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“No, prosecutor. I’m notorious for bringing the heat in the courtroom during my cross-examinations, and I always make people crack. Spill their deepest, darkest secrets.”
I swallowed and shifted back in my seat. I had way too many secrets and didn’t need to spill any more with a stranger.
“I honestly didn’t expect you to share the truth with me like that, though.” She stole a look at her thin silver watch. “This has to be a record for me.”
“Well, neither did I.” Before I could summon an apology for my odd behavior, a flurry of movement pulled my attention to the main door. I swiped a hand down my face before looking up at the ceiling while sighing. “Speak of the devil—wait, devils.” I tilted my head toward the entrance. “Mya and Gwen are here, great.”
Mya and Gwen breezed past the woman who’d assigned my number, ignoring her protests, and rushed my way. This can’t be good.
“What are you two doing here?” I pushed back in my seat and stood.
My date, number six—right, that’s it—whispered, “Mya’s the one who friend-zoned you, right?”
Mya’s lips parted, and she gave me a funny look before snapping out, “We need you. Now. Wheels up.”
“Sorry,” I quickly tossed out to the prosecutor, complete with a shrug and what I hoped was a roguish smile. “Time to go save the world.” Another bad joke. But hell, it was probably the truth. Well, save someone’s world. Someone’s life.
“What’s going on?” I asked them once we’d escaped the restaurant and were outside by the street in front of a black Suburban.
“Get in,” Gwen commanded instead of answering as she hopped into the passenger seat, leaving me to slide into the back with Mya.
My teammate, Oliver Lucas, was behind the wheel. He looked back at me and grinned. “Number nine, huh? Really? You’re a solid ten in my book, man.”
I shook my head at his echo of my bad joke from earlier. “Thanks, brother.” I rolled my eyes and peeled off the sticker. “So, what’s the emergency?”
“They won’t even tell me. These two are being cryptic. Just assembling us like we’re the freaking Avengers or something,” Oliver replied while pulling onto the road, joining the traffic.
“Yeah, that’s worrisome.” I frowned and peeked at Mya as she busied herself with texting someone, fast fingers flying over her screen. “Who are you talking to?”
“Mason,” Mya answered without looking my way. “He’s joining us.”
Oliver braked hard at the mention of the Marine, and Mya jerked forward. On instinct, I shot my arm out to stop her from going forward since she was unbuckled.
“Fuck. Sorry. There was a squirrel,” Oliver piped up before driving again.
“Yeah, a squirrel in the middle of the streets of D.C. that you spotted but I didn’t see,” Gwen said with a light laugh, her British accent rolling through her words. “Absolutely.”
“I happen to have great eyesight. And what? There are squirrels in D.C.”
Yeah, sure. Oliver wasn’t a fan of Mason Matthews, and everyone knew why. Mason had once been Mya’s friend with benefits that she was now struggling to work with, soooo, why in the hell was he joining our op?
“We need single guys. He’s single,” Mya said as if that’d clear everything up. Nope. Not even a little bit. “And the rest of his team was pulled away on a last-minute mission, and he doesn’t want me going on this op without him since he was helping me run leads on it, and—”
“Slow down there, buttercup,” Oliver commented. “What-in-the-what are you talking about? This was supposed to be a mission with your Marine crew and we’re your backup plan?”
The man sounded offended. Maybe I was, too.
“It’s their area of expertise. Well, originally, I thought it was connected to trafficking, but I’m pretty sure I was wrong. But yeah, we were working on this thing together. Plans changed, though,” Mya explained, frustration edging her tone.
“Dealing with human traffickers is their specialty, right,” I said grimly, my skin crawling at the mere idea our op would be connected to that subject. Human trafficking was something I so desperately wanted to will away from existence in the world. I’d Jedi mindfuck it gone in a heartbeat if I could. Use my first genie wish on it. Second wish? Bring my parents back to life. Third (but like really not that low on the list)—have my mystery girl never have ditched me that morning.
I worked my top two buttons free, wondering if that’d help me breathe a bit better.
“Like I said, now we don’t think it’s a trafficking op, but we’ll explain everything when we’re with the others.” Mya shoved her phone into her purse wedged between her jeaned legs. “We won’t be bringing everyone with us undercover because our mission is . . . well, it’s a unique one. Single people needed, and a lot of Falcon is now hitched, so . . .”
Unique? “And that means?” I probed, hoping to get more out of the two women before we got to the airport.
Gwen shifted in her seat and peered back at me. “We’re going to Brazil. To um . . .”
