ALEC CURSED UNDER HIS breath. He'd hoped for a phone call, an easy explanation for the assassination attempt. If Zain was showing up in person, this wasn't good news."Have a seat?" Alec toed a chair away from the table."Thanks." Zain said and laid his tablet on the table.Paxton followed, but remained standing. Ryan stood at the end of the table, hands braced on the corners."Our dead guy from the plane is Russian. No surprise there." Zain brought up a New York driver's license, naming Vara's attacker as Igor Somethingshecouldntpronounce. "He was a chemist. Got bounced from several jobs due to a number of violations. He was on a couple watch lists and a suspected supplier. He wasn't an assassin. This was a lab rat.""But we know who he is and that he's connected to the Russian mob?" Alec reached over and placed his hand on Vara's knee. He wanted to hold her hands, but the chemical burns were still fresh."We do." Zain's frown deepened."What?" Alec didn't like that frown."Th

ALEC PULLED OUT A chair for Vara and held it while she sat with her coffee and bagel.The instructions for this morning had them meeting in the central command room. The space was the second secure room in the building, the other being Zain's personal office. From this room they could handle any number of sensitive tasks, like facial recognition and real-time digital tracking. But most of all, for this morning's purposes, their communication feed was encrypted. Someone was joining them remotely and Alec was curious who that person might be.Today was going to be a long day of figuring out how the hell they were going to handle this threat. Someone was after his girl and he wasn't going to let that happen on his watch.What was worse, there would be people out there who would think she was Djinn even once this blew over. That came with its own set of dangers they'd have to sort out.For now, the Russian mob boss and whatever the hell the Russian intelligence community was up to was

ALEC CROSSED HIS ARMS over his chest and watched Paxton lace up his shoes."I'm leaving, dad. No need to make sure I get out in time." He pushed to his feet and flipped the hood of his sweatshirt up over his ball cap."And you're going to-""Dude, we all agreed to give you the run of the house today, get off my case, okay?" He grabbed the bag of workout gear and ambled toward the front door. "Have fun with your girlfriend."Alec remained standing in the arch until Paxton had locked the door from outside.Finally.Alec turned and strained to hear any movement from the bedroom. Carson had kept Vara up later than he'd realized chitchatting otherwise there was no way he'd have pulled this off. The guys were going to bust his nuts, but he didn't care.They had time to kill while waiting for the bad guys to take the bait and nowhere to go.He grabbed the plates from the oven, inhaling the aroma of the hot breakfast he'd made. It was a wonder Paxton or Silas hadn't stolen some.Alec

WYATT STARED OUT THE window at the city skyline. The weather had finally cleared. Water droplets traveled down the glass directed by gravity.Something was happening, and he didn't know what. He didn't like not knowing.Voices grew louder in the hall then faded. A door opened and shut. Someone turned on a TV and he could almost make out the lines.He lifted his phone and looked down at the texts from his mother and sisters.Damn the rest of his team.Why had they reached out to Wyatt's family? He didn't need his mother asking him where he was or worrying about him. This business would be over soon enough.More footsteps.Wyatt sat in the armchair, the lights off and listened.Find Vara. Kill Vara. Don't kill Vara.He was getting whiplash from the orders.Two shadows interrupted the line of light under his door. The lock beeped, and the door opened.Ivan's gaze found him immediately."Come on," he said.Wyatt didn't bother asking questions. It wasn't like they were going to

FOUR HOURS AND TWENTY minutes.That was how long since Alec had lost sight of Vara. He couldn't help the clock counting it all down, knowing she could be dead already.Brett used his flashlight to signal Alec and Paxton from the side gate.Alec didn't want to trust Brett, but he'd proven adept at not only getting them a last minute flight to Portland, but at locating Vara's handler and ferreting out why the man was on this side of the country. The whole thing had Alec thinking there'd been eyes on Vara this whole time.Had they been bait all along?"Move." Paxton planted his hand on Alec's back and shoved him forward.Alec ignored the helping hand and picked up the pace.Brett was through the side gate of what he'd told them was a CIA safe house. They would have minimal time to access the house, grab Chad and get out before CIA muscle arrived. Normally Alec was the one doing the rescuing. Kidnapping wasn't a typical on the job activity, but they'd had a lot of weird shit going o