“Calvert!” Virginia yelled to Shannon, letting it sink in. “You know him. You know why he’s important to me. I’m going for Calvert. That’s what this mission is all about.”

Jake heard her and looked right at her, brows furrowed in a way that said, That’s impossible.

Shannon heard the name. Her heart sunk, then beat wildly.

So that was Virginia’s mission—to take down an untouchable sex-trafficking lord. Roy Calvert was the worst in the world when it came to the sex slavery trade, specifically. USI wouldn’t take him down because of how dangerous he was—wouldn’t even try. He had his hands in everyone’s pockets, connections like you wouldn’t believe. The government wouldn’t sanction any sort of mission against him. In other words, he was untouchable.

Shannon wanted to help.

Which was crazy. She wanted to scream and yell at how crazy she was thinking right now. Guns were being held on her and she was actually thinking how she wished she could help Virginia. The thought passed when the field agent yelled with a booming voice, “Turn around!”

Reynolds had been the key to getting on this plane.

He was Virginia’s step one. She’d needed to establish that a stewardess was meant to be on the flight and that she would be that stewardess. In order to accomplish this, she’d needed to access Reynolds’ secretary’s office. In order to access the secretary’s office, she’d had to get the secretary out of the office, which was located within Reynolds’ mansion.

She’d worked it out perfectly.

She employed Carmen’s help with the plan because the day prior, as she’d been sneaking around the mansion, she found Carmen crying and contemplating suicide.

Carmen was in her own private room on the fourth floor. She’d taken the screen out of her window and was sitting on the windowsill, about to let herself fall.

Virginia stopped her, explained who she was and that she could get her out of the mansion, get her to a safe place. Carmen had nothing to do with Virginia’s mission. Virginia didn’t have to help her. USI instructed their field agents to never go beyond their mission objectives. If this had been a sanctioned mission, USI would have advised her to stay clear of Carmen, let the girl kill herself, focus only on the main objective.

But Virginia couldn’t help it.

Her pulse quickened when she saw Carmen on the windowsill. Her broken heart broke just a little more and she stepped in. It was the right thing to do.

There were no strings.

She told Carmen that once she finished her mission here, she would take Carmen with her, out of the house, and far, far, away.

Virginia had set it up perfectly, a list of items and circumstances that forced the secretary out of the office. She’d explained the plan to Carmen the night prior, because she had nothing better to do. The office section of the house was locked and guarded through the night. Virginia couldn’t leave any dead bodies in her wake, because the flight would then be called off. So she had to wait until morning. Reynolds hadn’t called on Carmen that night, so Virginia slept on the side of Carmen’s bed. They’d talked late into the night.

Carmen had had dreams before she’d been taken.

She’d wanted to be a soccer player. She’d played with her brothers often when they were small.

The day of the mission held promise. The dominoes Virginia had set fell into place and the secretary left the office. Virginia seized the moment.

But while Virginia was in the office, Reynolds came into the nearby hall. Virginia heard footfalls coming down the corridor. Then they stopped. When Virginia peeked out the door, she saw that Carmen had stepped in to stop Reynolds’ approach.

Anger filled Virginia. She didn’t want Carmen to help.

But she watched Carmen entice the man up the stairs, to the floor above, to Reynolds’ room.

Virginia let it play out. Loaded up the secretary’s computer and put herself on the flight’s roster. Then she started up the stairs to Reynolds’ room.

When she was midway up the stairs, a woman appeared at the top of the stairs. Virginia doubled back, ran down a hallway, and hid in an empty room.

Virginia waited.

Then she ran back down the hall.

Her heart was beating for Carmen’s sake.

When it was just for Virginia, when it was just any other mission, and she’d been on plenty, her heart remained calm. But this was for Carmen, for Reynolds, and ultimately for Calvert. This was for every person hurt because of Calvert. This wasn’t about her. She was a vessel crafted for vengeance on behalf of all the crushed and abused lives as far as she was concerned.

Virginia made it to Reynolds’ room. That’s when she saw it happen. Reynolds killed Carmen. He threw her off the balcony. Virginia couldn’t kill him because she needed him.

When she killed him in the airplane bathroom later, she had no remorse. The only remorse she had was that she’d failed Carmen.

Shannon had cut through her with the Carmen comment.

This was different, though.

Virginia knew she could protect Shannon.

In fact, she would.

The rain was still crashing over the roof of the plane, rolling, splashing, pounding into the front windshield. There wasn’t much the pilot could see but dark clouds.

“I have support,” Jake said. “We can use mine.”

“There’s no one as good as Shannon,” said Virginia.

“What’s your end game here?”

Brandon still had his arms crossed. “What are we doing about the dead guy? I don’t want to get caught up in this. Like you said, I’m just a pilot.”

Shannon turned her back to the field agent.

Now she was facing her supervisor, the head of USI: Gregory Paige. The man’s gray hair and stern face were lit by a bit of moonlight that had just now decided to slant through the windows near the ceiling. The rest of him was etched in dark shadows.

Shannon wanted to help Virginia.

But it was over.

“It’s not over, Shannon,” said Virginia.

“Yes, it is,” Shannon replied, in a very low voice.

“You’re talking to Virginia. You need to stop,” a voice said. Virginia recognized the voice—Supervisor Paige. He was there. That was bad.

Virginia faced Jake. She needed to talk to Jake and Shannon at the same time.

Jake was listening, and also placing his ear chip back in his ear.

Virginia stood so close to Jake that she knew he could feel her breath on his face as she spoke:

“The CIA and USI are talking. That’s confirmed. Don’t let them take you in. You know very well how USI treats prisoners. And if USI and the CIA are working together, they’re going to try to bury our intel and progress. They’re afraid of Calvert. You know it’s true. They’re not going to be nice to you, Shannon. They can see to it that you never get another job ever again, anywhere. They can lock you up. You know it’s true. Right-to-trial—they’ll hang you with a grand jury. They won’t let you speak. We waived our rights when we signed up to USI. You know it’s true.”

Jake’s face turned pale, and it wasn’t in response to Virginia.

“What’s wrong?”

“Shoot-to-kill,” he said, putting his ear chip back in his pocket.

“What?”

“USI put out orders. They’ve dispatched a team after you, and they’ve passed orders to the CIA. They’re after you. Priority one. Shoot-to-kill.”

Virginia steeled her jaw.

Shannon had to get the hell out of there.

That was all Virginia knew in this moment. If USI was prepared to kill Virginia over this, they wouldn’t go light on Shannon.

“Shannon, USI has me on a shoot-to-kill list. CIA and USI are after me.” Pause. “I’m sorry, Shan. I got you into this. But I can’t let you go. I can’t lose you. You’re my best friend. I’m going to need you to have some courage. Just a little. And I’m going to get you out. But you have to trust me.” Pause. “You can do this, Shannon.”

“Okay,” said Shannon, lightly.

Virginia breathed out, relieved.

Good.

Shannon was going to try. Virginia knew Shannon’s capabilities. The girl was shy. The girl was an introvert. The girl dotted all of her I’s and crossed all of her T’s and felt bad when she didn’t. But the girl was deadly as fuck.

The rain wrecked itself against the nose of the plane, threatening it seemed to shatter the window. It seemed as though the rain hated it out there and zealously wanted to get inside the cab. Pounded, pounded, pounded.

Brandon Keith was turned in his seat, watching everything unfold.

Chad was flying, locked in.

That’s when a loud knock came on the door to the cockpit.

“We know the blonde is in there. We’d like to speak to her.”

But it didn’t sound like they wanted to speak.