

Agent Alpha

### Tamara Clarke

Agent Alpha

Tamara Clarke

Published by Tamara Clarke at Smashwords

Copyright 2010 by Tamara Clarke

No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including emailing, printing, photocopying, or faxing without prior written permission from Tamara Clarke

Cover Artist: Aaron David

For my mom, because she was the one who first told me I was a writer.
Chapter One

This was not happening at all the way he'd expected it to.

OK, fine.

He could work with this. He'd dealt with worse over the years. The men inside were not going to get away with the stolen goods they had and they most certainly were not going to escape the country.

He just needed to wait until his team showed up and then they would deal with it together. So far, the only whisper in his ear belonged to Fly Ratio and at the moment, his choice words for the boss weren't helpful.

Where the hell are they? he asked himself for the third time since arriving. The only answer was his own mind telling him he should have waited until the team was assembled before heading into town. Again, not helpful.

The tiny electronic piece in his ear crackled and he raised a finger to press on it. "Grimm, here," a new voice greeted him.

"Jones," a second voice joined him.

"You hanging in there, Rhodes?" yet another voice greeted him, this one belonging to Ulster Hound. He directed his question at the man in charge.

In his position just outside the warehouse, Rhodes—the man in charge—rolled his eyes and nodded. He didn't say anything, knowing that wherever they were, they could see him.

His team was good.

When they showed up.

Rhodes shook his head and scowled into the shadows of the alleyway. Thinking that way about his team wouldn't help the situation. He pushed their tardiness out of his mind, along with the fact that he'd taken off before they could gather themselves.

"Maddy's heading up now," Grimm hissed then.

"Jack, here," another voice broke in, louder than the rest.

Rhodes flinched but nodded again. Lifting his face, his eyes trailed up the side of the four-story building directly in front of him. He scanned the fire escape lining the outer wall until he got to the roof line. In the pitch black he couldn't make out any sign of movement but he could almost feel the sniper's eyes on him already.

She'll be there in another couple seconds. He reminded himself to breathe.

"Cricket's got us hooked up together now," Fly said.

There was another crackle and someone murmured something else before the connection fell silent. Drawing in a deep breath, Rhodes ran his finger along the side of his 9mm pistol, pausing on the safety. His breathing slowed and the tension eased from his shoulders.

Barely.

Slowly he crept along the side of the building, the shadows concealing his body from the men inside. He raised himself slightly and tried to peer into the window just above his head. A movement from one side made him drop back down into his stealthy crouch.

"Don't even think about it, Rhodes," the female voice hissed at him through the connection in his ear.

He didn't look up; he knew she was watching him from the nearby rooftop. "When did you get there?"

"Does it really matter?" she said. "I'm here now and we need to get this done."

"What do you suggest?"

She'd been in his ear for mere seconds and she was already causing his heart rate to soar. Maddy Fax they called her, though at the moment all he wanted to call her was an interfering bi—

"They're coming around to the window above you now," she whispered. "Don't move."

"Maddy, what are you—"

He was shushed sharply in rebuke.

Oh, hell no.

She was the last person in the world who was going to shush him. He opened his mouth to tell her so when suddenly the glass window above him shattered into a million little shards, raining down on him. Men began shouting from inside the building and return fire began.

Rhodes swore then scooted across the ground and out from under the now wide open window. He rose and, with a well-placed kick, broke down the door. The staccato sound of gunfire greeted his entrance. He dropped behind a nearby stack of steel barrels before jumping to his feet and releasing several rounds of ammo at the nearest thief.

Rhodes took swift stock of the situation and noted one body lying close to the window he'd just been on the opposite side of.

Son of a bitch!

She'd done it. Killed the one bad guy they were all out to get tonight.

It wasn't an arrest but Rhodes wasn't going to split hairs.

After a quick reload, he darted across the concrete floor towards the crates piled high against the other wall, pausing only once to shoot another man he recognized running towards the exit at the far end of the warehouse. The large man dropped like a stone and the shouting grew louder as the remaining men realized where the new gunfire was coming from.

Rhodes slammed his back against the crates, blinking as splinters of wood flew around him.

"Hold tight, Rhodes!" Maddy's voice crackled in his ear and he bit back a colorful retort. A halt in the gunfire on the other side of the crates had Rhodes wondering if they were reloading or fleeing.

Only one way to find out.

He leaned against the crates and stuck his head partially around the corner only to receive a sharp elbow to the face. Rhodes blocked the follow-up strike and responded with a kick to the knee of his attacker. The man stumbled for a second but reached for a weapon at his hip.

Too late, Rhodes thought and brought his gun up to fire right between the man's eyes.

As the crook dropped before him, he spotted the three remaining thieves making their way through the crates and barrels filling up the warehouse. They were headed for the exit. Rhodes took off running. He yelled at them to freeze but of course, none listened.

Fine. Have it your way.

Rhodes fired twice, felling the man closest to him. The criminal fell, sputtering blood on the floor. Rhodes didn't spare him a glance, just leapt over his fallen form pursuing the last two men attempting to escape.

