There was a small silence. The GhostWalkers exchanged long looks. “I thought you’d already recovered the research,” Nicolas said. “Why would these people be coming after you if they still had it?”

“Well, they don’t have it. Halfway into the mission, I realized it was a setup. I knew they were dangling bait, false bait—I’d read the original data the professors had before they were murdered. A few days earlier, when I was scouting the building, I thought I recognized one of the men on the same floor where I’d been told the data was. It nagged at me that I’d seen him before somewhere, but I couldn’t place him. I’d already broken in and had accessed the computer and I skimmed the report and realized it was a fake. That triggered my memory of the man. He’d been a student at the university, just walking by in the hall outside of one of the professor’s offices. He had glanced inside the door, and that attracted my attention. He didn’t turn his head in any obvious way, but I knew he was looking in. People just don’t do that ordinarily, so he stuck in my mind.”

Gator rubbed his head. “I’m confused, Dahlia. You spotted this same man in the building where you were scouting to break in?”

She nodded. “But I didn’t place him. It’s been a year since I was at the university taking a look at the documents.”

Sam laughed. “Don’t apologize. Most people wouldn’t have noticed him, let alone recognized him a year later.”

“Well, it would have been a lot safer had I recognized him immediately. Instead, it took me skimming the document and realizing it was a false one as well. For a minute I thought maybe the company had been sold false data, but then I remembered where I’d seen him, and I realized the data was flagged and I’d be having company any minute.”

She glanced at Nicolas. Waves of dark energy swarmed around her. “You’re getting upset. I’m alive and safe, and it wasn’t all that difficult to get out of there. The biggest problem was the research data. I didn’t want them to be able to move it. I was fairly certain they didn’t have much warning so they couldn’t have buried it all that deep. Most people think in terms of protecting a computer, but a really good hacker can get through most computers given the time. I figured they didn’t put anything on the computers just because of that. And if I was right, that meant there was only the one copy. And if there was only one copy, they had it locked up tight.”

“A lot of assumptions in a short period of time, especially when people are coming after you,” Kaden pointed out. “You should have gotten the hell out of there.”

“I was fairly certain I could stay hidden. And I also knew I could provide a few diversions. I was more worried about the security system where they had the data. I assumed they’d beef it up and maybe provided a human guard or two. I wish I had your ability to coax someone to look the other way.”

Nicolas folded his arms across his chest, his bronzed features an implacable mask. “So you stayed even though you knew it was a trap and you had no backup. Calhoun couldn’t have even gotten to you if they’d found you. You saw what they did to him. They would have killed you. You must have known that, Dahlia. They had to be putting out some malicious energy.”

She could feel his level of anger rising, a very unusual emotion for Nicolas. If the others hadn’t been there, she would have reached out to soothe him, but she felt inhibited by their presence. Inwardly she sighed. She had no idea how to act around other people. What kind of relationship did Nicolas and she really have? They’d slept together. Lots of couples slept together and it didn’t mean anything at all.

“Yes it does.” Nicolas said the words aloud deliberately, said them between his bared teeth. He said them aloud to show her he was seriously staking his claim. He didn’t care how primitive she might think him. She wasn’t going to have sex with him and throw him out, damn it. They belonged together. There was law and order in the universe. She wasn’t going to turn him inside out and upside down and then toss him out like garbage.

“Stop it!” Dahlia backed away from him to the doorway. “You’re acting like an idiot.”

The other GhostWalkers exchanged raised eyebrows, clearly not feeling the hostile energy pouring off of Nicolas the way she did. Dahlia didn’t understand how they could be so protected.

“Well, now, ma’am,” Sam said, scratching his head. “This is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone call Nico an idiot.” He quickly held up his hand for peace when she turned to include him in her glare. “I’d be obliged if you let us in on what’s going on. To be honest, no one dares to call him much of anything.”

“Why not?” Dahlia flicked a quick look at Nicolas, who leaned one hip against the wall and managed to look lethal just standing there.

“He’s a dangerous-looking fellow,” Sam pointed out.

“And he’s handy with guns and knives and all sorts of other nasty weapons a pretty little thing like you wouldn’t want to know about.”

Dahlia knew immediately Sam was diffusing the situation, and she was grateful for the instant reduction of energy. She had the impression of a smile in her mind, but Nicolas’s expressionless features didn’t reflect one.

“Please go on, Dahlia,” Kaden prompted with a small warning glance at Nicolas. “What did you do?”

Nicolas’s black gaze iced over, but he refrained from speaking.

“I went into my invisible mode and made myself quite small. I can’t blur my clothes, so I always note the walls of the places I’m going and try to wear clothes that blend. I can manipulate the surface of my skin, which helps to blur my image somewhat. It allows me to slip past the guards. I hid in a vent while they searched the building. I purposely chose the smallest one I could find so they would overlook it, thinking I couldn’t possibly have used it to hide. It was a very uncomfortable couple of hours.”

Kaden nodded his head. “Your ‘invisible mode’ is really more of a chameleon mode, right?”

