She suddenly couldn’t wait and circled her arms around his neck, one hand traveling to the back of his head and drawing it down. His hair was soft and sharp at the same time. His body warm.
He bent closer, eliminating the final space between them. Their lips touched. His were warm and gentle but quickly turned urgent and insistent. She gave herself to the kiss. To the emotions. Waiting. Waiting. Hoping for memories to flash into her head. But all she had was now. His lips. The warmth. His touch. And a tremendous urge to explore it all.
His free hand circled her back and drew her tightly against his muscled body. She might not have an actual memory of being in his arms before, but she knew she was where she belonged. Knew that kissing this man was only the tip of what she felt for him. Knew that they were good together. And also knew she might never remember, but hoped—no, prayed—that she was wrong.
Footsteps sounded on the stairway, breaking through Mack’s brain fog. He might be fine with kissing Addy, and she seemed to be equally fine with it, and yet there was no way he’d expose their personal life to the team.
He ended the kiss and pushed back, gulping in air to calm his emotions. Her eyes opened, and she looked confused. Maybe disappointed. Or maybe he was wishing she was disappointed and wanted to continue kissing him—continue getting closer to him again.
Kiley settled onto a club chair and opened her computer, but her focus continued to move between him and Addy.
Mack didn’t want Kiley to get into a personal discussion, so he nodded at her laptop. “Are you going to keep searching for Razo on the dark web?”
“If that’s what you want me to do.”
“I do.”
She gave him a knowing look, and he returned it with a little shake of his head, warning her off the direction he knew she was heading.
“Okay,” she said, but sounded as if it was taking a herculean effort to move on. “I get it.”
“Get what?” Sean took a seat on the couch.
“Nothing,” Mack and Kiley both said.
Sean held up his hands. “No need to let me have it.”
“Sorry.” Mack scrubbed a hand over his face. “Tired. Need some caffeine.”
Sean pointed at the counter. “You have your energy drink right there, so power it down and you’ll be good to go.”
Mack looked longingly at the drink. “I’ve decided to give them up.”
“Seriously?” Kiley flashed her eyes at him. “We aresoin for a horrible time.”
“Maybe I’ll make a cup of coffee.” He turned to the machine, and after handing Addy her cup, he started one brewing for himself. He liked coffee just fine but usually only drank it in the mornings. Or when he needed caffeine and there wasn’t an energy drink in sight. As of this moment, that was going to change, because he meant what he’d said. He’d do anything for Addy. He would. And if she wanted him to give up his favorite drink? For what he’d put her through, it was the least he could do.
Mug in hand, he stopped at the whiteboard to update outstanding leads by adding the fingerprints and DNA from the ICE office. He noted Harris’s name beside it since she would coordinate with the forensic staff.
He took a sip of the strong brew and looked at Sean. “I need you to take charge of vetting the cleaning crew once Cam gets their files from Harris.”
“Sure thing,” he answered readily.
Mack gave his teammate a tight smile. Not long ago he and Sean hadn’t gotten along, and Mack was thankful that the uneasiness had been ironed out and replaced with mutual respect.
Mack’s phone chimed, and he read the text. “It’s the data on the border crossings. Analysts have narrowed it down to two likely locations in California—San Ysidro and Calexico. Both have X-ray technology installed.”
Kiley looked up. “I read up on both crossings. These locations are crazy crossings to try to move guns through. San Ysidro is not only the busiest land border crossing in the U.S., but in the Western Hemisphere. Seventy thousand passengers travel from Mexico to the U.S. every day on that route.”
Addy sat in a chair at the table, Bear coming to rest at her feet. “Makes sense to use those crossings. The busier the crossing, the less time border patrol agents have to search the vehicles. My research said they take like twenty seconds per vehicle to make a decision. At slower, more remote crossings the agents can take their time.”
“I didn’t know that.” Kiley looked at Addy with respect.
“We need to trust the analysts’ findings,” Sean said. “The good news is that we have far less than fifty crossings and an actionable list.”
Mack turned to Cam. “What do you have on federal targets and sovereign-citizen members in Oregon?”
Cam frowned. “Not as much info as I would hope for. With banking federally regulated, these guys don’t have accounts, and I couldn’t locate any financial information that way. I did find info on members suspected in a fraud case who were never charged. They got away with a nearly half a million dollars, so they would have the coin to bankroll a minigun.”