"Stop shooting, Rhodes!" Maddy cried in his ear piece. He could tell from the vibration in her voice that she was moving, probably running. "We need someone alive!"

"Freeze!" he shouted at the remaining two thieves who were nearly at the doorway.

The one in the lead glanced over his shoulder and the panic was written clearly across his pasty face. Rhodes was closing the gap with each second and the pasty-faced man knew it. His only hope was to reach that door first. Suddenly he stopped and tripped the man running alongside him, causing him to fall awkwardly while he made for the exit.

Rhodes didn't even glance at the fallen man, having heard a bone snap he knew that guy wouldn't be going anywhere in a hurry. He ran flat out for the exit, cursing as the door swung open and the pasty-faced man darted through. He followed five seconds later only to find his target lying prone on the ground, a few feet from the door.

"He told you to freeze," a familiar feminine voice spoke from Rhodes' right. He looked up to see Maddy holding her sniper rifle.

"What did you do?" he demanded, sliding his gun back into the holster under his jacket. Cautiously he approached the fallen man and checked for a pulse.

"I stopped him from getting away." Maddy kept her rifle trained on the pasty-faced man as Rhodes turned him over. Footsteps echoed down the alleyway as Grimm and Jack approached; Rhodes could hear Emilio and Hound inside the warehouse. "Which is more than you can say," she added.

Rhodes fixed her with a glare that would have made any man wet his pants but which seemed to have no effect on her. She met his eyes with her own steady gaze and smiled.

Rhodes confirmed that the man was not dead, just out cold. A rather impressive lump was already forming on his forehead and Rhodes figured it was the result of her stopping him with the butt of her rifle. Rising to his full height, he looked down at Maddy, who stood no higher than his shoulder. She had to tip her head back to look up at his face but there was always something in her eyes that made him feel as though she wasn't looking up.

"Orders?" she asked, sensing what his next words would be.

He jerked his head at the man lying on the ground. "Have him and the other live one taken in to custody." He turned his attention to the two new arrivals on the scene and ordered them to have the merchandise cleared out. Then he followed them inside the warehouse. "Clean this scene up. We don't want the locals to know that anything happened here."

"Too late," Maddy spoke up from behind him. "I hear sirens."

Rhodes listened for a second before swearing sharply. "All right. Get the stuff and get the hell out of here. Take them," he gestured at the fallen men inside and outside, "to the office and we'll all meet back there for debriefing."

"And you, Rhodes?" Maddy asked. She was the only one not moving to obey his orders. It was an absolutely infuriating habit of hers. Even more infuriating was the fact that she seemed to have been the only team member to get to the warehouse on time. Everyone else hadn't come in until after the gun battle was over. Rhodes found it difficult to fault her for that, but he was sure he could think of some way.

"I'll stay here and meet with the detectives, smooth things over," he replied. "Not that it's any of your concern, Maddy. Just do as I say and get them back to the office."

With a nod, she turned on her heel and helped Grimm drag the man with the broken leg out through the back entrance.

Rhodes turned to the rest of his crew and helped load the goods into the two trucks now idling in the big garage doorways. "Fly?" he said, pressing at his ear piece as the last of the crates were loaded into the trucks.

"Yes, boss?" came the reply over the rumble of the trucks driving away from the warehouse.

"You and Cricket meet us back at the office after you get this stuff to the compound. Set up for two interrogations."

"Yes, sir," Fly replied. "And when can we expect you?"

"Start the debrief without me and I'll fill in the holes when I get back."

"All right."

The earpiece fell blissfully silent for the first time all night and Rhodes wandered out in front of the loading docks, watching the tail lights disappear around the corner. He stopped in an open doorway and watched the glowing flashing lights of the local police as they approached.

This should not have gone down this way tonight.

He was well aware that he'd left for the warehouse ahead of most of his team, which left him with no back-up as he'd watched Javier and his crew milling around; easy targets. He had no one around except for Fly in his ear as he'd moved closer and listened to Javier take a mysterious phone call a short while later. From that moment, he knew they had mere minutes before losing the crooks and the goods altogether.

After that, Rhodes was at least thankful the team had taken their places quickly once they'd arrived. And Maddy. At least she'd managed to take out the big bad guy.

Shaking his head, Rhodes turned to look over his shoulder at the fallen crime boss. He walked a few steps closer and examined the shot that had killed him. It was a single bullet wound in the middle of the man's forehead.

She's good.

After only six months in the training program, Maddy had become the leading sniper and one of the nastiest fighters on the team. Rhodes had spent enough time with her to know that she had the attitude to match.

He sighed and breathed one last command into the ear piece, knowing only one other team member would still be connected.

Blue and red flashing lights flooded the warehouse's interior and Rhodes turned around, his hands raised, ready to greet the police.

Chapter Two

"He should be back by now," Cricket muttered as she tapped away at the keyboard before her.

"Relax, Cricket," Hound replied from his seat at the desk nearby. "Rhodes knows how to take care of himself."

