A few hours later…
A sudden,unattractive yawn had Jagger’s mouth opening wide as his fellow teammates and the members of Echo Team began trickling into the room. He paid them little attention, however.
A nod here. A tip of his chin there.
His real focus was on the woman who’d been avoiding him like the plague.
The car ride from Talia’s hotel to here had been awkward at best. During the drive, Jagger had made several attempts to start up a casual conversation.
His comments, questions, and general musings had been met with the bare minimum in return. And unless he was mistaken—and Jagger rarely missed a thing—Talia had made it her morning mission to avoid looking him in the eyes.
Dressed in jeans, boots, and a dark green, cable knit sweater, the ponytailed brunette looked as beautiful as ever. Even with the visible tension in her shoulders and neck and the slight strain pulling at her serious face.
Dark, bruising shadows marred the skin beneath her eyes. Jagger’s chest tightened with suspicions that she’d barely slept a wink.
You and me both, darlin’.
His own night amounted to a series of countless tosses and frustrated turns. He’d spent hours reliving the events at the port, including the moment when Talia was hit.
Over and over again, Jagger’s subconscious mind created an unwanted, step-by-step replay. Except, in last night’s dreams—which were actually terrifying nightmares—Talia had bled out right there, in his arms.
“Okay, gentlemen.” The sexy Homeland agent started the meeting. Turning to Gwen, she added a tip of her head with a respectful, “andlady,” before addressing the room as a whole. “I know it was a short night, and you all want to get this over with as soon as possible. Trust me, I’m right there with you. So let’s try to get through this with as little side chatter as possible, yeah?”
Those around him mumbled their sleepy agreements, but Jagger remained silent. A beat later, Talia led them through the previous night’s mission. Step by excruciating step.
Their arrival. The time it took to trek from their vehicles to the spot where they’d waited in the trees. Liam documented every detail as it was given so Talia could pass it along to the powers that be.
Speaking of the confounding beauty…
“The takedowns of the first eight tangos were, for all intents and purposes, textbook procedure.” Her pointed gaze scanned the room. “We’ll go over those in a minute, but I just want to put the obvious out there. The problem we will most likely run into is whether our side initiating gunfire at the boat was a justified call.”
“It was theonlycall.” Jimmy’s voice sounded rough as his hardened gaze turned Talia’s way.
Easy, there, Baxter.
Jagger had been in the hot seat plenty of times, himself. But that was no excuse for being rude to the woman simply for doing her job.
“What about the cameras?” Jagger tore his focus from Jimmy to face Liam directly. “You get the footage from the port yet? That’ll clear everything up.”
He sincerely hoped the recordings from last night’s raid would prove Jimmy was a man of his word. After all, the man had been hand-picked for the job.
Just like Jagger and every other operative who worked for Jake McQueen.
“The program to break the system’s encryption is running as we speak.” Liam nodded in return. “The security on that section of the doc was top-of-the-line. Not much of a surprise, given the business Sanchez was attempting to conduct there. Whoever designed it is good, but as you can guess, I’m better.” A quick wink. “Oh, and I’m also running my facial rec software simultaneously to hopefully confirm the identities of the ten who were brought in alive.”
“Homeland’s not handling that part?” Gwen’s gaze quickly swung from Talia to Liam. “No offense. I just figured, you know…” She shrugged. “Seeing as how those guys are part of the government, and all…”
Liam chuckled with a genuine, “No offense taken. And sure, the guys at Homelandcouldget the job done. But my program’s better than the one they have.” He motioned toward Talia. “Just ask her.”
“Liam’s right.” Talia didn’t pull any punches, even when it came to her own team’s level of expertise and resources. “My team will get there, but this way, we can act on the data faster,which will bring us to our ultimate goal sooner, rather than later.”
“The ultimate goal being to take down Sanchez’s entire gun-smuggling operation,” Gwen surmised.
“Correct.”
“You know…” Liam spoke directly to Talia while scooting himself up closer to the table. “If your director would quit shooting me low-ball offers, I’d happily consider sharing my brilliant design.”
“Wait,youdesigned the program?” Blake sounded impressed.
