"Should probably what?" she asked, straightening her skirt with hands that still trembled slightly.
"Should probably get back to monitoring their operations," he said, but his eyes were already darkening with renewed hunger as he watched her adjust her clothing.
"We should," she agreed, then rose up on her toes to press a soft kiss to his mouth. "But first, I need to find new underwear."
His answering grin was purely male satisfaction. "I'll buy you a dozen pairs when this is over."
"I'm going to hold you to that."
As they gathered their scattered clothing and tried to make themselves presentable, the air between them still crackled with tension. The frantic coupling against the wall had been exactly what they'd both needed—a physical affirmation that they were alive, that they were together, that they were stronger as a team than either could be alone.
Just as she was about to respond, her monitoring systems chimed with an alert. Agent Bates's voice crackled through the radio.
"We have movement," Bates reported. "Executive One's vehicle is on the move, heading in our direction."
Chapter Six
Yvette quickly pulledon her shirt and moved to her monitors, Vincent close behind her as they both tried to look professional despite their disheveled state. The post-intimacy glow vanished instantly, replaced by sharp focus as data filled her screens.
"Confirmed," she announced, her fingers flying over the keyboard. "Larry Curtis is moving personally, with what looks like his full security detail."
"How many?" Vincent asked, checking his weapon while Bates coordinated with her team upstairs.
"About a dozen, maybe more." Yvette pulled up surveillance feeds. "And they're not taking the careful approach this time. This is a direct assault."
Bates appeared at the top of the basement stairs, phone pressed to her ear, her voice sharp with frustration. "I don't care about jurisdictional protocols, we need SWAT here now! What do you mean forty-five minutes? We have armed PMCs heading straight for us!"
She ended the call with obvious anger. "SWAT is tied up with a hostage situation downtown. FBI tactical team is en route from Baltimore but they're thirty minutes out minimum."
"Bureaucratic nightmare?" Vincent asked.
"The worst kind. RareCore's lawyers have been fighting every warrant, every authorization. We're operating in a legal gray area while they're throwing everything they have at us." Her radio crackled with reports from field teams. "And it gets worse. Six two-man teams just went active simultaneously across the city. They're hitting federal safe houses, targeting investigators' families."
"Coordinated assault on the entire investigation," Yvette realized, studying the intelligence feeds. "They're not giving anyone time to respond."
"Exactly. Blitzkrieg tactics - overwhelm every target before we can organize proper defenses." Bates was already issuing orders through her radio. "Local police are responding but they're not equipped for this level of threat."