She said nothing in response, just pushed at the glasses sliding down her nose and continued with her task. She sat back a minute later, announcing that the meetings were ready.

"Has Doc seen to that guy's leg?" Grimm asked, moving around the office to stand next to Hound. He towered over the shorter man and practically buried Hound in his shadow. Hound didn't mind; he was hardly short in any case.

"It's been set but without painkillers," Cricket replied, a smile quirking the corners of her mouth.

"Cricket, are you amused by this man's pain?" Hound asked, his eyebrows rising.

She shrugged and turned back to her computer.

Another man entered the room and announced that Rhodes was approaching. "With Tait," Emilio Jones added, drawing a groan from everyone in the room.

"Rhodes is not going to be happy about that," Hound stated. He drew his gun from behind his back and clicked the safety on and off. It was a nervous habit of his.

"Stop that!" Cricket cried. She jumped out of her seat and hid behind Emilio. "You know I hate it when you play like that with your gun."

"I'm not playing with it," Hound protested but at a glance from Grimm, the younger man tucked the gun safely away behind his back again. He stretched in his seat, putting his hands behind his head. "So how do you think Tait found out about this?"

"I called him," a new voice spoke up from the doorway.

All eyes turned to see the pint-sized sniper standing there.

"We're ready to go in the conference room," she said. "Rhodes told us to start without him." She disappeared and the four left behind exchanged glances before following her down the hall.

Fly Ratio and Jack were already seated around the large mahogany table, notes spread out before them. They stopped discussing their part in the mission when the rest of the team entered the room. Jack—a woman, despite her alias—directed a question at Maddy.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to call Tait?"

Maddy shrugged and sat down at the far end of the oval shaped table. "Rhodes needed someone to pick him up from the station."

"What? You think he got arrested?" Hound asked, moving around the table to sit across from her.

Again, she merely shrugged.

Hound shook his head, refusing to believe his boss, the Colossus of Rhodes, would allow himself to be dragged off in handcuffs.

"Lieutenant Murphy has been out to get him for months," Grimm spoke up. "It was probably a good idea to get Tait to pick him up. The detective wouldn't have accepted any of our stories."

"He's right," Fly agreed. "Now who would like to begin?"

"I will," a familiar voice spoke up from the doorway. All eyes turned to see Rhodes standing there. He walked into the room and sat down to the right of the head of the table. Under normal circumstances, he sat at the head but tonight, someone else held the position of honor.

Tait walked in the door behind Rhodes and smiled grimly in greeting to the team. He was not an exceptionally tall man, nor was he built exactly like any of the other team members gathered. He was slim, but not skinny, lean where the others carried more pronounced musculature. Something about him commanded the attention of a room and no one doubted for a second that he could perform the same duties as the rest of them. His eyes were dark and they flashed at unexpected moments, glittering dangerously; something that left no doubt of who was in charge.

Officially he worked for the government as a low-level secretary, lending support to the cabinet members from his relatively obscure location in the foothills of Alberta. Those seated at the table knew him differently. To an outsider, he was merely a supervisor of the technical support staff who went by the moniker TAITS—Tactical Assistance and Internet Technical Support. Those inside the support group knew the truth: they were a well-trained machine, used in operations the government would claim to have no knowledge of, let alone any involvement.

What the team members never could figure out was who within the government oversaw their operations. They'd once discussed the possibility that CSIS must be involved but too many missions had occurred without CSIS presence.

Tonight one of those operations had occurred and the outcome—Tait's presence in the conference room—was not what any of them had wanted.

"I understand that the merchandise was moved to a secure location," Tait began.

"Yes, sir," Fly spoke up, barely glancing from his laptop screen. "Everything has been stored at the compound."

"Good. As for the rest of what happened tonight, I'm sure I don't need to hear every detail." Tait stood in front of the chair, leaning his hands on the dark table before him. "I expect a full report at nine a.m."

"Yes, sir," the eight team members replied in unison.

"Rhodes," Tait said, turning his unwavering gaze on the big man to his right. "You owe me bail money." Without another word, he strode from the room, leaving the rest of them to sort out 'every detail' of the night.

No one spoke for a full minute after Tait's departure. They all exchanged uneasy glances with each other, not looking at Rhodes who sat in stony silence at the front of the room. He finally raised his eyes and looked them all over.

"Any injuries to report?" he asked, his eyes flicking from face to face.

They all shook their heads.

"The prisoners?"

"Doc set the one's leg," Cricket answered for all of them. "The other is still unconscious but Doc expects him to come around any time now."

"Fly, how is the report coming along?"

"Nearly done, boss. I'll have a copy ready in about ten minutes."

"Good. Put it on my desk."

Silence descended once more on the conference room.

The seven team members sitting around the table shifted uncomfortably in the silence, waiting for Rhodes to speak again. Finally one of them couldn't take it anymore.

"It was Maddy who called Tait," Jack blurted.

"Jack!" Cricket hissed, glaring at the other woman.

