by Katie Reus
Still, this afforded them the smartest way to get eyes on Seamus.
Evie kept her gaze on the tablet even as she moved it for Dylan. “There’s some light flickering in one of the top bedrooms.”
“Jackpot.” Dylan’s expression was completely focused and intense. She really tried not to think about how he usually looked like this during sex.
“This place doesn’t have any electricity, so he could be using a generator or candles.” Evie thought it was a pretty smart way to lie low if needed. Since the place was in foreclosure there weren’t any active electric or water services set up here. Which was great for a traitor who wanted to hide out. There would be no way to track any random bills to him here. “Damn, this was smart of him,” Evie said, even as she wanted to punch Seamus in the face.
“No kidding,” Samara agreed. “No easy way to track this bastard. Not really.”
The image on screen shifted as the drone dipped lower, flying closer to the window with the light. Closer, closer…
“You’re really good at this,” Evie said to Dylan. “You use this for work?”
“Kinda. We use them to take aerial views of properties. But I got my nephew a drone for Christmas and ended up getting one for myself because they were so much fun. Mine is a bit more high-tech though.”
She laughed at his response, surprised. “You really are just a big kid sometimes.”
He glanced at her, taking his eyes off the screen for a moment, and flashed her a real smile, revealing a tiny little dimple she’d missed until now.
Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of it. Keep it together, Bishop, she ordered herself. You will not notice Dylan as a sexual being during an operation. Except…this wasn’t an op. Not really. And she couldn’t not notice how sexy the man was, especially since he was all focused and intense as he maneuvered the drone even lower. He got that concentrated look during sex—usually when he was trying to get her to come. Oh hell, did it just get hotter in here?
“Here we go.” Dylan’s tone changed as well as his body language. “I see movement inside.”
They all watched as a man stepped out of a bathroom. He had a towel around his waist and she could see a small generator in the corner as the drone flew lower. There was an air mattress with a couple blankets tossed onto the bed. Thankfully the tech should be quiet enough that anyone inside the home wouldn’t be able to hear the low buzz.
“It’s definitely him,” she said as he ran his hand over his damp hair, flexing his arm and revealing a familiar tattoo.
“I’m going to do one more sweep of the house.” Dylan shifted the drone higher and out of view of the window.
“Good. Then we go in. I want to catch him off guard,” Evie said.
“I want to punch him in the dick if he’s the one who shot me,” Samara snapped.
“You’re staying in the SUV,” Evie said. “And don’t argue. We need someone to keep an eye out for us. You’ve got to be a lookout.”
Samara growled but acquiesced. “I’m only doing this because I’ve been shot.”
“I’m well aware,” Evie murmured. Normally her friend would have been the first one kicking in doors.
* * *
“I just want to go on record as saying I don’t like this,” Dylan said as he and Evie approached the house from the west, using the shadows of the falling darkness and the neighbor’s overgrown trees to infiltrate the property. She had a short, bobbed, auburn wig on under her ball cap, covering her ears and half her face.
“You guys have got this,” Samara said through their earpieces.
Despite having worked in the corporate world for a while, it only felt nominally strange to be using earpieces and infiltrating a place with weapons. Some habits were ingrained. It was weird, however, he thought for the tenth time, to see Evie holding a weapon as if it was part of her body. She was no longer the sophisticated socialite who knew precisely what wine to order at dinner to complement their meal. No, she was…sexy as hell right now.
Evie simply nodded at him, as if encouraging him.
He didn’t need any encouragement. He simply didn’t like the thought of her rushing into danger. And now that he’d realized he knew so little about her past, he also realized she must have rushed into danger who knew how many times before. That knowledge made his skin crawl. She had either been CIA or DIA, he guessed. And his money was on CIA, considering her background. She would have been a great asset to them. Well-educated, spoke multiple languages, attractive. And she knew her way around disguises. That was the clincher for him.
