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She blew out an exasperated sound. “FU, Daniel,” she muttered. She gentled her voice, gentled herself, as she added, “I work for OPUS. The Office for Political Unity and Security. And I haven’t been working on my MBA at night. I’ve been attending training to become an agent. Now that the class work is over, I’ve been given my first training assignment in the field. It’s supposed to prove that I’m ready for the job and can execute my duties flawlessly. If I can find out who’s selling information from ChemiTech to the terrorists, I’ll be a shoo-in for the next opening.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Daniel said. “Someone at ChemiTech is selling info to
terrorists?
”

Ellie nodded.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded again. “And OPUS intends to find out who.”

“OPUS,” Daniel repeated. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“Good. You’re not supposed to have heard of it. We’re small, but can be vicious if challenged.”

“Like a Chihuahua?” he asked.

“Like a heat-seeking missile,” she corrected him.

He actually smiled at that. Not that it was a happy smile, necessarily. More like a sarcastic one. But he said nothing, only waited for her to finish. So Ellie was careful about what she said.

“Someone in your department is leaking top-secret information from government files to a group of terrorists overseas,” she said. “Information that will enable them to produce some very dangerous weaponry that could then be turned back on us.”

Gee, on second thought, maybe she hadn’t been all that careful there. That was pretty revealing stuff. Even more revealing was Daniel’s reaction to what she said.

“It’s Truman,” he told her. “Buzz Truman. That prick. I’ve had a bad feeling about him since the day I started working at ChemiTech.”

“Why?” Ellie asked. Since Harold “Buzz” Truman was number five on her list of suspects.

Daniel looked at her as if she were too dense to live. “Because he’s a prick,” he reiterated.

Ellie bit the inside of her jaw. “Um, Daniel? Lots of guys are pricks. That doesn’t mean they’re selling government secrets.”

“Yeah, but you don’t know Truman,” he told her. “He takes prickocity to a new level. He’s like King of the Pricks.”

“I think I dated him,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. Or at least Daniel’s convictions, since Truman was their least likely suspect. “But his name wasn’t Buzz Truman then.”

“I’m serious, Ellie. He’s your guy.”

“Well, he is on my list of suspects,” she confessed.

And belatedly realized she shouldn’t have. She was just too used to talking to Daniel. Used to sharing everything with him. It was too easy to reveal the particulars of her assignment. Which was all the more reason she shouldn’t be telling him any of this.

Daniel’s eyes widened at her admission, and he jumped all over it. “You have a list? Who else is on it?”

Ellie was shaking her head before he even finished asking. “That’s classified,” she said. “No way am I going to tell you that. I never even should have mentioned that Truman is on there.”

He hesitated only a moment before asking, “Am I on it?”

She met his gaze levelly. “I can’t tell you that.”

But instead of being angry about his possible inclusion, Daniel seemed to find the prospect exciting. “I must be,” he answered with a smile that could only be described as delighted, “if you know all that stuff about me. You had to have learned it from them. Do I have a file with your organization?” He sobered some at that. “A file with all kinds of personal information that’s nobody’s business but my own? What else do you know about me that I haven’t told you?”

She squirmed in her seat, hoping he wouldn’t notice her discomfort. Naturally, he did.

“Oh, great,” he muttered. “This is just great. Nothing is private anymore. Just because I happen to work with the King of the Pricks, I’m suddenly a suspect for a major crime, which makes it perfectly legal for people to pry into my background. So what else do you know, Ellie?”

She sighed heavily. “It’s not important, Daniel.”

“It was enough to make you suspect me, wasn’t it?”

She had to be honest with him. “Only for a little while. Deep down, I knew—I know—you’re innocent of any wrongdoing.”

“And how do you know that, Ellie?” he asked.

She met his gaze levelly again. “I trust you.”

He nodded. Slowly, but with satisfaction. “Good. Then you won’t mind me tagging along on your assignment, will you?”