"Well, she did and Rhodes deserves to know why his ass is in a sling tonight," Jack replied.

"It's hardly in a sling, Jack," Rhodes commented, looking at her. His gaze didn't falter and she had to look away after a moment. He let his eyes travel over everyone's faces again, studying each of them in turn. Maybe it was to see who else questioned his words but Rhodes would admit, if only to himself, that he liked to make sure they all looked unhurt.

To his immediate right was Fly Ratio, a computer genius and whiz with cars. He had come to TAITS as a skinny techno geek with bad fashion sense. He still had bad fashion sense, as was evident tonight with his black flood pants and button-up shirt with a coffee stain down the front. His hair was a floppy mess of dark curls and below the unruly mass, his eyes glowed bright blue as he typed away on his laptop. He may be dressed like a nerd but his knowledge of computers and government systems was second only to Cricket. He'd graduated from the intense training program as an accomplished marksman and approached every situation with a cool head that Rhodes could appreciate.

Beside Fly was Jack, outspoken Jack. Though her hair was blonde and long, and her eyes a strange amber color, she didn't inspire lust in a lot of men. She was tall, just shy of six feet, and she often used her height to her advantage. She may not have the same obvious curves as an average woman but she was beautiful in her own way. Coming out of the training program, she'd excelled at hand-to-hand combat and could kill a person several different ways without breaking a sweat; another talent Rhodes appreciated.

Next to Jack at the far end of the table was Ulster Hound, or Hound to the team. The name said it all. Following nights like tonight Hound could usually be found in a bar or club, picking up any number of pretty, simple women. Women were drawn to his crooked smile and laughing blue eyes. His physique might have something to do with the attraction as well; he was slightly taller than average at just under six feet and he had a body honed by long hours in the gym and in the field. Though a dog at heart, there was no one with greater knowledge of explosives. He took great pride in his work. If nothing else, he was serious about the job and his place on the team.

On Rhodes' left was Cricket, a slender woman with surprising strength. Surprising because she had the appearance of a meek librarian, with constantly smudged glasses covering her dark brown eyes and mousy brown hair. Not quite as tall or sturdy as Jack, her talent lay with the computer gadgetry she and Fly seemed to get so excited about. Last year she'd designed a target practice program for the team, which they all took turns at. So far she led the group, with close to thirty kills in a five minute span.

Left of Cricket was Emilio Jones. Ever since she'd pulled a bullet out of his side on her first night with TAITS, he'd become her unspoken bodyguard. He was the epitome of mystery, with dark features and a broad body. Nothing got past Emilio, who had well-rounded skills with guns, combat and technology. His true talent lay with the cars he and Fly liked to tweak. Right now, Emilio chauffeured everyone around in a jazzed up Dodge Grand Caravan. Didn't sound like much and it sure as hell didn't look like much, but Emilio did magic with nondescript vehicles and more than once his abilities had saved their asses.

On Emilio's other side was Grimm Rapier. He was probably the most experienced when it came to the underworld. From what Rhodes had gathered over the years, Grimm had grown up in some of the roughest neighborhoods in Montreal. He still spoke with a slight accent as a result of his upbringing but all else that was fundamentally Quebecois had long been erased from his person. He was as tall as Rhodes but with a leaner build that concealed a swift fighter with lightning reflexes. His perfectly straight teeth peeked from between his lips and his classically angled face was framed by purposely messy brown hair. The smile combined with the twinkle in his brown eyes was usually enough to be the end of any woman; even Jack, however she may try to deny it.

At the far end of the table, as far as she could possibly be from Rhodes, was Maddy Fax. She had only been with TAITS just shy of a year and already she was the unspoken second-in-command. Hound and Grimm might argue the point, but they knew it was true.

Maddy had a way about her, all five-feet-two fighting inches of her. She was without a doubt the best shot in the room, which explained her position as sniper during most operations. Many people might underestimate her because of her size, but Rhodes was aware of her solid strength and he knew she could take on any threat.

Before coming to TAITS, someone had gotten close enough to Maddy to do serious damage and it still bothered Rhodes that he didn't know exactly how she'd received the scar. It started up past her hair on the left side of her face, making her hairline crooked, and it tracked down across her skin through the left eye to the upper corner of her mouth. The white line through the eye lid gave her a sleepy look, as though she wasn't quite awake or all there, but Rhodes knew that wasn't the case. He had recognized the strength behind the jagged scar and the discolored iris early on, while her vicious stubbornness had introduced an unasked-for stress to his life.

She wasn't looking at him right now; her auburn head was bent over the table and one small hand was playing with a groove in the dark wood. Lifting her head briefly, her eyes met his and she blinked, the dark lashes moving slowly over the brilliant green of her good eye. As quickly as she'd met his gaze, hers skittered away again and he allowed himself a small smile before looking away as well.

"I gave Maddy an order to call Tait if I wasn't back within the hour," he announced, sweeping them all with a fierce look before coming to rest his eyes on Jack who looked appropriately chagrined. "She did as she was asked, for once," he added under his breath, stealing another look at the misfit at the end of the table. "Tait was going to hear about this one way or another and I thought it'd be best if I spoke with him one-on-one before submitting our report."

