Chapter 12

DAMOCLES SAFE HOUSE, ABU DHABI, UAE

What a kiss.

Davis roughed a hand down his neck as he stalked to the command room. Couldn't believe he'd just done that. Couldn't believe all he really wanted was to go do it again.

Bennion tossed a stern look his way as they neared the command room. Davis worked to keep his expression neutral, but there was no denying he was in deep this time. Didn't mean he had to let the guy read him like a book, though.

Truth was, Hollyn had a way of getting under his skin like no one else. He'd have to put extra effort into keeping his mind mission-focused. It'd be more than a little difficult, but he wouldn't change what had happened for anything. Hollyn was worth the struggle.

Fury preceded them into the secondary living room the team used as command. A long table ran nearly the length of the room, and most of the team sat around it. Computers, whiteboards, and dozens of papers covered the surrounding walls. Blanchard wasn't around. Probably remaining offsite so they had less traffic coming and going.

"I want someone with Germaine round the clock," Chapel was saying when Davis dropped onto an open chair.

Fury sniffed the table near Hale's sandwich. The six-three operator was always eating. Without a word, he broke off a bite-sized piece of meat. Raised his eyebrows. Davis nodded his approval, and Hale tossed the morsel to a waiting Fury. The RMWD snatched it out of the air with lightning-fast reflexes, and Hale turned back to Chapel, taking a large bite out of his meal.

Licking his chops, the shepherd posted himself right next to Davis, eyes glued to the meal the oversized operator was inhaling, drool sliding from his jowls and plopping noisily onto Davis's boot.

He frowned.

Nice.

Davis noted the way Bennion kept assessing him. Shook his head and turned his attention to Chapel but couldn't shake the feeling that something was up.

Davis rolled his shoulder. It was still raging. He'd have to keep an eye on it. Wouldn't do him any good to push the limit and risk even more damage.

Chapel cleared his throat. "Get what we need about the arms-dealing pipeline and where they're holding that hostage."

"Assuming they haven't taken the kid out already," Bennion interjected.

"They'll keep him alive." Davis spoke up. "He's playing some kind of role in this."

A few unsure murmurs filtered through the room.

"Anything to back that up?" Bennion asked.

Davis gave a slight shake of his head. "Not yet, but I do know he can't be trusted."

"Any luck tracing the live feed?" Glace quietly tapped a pencil on a pad of paper.

"Negative." Chapel hooked his thumbs on his belt. "Blank couldn't track it."

Davis rubbed the stubble on his jaw as he listened.

"Did your girl have any new information?" The question directed at him came from Bennion. "Looked like the two of you had a lot to say back there."

Heat flared up Davis's neck when everyone looked his way. He was going to throttle the guy. Didn't care that the operator had a good twenty pounds of muscle on him. "What's your problem?" he gritted out.

Bennion's stony glower darkened. "No problem so long as your mind's on the mission and not . . . extracurriculars."

Davis clenched his fist. Next to him, Fury growled low, and he felt justified in wanting to pummel the oversized oaf. "Let me worry about what I'm thinking."

"Sure thing, lover boy."

He tried to ignore Bennion, but it brought up the glaring fact that Davis was slipping. Also, that he wasn't all that upset about it. Just didn't like the way it made him look to the team right now. He was all-in on this mission, despite what Bennion seemed to think.

"What do you want?"

Chapel's sharp question snagged Davis's attention. He followed the guy's line of sight to the hallway and saw Hollyn, frozen in place, eyes wide.

Fury whined in her direction but didn't break from heel to greet her. What was with the connection she had with his dog?

No. Not his dog. ABA's dog. He couldn't forget that.

Right. Just his partner for the next week or so. Then he was Crew's business.

Hollyn hugged herself. "I . . . think I know what that guy might be looking for. Though I don't know why he'd want it." Her gaze fanned the operators in the room.

"Which is?" Chapel prompted firmly.

Davis frowned. Wanted to tell the boss to back off, but he didn't want to get tanked twice in two weeks. So he bit down on the retort. Reminded himself he wasn't in charge here.

"A project I completed right before my parents—" Hollyn swallowed.

