PROLOGUE
Five Years Ago
Reed Star had learned to sleep light during his SEAL years, but the gentle knock at his apartment door at six-thirty in the morning was exactly the wake-up call he’d been hoping for. He padded barefoot across the hardwood floor, already knowing who would be standing in the hallway with two cups of coffee and a smile that could make him forget every carefully constructed reason why this was a bad idea.
For the past three months, Elena had been stopping by his place before work, and it had become the best part of his day. Ninety minutes to pretend they were just Reed and Elena, not the head of security for Project WATCHDOG and the brilliant scientist whose revolutionary surveillance technology could change the course of global intelligence forever.
He opened the door to find Elena Vasquez balancing two coffee cups, her dark hair pulled back in a neat ponytail, wearing a blue sweater that brought out her eyes and made her look younger than her thirty years.
He’d expected Dr. Elena Vasquez to be what her file suggested: brilliant, driven, and focused entirely on her work. What he hadn’t expected was the way she prayed over hermorning coffee, laughed at his dry humor, or made him want things he’d convinced himself he didn’t need.
“Morning,” Elena said, balancing two coffee cups as she stepped through the door Reed held open for her. “I brought your usual.”
“Morning.” Reed accepted the coffee gratefully, noting the familiar ritual Elena performed before taking her first sip—closing her eyes, bowing her head slightly. “Still talking to the big guy?”
Elena glanced up with a smile. “Every day. Especially when I’m about to spend another day working with technology that could be used to eliminate privacy forever.” She settled into the chair across from him at the kitchen table.
“You’re DARPA, the elite of the elite when it comes to military training and science all rolled into one. You’re telling me you believe in something you can’t prove?”
She rolled her eyes. “Science is simply trying to explain things we can’t prove … until we can prove them. That makes me the biggest believer in God.”
Reed nodded. “Okay. You really think someone upstairs cares about circuit boards?”
“I think He cares about everything,” she replied simply, wrapping her hands around her coffee cup. “Especially about the people He’s put in my life.”
Reed felt that familiar twist in his chest—part warmth, part panic. Elena had a way of saying things that made him believe in possibilities he’d given up on years ago. Made him think maybe there was room in his life for something beyond missions and objectives.
“What’s on your mind?” Elena asked, apparently reading the tension in his silence. “You get this look when you’re thinking too hard about something.”
“This,” Reed said, gesturing between them. “Us. Whatever this is we’re building here.”
Elena’s expression grew serious. “Having second thoughts?”
“No.” The answer came instantly, surprising him with its certainty. “The opposite, actually.”
He leaned forward across the small kitchen table. Elena Vasquez was brilliant, beautiful, and completely unaware of her effect on him. She was also the first woman who’d ever made him think about a future that extended beyond the next mission. “Elena?—”
Her phone rang, cutting through whatever he’d been about to say. Elena glanced at the screen and frowned. “It’s Director Matthews. At six forty-five in the morning.”
Reed’s instincts, honed by years of combat and covert operations, immediately went on high alert. Early morning calls from project directors rarely brought good news.
“Dr. Vasquez,” Elena answered, her voice shifting to the professional tone she used at the facility.
Reed watched her face change as she listened, saw the color drain from her cheeks.
“Yes, sir. I understand. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” She ended the call and stared at the phone.
“What is it?” Reed was already standing, his body moving on automatic as his mind shifted to threat assessment mode.
“Security breach. Someone accessed the WATCHDOG files last night.” Elena’s voice was steady, but Reed could see the fear in her eyes. “Reed, if that technology gets out?—”
“It won’t,” he said firmly, already reaching for his jacket from the back of his chair. “Not on my watch.”
Elena stood and moved around the table to him, placing her hand on his arm. The gesture was gentle but urgent, and it hit Reed like a physical blow how much he’d come to depend on these quiet moments with her.
“Promise me something,” she said quietly.
“Anything.”
