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accident afterward and go on with it. I really think you need someone with a bit more spunk. I mean, I think I get why you like him. He’s safe, part of the team, knows our history more or less.” Roni shrugged. “You could do worse.”
    Tori squeezed her hands into fists. Emery wasn’t safe. Still waters ran deep, and tonight she’d glimpsed a bit more of who he was. Those scars were a story she didn’t know yet.
    â€œHere. I picked up your necklace.” Tori pulled the chain from her pocket and handed it to her sister.
    â€œThanks, I was going to pick it up in the morning.” Roni studied the locket and saint for a moment before fastening the chain around her neck. “Julian’s not going with us tomorrow. He’s got a gig.”
    Tori’s stomach fell. Again? So soon?
    Julian and Aiden were the coleaders of their little operation. While the majority of the crew were contract employees of the FBI, Julian was basically the Hoover’s bitch. They’d coined the term for their government overlords in the beginning because the red tape bullshit was a waste of time, and it had stuck. For Julian, though, whatever trash they needed cleaned up, whatever dirty job had to be done—the Feds sent him in to end things.
    â€œRoni, I don’t like this.” Tori pushed the clothes aside and sat on the edge of the mattress. “You guys in Orlando, a couple of us here, and Julian—God knows where. We’re too spread out. I mean, we don’t know shit about why we’re still here or what’s going on. I have a bad feeling about this.”
    They were quiet for a moment, neither speaking while Roni went about her packing.
    â€œI know, it’s not ideal, but whatever.” She folded a pair of pants and tossed them into her small suitcase.
    Their contracts with the FBI for this gig should be over, except it wasn’t. They’d nabbed Michael Evers like they were supposed to and now . . . No word. No orders. Not a peep.
    â€œI think it’s weird Evers’s people are basically silent. It’s like they just disappeared.” Roni spoke staring at the wall.
    â€œI’d have expected one of the mid-level bosses to try taking over or something.” They’d gone through the list of things they expected and suspected a dozen times, and yet they never came closer to a real reason for the lack of traction on the case. They were stalled. Spinning out. Stuck in the mud. Something had to change.
    â€œI need to drive.” Roni tossed the rest of the clothes into her bag and turned to face Tori. “Want to ride shotgun?”
    â€œWhere we going?”
    â€œWhat does it matter? Come on.”
    It was late and Tori would be doing the job of three people for the next few days—but it didn’t matter. A drive always put things into focus, even if she was only focused on their lack of a plan.

Chapter Three
    Emery rubbed his knuckles over his eyelids and silenced the incessant beeping of his phone as he rose to consciousness.
    Fifteen minutes.
    It would have to do.
    Besides, the guy he needed to speak to would be sitting down at his desk in a matter of moments. At least this time Emery wouldn’t have to pretend to be someone else.
    He’d had several successful hits on his data crawling program, but he hadn’t reviewed his list until it was so late some might call it early. To say it was a night of discovery was an understatement.
    Emery knew Tori’s history was a hall full of locked doors she couldn’t talk about, but he’d never realized just how much she and Roni kept back from everyone. Now he had many of the keys and knew what was behind some of those doors. They were the things nightmares were made from. Like the time CPS was called out to their rural home in upstate New York because the girls bore marks from their father’s weekend “training.” Considering the Russians were known for making