Davis's chest constricted.

Come on, Hol. You can do this.

Whatever she had to say—and he was very curious what it was—was important enough for her to step into the meeting. He didn't want her to back down now. Their eyes met and he nodded. Hoped it transferred some confidence to her. She was stronger than she knew.

Hollyn quickly licked her lips, then continued. "Before they were killed. I—um, need my laptop to get into the lab files so I can see if someone tried to access them during the break-in. Or I could go to the lab and use the computers there."

"Negative," Chapel replied. "You stay here. We'll retrieve your laptop. Tell Davis where it is and he can head over."

Davis nodded his agreement. Not that he had a choice. When Chapel gave an order, you better already be on your way.

"What's the project?" Chapel crossed his arms.

"An AI program designed to let salvaging equipment self-navigate a sunken wreck and learn as it goes."

"Salvage." Bennion mulled the word over. "You in the treasure-hunting business?"

Hollyn's chin dipped slightly. Hesitance sparked in her eyes. "Essentially . . . yes. It's one of my father's businesses. Well, was. Is?" She shook her head before murmuring, "Not really sure how that works now."

"All right." Chapel effectively ended the conversation. Nodded to Davis. "Retrieve the laptop and get back here."

Davis stood. Tapped his leg. Fury blew out a sharp huff in Bennion's direction before lifting his tail and walking toward Hollyn.

"Did that mutt just tell me to?—"

Davis ignored the rest of the sentence as he walked with Hollyn back to her room. "So, where in the house is the laptop?"

Hollyn pinched the bridge of her nose with a soft moan.

Concern welled in his gut. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she said quietly. "I just have a killer headache and feel kind of groggy."

"You should really sleep, Hol." Much as he wanted to kiss her again, he wouldn't. Not yet. She was clearly exhausted.

"I know." Her yawn told him all he needed to know.

Fury hopped onto her bed and lay down, ears swiveling as he listened to them.

"Okay. The laptop should be in my bedroom dresser. Third drawer, under the T-shirts. The charger is plugged into the wall by my bed. There's a chance I left the laptop in the office, but I'm pretty sure I put it away."

"In your dresser, third drawer, under your shirts," he repeated.

She waved at him. "Don't with that face. I keep it there so it's not something people just see right off the bat should they go looking . . . for it." She winced. "Okay, I see how strange it sounds, but I've had my system hacked more than once and had out-of-the-blue offers of millions for my program while getting a latte." She shrugged. "It's what I do. Deal with it."

He bit down on a grin. She was cute when rattled. "Got it." He pivoted. "Fury, let's go."

The landshark hopped off the bed.

"Any chance you could grab me some clothes too?"

Davis tapped a fist against the doorjamb when he paused, feeling weird at the prospect of going through her things, but he nodded. "Sure thing." He strode outside to the Chevelle, ready to get this assignment over with. The quicker he got her things, the quicker he'd be back here to watch over her.

It's not the responsibility you want it to be.

Going deeper wasn't an option at the moment. He'd never said that four-letter word to anyone before—didn't plan to start now—but she'd never be his until he was man enough to say what was really on his mind.

* * *

Sunlight flared across Hollyn's face. Warmed her. Nudged her from a deep sleep. Blinking, she stretched her legs under the covers. Every muscle in her body ached. At least she felt like she was in the land of the living again.

More than could be said for Leila. Ever again.

Any lightness she'd felt seconds ago vanished. She shoved the covers back and sat up. Yawned as she squinted out the window. Sand stretched as far as the eye could see. Soft lines of red, orange, and pink hues hovered on the horizon. The sun was sinking, not rising.

How long had she slept?

She looked around but didn't see her phone. What she did find was her laptop sitting on her weekend bag in the corner of the room. Davis had already gone and come back, then. She crossed to the bag.

Voices filtered down the hall from somewhere in the house. Was the team making plans to save Archie? Or would he just be collateral damage in this twisted game? She wanted her friend back alive. Wanted them all back.

How many more would die before this was over?

