Stifling a sob, she whirled around and jerked open the door. His soft voice stopped her.
“I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises. This is a decision I have to make on my own.”
The words were like a knife in her already trampled heart. “Then the decision should be a lot easier for you to make without me around to complicate things.”
Layla bolted out the door and ran down the hall. She didn’t even make it to the stairs before regret overwhelmed her.Why the hell had she said that?
She was about to turn around and go back, but before she could, her phone rang. She dug in her purse to glance at the screen and cursed when she saw the number for the DCO operations center.Crap.
“Halliwell.”
“Agent Halliwell, this is control,” the man on the other end said. “Your mission is a go.”
Great.
She sighed. “When and where do I report?”
“Your flight is already waiting for you at the Andrews MIL-AIR terminal. You need to be there in an hour.”
She wasn’t sure how the hell she was going to make it all the way to Andrews AFB at this time of night. Just getting through the gate could take fifteen minutes sometimes.
“Where am I going?” she asked.
“That information will all be provided when you get to Andrews.”
Layla looked back at Jayson’s door as she hung up. She wished she didn’t have to leave things like this, but she didn’t have a choice. She just prayed Jayson wouldn’t do anything stupid before she got back.
Chapter 2
“We won’t let him do anything stupid,” Ivy promised her sister. “Now stop worrying about Jayson and focus on your mission, okay?”
Ivy could barely hear her sister over the roar of the C-5’s engines in the background as Layla promised she’d be careful. Sighing, Ivy put her phone away. She still hated the idea of her sister being a field agent, but she understood why Layla was doing it. And if Layla had to go out on her first mission with anyone other than her and Landon, Ivy was glad it was Clayne and Danica. She just wished her sister wasn’t preoccupied with Jayson.
“What was that about?” Landon asked from the driver’s seat of the DCO-issued sedan they were using for tonight’s op, his night vision binoculars glued to the huge house they were surveilling.
She and Landon had been sitting outside the home of Thomas Thorn, former senator and current member of the DCO Committee, as well as owner-slash-CEO of Chadwick-Thorn, for the past two hours. Well,homewas a poor choice of words. Manse, mansion, estate, small zip code—all those terms were more accurate. The immense Mediterranean-style house occupied a coveted chunk of Washington, DC, property positioned near Embassy Row and the Naval Observatory.
“Layla’s on her way to meet Clayne and Danica for her mission. She’s worried about Jayson because Dick is trying to convince him to take a drug made from the latest hybrid serum, claiming it can heal his back.”
Landon lowered his binoculars to give her a shocked look, his dark eyes wide. “Are you frigging kidding me? Please tell me Jayson isn’t seriously considering doing it.”
Ivy shrugged. “It sounds like he might be. When Layla tried to talk him out of it, Jayson got so upset, he practically tossed her out.”
Landon cursed, digging in his pocket for his cell phone.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m going to call Jayson and tell him to stop being a dumbass.”
Ivy reached out and caught his arm. “Don’t do that.”
“Why the hell not?” Landon demanded. “Someone needs to tell him that he’s going to kill himself with that damn serum.”
Ivy glanced at Thorn’s place, checking to make sure nobody was moving around outside. She and Landon were there to get an idea of how many security people Thorn employed, how often they walked the grounds, and if there were any obvious weak spots in the estate’s security before they came back to break in. It would end up being a wasted trip if they missed something because they were arguing about how to deal with Jayson.
“You can’t call Jayson because it won’t do any good,” she said. “You’re not his A-team commander anymore—you’re his friend. You can’t order him around. Besides, you know Jayson well enough to realize you can’t keep him from doing something he wants to do—especially once he’s gotten it into his head to do it. If you call him and tell him he’s being stupid, you’re going to push him into making the worst possible decision even faster than he normally would.”
Landon’s jaw tightened. “Well, I have to do something. I can’t just stand by while Dick pumps that crap into Jayson’s body.”
