“Stay.”
My eyes fly to the doorway. The commanding voice isn’t coming from Caleb. It’s Serena. Something’s shifted in her. Her hard edges have become razor blades. This woman is ready to fight, and I want her on my team.
I fall into my seat, eagerly looking at her.
She holds up the Spartan box and a cell phone so old it looks like it existed in the Dark Ages.
I clutch my chest. “Is that a flip phone?”
“It was all I could afford at the time. But this is the evidence we need. I’m assuming this is what they want?”
I clench my jaw. “They only asked for the box.” Technically. And her. But that part is non-negotiable for me. “That’s all I need.”
She shakes her head. “They want this, Liam. If you show up without it, you’re as good as dead.”
I know. I never planned on them letting me out that door. But I will never tell her what they really want. My life for hers. The way it should be.
“They’ll check the box,” Serena continues, “which is why we’ll make a copy.”
I pull a flash drive from my pocket. “I came prepared.”
She rolls her eyes. “Of course you did.”
“Terry,” I call and the little man emerges. “We need a computer.”
“When do you have to meet them?” Serena asks.
I glance at the clock and suck in a breath. “Thirty minutes.” I work quickly on the computer, getting into the old device and locating a video that’s so absurdly grainy it should be a crime. How did she live like this? Good thing I have software to fix that. But that takes time I don’t have. I upload it to my software anyway and set it up to download once it’s finished.
“Hadley and Ford will be at the safe house in London soon,” Caleb says to Serena while I work.
I don’t know the men, but I assume one of them is the man Serena is in love with judging by the blush on her cheeks. I’m not jealous.
Lies. I’m very jealous and nearly break the USB drive.
“They’ll have to wait,” Serena says, her voice a whisper, but I hear every word. “Sebastian wantsme. I have to go with him.”
My fingers freeze on the keys.
“Absolutely not,” Caleb grunts.
“I have to face my past.”
There’s no world in which I allow that to happen, but she doesn’t have to know that. I swallow and force a smile onto my face, channeling my inner jerk. “Serena makes a point, after all, this was her mess to begin with.” My words taste like acid, and both agents glower at me. I only look at one, though. To be clear, it’s the pretty one. “You better get a gun. Sorry we lost Hank, but Terry has a few weapons you might like just as much.”
Serena’s eyes narrow even further. Can she see right through me? I must be losing my touch.
Terry, who was in the garden moments ago, runs into the room. “Oh, I’ve got some lovely guns. Come pick your poison.”
Serena shoots me one last glare before following Terry upstairs.
I look at Caleb, hoping that after all the things I’ve done to him, he follows this one request for me.
“You’re leaving without her,” he says. It’s not a question.
“Don’t let her follow me.” I look to where she’s disappeared. “Wait at your FBI safe house, I’ll bring myself there afterward. If I don’t make it by eleven, it means they killed me. Take her home. Get her there safely.”
He clenches his jaw. “I’m her partner. I’ll protect her.”