No one had anything to say to that and Rhodes nodded.

"Now I'm going to start my meeting with Mr. Broken Leg and see what I can find out." Rhodes rose from his chair. "I hope you all understand that this current assignment is not over yet." They all nodded and Rhodes left the room.

Everyone else followed except Maddy. She paused by Fly to lean over and read what he had written of their report so far.

"Are you authorized to be reading this, Fax?" he asked, barely glancing in her direction. He was the only one on the team to call her by her second code name. Maddy didn't mind.

"Are you authorized to be writing it?" she replied, resting one hand on the table beside him and leaning closer to scan the contents of the report. "You're leaving out Rhodes' location when the first shot went off."

Fly nodded slowly, still not looking at her. His fingers continued to fly across the keyboard.

"Tait will want to know," Maddy went on when Fly didn't respond.

"Tait wants to know that a job is done and that's it," Fly replied. "Rhodes knows that and that's why he asks me to write these reports and he just signs the bottom."

"Does he even read them first?" she asked, frowning as she straightened.

Fly snorted on a laugh. "He used to but the big words give him a headache." Maddy's hand snapped out and caught him on the back of the head.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" he demanded, looking at her while rubbing his head.

"Rhodes is our leader." She brushed a stray lock of hair off her face. Her damn ponytail was coming loose all over the place. "Don't talk about him like that." She stalked out of the room.

She seethed all the way down the hall and two flights of stairs to the interrogation rooms in the basement of their office building.

The building wasn't much to look at from the outside, or even on the main level. It was just another metal-clad building in an industrial neighborhood and only the team and their associates knew what really went on inside. The first floor had a reception area and a few offices and empty rooms down the hall. The second floor was where Rhodes' personal office was located as well as the conference room they all gathered in following a job. Down in the basement was the storage area and holding rooms for their prisoners.

The upper floors were guarded in the usual manner, with a security system. The basement was more heavily fortified with thick concrete walls between each room and between the rooms and the hallway. Every room also had a heavy metal door that was locked with individual security codes only the eight members of TAITS knew.

Once downstairs, Maddy glanced inside the first room to see Rhodes standing to one side, facing a very scared-looking man with a temporary cast on his leg. The room was bare except for the chair the prisoner was sitting on. Rhodes was speaking to the man as he methodically unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, revealing the two handguns he had concealed in a special dual shoulder holster over his undershirt.

Maddy watched, riveted as Rhodes began to circle the man. She could see his mouth moving and the steely look in his eyes. It always amazed her how a man like Rhodes worked. He commanded whatever room he was in and right now he was in command of the man he was interrogating.

She'd always wanted to be present when he questioned someone but she suspected she hadn't earned enough respect and trust for that to happen. Sighing, she looked away from the little window in the door and shook her head. Honestly, she didn't know if any of her teammates had what it took to stand in a room with Rhodes while he questioned somebody.

Looking in the room again, she studied Rhodes' profile, wondering how he'd gotten to this point; leader of TAITS and a deadly weapon with or without assistance of the inanimate kind. The origin of his alias was obvious, he was a huge specimen of a man, standing six feet three inches tall and broad across the shoulders and chest. He didn't work out, not that Maddy knew of, but his body was shaped and contoured like any regular at the gym. She could see his muscles bunching with tension and relaxing as he circled closer and closer to the man in the chair.

"How's he doing in there?" someone spoke up from Maddy's right and she glanced over to see Grimm approaching from the opposite end of the hall.

"Hard to tell, without really knowing what he's saying," Maddy replied, not bothering to conceal the frustration in her voice.

Grimm chuckled and stopped beside her. He peered into the room through the little window just in time to see Rhodes stop behind the man and whisper something in his ear that caused the prisoner to soil himself in an obvious manner.

"I'd give my right eye to be in there right now," she whispered.

"He does this work alone, Maddy. You know that as well as I do."

"I know, but I don't understand why."

"Really? You've never figured it out?" Grimm asked, looking down at her.

"No. What?" Maddy looked up at him and smiled when she saw his infectious grin spreading across his handsome face.

She wasn't immune to his charms, not exactly. He'd propositioned her a few times in the beginning but she'd been firm. Now they were friendly but there was always that underlying, unspoken offer. Maddy would never take him up on it—never in a million years—but it was nice to know there were men that weren't put off by her personality or her appearance.

"Rhodes tries to be a nice guy most of the time," Grimm said, his eyes sliding back to the interrogation room. "He's our buddy as well as our boss and he always tries to be there for us when we need someone. But in there," Grimm jerked his chin at the door. "In there, he has to be the worst, the meanest and the coldest son of a bitch on the planet."

Maddy followed Grimm's gaze and nodded. "I get it. He doesn't want anyone to see him that way."

"Especially you," Grimm said over his shoulder as he turned to walk away.

