Chapter Two

I t was well after eleven by the time Lucas settled down on the couch with his laptop and a beer. He couldn’t get that stuffy suit off fast enough. It was confining and restraining. Too many damn buttons. And the tie felt like a noose around his neck, always on the verge of choking him. Of course, it wasn’t all bad. His new assistant seemed to appreciate the billionaire/mafia vibes. He’d caught her checking him out on more than one occasion, and he’d made sure to return the favor.

Looks could be damn deceiving, though. The gorgeous brunette could pretend to be an assistant all day long, but he knew exactly who she was beneath the slick suits and that pretty mask she kept so carefully in place.

Despite a mutual attraction, it couldn’t go anywhere. Any future he might’ve considered pursuing with her didn’t stand a chance in hell of ever working out. The cold truth was they’d been lying to each other for weeks. Neither of them were who they pretended to be.

From the moment she’d stepped into his office, Lucas had known Leoa Cardosa was actually Inda Diaz. Inda AKA Leoa AKA Bruja was a job, nothing more. Hours of digging around online hadn’t produced as much intel as he’d hoped, but Lucas knew the basics. Diaz was former Army, had no family and was part of Ex Nihilo.

Much to his annoyance, it was hard for him to ignore all that long, dark, thick hair that she kept pinned back and those intelligent caramel eyes that missed nothing. It took every ounce of his self-control to not openly ogle her. She was small, barely reaching his shoulder in her heels, but she had a fierce quality about her. And don’t even get him started on the beauty marks dotting her face. He wanted to kiss every single one. Repeatedly.

Inda Diaz was a woman who couldn’t be overlooked, even when she was trying hard to blend in.

Lounging back against a pillow, finally comfortable in a T-shirt and sweatpants, Lucas took a long swig of beer and turned thoughtful. He knew all about her checkered past. How her mom had dated a string of abusive boyfriends, one of whom eventually stabbed and killed her. And how a young Inda had dropped off the radar, disappearing right afterwards.

Lucas wasn’t sure what Inda had done between the time her mother died and when she’d turned eighteen and joined the Army. But he could only imagine the things a young girl had to do in order to survive in a cold, uncaring world. His stomach revolted at the thought and he set the beer down.

He shouldn’t feel sorry for her. Sure, she’d been dealt a shitty hand, but she’d ultimately made the wrong decision by joining Ex Nihilo. And that made her his enemy.

Shutting down the empathy, he focused on his laptop screen and disappeared into the Dark Web. He found a picture of her, enlarged it and studied the image. Damn, the woman was gorgeous. Enlarging her photo further, he counted the little beauty marks that dotted her face and imagined his lips trailing from one to the next. The urge to touch and explore all those tantalizing curves was enough to drive him insane. He’d always been an ass man, and hers was the stuff of legends.

Focus, Sheridan. He needed to get himself under control and not let her get under his skin. Allowing her to play on his emotions would result in nothing but disaster—for him. The need to keep things professional was fast becoming a constant reminder, one that shouldn’t even be happening.

It was hard to ignore a woman like Inda Diaz, though. He just hoped to hell he could keep his wits about him and the cinnamon-scented delight wouldn’t end up being his downfall. She was one smart cookie, though, and he was still trying to figure out why facial recognition software hadn’t picked her up yet.

“What have you done, my clever little girl?” he asked the photo on the screen. Clicking the image shut, he skulked and scoured around for more intel on Ex Nihilo, but didn’t find anything. They were like ghosts.

Dragging a hand over his stubbled jaw and neck, he decided it was show time. Fingers flying over the keyboard, Lucas went straight to the secret backdoor he’d created that would allow him inside Zane Hawkins’ network, and waltzed right inside.

So fucking easy. Maybe he should’ve been more aware, more careful, but he’d gotten into Hawkins’ network before and it had hardly been a challenge. Ex Nihilo’s hacker might be good, but Lucas was better.

“Let’s dance, Banshee,” he murmured.

◆◆◆

Inda had barely closed her eyes when a loud alarm began beeping from somewhere. Jumping out of bed, she crossed her small apartment and threw the door open. Frantic voices spilled down the hallway and she ran toward the common area where Zane and River hovered over a laptop.

“What’s going on?” Inda asked, jogging over.

“Hacker,” River said with a frown before slamming her hand on the table and yelling, “Get him out of there!”

“I’m trying, RL,” Zane gritted out, fingers tapping hard and fast.

Inda moved around so she could see the screen, but all the coding meant nothing to her. Computers had never been her specialty. She much preferred her nunchucks and close combat to zeros and ones flying in from an unknown location and opponent.

She kept her voice calm, but it was hard to hide the concern and frustration when she asked, “Is it Cipher?” In her experience, battling a known opponent was always easier. And if it wasn’t Cipher, that meant they had more than one enemy to deal with as well.

“We don’t know yet.” River dropped down beside Zane and began typing out a numerical code on the number pad. The alarm stopped, but not before the rest of the team appeared.

“What the hell was that beeping?” Saint grumbled.

“We thought it was the fire alarm,” Gray said, pulling Aubrey under his arm.

“Cipher?” Braxton asked, combing both hands through his wild curls, trying to smooth them down. Inda would’ve teased him if the situation weren’t so serious.

“Unconfirmed,” Zane replied, “but who the hell else likes to sneak into my network and fuck around with my shit?”

Ryland appeared a moment later, still tugging his pajama bottoms on, and Inda didn’t expect anything less from the bronzed surfer. No doubt about it, he and Harper were still in their honeymoon phase and fucked more than bunnies. She wouldn’t be surprised if Harper wound up pregnant soon, but hoped that joyous event would hold off until they eliminated The Agency.