The heavy weight of trepidation resumed its seat on her shoulders. Tugging some clothes from her bag, her hand froze over the small Bible Davis had packed along with the rest of her things. He must have found it in the dresser with her computer. She kept it there to remind herself to read a passage before any work started.

Sinking onto her knees, she brushed the well-worn leather binding and opened the book to Psalm 46, which she'd long ago memorized. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." She spoke the words quietly. Read down to verse five. Repeated it. "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns."

She took comfort in the words. A strength that wasn't her own. She was far from alone, and this was far from over.

Hollyn let the verses run through her head as she changed into fresh clothes and opened her computer. Sitting on the corner of the bed, she quickly connected to the internet and punched in her work passcode to access her project files. The Sparrow Project—as Dad had insisted on naming it, despite her objections?—was there. She breathed a sigh of relief and opened the file. The schematics and research were all there, but as she ran through her algorithm, the last sequence was missing.

Frowning, she ran through the code again. She must have misread. After the third time, heart beating faster, the code was still incomplete. Without the ending, the program was useless. "Where is it?" she whispered.

Hollyn scoured all of her other files to see if she'd somehow saved the end sequence to the wrong place—though she couldn't imagine how that would have happened. Still nothing.

The only thing that calmed her to some degree was that the man the team had captured didn't have it. If he did, none of this would be happening. But the question remained: why would he want that project?

A few more attempts only confirmed that the algorithm she'd spent years finishing had vanished. She was going to be sick. All that work . . . for nothing.

On a whim, Hollyn checked to see when her files had last been accessed.

1:23AM 9 FEbrUARY

But the attempt had been flagged.

Hollyn thought back. That was the day of the break-in. A day she hadn't done anything work-related. She eyed the IP address next to the attempted login. Was it possible there'd been a virtual hack that paralleled the physical break-in?

Hollyn started a backtrace on the address. The computer filtered through one IP after another. She bit her lip, tapping her fingers on her thigh. Whoever had tried to get in had used a VPN to mask their actual location. At least the system had prevented access. Still, why hadn't she been informed about the attempt?

Despite her best attempts, she came up short finding the actual location for whoever had run the hack. It just bounced around from one country to another in a never-ending loop.

She clenched her teeth and logged out before pulling up a list of the files on her hard drive. Never in a million years would she accidentally save her projects there instead of the work servers, but better safe than sorry. She dug through the programs, folders, files . . .

Another dead end.

"No." This couldn't be happening. Breathing was getting quick and shallow as her mind raced. Where was the rest of her work? Years of trial and error, millions of dollars spent on funding, and the key to the whole thing was just . . . gone.

"No, no." Hollyn tried to keep it together. There had to be an explanation. She slammed the laptop closed and shoved to her feet. Had to find Davis. Maybe there was someone on the team that had a greater skillset for this than she did.

The house had gone quiet. Eerily so. Where was everyone?

"Hello?" she called from the living room.

Silence was her only reply, so she turned down a hallway she hadn't been in yet. Heard muffled sounds from the end. Followed it. The hallway was wider on this side of the house, but the tile floors looked the same.

Repeating sounds played on a loop like a stuck record or something.

"Hello?" she asked again.

Still the only sounds were muffled conversation and the short soundbite. But then she heard Fury bark.

Davis!

Hollyn threw herself toward the door at the end of the hall.

Before she could turn the handle, it snapped open and Davis filled the gap. The random sounds she'd heard were louder now that the door was open. They continued to play in a maddening repeat.

Hollyn jumped. "Davis!" He didn't look injured. Good, good. But how'd he known she was out here? "W-what's going on?"

A hard look darkened Davis's face. "You shouldn't be over here." He called to Fury and they both stepped out, forcing her back.

"Turn it off!" Germaine's irritated growl clashed with the soundtrack.

Just in the two minutes she'd heard the repeated notes, Hollyn was already cringing. She covered her ear with her free hand to help dampen the sound. "What are you guys doing?" For a second, she caught a glimpse of Germaine secured to a chair in the room.

Then the door closed.

"Don't think you really need me to answer that, do you?" he challenged.

No, of course not. The only thing she wanted was to know why her family had been targeted.

"Come on." Davis ushered her down the hall and into the open kitchen.

