Prologue

"I hear you, Maddon, and you know him better than I do, but I don't see this playing out in your favor."

Understatement.

After I finished my warning, I went back to doodling on the legal pad I'd found on my father's black leather desk blotter. Any time I was on the phone, I jotted down notes, parts of the conversation I didn't want to forget, names I needed to research. But when I was scheming I doodled. It helped me think, helped me strategize my next move, helped me plot my next maneuver.

In my world, it paid to be three steps ahead.

So I made sure I always had the next five moves planned.

"It's the only way you're getting a sit down with Viper," Maddon mostly repeated.

Yes, Viper.

The one and only man I knew better than to go up against. The one man I'd done everything I could to steer clear of. Zane Lewis was not a man anyone outmaneuvered.

But the time was ripe.

Maddon was desperate. He needed me to meet with Zane.

I scratched a line across the pad connecting a heart and a star and waited. As good as an operative as Maddon was, he was impatient.

Desperate and impatient—a deadly combination.

I heard Maddon let out an irritated sigh and I smiled.

Come on, jackhole, push harder.

"Nebraska, we have no choice. Charlie has an in. Use it to your advantage; it's the only way to get Viper to play—"

"Zane isn't a man you play," I told him something he very well knew. "You play him, he fucks you. And no offense to you or him or your mission but the last person I want to get fucked by is Zane Lewis. I'll find another way, I always do. Charlie can take the meet, tell Zane's men he's no threat to Bridget Keller, and send them on their way. This is a suicide mission, you know it and I know it."

"Nebraska—"

"If it's not, you go in and tell Zane the truth. Tell him Charlie was never a threat, the whole Raven project was a carefully crafted setup that was working brilliantly until some overzealous woman killed an employee over an OSHA violation that would've cost the company a couple hundred thousand dollars in fines. Instead, she fucked your mission. Tell him that everything was in place until that idiot Mark Shillings thought it was a good idea to blackmail Kathy Cobb and from there the web you cast disintegrated. If this is such a great plan, you take the meet. You tell him you need his help. You explain the situation. If after the sit-down you're still breathing, I'll go in and negotiate the deal."

"You're a far sight prettier than me, Nebraska. You've got a better chance coming out of that meeting breathing."

Dick.

"This isn't a honeytrap."

"You know your father would never send you in if he thought you were in danger," Maddon carefully said in an attempt to win me over.

His point was debatable. Charlie Michaels's first love was CIA. Not that I actually thought my father would put me in harm's way on purpose but he wouldn't blink an eye sending me into the Viper's den if he thought I could charm the snake into helping him. Which was exactly what Maddon was banking on.

"You do remember I don't actually work for you, right? I only agreed to listen to the plan, which I did. I'm telling you it's shit. I'll find another way to get what I need."

"And in the meantime what do I tell my team?"

"To stand down," I suggested.

"You know I can't do that."

Yes, I knew he couldn't tell his team their mission was off. That would ruin Maddon's plan.

Again, desperate.

"Well, Maddon, then you and Charlie need a new plan. There's no way I'm going to sit in front of Zane and pull wool. His hate for the CIA is legendary. There's no way I can spin this, no lie I can tell that will get him to agree to help you."

"You underestimate your skills."

No, I didn't underestimate my skills, but Maddon did.

I took the backhanded compliment for what it was. Praise for my ability to lie and scheme. Not something I was particularly proud of but true, nonetheless.

It was time to throw him a bone and remind him of our connection.

"You're only saying that so you can take credit for teaching me those skills."

"They've made you a very rich woman, Dove."

Leave it to a morally bankrupt man with no wife, no children, no family, no true loyalty to anyone but himself to think I did what I did for the money. I learned a long time ago, men like Maddon who'd pledged their allegiance to their country then spouted off crap like "I do what I do so no one else has to do it" are the biggest liars of all. They do it for the power, for the control, because they like playing God. Old Agency men who couldn't or wouldn't leave the job because they get off knowing they pulled all the strings.

Men who thought they were invincible.

Men who underestimated women.

Men who were so blinded by their perceived power they missed the real threat.

Today I was that threat.

"They have," I sweetly agreed. "I'll take the meeting with Zane. But I want it on record—he's going to kick me out of his office within the first ten minutes. I can lie through my teeth and he'll still sniff Agency on me. And that's if I'm lucky. I've heard he has moods, if he's in a bad one, I expect white lilies and pink stargazers on my casket."

"Your request is noted."

Maddon disconnected before I could say more.

"You did well," Charlie said from the doorway of his study.

I slipped my phone into my RF blocking Faraday bag, rendering my cell useless before I voiced my biggest fear, "You're positive he doesn't suspect anything?"

"All he's focused on is his payday. Blinded by it. Too damn stupid to see you coming."

God, that made me sick to my stomach for a variety of reasons. One being Maddon was selling out his country for a payday. Two—Maddon was one of Charlie's oldest buddies. Three—I knew it was killing Charlie to do what needed to be done.

Maddon's treason couldn't stand.

He had to be dealt with.

"I'm sorry, Father," I murmured.

I'd long ago been taught never to react to other people's emotions, but seeing my father's flinch cut me to the bone.

"All I ask is when the time comes you make it quick."

I nodded my understanding.

"And Zane? How do I handle him?"

"You were correct in your assessment. You don't handle Viper. He'll either help or he won't."

I had a bad feeling Zane wouldn't be helping. He hated spy games. The moment I laid out the web of lies I'd be out on my ass.

I had a backup plan. I always did.

The problem was, Plan B was messy. It meant I got my hands dirty and I really hated blood stains—they were a bitch to wash clean.

"When will his men be here?"

"Less than an hour."

I glanced at my old worn messenger bag already packed and situated by the door.

"Then we have time for lunch before I leave."

I pushed my father's well-worn big leather chair away from his desk and stood when a memory assaulted me. I'd been with my father a week when he caught me at his desk drawing. He was standing in the doorway watching me just as he was right that moment. He'd looked reflective then, too. The difference was twenty years ago I was an orphaned twelve-year-old little girl scared out of her mind, not knowing if I was going to be in trouble. Now I understood Charlie. But that memory of him watching me draw had never left me.

Then and now he looked like he wanted to tell me something.

Then and now he simply smiled at me before he turned and left me at his desk.

I knew one day he'd tell me his secret. But like with everything else with Charlie, it would be on his time.