"What?" She whipped her head around to look at him, but he was already gone. Shaking her head at his mysterious ways, she turned her attention back to the interrogation room and stared hard at the man inside, who was trying very hard not to piss himself again as Rhodes moved closer and closer.

Chapter Three

He was done for the night.

Rhodes was more relieved than usual as he walked away from his 'meeting' with the second man apprehended at the warehouse. He made his way slowly through the building until he reached his personal office. Once there, he shut the door and leaned back against it. He tossed his jacket and shirt over the back of his chair and rubbed his face with both hands.

He felt, not for the first time, that he was getting too old for this life, these meetings and these operations that had once seemed so vital to him. Most nights now he lay awake for hours worrying about whatever new mission he'd receive in the morning. When sleep finally did take over, he'd dream about everything he'd done in the past; everything bad and bloody.

I can't take much more of this, he thought with a heavy sigh and then his hand went to the gun in his holster as a knock sounded just by his head.

Slowly he turned around and opened the door a crack, gun in hand as he peered out to see a familiar face.

"Maddy," he breathed, relieved that it was her. "What are you still doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you after you were done with those two," she replied, her one good eye shining in the dim light of his office.

He studied her face and wondered why she was so into this life and this job. What had she done before this? He couldn't help but wonder sometimes if the reason she got that horrific scar was the same reason she was here. Right now, he wondered if she thought he was a little strange for staring at her without saying a word.

"Can I come in?" she asked when he still didn't respond.

He stepped back, holstered his weapon and opened the door. Unsure of her intentions, he remained near the door, watching her warily as she stepped into the room. When she turned to face him, she gave him a strange look.

"Did you get anything out of them?" she asked with unfaltering directness.

Rhodes shook his head. "Nothing that we didn't already know." He pushed off of the door and walked over to throw himself in his desk chair. "I think they were never supposed to be there tonight. Something went wrong and that's why we got the call."

Maddy frowned and leaned one hand on the corner of his desk. "Why would you think that?"

"These two guys weren't even middle men," Rhodes explained. "The only name they gave me was Javier and we already knew he was a big player in town."

"Javier wasn't in charge of what was going on down there?"

"It looks like he was just following orders," Rhodes confirmed with a slight nod. He studied Maddy's face as she absorbed this bit of information.

"Who the hell would have the kind of pull it takes to order Javier around?" Maddy mused aloud, turning slightly and resting her backside on the corner of the desk. She glanced over her shoulder at Rhodes with her eyes narrowed. "Did they explain why they were about to torch the entire shipment?"

Rhodes smiled, pleased that she hadn't forgotten that small detail. "Not in so many words," he answered then he frowned as he recalled the words of the pasty-faced man Maddy had knocked unconscious.

"What is it?" Maddy asked, picking up on his discontent immediately.

"I have a bad feeling that whoever was in charge of this deal was tipped off about our arrival."

"A rat?" she said, the word being turned into something sounding like a death threat in that tone.

Rhodes allowed himself another small smile before looking in her direction again. "Such a colorful term. But yes, it seems that someone on the inside has been informing Javier's boss. In turn, he notified Javier. Too late, of course."

"But still," Maddy said, rising to pace about his small, sparsely furnished office. "This is unbelievable! Where do we even begin to investigate a mole in the program?"

Rhodes raised his eyebrows as he watched her move back and forth.

"Wait." She stopped and pointed at Rhodes. "You don't suppose that it's someone in TAITS, do you?"

"Never. Not in a million years," Rhodes replied immediately. He leaned forward, his chair creaking back into place. "But I don't want you broadcasting this information to everyone just yet. Not everyone is as...disciplined as you or I. They may say something to someone and chase away any leads before we even get started."

Maddy grinned and Rhodes was transfixed for the moment. She smiled so rarely and every time she did, he was dumbfounded, something he couldn't explain.

"I understand, boss," she said and he laughed.

It was a rare occurrence when she smiled, sure, but even rarer were the instances when she referred to him as the boss.

"So is Emilio gone, too?" He glanced at his watch and groaned when he saw the time.

"Yeah, he took everyone back to the compound hours ago," Maddy replied. "The loaner is still here though."

Rhodes groaned again as he thought about the long ride home in the loaner, an old Ford Tempo that always sounded and smelled like it was mere minutes away from blowing up. Fly insisted that it was fine and he intended for the sounds and smells as a cover. Rhodes couldn't understand why they couldn't have a perfectly sensible and non-smelly or shaky Jaguar or Porsche.

Maddy smiled again at his reaction and walked to the office door. "Come on, Rhodes. I'll drive and you can keep your eyes closed the entire way."

Rhodes snorted and shook his head before following her out into the hallway. He grabbed his coat off the back of his chair as he went past.

"Are they being transported to HQ?" Maddy asked as they descended the stairs. She was referring, of course, to the two captives.

Rhodes nodded and stifled a yawn, which surprised him. He thought for a moment that he might be able to get some real sleep tonight. "Tait sent a unit and they came by about a half hour ago to load them up."