E
VEN AFTER
such an emphatic dismissal on Wednesday, Noah hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that he’d hear from Marnie Lundy again. He just hadn’t expected it to be in the form of a frantic phone call in the middle of the night to tell him Sorcerer had broken into her house, very nearly assaulted her and planned to return Saturday with a lovely pinot noir. Now, as he sat in her living room Saturday afternoon, unpacking listening devices and recording equipment and other such paraphernalia for the night ahead, he found himself feeling an uncharacteristic concern for her welfare.

Not that it was uncharacteristic for him to be concerned about the welfare of the people who worked for him. But this was different from the concern he normally felt for the welfare of his people. And it was too much like the concern he’d felt for the welfare of one person in particular. Lila Moreau. Code name, She-Wolf. Who had, for one night anyway, been a whole lot more to Noah than a subordinate.

All these years, he’d tried to tell himself that any feelings he’d had for Lila had been temporary, unrealistic and born of extreme circumstances. They’d had sex. Once. In a temporary, unrealistic, extreme situation. And although he’d briefly wondered after that night if maybe his feelings for her went beyond temporary, unrealistic and extreme, in the long run, he’d come to the conclusion that it was ridiculous to expect himself
or
Lila to fall in love—with
anyone.
And he’d stopped thinking about her. About that one incident. About that one night.

Since meeting Marnie, however, he’d caught himself thinking about Lila again. About that one incident. About that one night. He’d caught himself thinking about them a lot. He told himself it was understandable, inescapable, even, because Marnie looked exactly like Lila. It was inevitable that being with her would rouse all kinds of memories in him about her sister. And yet…

And yet.

He glanced up at Marnie now, seated on her sofa on the other side of the room, pretending she had no idea there was a government agent in her house getting ready to monitor her life. Really, she wasn’t like Lila at all. Lila would never wear the tidy beige trousers and pale-pink sweater Marnie was wearing—not unless she was going undercover as the Invisible Woman. Lila would never coil her lush blond hair into what looked like a tennis ball affixed to the back of her head. Lila would never go without some kind of cosmetic enhancement, nor would she sit perched prim and proper with her legs decorously crossed at the ankles. And Lila sure as hell would never be quiet, apprehensive or demure.

And yet…

Noah wasn’t convinced Marnie was any of those things, either. As prim and decorous as her exterior was, there was a fire in her eyes very much like her sister’s. Some of her mannerisms, too, especially those that illustrated exasperation or impatience, were like Lila’s. She was clearly intelligent like her sister. Sturdy, like her sister. Courageous. Strong—at least emotionally. In so many ways identical. In so many ways…not. And Noah just wasn’t sure where his feelings for Lila ended and his feelings for Marnie began. Did he even have feelings for Marnie? Was it possible, knowing her such a short time?

“I’m sorry for making you work on a weekend,” she said suddenly. Her voice, too, was and wasn’t like Lila’s. The resonance was identical, but Lila would never sound that uncertain. “I really didn’t expect you to stake out my house this way. I mean, I thought…” She turned to look at him, and when she caught him staring at her, hastily glanced away again.

“What?” he asked as he went back to his task. In addition to the surveillance equipment, Noah had brought two agents with him, both posted in an empty house that was for sale halfway down the block. But where they were dressed like weekend suburbanites, he, in anticipation of lurking in the shadows later, wore basic black. Black trousers, long-sleeved black T-shirt, black shoes.

He heard Marnie sigh before she started speaking again, a sound that was both anxious and resigned. “I thought they’d…I don’t know…stash me in a safe house somewhere or something and then assign someone to lie in wait here tonight for when Padgett came back. An agent or operative or whatever.” She looked at him again, and again glanced away. “I didn’t know they’d want me to be here. Or that they’d send you to do it.”

Normally they would have assigned a field agent to surveil her home, and Noah hadn’t been out in the field for nearly a decade. But he hadn’t trusted even a seasoned field agent with this assignment. Or, more specifically, he hadn’t trusted anyone with Marnie’s safety. He only trusted himself for that.