"Is that the best way to get information out of him? How do you even stand being in there with that constantly playing?"

"This is how things are done." He spoke firmly. Zero regret tinged his eyes no matter how hard she searched. "War isn't fun, Hollyn."

"This isn't war!"

"It is! Maybe not to those with a limited, conditioned view, but—yes, this is a war," he continued. "And we're trying to get information from him. Trying to save people he's actively going after."

Hollyn threw a hand out. "You think that's the best course of action?"

"Yes!"

The reply was so simple. Devoid of even the smallest trace of doubt.

Hollyn searched his eyes. The only thing she saw was a sincerity that shook her to the core. She rubbed her thumb over the corner of the laptop, trying not to freak out.

Why was she even questioning this? Germaine had murdered her friend. The fight leached from her. "Is it working? Did he give you the information you want?" She hugged herself. "Who even is he?" The question had been burning in her head for a while now. All she'd heard so far was the name Germaine.

"His name's Braum Germaine. Let's leave the rest of the intel to the team, okay?" Davis roughed a hand over his stubbled jaw, and her mind flashed back to the kiss they'd shared.

Harsh reality was starting to press in on all sides, but Hollyn was determined not to let it sully what their kiss had meant. Hope and a future—God was the orchestrator of their story. That, she could trust fully. Still, the nagging what-ifs continued to whisper in her ear.

What if they were letting their past guide them? What if she wasn't good enough for Davis? What if he left?

Hollyn dropped her gaze, uncertainty growing as that last question slammed around her mind. Head lowered, she noticed the intense way Fury was staring at her. His giant tongue swept over his jowls, then he went back to staring her down, body rigid like he might strike any second.

She swallowed and took a step back.

"Find what you were looking for on the computer?" Davis asked.

"What?" The sudden change of topic drew her focus up to him again, and he tipped his head toward the laptop she held. "Oh, right. Well, yes and no. Someone definitely tried to get into my files, and the lab system shut them out. But the ending sequence of the algorithm I created is . . . gone."

Saying it aloud made it even worse. Made it real.

His brow furrowed. "Gone how?"

"As in, I can't find it. Anywhere." Hollyn clutched the laptop against her chest. "Not in the lab system. Not on my hard drive. It's . . . like it never existed." She wracked her brain, trying to figure out what could've happened.

Don't panic, don't panic.

He seemed to mull that over. "What's the project about?"

"That's the thing." She sank onto one of the island stools. "It's just an AI program designed to allow underwater cameras to self-guide and self-correct themselves. It allows them to teach themselves so they avoid repeating mistakes." She huffed. "I guess just is the wrong word. It's important for our field, but I don't know why anyone would want to kill for it."

Davis nodded.

Fury shifted on the floor, but when she went to pet him, he jerked his head back with a growl. She recoiled, fear pricking her senses. He certainly blew hot and cold. Not unlike his handler.

"Hey," Davis reprimanded. Though he gave his dog the warning, Davis's expression clouded over as he seemed to take a full body scan of her.

What was he looking for?

Fury blew out an indignant breath through his snout and continued his stare down that matched his handler's.

Hollyn swallowed. It was unnerving to have them both eyeing her like they were trying to figure out a puzzle. "I tried to backtrace the IP address that attempted to get into the lab files but hit a wall. Do any of your teammates have backgrounds in computers?"

His jaw muscle flexed.

Something was wrong, but she didn't have the foggiest clue what. "Maybe they can do something I can't. It's not really my area of expertise. I signed out of the lab, but I can get back in anytime they need me to."

"I'll see what they can do." Stone-faced, Davis took the laptop she offered.

"You okay?" Hollyn asked.

An invisible shield slid into place, and suddenly Davis felt much farther than a couple feet away.

He gave her a tight smile that didn't fool her in the least. "Good." Davis and Fury stalked off, and she was left alone at the island.

Was he heading back in there to continue interrogating Braum?

Despite her intrinsic aversion to the whole situation she found herself in, Hollyn had no choice but to press forward. It was the only way through. She just hoped answers came sooner rather than later. For the sake of all involved.