Maddy pulled the keys out of her pocket. Rhodes noticed that she still wasn't wearing a jacket.

"Aren't you cold?" he asked as they walked across the deserted parking lot to the rusty Tempo. For his part, the autumn chill was already setting in and he went nowhere without a jacket. Maybe it's just because I'm getting old, he thought ruefully.

Maddy looked down at herself and as though responding to his question, goose bumps rose all along her arms. She shook her head and opened the driver's side door.

"I don't think so, Maddy," he said and stopped beside her.

"I thought you wanted to sleep the whole way home?" she asked, a sparkle in her eye.

"I never agreed to that," Rhodes replied and snatched the keys out of her hand. He may be tired and hate the loaner with a passion, but he'd never allowed a woman to drive him around and he wasn't about to start now.

With a sigh, Maddy surrendered and walked around to the passenger side.

"You never did answer my question," Maddy said as he started the beast and began to back up.

"Which question?" Rhodes replied. He threw an arm across the back of her seat and twisted around so he could see where he was going.

"About how we start looking for this leak."

Rhodes glanced in her direction and shrugged. "I'm a little tapped for ideas tonight, Maddy. You got any?"

She seemed to light up at his inquiry and turned towards him in her seat as they exited the parking lot. She was about to speak but as they reached the top of the rise at the end of the street, she remained silent, her eyes going to the view out the windshield. The city of Calgary was always a sight to behold and Rhodes personally preferred the view of the mountains on clear days. Maddy had once told him she loved the city lights at night. Tonight she was especially lucky as there was no moon and the lights glowed even more brightly under the black sky.

Rhodes took his time rolling along the street to the turn, wanting to give her as much time as possible to enjoy the view. He hid a smile when he heard her faint exhalation as they rounded the bend and dropped below the buildings surrounding them. She may be a huge source of stress in his life but he couldn't help liking her. No one in TAITS could help it.

"I think we should go to HQ," she said.

Rhodes snorted again and glanced sideways at the petite woman. "What for?"

"You can make up some story about needing to question those two men further. Once word gets around that we're not letting this thing drop, even after we've officially closed the case on our end, someone there will be informing whoever it was that informed Javier tonight."

"That's a bit of a stretch, Maddy. And when did we close the case exactly?"

She smiled again. It was an exceptional night to be getting so many smiles out of her. "Well, you're going to edit Fly's report before sending it in."

"Hmm...You're certain it's someone at HQ that's ratting us out?"

Maddy shrugged at that, her smile disappearing. "Where else? We both agreed that it's no one within our team."

"True. But most everyone at HQ has no idea what we really do. We can't go around, demanding to interrogate two federal prisoners when we're from a tech support group headed by a western divisional secretary."

"Why not?"

That was it. This attitude she was pulling out now was what made Rhodes' heart rate climb. He shifted in his seat and pressed a hand to his chest for a moment before speaking, hoping she'd drop the subject soon or he'd just give in and drive them both off the road and into one of the trees lining the side.

"Because it would get us nowhere," he answered. "I've been doing this a long time, and the only way we get anything done is by doing it ourselves."

"That's what I'm saying!" she exclaimed, throwing one hand up in the air.

"And getting it done under the radar," Rhodes finished his thought, fixing her with what he hoped was a stern look. He was tired and he couldn't be certain that she'd ever taken his looks seriously, let alone tonight. "We're a field operations tech support group, Maddy. According to everyone and every finance report, that's what we are. TAITS has absolutely no reason to go to HQ, let alone question two processed federal prisoners."

Maddy slumped back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. Rhodes exhaled sharply and focused on the road ahead. Neither of them spoke for several long minutes.

"There's got to be a way to get to HQ and at least look around a bit," Maddy said.

Rhodes sighed and shook his head. The woman was never going to give up. "Look around?"

When she didn't answer right away, he looked over at her only to see that she was gazing out the window at another view of the city. He used the moment of her distraction to breathe deeply a few times to slow his heart rate. None of his other operatives worked him up this way and he wasn't at all certain how to deal with her. It had been nearly a year and he was just as mystified now as when she'd first joined the team.

"Yes, look around," Maddy repeated as they descended into the river valley and across the bridge in Fish Creek Park. "We're not going to find out anything from Calgary."

"You're right," Rhodes agreed and she beamed momentarily at him. "But you aren't going to be the one looking around."

"Why the hell not? I'm just as qualified as anyone else on the team," she protested and Rhodes winced at her tone.

He raised a hand to his head and recalled in stunning detail the sharp blow to the face he'd taken earlier in the evening. So much had happened between the bust and now that he'd actually forgotten about the hit. Listening to Maddy's insistent chatter and dealing with her pushy attitude had brought it all screaming to the forefront.

"What's wrong with you?" she demanded a moment later, glaring at him as he rubbed his head repeatedly.

"Nothing."

"It's not nothing." She flicked the interior light on.

"Maddy!" he exclaimed, batting her hand away and flicking the light off again.

"You're bruising," she told him, turning her glare on him full force. "What did you do?"

