Page 38 of Entwined With You

I pause at my desk to drop off my purse, then look at the station next to me. The desktop is tidy, and the brass plate that says J. Ramos is polished to a sheen.

I grab a sticky note and draw a smiley face on it, then leave it on his desk. Ramos has been my mentor for the last fifteen years. I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve beat him to the office. Then again, maybe he’s already here.

I frown, then look around, only to see Larry hurrying toward me. “Is Ramos around?” I ask.

Larry shakes his head, his currently orange hair pulled up into a topknot. “Haven’t seen him. But the Big Dog is looking for you.”

“You know he hates being called that.”

“The hell he does. He loves it. Woof. Woof.”

“I’ve said it before, Larry. You may be the best tech guy on the planet, but you’re seriously weird.”

“That’s my charm.”

“Can’t argue with that.” He falls in step beside me as I head for the Egg, the oval-shaped conference room where briefings are held. “Did you see my memo?” I ask. “We’re all in play now. Ramos and I are going to need an exit strategy. Me, especially. Cami and Brax are bound to be sticking close to me.”

He grins. “You think I’m not already on that? Lambert’s been breathing down my neck since you reported in. You think he’s going to risk losing his best agent?”

I feel my cheeks warm. “I’m not his best agent,” I say, then realize that Director Lambert has fallen in step beside us, his long, lean form eating up the ground as we move forward.

My cheeks get even warmer, and I hope he didn’t overhear.

“Good to have you in from the field, Sabrina.” His brown eyes are kind but stern “Ready for the briefing?”

“Absolutely,” I say.

Lambert nods, then picks up his pace to walk a few steps in front of us. Larry just grins, then whispers, “Teacher’s pet.”

“And the meeting’s on for tonight at the Pier,” I say, ignoring him.

“On it,” Larry says. “We can go over the specifics of what you might need in the way of tech after the briefing.”

I give him a thumbs-up and hurry toward the Egg. Lambert’s a fair man and an excellent boss, but he hates to be kept waiting.

He’s also one of the people I respect most in the world, in large part because he saved my life. Not that I knew it was him until weeks after, but he had an operation that overlapped with the original heist. He learned about the van being wired, and he sent Ramos to warn me.

I hadn’t believed him at first, but then Ramos pulled me aside and played a series of intercepted calls. Brax talking with another man. Planning an exit strategy in which they’d end up the only winners. And I was to be one of the sacrificial lambs.

I didn’t believe it. Even fifteen years ago, a tape could be faked. But I still couldn’t get it out of my mind. I watched Brax like a hawk, but there was nothing dodgy. At least not until that last day. When he didn’t come back to the van. And even though I didn’t want to believe that of him, self-preservation won out. I was just about to open the door when someone did it for me. It was Ramos, and he yanked me by the arm and pulled me clear just as the bomb ignited, sending flames screaming into the sky and singeing my clothes.

That’s when I knew. I couldn’t believe it, but I knew.

Brax had sold me out. The man I loved set me up to die, all so that he could get a bigger slice of the take from the heist.

By all rights, I should be dead now. Maybe it wasn’t Brax who wired the van—I want so badly to believe that—but someone did. No doubt about that.

And if Lambert hadn’t tasked Ramos to get me the hell out of there, I’d be nothing but dust, my death marked only be gravestone somewhere, if even that.

But I’m not dead. I’m alive, and I have a stellar job that I love, great co-workers, and Ramos has become one of my closest friends.

I don’t have Brax, though.

Still, all things considered, I’m pretty damn lucky.

“Now that I have you captive in the air,” Ryan said, his voice tinged with humor, “I can tell you that I already knew about the heist, about the SOC recruiting, and about the program with the FBI. I learned of it three weeks ago.”

Despite the din from the helicopter, Brax had no trouble hearing Ryan’s words through the headphones they all wore. He glanced at Cami, who looked just as surprised as Brax.