Sinner turned his head and met Ash’s gaze. The man gave nothing away. The team hadn’t given him enough credit—Ash had gone from SEAL to recruiter for Blackout to one of their own. But not one of them knew the reasons behind the transition.
Con made a noise low in his throat, pulling Sinner’s attention back to him. His CO’s expression was unreadable. He leaned back in his chair, gaze never leaving Sinner’s face.
“What do you want, Sinner?”
The question hung in the air like a challenge, simple on the surface but loaded with implications that could change…everything.
Sinner didn’t speak for a moment. His mind turned over the answer even though he’d known it from the first time Opal looked at him with those guarded eyes and refused to back down. He’d known it when she’d stabbed the world’s deadliest terrorist to save herself and walked out covered in blood but still standing.
He knew it when she was shaking apart in his arms and whispering sweet words of love to him.
“Simple,” he said finally, keeping his voice even despite the way his heart hammered his ribs. “Opal.”
Con’s brow lifted a fraction, the only outward sign that the answer surprised him. “Not so simple. Opal belongs to the FBI. They spent a lot of money training her and turning her into an asset. They’re not going to let her walk away without a fight. And you know how territorial the Bureau gets about their people.”
“She can be transferred.”
He blew out a breath. “I’ll see what I can do.”
The discussion went on for endless minutes. Sinner forced himself to focus and not let Opal distract him from the real issue—Cipher was still out there and he was going to be more volatile than ever.
Ash cleared his throat to speak. All eyes centered on him. “Cipher’s like a grenade with a pulled pin. It’s going to happen soon. And we need Opal with Blackout when that happens. She’s going to be able to get into channels the rest of us can’t.”
“It’s true,” Sinner spoke up. “She can be in disguise, slip in and out unnoticed, but the rest of us…” He looked around the table at the team, all big, muscled and bad ass in ways that never could be overlooked.
Con nodded. “Whatever’s brewing, I’ll make sure we have Opal with us.”
Sinner’s chest loosened just a bit, but was still tight at knowing that she was going in for round two with Cipher, and soon by the sound of it.
In the hallway, Opal’s voice had faded. When Sophie walked into the war room, Sinner knew the woman had calmed her down and one of the other ladies had probably taken her to the kitchen for coffee.
Sophie slipped into a seat at the end of the table to add her input about a cryptogram she’d been working to crack for weeks. As she spoke, another piece of the puzzle slid into place—the house Cipher had lured Opal to had belonged to a distant relative.
Throughout the discussion, Sinner kept half an ear on the topic because he was also listening for Opal’s voice.
When Con ended the debriefing, Sophie got up and walked to the front of the room. As she passed Sinner, he stopped her.
“How’s the tattoo healing?” he whispered.
The strain on her face put there by the topic of Cipher faded to pure sunshine. She pulled up the hem of her top just enough to reveal the design on her ribs. The small heart that tapered downward and transformed into the Navy anchor. For Blackout. For Con. For the family she’d found here. The lines were crisp and sharp against her skin, and the shading and light color he’d laid in were just right for her modest style.
“It’s perfect.” Her eyes shone with emotion she didn’t bother trying to hide.
“I’m glad you like it.” His phone buzzed in his pocket, the vibration shattering the moment. He glanced at the screen and felt his jaw lock when he saw the caller ID.
Uncle Leo.
“Excuse me.” He shoved away from the table and stepped out of the room as he took the call. “Bad timing.”
His uncle’s voice filled his ear like he had all the time in the world. “When did the universe ever care about convenience?”
Sinner lengthened his strides to find a place to hold a private conversation.
“What’s up?” he asked under his breath.
“You don’t want to hear I found her mom?”
He went still, every muscle locking down as the words registered. In the midst of the chaos, it had slipped his mind that he asked his uncle to track down Opal’s mom.
