, who scraped his chair back and stood.
“As far as I know,” the man said in a gruff voice, “these two didn’t know each other outside of work.”
Mackenzie leaned forward in her seat to study Edworthy. “And at work?”
He shook his head. “They didn’t interact.”
“You’re not telling us everything.” She spun to Silas and Ryan. “He’s not telling us everything.”
Everyone frowned at her and her friend Alexa gently touched her arm. Mackenzie slumped and settled back into her chair. “Just thought you should know.”
Ryan frowned. Was the woman unbalanced? Why had Silas asked her to be on the team? But...was she correct? Was Edworthy not telling them everything?
“We have one last piece of information. Something that connects the two men.” Silas stared hard at Ryan, and Ryan’s muscles tightened with dread in anticipation of whatever Silas was going to show them next.
Another photo appeared on the monitor beside both dead men. A photo of a blonde woman in a business jacket. Her light gray-green eyes and unsmiling face telling them that she hated posing for the camera.
Ryan straightened as shock ripped through him.
Sutton.
Fuck, she was still beautiful. Her eyes radiated calm intelligence, but Ryan had seen them darken to pure green with desire and it had made her irresistible.
Then it struck him. Her photo was beside two dead men. The thought made him go numb. “Is she...” He couldn’t say the word. Ryan barely remembered how to breathe, but he kept it together.
Please tell me she’s not dead.
Silas studied him a moment before continuing. “Sutton McRaven was last seen with both of these men. She was identified as a woman fleeing Rollins’s apartment after he was killed. And Agent Costa had reported seeing her at the cemetery just before he was killed. You need to find her and bring her in, preferably alive. She’s our number-one suspect at this point.”
The relief that ran through him knowing she was still alive shuddered to a stop in shock. Sutton was a suspect? What the actual fuck?
“She’s not the killer,” Tony said. “She’s a good person. She’s—”
“Your friend,” Mack interjected, studying him intently. “Can you be impartial about this?”
Tony didn’t answer, but he looked to Silas and Ryan. “Sutton didn’t do this.”
Ryan tended to agree with the man, but he hadn’t seen his ex in ten years. People did change. But treason? Murder?
“This needs a special team?” Stan muttered.
Ryan resolved to get rid of him ASAP.
“Yes,” Silas answered. “McRaven is a trained CIA field agent and has spent time attached to special operations units, including a SEAL team.” Silas looked at him. “Your SEAL team, correct, Commander?”
“Correct,” he answered through gritted teeth. Irritation ignited in him. Had Silas known about his connection to Sutton, when he’d asked him to lead this team? Of course he had. This was Silas Branson. The man didn’t leave anything to chance.
“Hopefully your knowledge will lead to a quick capture,” Silas said, confirming what Ryan thought.
Everyone in the room looked at him speculatively. He ignored them.
Sutton had been in contact with both dead men. She’d fled the scene of one murder. Damning evidence, but it didn’t prove she’d killed anyone.
“First priority is the list?” Ryan asked.
“Yes,” Silas said. “I don’t have to tell you how many lives hang in the balance if that information gets leaked to the Russians.”
Edworthy cleared his throat. “I think it would be best if I was in charge,” he said. “She’s my agent and she’s killed two of my men so far. If anyone has a vested interest in bringing her in, it’s me.”
Silas just looked at Ryan. Ryan gave a slight nod of acknowledgment that he was now in control. “I don’t believe we ever said Sutton was the traitor, or a murderer.”
Edworthy just shook his head. “You used to know her. Things have happened to her. Those things change a person.” He paused. “I don’t like admitting it, but she’s fully capable of doing this. She’s dangerous. Always has been. We need to act like it.”
Ryan shifted from his spot and walked to the front of the room, to stand beside Silas. This wasn’t any different than taking control of any other group of operatives, even if the mission was about his ex. “While McRaven and I used to be friends, it won’t interfere with my ability to make decisions with a clear head.”
Edworthy’s ruddy face became ruddier. “Are you saying I won’t be able to do the same?”
“I’m saying I bring a perspective to it that you don’t,” he said calmly. “And I also have years of experience of tracking people.”
Edworthy swung toward Silas, but Si just held up a hand. “I’ll leave you all in the commander’s capable hands.” He looked at Ryan. “You’ve got this room and the one adjacent for use as your HQ. Let me know if you need anything else. All the information we have at the moment is on the tablets.”
Silas left the room and everyone turned to him. “Go through the files. I need to speak with Lieutenant Commander Branson for a moment.”
He followed Silas out of the room and closed the door.
