Javier shrugged. “I don’t pay much attention. I just do my thing. I’ve always been accurate. I have good hand-eye coordination and fast reflexes. I attribute everything to that.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose and gave a small sigh. “I don’t want to think about it, Mack. We went into this together. I’m in my element.” He flashed Jaimie a wan smile. “Sorry, hon, but I am. Mack is. All of us.”

“I know. I’m just wired differently.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Javier said. “We like the way you’re wired.”

The computer made a rude noise and Jaimie lost all interest in the conversation, turning back abruptly to the laptop and hitting a few keys. She broke out in a satisfied smile.

“Here we go, Mack. We’re in. His passwords are on the screen.” She turned the laptop to face him so he could read easily. “We got it in just over an hour.”

LOCATION WHAT HAPPENED WHY TRAUMATIC [ red ] [ barn ] [ bee ] [

stings ] [ nearly ] [ died ]

“Poor Paul ran into some very unfriendly bees in a red barn when he was a kid,”

she explained. “He was probably allergic and most likely went to a hospital.

Definitely a nasty experience for him, and one he’d remember, but one you’d never find on his resume. Nothing he would have told anyone. And not something you could grill his parents about and extract from them.”

“Can you get into whatever he’s hiding?”

Javier scanned the documents. “Letters. To Sergeant Major.”

Mack swore under his breath. Deep, in the pit of his stomach, where no one could see, he felt sick. Bile rose. He knew what he would have to do. “I knew the kid was spying. What’s Sergeant Major into? Why in the hell is he selling us down the river?

Go through them carefully, Javier. You too, Jaimie. I don’t want you to miss anything. Did Griffen think I wouldn’t catch the kid? And he had to know what I’d do if I caught him. Damn him for this.”

Jaimie spun around in her chair. “First of all, you wouldn’t have caught him if we hadn’t been experimenting. And secondly, what do you mean by what you would do if you caught him?”

Mack shook his head, his gaze meeting Javier’s.

“No! I mean it, Mack. I helped you get into his laptop. You never would have if it wasn’t for me. Don’t you dare hurt him.”

“He’s selling us down the river.” She could make him feel like a f**king monster with her quick condemnations. He’d forgotten that. Forgotten how low he felt, how torn by some of the decisions he knew were right to protect his team. “What do you think I should do with him? Turn him over to the sergeant major? Just find me something to vindicate him.”

“This is why we can’t be together, Mack. You’re not God. You can’t make decisions like that. No one can.”

“I do whatever it takes to protect my team. And you aren’t going to use this as some way to get out of our relationship, Jaimie. I’m sorry you don’t like reality, but you’re the one who pointed out Griffen sent Brian and Kane on more than one suicide mission. Did you think I wouldn’t take you seriously and do something about it? He’s not going to get away with it. And anyone working for him is working against us.”

“Is he just going to disappear? Is that what will happen?”

“Jaimie, damn it, what do you want me to do? Find something that tells me he wasn’t sent to spy. For all you know he could be a trained assassin.”

“He’s too young. He looks like a kid.”

Mack spun her chair around so she was staring at Javier. “Take a good look, Jaimie. What the hell does Javier look like to you?”

“It’s not the same. Javier isn’t an assassin . . .”

“It’s exactly the same. He looks like a kid and yes, he was trained exactly as an assassin. So was I. All of us were. Isn’t that what you hate most about me?”

She paused, her gaze sliding over him, sadness in its depths. “I don’t hate you, Mack. I could never hate you. I just don’t understand you.” She pushed her hand through her hair and turned away from him, but not before he caught the sheen of tears. “Let me just read the documents, Mack. There’s no point in speculating.”

Javier sent him a frown and turned his back on him to help Jaimie. Mack paced away from the two of them, his hands balled into tight fists. What the hell was he supposed to do—lie to her? Hell, he liked the kid, but he wouldn’t like him so much if Kane was found with his throat cut or Brian “accidentally” slipped in the shower. His job was to protect his men. That meant making hard decisions no one else wanted to make.

Silence fell in the room while the two began tracing through Paul’s private mail.

Mack stayed way back, in the shadows, a good distance from the light spilling around the banks of computers. Trying to steel himself for the worst possible news wasn’t easy. Paul’s looks might be similar to Javier’s, but his personality wasn’t.

Javier was edgy, dangerous, a man who took the slightest threat seriously. Paul appeared to be a boy looking for a place to settle. He seemed more like Jaimie, soft inside, wanting a home and family, not geared for combat.

The boy had joined them weeks ago and every member of his team subconsciously watched over the kid. They didn’t want him because he appeared to be a weak link and weak links got one killed. Mack frowned thinking about Paul. It wasn’t that he panicked. He had the nerves for combat. He was quiet and steady. He just seemed—young. Yet he was older than Jaimie. Was he undercover and very, very good at it? His stomach knotted. At this rate he was going to have one hell of an ulcer.

“Just out of curiosity, Jaimie,” Javier said, his voice low and casual, “if we’re going to make it an intellectual discussion. If the kid is really an assassin sent to spy and/or kill certain members of our team, what’s the best way to handle that situation?”