“What do you see on the drone?” he asked Samara, keeping his tone low.
“He’s on his phone, still shirtless and pacing around the room.”
“Come on, let’s move in now. I just want to talk to him,” Evie said, as if Dylan would believe that.
He simply shot her a dry look as they approached the outer perimeter of the two-story stucco house that was in desperate need of pressure washing. There were far too many properties in Miami that had gone into foreclosure because of bad banking practices. And this was one of them. At least the trees and shrubs were overgrown, giving them even more cover under the night.
“We go in together,” he said quietly as they approached the west side of the house. It was covered in huge bay windows.
She simply nodded as they tested one window, then the next. All the windows were locked so they moved around to the front of the house. Same deal.
On the other side, they found one window that was completely missing a lock on it. Someone had shoved a stick inside, trying to hold it closed, but they managed to wiggle it open.
“How are we looking?” Evie said so quietly he barely heard her.
“You guys are good. He’s doing push-ups now.” Dylan could practically see Samara rolling her eyes as she said it.
He wasn’t sure what he thought of her yet, but it was clear she and Evie cared for each other. His own friend Finn had asked about Samara in a very nonprofessional manner a couple times. Something Dylan was not getting involved in.
“Come on,” Evie said quietly.
Even though he knew it annoyed her, Dylan slipped through the window first into what would have once been a bedroom, with hardwood floors and painted gray walls with holes punched in them.
Weapon up, he moved toward the doorway with Evie right behind him.
They both swept out into the hallway. No surprise, empty.
Their shoes made faint sounds on the hardwood as they hurried down the hallway. Since there was no furniture in the place—none that he’d seen anyway—and the ceilings were high, their movements definitely echoed faintly.
Adrenaline pumping, he hurried to the stairs, he and Evie striding up quietly at the same time.
He heard a man talking in low tones.
“He’s on the phone again,” Samara said through the earpiece. “He looks agitated. He’s looking at the doorway. He’ll see you if you approach it now.”
Evie nodded at him. Making hand gestures as they reached the top of the stairs, she indicated they should enter fast and hard.
He nodded back. The door was open, faint light streaming out into the hallway. More holes had been punched into the walls.
“He’s turned away now, but he’s still on the phone. Still looks angry.” Samara’s words were clipped.
Evie held a finger to her lips. Delectable lips he’d kissed far too many times. And wanted to kiss again.
He nodded once.
Weapons up, they swept into the room, but Seamus must have sensed them. The man turned, already starting to draw a weapon from his waistband.
“Drop it or I drop you.” Evie’s tone was calm, but there was a sharp, deadly edge to it. Something he’d never heard from her before. Not like this. Because there was no doubt in his mind that she meant every word she said to this man.
Seamus looked at her, then Dylan, with a flicker of recognition, before he looked back at Evie. “Nice wig, Bishop.”
&n
bsp; “Toss your phone over here,” Evie commanded.
The man’s jaw clenched once but he dropped the phone onto the ground. Then he set the weapon down as well.
“Kick it over to me.” A soft, menacing order.
Dylan was silent, letting her run the show as he took a step away from her. He created distance between them in case the guy decided to rush them. Seamus couldn’t take them both on if they were spread far enough apart. Simple logistics.
Seamus seemed to realize this as he paused, then kicked the weapon and phone over to her, one at a time.
Evie smashed the phone underneath her foot before kicking the weapon toward one of the walls, far away from all of them.
“What the hell are you doing here, Bishop?” Seamus growled, a vein popping in his neck.
“I ask the questions. Why are you in town?” she demanded.
The man crossed over to the mattress and collapsed on it.
“No way. I know you’ve got more than one weapon. Stand up,” Evie snapped out.
Seamus’s jaw tightened as he looked at her then looked at Dylan. “You got anything to say, big guy?”
Dylan simply stared at him. Hard.
Seamus shoved to his feet. As he walked away from the mattress, Dylan approached it and lifted it up. Sure enough there were two pistols underneath it.