She’d been scarily cool Wednesday night when she’d recounted the episode with Sorcerer, but there had been an unmistakable edge of terror in her voice. To be on the safe side, Noah had immediately assigned an agent to watch the house 24/7, and he’d assigned himself to be on duty tonight, on the outside chance that Sorcerer made good on his promise to come back.

Noah’s instincts told him Sorcerer wouldn’t show. Yeah, the guy was driven by his libido even more than the average man, and if he thought Marnie was Lila—and if he and Lila had indeed had relations—she would certainly be a temptation. But Noah doubted even Sorcerer would risk capture for the sake of a one-night stand. Probably. Even if that one-night stand was with someone like Lila. Probably. Nevertheless, Noah intended to camp out here until morning, just in case Sorcerer was dumber than he looked.

“Agent Tennant?” Marnie asked.

“Noah,” he automatically corrected her.

“Noah,” she said more softly.

When she said nothing further, he looked up again to find her studying him as closely as he’d studied her a moment ago. “What?”

“Just what kind of woman is my sister?” she asked.

“The way you people talk, she’s one of the most dangerous women in the world.”

He went back to his task as he replied, “That’s because she’s one of the most dangerous women in the world.”

“Has she…killed anyone?”

“Only with a quelling look.”

“She just sounds so cool and calculated.”

“She is cool and calculated,” Noah told her. “When she’s working. She’s also tough and resilient. And dedicated and industrious. And honest and trustworthy. Not to mention funny as hell.”

“You forgot thrifty and cheerful and kind,” Marnie said with a smile.

“That, too,” he assured her. Well, thrifty, at least. And, okay, she could be cheerful and kind, too. When she wanted something.

Marnie’s smile fell some. “She uses sex to get information from men and for God knows what else.”

Noah didn’t bother denying it. “Yes. She does. But, really, Marnie, a lot of people use sex to get things they want. It’s not necessarily a barometer of character. To some people, having sex is no more momentous an event than brushing their teeth.”

“But what kind of life did she have, to make her that way? I mean, I could never use sex for—”

She stopped abruptly before finishing, dropping her gaze into her lap as two bright spots of red appeared on her cheeks, just as they had the last time the two of them had spoken. It was yet another way Marnie and her sister differed from each other. Lila was completely comfortable with her own sexuality while Marnie clearly was…not.

He’d really been hoping to avoid the topic of Lila today, and not just because he didn’t want to think any more about her than he had to. But it wasn’t fair that he knew so much about her sister and Marnie knew so little. So he gave her a few basics to get started.

“Lila grew up in Vegas with your mother, who was working as a showgirl at one of the bigger casinos when she met your father.” Which was actually glossing over the truth, since it wasn’t long after the girls’ births that Susan Townsend lost her job and ultimately ended up in a club of rather low caliber. At that point, she stopped being a showgirl and became a stripper. And, unfortunately, a prostitute when times were especially lean.

But Marnie’s jaw dropped at even the cleaned-up version of her mother’s status. “My father had an affair with a Vegas showgirl? Are you serious?”

Noah bit back a smile. “You sound surprised.”

“Of course I’m surprised. I mean, why was my father even in Vegas? The only time he ever traveled, it was for research or speaking engagements or conferences. And I can’t see the Modern Language Association or the Henry James Society putting Vegas at the top of their must-see lists.”

“Vegas is one of those cities a lot of people feel like they have to see at least once. Maybe your father just wanted to expand his horizons.”

“Well, he expanded a hell of a lot more than that, didn’t he?”

Immediately after she spoke the words, she slapped a hand over her mouth and blushed even more furiously than before. “Oh, my God,” she mumbled from behind it. “I can’t believe I said that. I am so sorry.”

But Noah only smiled. Oh, yeah. She and Lila were becoming more alike with every passing minute.

