Sorry for the late update, I had some family stuff come up and I've been transferring books to another platform/website, responding to emails, and signing contracts. Been a little busy. My apologies.

So, good news is that I have basically every chapter of this book outlined which will make writing them and following along much easier, so I should be able to get to the point when I update this book more frequently (but I still intend to put most of my focus on Catching the Storm since that book is close to being finished). 

Catching the Storm will also be updated today. So look out for that for those of you who are reading that book as well.

Enjoy!

Everly's POV

"Sorry," I said as I stepped into my office room, shutting the door behind me. I turned to Ian. "This seriously was not my idea."

Ian looked at me. "I'm actually inclined to believe you since I'm fairly certain the decorations I saw on the way in here are not something you would have picked."

"Are you referring to inflatable flamingos or the unicorn pinata?" I asked him.

He shook his head like he couldn't believe this was a conversation he was actually having,

I took a seat at my desk and pulled out the files Zero had given me from a drawer. "Tell me about the mission you were on," I said. "Where she disappeared from."

Ian let out a sigh. "We were just supposed to be getting some information. Some blueprints for some sort of secret bunker."

I frowned. "Secret bunker?"

"Zero didn't give us any more information. Just where the blueprint files would be kept, and what the number was. It was just supposed to be a short mission. We go in, get what we were looking for, and then get out."

I nodded. "You said her comms cut out?"

"Yeah," Ian shrugged. "None of us even noticed until we tried to speak with her, to ask her how close she was to getting back to the van." He shook his head. "She didn't answer and when we tried tracking her comm it got us nowhere. She was just gone. We went back into the building, to where she'd disappeared from and there was nothing there."

"And what did you do after that?" I asked.

"I called Zero while I had Ryan and Alejandra scout around the outside of the building." He suddenly frowned. "Zero didn't actually question whether or not I was sure she'd been taken he just . . . sent another team and came down himself."

He didn't question it because evidently, she's not the only agent that's disappeared lately.

"And then what happened?" I asked.

Ian threw his hands up in the air and began pacing the room. "Nothing," He said angrily. "Zero went into the building to request their security footage and they refused to give it to him. Not that they'd have been thrilled to give it to him since he'd sent us to break in, but they didn't know that and-"

"Wait," I interrupted him. "They refused to share the security camera footage?" I questioned. "Even after Zero went in and probably showed his badge and ID?"

Ian nodded. "Yeah," He muttered.

I shook my head. "That doesn't make any sense," I said. "Zero didn't press the issue? There's no reason he shouldn't have walked away with the footage."

"He said he'd have someone hack into the system as soon as possible." He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Which didn't make any sense to me since he'd told us the system wasn't hackable which was why we had to break into the server room in the first place!"

I grew quiet, a thought coming to my head. Except, I was hoping I was wrong, because I really didn't want to kill Zero today, but at the same time I knew this was totally something he would do.

"How far away is this building from here?"

Ian frowned down at me in confusion. "What? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question."

"About a half an hour away, if I had to take a guess. Why?"

I reached over and grabbed a pen from the pencil holder on my desk. I pulled out a pad of sticky notes from the drawer and wrote down an address, feeling Ian's eyes on me the whole time.

I turned the sticky note pad around for him to see. "Is this the address of the building you broke into?"

He glanced at the address before looking at me in bewilderment. "Yes," He replied. "How on earth did you know?"

I blew out a breath of frustration. "Lucky guess," I replied as I pushed to my feet and walked over to the intercom on the wall. "Good news is, I now know why Zero didn't press for the footage, and why it wasn't given to you." I pushed a button on the intercom.

"Yes, Miss Kingston?" Henri said over the intercom.

"Did a call come in from Mr. Walters today?" I asked him.

"No, no calls came in for you today."

"Figures," I muttered. "Can you send in Chase and Megan for a minute please?"

"Will do," Henri replied.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Ian asked me.

I walked back over to my desk and dug through the drawers, looking for my keys. "In a minute," I replied. "As soon as I'm sure I know what's going on." I frowned when I didn't find the keys. "I swear I left them right there," I muttered to myself.

"I used them," Megan's voice said to me from the doorway. "I put them back in the other drawer."

I opened the other drawer and pulled out the keys. "Thanks," I told her.

Chase looked at Ian standing in front of the desk. "Agent Ninety-eight," He said as he nodded his head in greeting.

Ian did the same. "Agent Eighty."

"You two know each other?" I questioned.

"We're team leaders. We've met a few times. Mostly at conferences and training seminars," Chase turned to look at me. "You working with his team?" He asked me.

"Define working with."

Chase shook his head and then turned to Ian. "Good luck," He said.

I glared at Chase.

He held his hands up in surrender. "I will remind you that working with you for the first time was no walk in the park."

I shrugged. "You took it better than he's taking it."

"In that case," Chase turned to me. "Good luck to you."

I shook my head. "I'm borrowing your wife," I told him. "I need you to-"

Chase shook his head. "Oh no," He said. "Absolutely not."

"You didn't even let me finish."

"Didn't need to. You're going to ask me to distract Lily so she doesn't find out you're gone." He shook his head again. "Not happening. She's going to kill you and then me for helping you."