“Nice try.” Evie’s tone was filled with derision. “Why are you in Miami?”
“None of your business. I don’t work with you anymore. What I do on my own time is my business.”
“Not if your business involves shooting at me.”
The guy paused and Dylan thought he saw real surprise flicker in the man’s dark eyes. But he didn’t know the guy well enough to know.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Seamus said.
“People from a certain op we worked are dead.” She flicked a glance at Dylan once and he wasn’t sure what crossed her expression in that moment. He couldn’t get a read on her right now and he didn’t like it. “Xiao and Kalinec are dead. Then someone shot Samara and then shot at me. So either you’re gunning for us, or someone is gunning for all of us.”
Seamus straightened. “What job?”
Before Evie could answer, Samara said, “Shit! Feds coming in hot right now.”
“Repeat that,” Evie said.
“I said ‘what job’?” Seamus snapped.
Evie touched her ear once. “Not talking to you.”
“Team of four moving in hot. They’ve all got on those stupid blue windbreakers. No IDs but I recognize one of the agents. It’s the FBI for sure.”
“Get out of there,” Evie snapped to Samara.
Dylan looked at Evie, eyebrows raised in a silent question—What the hell should we do now?
“You working with the Feds?” she demanded of Seamus.
Seamus simply ran a hand over his face. “Bishop, I seriously want to kick your ass right now,” he muttered, but there was no heat in his words, just annoyance.
“They see me!” Samara shouted through the earpiece. “Yep, they’re coming for me. Hell.” A car door opened. “Hey, watch my ass,” she shouted before the line went dead.
“Stay or go?” Dylan asked even as he heard footsteps stomping through the house. It would be tight, but they could try to escape.
Evie motioned for Dylan to go into the attached bathroom. “In there.”
“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m leaving you alone.”
“Just trust me,” she snapped. Then she strode toward Seamus and yanked the man in front of her, using him as a shield. “I need to make sure it’s really the Feds.”
Dylan didn’t like what she was doing, but he slipped into the shadows, holding on to his weapon as he moved.
Two seconds later, four people stormed inside through the bedroom door—two men and two women. Dylan was still out of their line of sight. Though if they’d been monitoring the house—and clearly they were—they would have seen him too.
“Don’t shoot her,” Seamus snapped.
“Evie Bishop,” the female voice shouted. “Put that weapon down now. And where’s your partner?”
“Ah, hell.” Evie shoved Seamus out of the way even as she tossed her weapon onto the bed. Then she looked over at Dylan and nodded. He put his weapon on the floor and kicked it out, coming out of the bathroom with his hands up, mirroring Evie’s movements.
From a legal standpoint, he wasn’t too concerned about what they’d done. They’d broken into a foreclosed home and he couldn’t imagine the bank that owned it would want to prosecute him. Not when he had a huge account there.
A brown-skinned woman with pale gray eyes stepped farther into the room, looking between the two of them. Her jaw clenched tight when it landed on Evie again. “You both have a lot to answer for right now. Hands behind your back!”
“Is this how you saw tonight going?” Dylan asked Evie, doing as the agent ordered.
Evie let out a startled snort-laugh at his question. “Not exactly.”
Chapter 14
“You’re going to answer my questions right now,” Special Agent Leah Decker said, glaring at Evie from across the table.
They’d been going at this for the last thirty minutes—well, Decker had been, threatening her with all sorts of action. Evie was done listening at this point. She wanted to see Dylan and make sure he was okay. “No, you’re going to give me my attorney—the one I requested an hour ago.” Evie kept her tone and expression calm as she stared at a woman she’d worked with on more than one occasion. They didn’t have much on her and Dylan. Or Samara for that matter.