“What the fuck, Si? You couldn’t have warned me?”
Silas studied him. “I needed to see your reaction, to know that you hadn’t seen or contacted her recently.”
“I haven’t.” He shook his head. “But you should have told me.”
“Maybe.”
The anger still simmered in Ryan, but maybe he could use this to his advantage. “I want to replace Stan.”
“With who?”
“Dante Marchetti. He works for EDGE Security.”
“I’ve heard of EDGE.”
Ryan’s eyebrows lifted. Not many people had and even fewer knew that it was a cover company for an international military unit that handled covert operations. “Then I can have him?”
“He’s a relative?”
“Younger cousin. But he’s one of the best and I trust him at my back.”
Silas nodded. “Make the call. Bring him in if he’s available. But we need McRaven and that list found ASAP.”
“Copy that.”
“And Ryan?”
He just lifted his eyebrows.
“Don’t let this mission get personal.”
“Of course not.” He kept his face calm while he watched Silas walk away, even though the whole time his mind kept shouting a question.
What the fuck had his ex gotten herself into now?
He took a deep breath to clear his mind of emotions. They wouldn’t help him now. He pulled out his cell and dialed his cousin’s personal number. Thankfully, he answered. Once Ryan explained what he needed, Dante said he was in between missions and good to go. He’d be on the next flight to DC.
That done, Ryan put his phone away and went back into his HQ. He let Stan go and then sent Mack and Tony to the crime scenes. They could pull rank and scour the apartment and car for any evidence.
He told Lexi, the tech specialist, to track down Sutton’s credit and bank cards, and to trace her cell. He had Edworthy and Phil tracking down Costa’s movements for the last forty-eight hours.
He took out his cell again and debated. It had been years since he’d spoken to Sutton. He’d never thought he’d see her again, and if he did fantasize about seeing her, it was an image of her walking toward him on his beach, a smile on her face and the wind in her hair. She’d tell him she’d retired and she wanted to share his beach with him.
He snorted.
Sutton would never want to share anything with him. She’d want full control of it. He’d have to fight her every day to make sure she didn’t take over.
Was that why they hadn’t worked out? Both of them were too controlling?
Or maybe she was never the person he’d thought she was. She had been a top CIA agent. Someone who could slip into and out of personalities as if she were trying on clothes. Maybe he’d never really known Sutton.
He gripped the phone tighter. No. He had to believe that when they’d been together, it had been real.
Then why was he hunting her for murder and treason?
He punched in the number he’d gotten from the file and tried not to think about how his heart thudded like it had when he’d asked out a girl for the first time.
Sutton paced her apartment. The small space felt like a cage. Costa had been killed. Mark had been killed. She looked like a suspect. What the fuck was going on?
A digital ringtone startled her from her thoughts. She glanced at her watch. An hour had passed. Did Tony have something already? The name of the caller was blocked. She frowned and swiped her cell on.
“McRaven.”
“Sutton?”
Everything stopped. Her world, her thoughts, her breath.
It was him.
Had thinking of him earlier conjured him? Was she still dreaming?
“Sutton?” Ryan’s voice reflected concern.
“I’m here,” she said softly. And now it was her turn to listen to almost silent breathing. “Ryan? It’s...” It’s been too long. It’s been forever. She swallowed those words. “It’s nice to hear from you.”
“I’ve been thinking about you.” His voice held so many hints of what he was feeling, but too many. She couldn’t dissect it without seeing his face.
“Really? Why?”
“Can’t I think about a beautiful woman?”
She laughed, but something inside her stepped back and analyzed. He hadn’t seen her in years. Something wasn’t right. “Okay then,” she said. “Why now? It’s been years, Ryan.”
“I’m in DC,” he said. “I’m...a consultant. I teach leadership to suits.”
“Really? Don’t tell me you’re bored of your beach.”
He sighed. “I needed something more.” A pause. “I’ve missed you.”
He missed her? And he blurted it out, just like that? Something was definitely not right. She went to the window and edged the curtain aside, peered out, uncertain what she was looking for, but obeying the instinct. “You have a funny way of showing it,” she said quietly. “The last thing you said to me was that you couldn’t be with a woman who chose her career over family.” Even though that’s what you did.
The street held a few parked cars, but nothing unusual.
“I didn’t mean it like that.” The defensive tone in his voice sounded real. The first real thing in the conversation.
“Then how did you mean it? Because it seemed to me like you wanted me to quit but you wouldn’t even consider doing what you asked of me.” She sighed. “Let’s not fight about it again.”
There was a long enough pause that she wondered whether he’d hung up.