While Zane and River battled the hacker off, Inda exchanged a worried look with Brax. There were too many important things on Banshee’s laptop for an enemy to get a hold of. Chewing her lower lip, she watched them fight the intruder, her blood pressure rising. Over the past year, she’d grown close to every member of her team, and now their significant others. The fact that The Agency was trying to snuff them all out pissed her off to no end. Ex Nihilo was the only family Inda had, and she’d be damned before she let the bad guys snatch the people she loved away from her. She’d been alone once before, completely on her own, and she knew only too well how sad and scary it could be. No way was she letting it happen again.

Foreboding music echoed from the laptop’s speakers and it looked like Zane’s screen cracked. The broken pieces fell into a pile and, letter by letter, the phrase “Cipher was here” appeared.

“Fucker,” Zane hissed.

“God, I hate this guy,” Inda said, crossing her arms.

“Could be a woman,” River reminded them. She hit several keys and the screen went black. “Got him out.”

Zane planted a big kiss on her lips. “You’re the best, RL.”

“I am the best,” she declared, and everyone laughed. She turned serious again fast. “But, he’s a sneaky bastard. He’s found a way in, a vulnerable location, and we need to fix it now.”

So far, River had defeated Cipher twice, forcing him out of their network and overriding his commands. But the asshole kept coming back, which left them all on edge.

“Did he get anything?” Braxton asked.

“I don’t think so.” River tapped a finger against the edge of the keyboard. “This Cipher character is good, though. Really good.”

“That’s what scares me,” Braxton said. “One of these times, he’s going to get what he wants. Maybe he already has. I know it’s late, but let’s have a quick meeting.”

No one complained despite the approaching midnight hour. They gathered around, getting comfortable, and waited for Brax to continue.

“Okay, let’s run through what we know, make sure we’re not missing anything, and see if something jogs a new piece of information from our brains. Banshee and River have decrypted half of the people on the list. So let’s review, starting with number one—Lester Tillman.”

Ryland snorted. “The idiot who Carlisle tried to recruit because he had billions to burn.”

“Dead,” Gray stated. “Shot to death by the Mercier twins.”

“Number two is our boy Marcus Santiago,” Zane said.

“Which leads us to number three, Selma Santiago—who happens to be fucking my father behind her husband’s back,” Ryland stated flatly. Everyone cringed for Ryland’s sake.

“Benedict Salinger and Chadwick Carlisle, AKA Mr. Smith, are four and five,” River finished.

“They’ve gotta be bankrolling the whole thing,” Saint said.

Brax nodded. “Inda, when did you say Carlisle is leaving town?”

“Tomorrow morning, according to his assistant.” Getting friendly with the gossipy Angelica was the best thing Inda had done since she started working at C.C. Towers. “Current plan is to sneak into his office on my lunch break and take a look around.”

“We’ve confirmed five targets to hunt down and neutralize.” Saint cracked his knuckles. “It’s time to move.”

“Not yet,” Brax warned. “We need the full list of names, then we take them out all at once. We don’t want anything to tip them off and send them into hiding.”

“Our programs are running,” Zane said. “Hopefully, we can get another name soon.”

“I want all ten,” Brax repeated. “Then, and only then, do we strike.”

“Hurry the fuck up, Banshee,” Saint grumbled. “I’m ready to put some heads on spikes.”

“Patience is a virtue. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?”

“Yeah,” Saint growled. “Then I killed him.”

Everyone but Brax chuckled.

“Stand down until further notice,” Braxton ordered, voice low and unyielding. He looked over at Zane and River. “We also need to figure out why Orlov was killed.”

It was frustrating for the entire team that they still didn’t know how the former Russian scientist’s death—an event witnessed by Zane and River—fit into everything.

“Selma wanted the Novichok formula,” River informed them. “It doesn’t make sense that she’d eliminate him. Yeah, she threatened him, but she told Orlov he had a week to deliver.”

“Then gunmen stormed his brownstone and killed him later that day,” Zane added. “So either she was really impatient, or possibly thought he was compromised somehow.”

Inda thought back over Zane and River’s recent trip to Boston, and how they’d uncovered that new twist. They knew Selma wanted the formula for Novichok, a deadly neurotoxin, they just weren’t sure why. Inda was willing to bet the woman had deadly plans, so the sooner they eliminated her, the better.

“Do you think there may be another player in the mix?” Inda asked. “Someone else who wants the Novichok?”

“That would make our lives all sorts of complicated,” Gray said.

“More targets to take out, because we aren’t letting anyone get their hands on that shit,” Saint said. “It’s too dangerous.”

Novichok, developed by the Soviets during the Cold War, was the deadliest nerve agent ever designed and completely undetectable. Victims poisoned by the potent chemical weapon appeared to suffer from a fatal heart attack, not the sinister intentions of their enemies.

“I’m searching Carlisle’s office tomorrow and I’m not leaving until I find something.”

“Be careful. If you get caught—”

“C’mon, Pharaoh. It’s me.” She gave him a mischievous smile. “I’ll tell Lucas I’m going out for lunch. It’ll give me a whole hour to search.”

“Speaking of which…” Zane tossed a button-like device at her and Inda caught it. “If his laptop is there, you know what to do.”

She nodded and closed her fist around the small object in her palm. Carlisle would most likely take his laptop with him, but maybe she’d get lucky and be able to copy his files. For the moment, they were at a standstill, and Inda was going to do everything in her power to find something in Carlisle’s office they could use to move forward.

They had to stop The Agency, and Inda didn’t care what she had to do to make it happen.