She dropped her hand back into her lap and continued. “So Lila grew up where? In a casino?”

“A trailer,” Noah said.

“A trailer,” she echoed flatly.

“Susan Townsend didn’t make a lot of money, Marnie. She and Lila went without a lot of the time.”

“I wonder if my father ever sent money? He should have. He could have. He made a decent living.”

“I don’t know,” Noah said truthfully. “But I do know Lila didn’t have the greatest life growing up. Her mother drank. She had boyfriends who weren’t exactly Mr. Right. Lila left home at sixteen and didn’t see her mother again until she got sick, seven months ago. Lila spent some time on the streets before finding her way to a homeless shelter. She finished high school from there, and then put herself through college with three jobs and a handful of scholarships. She was recruited by OPUS before she even graduated.”

What Noah didn’t add was that that was less because of Lila’s exceptional intelligence and more because she was exactly the kind of operative OPUS loved best. Angry. Bitter. Used to taking care of herself. No family or loved ones to speak of. Those were the kinds of people OPUS knew they could mold into fearless, risk-taking spies. And Lila had exceeded their wildest dreams.

“Her childhood and adolescence was very different from yours. She never had the opportunities or choices you had. But there’s nothing you could have done to change that. For all we know, there was nothing your father could have done, either.”

Marnie gazed at him in silence for a moment, as if there was something else she wanted to ask him but wasn’t sure how to say it. Ultimately, she went with, “You sound like you know her very well.”

Noah’s back went up at that, but he made himself answer honestly. Well, kind of honestly. “I was her immediate superior for a few years. She and her partner had to answer to me on all of their assignments.”

“So you and she only had a professional relationship?”

Noah told himself he would be within his rights to ignore the question, or answer with a half truth, or even evade it with a lie. But he found, much to his surprise, that he was reluctant to lie to Marnie. So he only said, “There were times when, no, it wasn’t entirely professional. But whatever happened, it’s done. I haven’t even seen your sister for a long time.”

Marnie eyed him for another silent moment, then she slowly nodded her head. He wasn’t sure if she believed him or not. And really, it didn’t matter. Whatever had happened between him and Lila was none of her business. And it had no bearing on the here and now.

“Lila’s a good person, Marnie,” Noah assured her.

“Maybe not the most conventional. And maybe not what you’re used to. But you and she have a lot in common that way. You’re a good person, too.”

Those bright spots of color were back in her cheeks again, and he felt strangely gratified that he was responsible for putting them there. “Thank you,” she said softly.

“You’re welcome,” he replied. “So let’s focus on keeping you safe. Hopefully, Lila will turn up soon, and Sorcerer will be behind bars and then you and your sister can get caught up in person.”

She nodded. “I’d like that. Especially the part about Adrian Padgett being behind bars. Only I think I’d rather have him in front of a steamroller. With me at the wheel.” She met his gaze again, and this time her expression was steely. “He knows where I live, and where I work, and he could show up at either place anytime. I have students, Noah, who are children. I will not put them at risk.”

“You canceled your lessons, though, right?”

She nodded. “For the entire week. And I’ve told Lauderdale’s I need time off. I told everyone I had a family situation that’s made me go out of state. But I can only buy myself so much time. And I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.” Her eyebrows arrowed downward in the first sign of fear she’d shown since his arrival. “Do you really think he’s that dangerous?”

Noah wished he could lie to her. Wished he could reassure her that she was perfectly safe. But the truth was, he wasn’t sure of that at all. “At this point, I honestly don’t know what he’s capable of. And in my opinion, Marnie, that makes him more dangerous than anything.”

B
Y TEN-THIRTY
, Marnie was a bundle of raw nerves. Anxiety hummed through her body, fairly vibrating her skin, and a silent scream hovered at the back of her throat. If something didn’t happen soon, she was going to explode. At this point, she almost wished Adrian Padgett would show up with another half nelson.