Yeah, they’d broken into a foreclosed home but…so what? Had they held pistols on Seamus? Yes. But he’d had three weapons as well. It didn’t look good, but at this point Evie was almost certain Seamus was working with the Feds. They weren’t going to do anything to her or Dylan. If they did, they’d have to admit that Seamus was working for them in the first place. She’d been with the CIA long enough that she understood how things worked and it was pretty clear he was undercover. Or she assumed so. They wouldn’t want any of this to become public.
She shifted slightly against the table, the chain on her handcuffs rattling against the cold metal table. “And is this really necessary?” She glanced down at the cuffs.
Before Decker could respond the door opened, and to Evie’s surprise Agent Georgina Lewis stepped inside. She looked at Decker, who was also her younger cousin. How she managed to work with Decker all the time, Evie would never know. Even if they were related, Decker was so damn prickly. “Bishop, you’re coming with me.”
“Are you kidding me?” Decker shoved up from the table. “She almost ruined the cover we’ve been setting up for months.”
And there it was. Evie had been wondering what was going on. So Seamus was building up a cover and apparently working with the Feds. If she’d blown his cover, she’d feel remorse—unless he was the person who’d shot at Samara. Then she’d just kick his ass.
Georgina strode to the table and unhooked Evie’s cuffs. “Yeah, well, she didn’t ruin shit. And you’re not going to give her any grief right now. I need to talk to her.”
“I swear to God, Georgina—”
“You’re not going to do anything, so shut it. She’s mine now.”
Evie simply blew a kiss at Decker as she walked past the other woman. Yeah, it was super obnoxious but she was in a freaking mood right now. They’d taken both Dylan and Samara, and while she was ninety-five percent sure they were fine, she didn’t like being separated from Dylan. If either of them had been hurt, she’d rain down fire on everyone in here. Considering Samara was still healing from a gunshot wound, they’d better have treated her more than just okay.
“Was that really necessary?” Georgina asked as she led her down the hallway of the local FBI office and away from the interrogation rooms.
“No. But I like getting under her skin.” Leah had always been such a cranky Girl Scout type, the opposite of
Evie.
“Mission accomplished.” Georgina sighed as they reached an office door, opened it up. “You’re lucky I was here when you guys got brought in.”
“So I take it Seamus is not a dirty CIA agent?” she asked as they stepped inside Georgina’s office.
“Bingo. He’s still an agent, but he’s working with us. And you almost blew his cover.” Her friend’s expression turned hard.
Hell. “Did I blow his cover?” Because if he really was working for them, and had nothing to do with the attack on Samara and her, she would find a way to make amends. Even if Seamus was kind of an asshole in general, he was still good at his job. And the Seamus she’d known had been a good agent and cared about bringing down terrorists.
“No. And Leah didn’t know it was you at first. The only reason you didn’t get shot is because they realized it was Samara out in the SUV.”
Evie made a little hmm sound and sat in front of Georgina’s desk.
“So what the hell are you doing?” Georgina continued. “Why did you come after Seamus?”
Evie was silent for a moment before she ran over the details of what had happened to her and Samara over the past few days. Georgina was a good agent and she trusted her. She’d known the other woman for nearly a decade, and while they didn’t often work together, Georgina had put her neck out on the line for victims more than once. For no other reason than it was the right thing to do. And Evie respected her for how willing she was to do what was necessary for the voiceless and powerless.
When she was done, Georgina sat back in her own chair. Gray eyes similar to Leah’s were filled with speculation. “That lines up with what Samara told me. And considering she’s been shot, I’m going to go out on a limb and say I believe you. But what the hell were you thinking going in there with Samara and a civilian?”
“I was thinking I wanted to get some answers.” And Dylan had military experience. “Where was Seamus two nights ago?”
“He’s been under surveillance for the last three months. He can’t take a shit without Leah’s team knowing. He’s working a sting operation right now, trying to infiltrate a group, and I can’t tell you more than that. What I can tell you is that there is no way he snuck off to shoot the two of you on two separate occasions without being missed. That man has been busy with other things.”