“You’re right,” he said quietly. “I did ask unfair things of you. I just saw all my friends settling down with wives who held down the home front and I wanted...”
She looked at the ceiling, blinking away the moisture that had suddenly gathered. She would not regret her decisions. “I understand, but that was never who I was.”
“I know that now,” he said. “And...I knew it then too.”
“You were just too stubborn to admit it.”
He laughed and it lightened something in her. Could they heal their breach? She almost rolled her eyes. She had no time to be thinking of this. She couldn’t start anything with Ryan or even follow up on this conversation until Mark’s killer was found.
She frowned. Ryan distracted her so very easily. Too easily. And the timing of the call was too coincidental.
“So how do you like consulting?” she asked, keeping her tone light. “Do you still spend a lot of time at your beach?”
“I enjoy the teaching. And my beach...no demands, no cares, no worries. Life is great.”
Liar, she thought. Something wasn’t right. “So, you’re a part-time teacher and part-time beach bum?”
He laughed and she heard so much more than she was sure he wanted her to.
She froze for just a moment as she remembered something Tony had said. Her heart did a nose dive. They’d brought in a Navy SEAL commander to lead the team. A team that was tracking down a traitor. She didn’t know why, but she’d bet all of her savings that Ryan was that SEAL and that he was tracking her.
Shit, they thought she did it. They thought that she’d killed Mark and Costa. Panic speared her. Would they even listen to her if she went in to tell her side of the story?
Someone knocked on her door.
Her heart stopped. Fuck. He was already here.
“Why are you tracking me, Ryan?” she whispered. She went to her hall closet and grabbed her leather jacket and her go-bag—a backpack filled with essentials to survive a quick evac. Next, she snagged her personal laptop from the table and shoved it into the protective sheath inside the backpack. “Do you really think I could kill my friend?”
“Why don’t you let me bring you in? I’ll make sure you get the best lawyer.”
She sucked in a breath, staring at the door. She cursed silently and then pulled a rope ladder from beneath her couch. “You think I’m guilty.”
“I don’t know what to think, Sutts. But you ran from a crime scene. You’ve got to explain that.”
The knock sounded again. She went to the window behind her small dining table, opened it and attached the ladder to the sill.
“Screw you,” she said, her voice a quiet hiss. “If you want in here, you’re going to have to break the door down.”
“What are you talking about?”
Her temper flared and she let the ladder roll out. “Don’t play coy. I know you’re standing outside my door.”
“Sutton,” Ryan said, his voice calm and serious, his SEAL commander voice. “I promise you. That’s not me at your door.”
Shit.
Sutton snapped her gaze to the door. It slammed open. She had a split second to see a figure in black throw something into the room. It landed with a thud and rolled a couple of feet toward her. She moved before her mind even fully registered the object.
Grenade.
She heaved her dining table over and dove behind it, covering her head and neck. The concussive boom lifted her and the table, flinging them both back. She hit the wall and cracked her head. She blinked. What the hell had just happened?
Move.
Someone had just tried to kill her. She didn’t know who, but someone had just thrown a fucking grenade into her apartment.
Move. She had to move now.
Training brought her into a crouch. She couldn’t hear a damn thing except for a tinny rushing noise in her ears. Smoke filled the room. She blinked and coughed.
A red laser light swept against the far wall.
A targeting scope. The killer was inside and looking to finish his job.
Move!
Smoke billowed her way. Something was on fire. She coughed again and looked up behind her. The window now had jagged pieces of glass framing it like shark teeth.
She shouldered the backpack then heaved herself up and out the window, praying she wouldn’t cut herself too badly on any shards of glass left lodged in the window well. She didn’t have time to clear it out.
She went down the rope ladder as fast as possible, knowing the killer would find it in moments. She dropped the last five feet and rolled, diminishing the impact of the fall, but she knew she’d feel it later.
“I am too old for this shit,” she muttered and ran. She didn’t go for her car, thinking that whoever was after her would either expect that or have booby-trapped her vehicle. She needed to regroup and reassess the situation before she made any decisions.
So she ran a couple of blocks and caught a bus that happened by. She sat in a window seat at the back and caught her breath.
What the hell was happening? Had that been one of Ryan’s team, or the same person who’d killed Mark? And who had killed Costa?
She almost considered going to her sister, but if she went to see her sister at the police station, the police would keep her locked up for hours while they tried to sort through her story. And there was no way she was going to her sister’s house. Sophie was probably already home from school. If Sutton had some kind of killer after her, she would never bring him close to her family.
Sutton rode the bus until the sun set while she calmed herself and made her plan.