Page 135 of Missile Strike

Talia’s head snapped up, her eyes widening. “Already? That didn’t take long.”

“He’s coming back.” Isabella bit out the words.

“I believe you.” Talia’s head tilted as she considered Isabella through the phone screen. “When?”

“About a week. He got another assignment.” Isabella affected a careless shrug.

“Well, that’s gonna happen, Izzy. It’s the nature of his job.” Talia gave her a sympathetic look. “You’ll make plans, and then his phone will ring and he’ll be gone for who knows how long?”

“I know.” Isabella pressed her lips together. She wouldn’t complain.

“Are you going to be able to handle him coming and going like that? You’ve always hated chaos.” Talia’s mouth twitched. “Or as the rest of us call it—spontaneity.”

The dig was subtle, but it hit home.

Heat crept up her neck. “I’ll learn to make it work because I love him.”

Talia didn’t answer right away.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Talia arched a brow. “So… you’re all in then?”

“I am.” She heard the hesitation in her answer and hated it.

“And he is too?”

He hadn’t said. Not specifically.

Her face must have given her away.

Talia shook her head. “Let me guess. There wasn’t time to discuss it.” Her tone stayed light, but her eyes cooled.

Isabella gave a tight smile and forced a note of enthusiasm into her voice. “Let’s try out that new wine bar this week—Wednesday?”

“Absolutely,” Talia agreed. “I should be over this…thing I have going on by then.”

“Great. We’ll have fun.”

Talia’s smile unfurled slowly, like a cat taking a stretch. “Oh, I know we will.”

Chapter Thirty-One

“I’ve got a signal. Target’s on the move.” Tavari’s voice came through Danny’s earbuds as he sat sweltering in a car, baking in the Arizona heat.

About damn time. They’d been at it for three days. Under any other circumstances, he’d have loved this assignment. But now?

It was three days he could have spent with Bella. She’d finally gotten her life back, and he’d wanted more than a couple of days with her before work came calling.

Ryder really owed him that leave.

A check of his phone confirmed that the tracker he and Tavari had placed beneath the metallic gray Toyota Camry was moving.

Special Agent Mia Anderson’s car, from the FBI Phoenix Field Office.

If she was on Espina Negra’s payroll, she wasn’t spending it on her wheels. Or the home in Scottsdale she shared with her husband and their two children. It was a nice house, but not a mansion. Appropriate for two people holding public office with kids in private school.

Agent Anderson turned left out of the back gate of the compound, taking her toward Danny before making another left. Danny followed in the white Chevy Malibu he’d rented, with Tavari following in a four-wheel-drive SUV in case they had to go off-road.