Jaimie glanced at him. Javier didn’t offer opinions on much very often. If he did, the others listened because he was making a worthwhile point. She knew him well enough to know he wasn’t being casual.

“Turn him over to the authorities.”

“Which authorities would that be, Jaimie? Sergeant Major, who both you and Mack obviously suspect is up to no good? Which, by the way, I suspected on the last mission when Kane and Brian ran into a firestorm. Someone set them up. If Mack hadn’t suspected something was wrong, both would be dead.”

She bit her lip. “Not Sergeant Major.”

“Above him? Go up the chain of command? Colonel Wilford? Wasn’t he the one Sergeant Major gave the evidence to?” Javier prompted.

“I don’t know. Someone.”

“That’s the problem, now, isn’t it, Jaimie? It’s Mack’s responsibility and there’s no one he can trust if he can’t trust Sergeant Major or Colonel Wilford. So tell me what to do here. You’re the one with the brains.”

“Javier,” Mack said quietly. “Leave her alone.”

“We’re just having an intellectual conversation here, boss,” Javier said. “She’s smart. Maybe she has ideas we can use when this kind of thing crops up and someone is holding a knife to our throats. What do you think, Jaimie?”

“I said back off,” Mack said. “I don’t want to have to tell you again.”

Jaimie felt a shiver go down her spine. Mack was protecting her again. He’d been protecting her for as long as she could remember, a young child facing school with far older, bullying children. Who knew why he’d made her his project, a little girl with eyes that took up half her face and a mop of unruly curls, but he had. He’d always been there, watching over her, insisting others treat her with respect and stopping anyone from making her feel uncomfortable.

What would she do if someone she knew, such as Sergeant Major, was sending her beloved family members on suicide missions? She was looking for evidence to expose him, but what if he had a plant in place ready to kill them and they had no evidence? Everything in her stilled. Her stomach did a curious flip. She condemned Mack for his very strength—the strength she leaned on.

Mack had to make the hard decisions to keep the rest of them safe and from having to do it. He was the cleanup man and the leader. Every mistake was his. He took the burden on his shoulders and accepted that weight. All the time she’d been thinking he didn’t accept her as she was, but in truth, he shielded her from the more difficult aspects of life. She was the one who didn’t accept him. She accepted his protection and strength and yet condemned him for it. That was what Javier was trying to tell her.

Mack had to know what Javier was doing, yet he still was willing to stop Javier to keep her from being upset. Was she such a child that she couldn’t accept real life?

The good with the bad? Reality? Her hands shook as they flew over the keys, her mind searching for answers. What would she have Mack do? She hadn’t been able to pull the trigger and she blamed him for putting her in that position, but in reality, she’d chosen to be there. She was angry and ashamed that she hadn’t been able to do it. That she wasn’t as strong as he was. Mack knew that about her and he didn’t care.

He accepted that she couldn’t be around violence or commit it herself. Was she punishing him for being stronger than her? She just didn’t know anymore, but she was beginning to have doubts about her reasoning.

“You know, boss, so far, he hasn’t reported anything at all about any of us or what we’ve done. He’s actually painting a rosier picture than he’s had it with us. These letters are short and more reassuring, like a kid writing home rather than reporting.

Unless he has a code I can’t see.”

Jaimie shook her head. “I don’t see any pattern. I think they’re just letters.”

“Why would he hide them behind an elaborate security system?” Mack asked, coming up behind Jaimie and dropping his hands on her shoulders. His fingers dug into her sore muscles, massaging the tension from her. His touch was firm, but very gentle, as always. For all his enormous strength, Mack was always gentle. “Why would he be writing Sergeant Major?” Mack asked. “Come on, Jaimie, you’re smart.

You’ve read a few. Who is he? What’s he saying? Why the sergeant major? You’re an analyst. Analyze.”

“Well, the tone of the letters is very careful. He’s watching what he’s saying, not wanting to reveal too much. Is he happy? Sad? Upset that he’s where he is? Or upset that he’s having to make reports? Some of it is very genuine. He mentions a couple of funny things with Gideon and Ethan, and there’s a trace of affection in the way he words it, as if both men mean something to him. I think he’s trying to portray that he fits in, that he’s comfortable where he is. Like letters a kid might write home from a summer camp to a parent.”

Silence descended as all three let that sink in. The clock ticked out a rhythm. A heartbeat. Mack closed his eyes briefly. “Jaimie. Talk to me, honey.”

She moistened her lips, glanced at Javier, and then turned. “I think he’s Sergeant Major’s son. He never addresses him as anything but ‘sir,’ but based on these short letters back and forth between them, I’d have to say, the contents, coupled with the fact that he kept them protected rather than deleting them, say they’re related, most likely father and son.”

Mack slammed both palms flat on the desk, swearing between his teeth. “What the hell is going on here, Jaimie?” She’d always been his sounding board for as long as he could remember, with her quick brain and sharp intelligence. She could see patterns faster than anyone he knew. She could put together puzzles so quickly computers could barely keep up.