“Exactly. I’ve practiced until I can blend into most backgrounds.”

Tucker inhaled sharply. “I saw that on the tape during your training. It must come in handy. Wish I could do it.”

“Why didn’t you just get the hell out of there?” Sam asked curiously.

“I figured they’d move the real data. I was fairly certain they’d check to make certain I hadn’t found it and they’d lead me right to it. I wouldn’t have to check every box in the vault, and I’d be able to get it and get out fast.”

Nicolas paced away from the small group. Dahlia’s tales of her adventures were holding the GhostWalkers spellbound, but they made him ill. Nothing and no one had ever affected him as she did. He felt her inside of him. Inside his head, his body, even his heart. It was crippling to a man like him. He had to have a clear head and his body couldn’t be tied up in knots, especially around Dahlia. Just the thought of her in such a dangerous situation sickened him.

He took a deep breath, made every effort to clear his mind.

“Nico,” Kaden called him back to the group. “If we’re going to help Dahlia plan going back in to recover the data, we’ll need you on board. You’re carrying most of the load, moving the energy away from all of us.”

Nicolas glanced at his friend and then back into the murky waters of the bayou. Kaden was carrying a good bit of the load as well. He was every bit as strong an anchor as Nicolas was, and he guarded the other men carefully. He sighed. As much as he liked Kaden, he didn’t want his friend to be the one drawing the energy away from Dahlia, or worse, diffusing it with whatever emotion was the most flammable.

He nodded at Kaden. “Don’t worry, I’m on board.”

Dahlia walked over to him and put her hand on his arm. It was a small gesture, but he knew the cost to her. She wasn’t a woman who touched others, and certainly not publicly. His thumb feathered over her wrist. “What did you do?”

“I waited in the vent until I heard them call off the search and then I followed the primary suspect, a man by the name of Trevor Billings. He heads up one of the many departments at Lombard Inc.” She named a primary company the defense department often used for building prototypes and weapons. The company was reputed to be heavily guarded and under the tightest of security. “Billings has been a suspect for some time. The NCIS believed he was selling weapons to terrorists and other governments, basically anyone who can pay for them, but they can’t prove it. The word is, he has a small army of his own and a couple of senators in his pocket to insure he gets the contracts he wants. Jesse believed someone inside the NCIS was tipping him off when anyone came up with new ideas for weapons and Billings was stealing the data before the contracts were given out. That way, he didn’t have to pay off his senators and he didn’t have to share with anyone. He just creates a couple of accidents for the professor, or whoever happens to think up the idea, and then he claims it belongs to his company and sells it to the government, or whoever is the highest bidder. It’s a win-win situation for him.”

“It’s not a bad idea. If he uses accidents and covers all of the United States, not hitting in the same place too often, he could really have something and no one would be the wiser. People get government grants all the time to think things up. From one end of the country to the other, teachers and students and private corporations seek grants,” Kaden mused aloud. “I can see how it would be much more profitable to him to get the data and suddenly come up with the idea himself and then market it.”

“Jesse wanted it stopped,” Dahlia said. “He wanted proof that Billings had those professors killed, and he wanted the data back.”

“Well we certainly wouldn’t want to disappoint Jesse, not with your life at stake,” Nicolas said. There was a small note in his voice that sent alarms skittering down her spine. There was ice in his eyes and in his veins and his mouth was a merciless slash.

“I take a great deal of pride in what I do. I’d never failed before, and I wasn’t about to do so this time.” Dahlia wanted to sound calm, but to her horror, she actually sounded as if she were appeasing him and that brought her own temper flaring. Snatching her hand back, she glared at him and paced away from the suddenly smothering group. “I don’t have to explain myself to you or anyone else. I stayed to get the job done, that’s all.” Why did she feel she owed him any explanation at all? No wonder there was a need for a relationship manual. Men were idiots. Supreme idiots, and women were just as bad trying to soothe men’s egos.

Nicolas followed her, feeling a fool. He knew part of the problem was the close proximity of so many men to Dahlia. He was still fighting off the feeling of watching her slip through his fingers. Combined with his fear for her safety, he was reacting to the amplification of his own emotions by the very energy he was drawing away from his men and from Dahlia. He sighed. So much for self-discipline and control.

I’m sorry, Dahlia. I really am.

She wanted to stay angry with him. There was a form of protection in staying angry, but the aching sincerity in his voice was her downfall. She took the hand he held out to her. He drew her close to him, so close she could feel the heat of his body through the thin material of their clothing.

“I’m good at what I do, Nicolas. If there’s danger, I’m careful to keep it to a minimum. And my size is an advantage. I work at night when most people are already gone. Most of the time, I’m in and out and no one is ever the wiser.”

“Dahlia,” Kaden said, “you must have to travel. Do you fly? How do you get around the traveling aspect of your job?”

“Private plane. I always use the same pilot. He’s ex-military as well and works for the NCIS. He was a Green Beret. Most of the men I’ve met from the NCIS division were in some kind of Special Forces training.” She looked at Kaden. “That’s not normal, is it?”