"Chase," I said as I looked at him. "This mission that Zero assigned to me, really cannot wait," I said as I shoved the keys in my pocket. "One of his team members is missing and we need to find her before something bad happens."

Chase pinched at the bridge of his nose and muttered something under his breath. "Now I know why you're being so calm about working with his team. Fine," He waved a hand at me. "but you do realize I'll only be able to keep her distracted for like ten minutes, right?"

"That's long enough," I said and he nodded before walking out. I motioned to Megan. "You're coming with me, I'm going to need your help at the company."

"The company?" Ian questioned.

Megan just nodded. "Something wrong?" She asked me.

"Several things are wrong," I muttered as I walked out of the office and the two of them followed after me. "I'm going to need you to take care of some things while I look into something. It can't wait," I said. "My apologies."

Chase grabbed hold of my arm before I could go any further. "Before you go," He said, and he kind of glanced around us. "Can I talk to you in private for a moment?"

I frowned at him. "Why? What's going on?"

Chase glanced over at Ian and I held up my hand to him, silently telling him to give me a minute. Ian shook his head with a frown and crossed his arms over his chest, watching as Chase lead me a short distance away from him.

"What's going on?" I asked Chase again.

Chase stared down at me for a beat before shaking his head and running his hands through his hair. "It's probably nothing," He said as he looked at something over my shoulder, but he looked concerned.

"Out with it," I said as I crossed my arms over my chest.

He shoved his hands in his pockets. "You haven't . . . have you spoken with Jason lately?"

I shook my head. "Last time I spoke with him was before I got stuck on this last mission. And we spoke briefly today, but that was it." I narrowed my eyes at him, "Why do you ask?"

Chase's jaw clenched shut for a moment. "He's been acting . . . strange."

Something inside of me twisted at his words. "Strange how?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "Hard to describe," He said. "but it's different. I know something's bothering him, but he won't talk to me about it."

"Do you want me to talk to him?" I questioned.

Chase shrugged. "If you get the chance, yeah," He replied. "Maybe he'll talk to you."

I nodded my head slowly. "Maybe." Or maybe he won't. "I'll talk to him when I get the chance. In the meantime, just keep an eye on him. Let me know if you notice anything else."

Chase studied me for a moment. "You're worried," He stated.

There was no use in denying it. I nodded. "Yeah," I replied. "I am. Just keep me posted." I turned and walked back over to Ian and Megan. "Ready?" I asked them.

Megan nodded.

Ian scowled at me. "Considering you haven't even told me where we're going, I'm going with no."

I shrugged as I walked past him toward the door. "You can stay if you like," I told him. "It doesn't matter to me. Have a drink," I said. "You could clearly use one."

I could feel Ian's glare at the back of my head as I stepped out the door. Could hear his footsteps as he followed after me.

"Personally, I think he needs more than one drink."

I stopped and turned to look at Sam leaning against the pillar in front of the house. I smiled. "I was wondering where you went."

He shrugged. "I didn't feel like pretending to socialize with a bunch of people I don't like."

I rolled my eyes. "You like some of them."

He just shrugged again and I noticed his eyes were following Ian's movements.

Ian, I noticed, whether consciously or unconsciously, had placed his hand on his gun strapped to his hip when he spotted Sam.

"You use that," I said to him. "and it will be the last thing you ever do."

Ian turned to look at me and then scoffed and shook his head. "Another one of your empty threats?"

I locked eyes with him, my expression going cold. Deadly. "No."

He stared at me for a second longer and he looked like he wanted to take a step back from me, but to his credit, he stayed where he was, and removed his hand from his gun.

"You need help with whatever it is you're doing?" Sam asked me.

I turned back to him. "Are you just trying to get out of socializing?" I asked him.

He smiled. "Does it matter?"

I smiled back at him and shook my head. I gestured to Ian. "Are you going to play nice?"

Sam glanced at Ian briefly, the smile leaving before looking back at me, his dark hair falling slightly into his amber eyes. "I'm not the problem."

I let out a sigh. "Yeah, I didn't think you were."

"I'm right here," Ian said. "I can hear the two of you."

Sam looked at me blankly for a moment before reaching his hands up behind his ears.

I shook my head with a smile, knowing full well what he was doing. He was switching off his hearing aids. So he didn't have to hear Ian.

Sam had been injured on a mission years ago and he'd lost most of his hearing. He could still hear you without his hearing aids, but you'd have to be right next to him practically yelling. So, it was easier for him to use the hearing aids. And he viewed it as a bonus that he could switch off his hearing whenever he didn't want to listen.

"That's not really going to get rid of the problem," I told him, knowing full well he could read lips and knew exactly what I was saying.

Sam just shrugged, smiling when he looked at me. He pointed to Ian and put a finger to his lips before giving me a wink.

I smiled and pointed to the SUV parked in the driveway. Sam walked over to it and hopped in the passenger seat.

Megan leaned toward me. "Does Ian know that Sam can't hear him?" She asked me as Ian muttered something under his breath about Sam.

"I don't think so," I told her.

She looked at Ian as he walked up to the passenger side door and knocked on the window, trying to get Sam's attention. Probably going to tell him to move his seat, since Sam had leaned his seat back as far as possible, put his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes.

"Should we tell him?" Megan asked.

I shook my head with a smile. "Nah, let Sam have some fun with this for a while longer."

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