"What did I do?"

Where did she get off grilling him like this?

"I told you to hold tight," she said.

"And I am the one who issues the orders!" Rhodes narrowed his eyes on Maddy, which didn't faze her one bit. She returned his look for a second before facing forward again. "You're the rookie, in case you've forgotten, Maddy. I don't take orders from anyone except Tait and he sure as hell wasn't in that alley with me tonight."

Silence greeted his announcement and he rubbed his forehead again, glancing sideways at the woman beside him. She faced the windshield, arms folded over her chest, jaw set firmly. Rhodes pressed down on the gas pedal, wanting to reach the compound and his apartment as soon as possible so he could get the hell out of this car and away from the world's most infuriating woman.

Chapter Four

Rookie! Unbelievable.

Maddy was fuming as the car approached the long, secluded gravel driveway of the TAITS compound just outside the small town of Priddis, southwest of Calgary. She hadn't spoken a word since Rhodes' little outburst and neither had he, which suited her just fine. If he'd said anything more, she might not have been able to control her reaction.

Ever since joining TAITS ten and a half months ago, she'd been the first choice for surveillance and shooting from a distance; or for shooting up close and personal, if it ever came to that, and it often did. Everyone had accepted her from the end of her first assignment with the team, when she'd stopped a smuggler from escaping into Montana.

Single-handedly, she added silently, turning her face to the side window. She refused to look at Rhodes as they slowly pulled up to the steel gates that marked the entrance to the compound.

For some reason Rhodes refused to believe that she was an actual asset. She figured he didn't want to accept her because of her age. Cricket and Jack had been around for years before she came on the scene, so she knew the problem wasn't that she was a woman. It never occurred to her that her mere presence sent his heart rate through the roof. All she was knew was that he was quite possibly the single most difficult man she'd ever known.

Her list of difficult male encounters was a mile long, starting with the bastard who'd cut up her face. Sighing and shaking her head, Maddy banished those thoughts, refusing to taint the night's success with such a bad memory.

Finally the car rolled into the garage at one end of the compound and she leapt out of the car, almost before it had stopped moving.

"Goddamnit," she heard Rhodes mutter as she left the car, door hanging wide open.

She allowed herself a small smile, knowing that whatever it was she did it bothered him so much, sometimes she actually enjoyed irritating him.

Moving swiftly, she made her way along the dark pathway between the six-car garage to the main building of the compound; the 'Big' house as they all referred to it. It contained all their private apartments, one extra-large kitchen with state-of-the-art appliances, and an entertainment room sporting a kick-ass home theater system. She bypassed all the major draws of the house, not greeting anyone and bolted up two flights of stairs until she reached her own set of rooms on the third floor; strangely, they were across the hall from Rhodes' apartment.

Sighing heavily, she unlocked the door to her apartment using the numbered panel on the wall. She figured Rhodes would be only a few minutes behind her and he might even come looking to finish their argument. Hoping that he would just head to bed, Maddy entered her living room and turned to secure the door behind her.

Rookie! she thought to herself again as she crossed to the bedroom, stripping the layers of her clothing as she went. She tossed her shirt on the chest at the end of the bed before taking the tie from her hair, releasing the unruly red mop. She continued through the bedroom to the bathroom where she flicked the light on and looked at herself in the mirror.

As always, she studied her face and raised one hand to trace the harsh white line of her scar. She wondered, not for the first time, if anyone ever looked past the scar. Shaking her head at the pointlessness of the thought, she straightened and turned to start the water. Then she wandered back out to her bedroom, leaving the water to run for a bit; she enjoyed getting into the shower once the room had been completely filled with steam. She found it more relaxing and after tonight's activities, she felt like she needed to relax.

She stood in the middle of her bedroom, gazing at the bed first before turning her face to the windows beyond. She walked over to the windows and relaxed slightly in spite of her mood as she watched the twinkling lights of Calgary. The compound was situated high on a hill, with her apartment on the northeast side, giving her an almost perfect view of the city from her apartment, which was why she'd asked to move into this particular one.

It had been occupied by Emilio when she'd first arrived but he'd graciously relinquished the room following her first successful mission. She smiled now at the memory, knowing Emilio believed she'd earned her choice of the apartments because of what she'd done all those months ago. Emilio was like that; rewards for being good, punishment for being bad. Even though Rhodes was right across the hall, Maddy had accepted the apartment just so she could stand at the windows and look at the glow of Calgary's lights whenever she felt like it.

Now she faced the downtown lights of the city with no smile on her face. She blinked and looked above the orange-pink glow of the lights to the stars and crossed her arms in front of her.

Why doesn't he like me? she wondered. I'm a good member of the team. I get the job done.

Reaching out with her right hand, she pressed her fingertips to the glass, feeling the chill from the outside. The weather was starting to turn with the season and it wasn't even October yet. Being so close to the mountains usually meant colder temperatures at night, which she hadn't quite adjusted to yet. Turning towards her bed again, she checked to make sure her many blankets were piled there. Then she walked over to her homemade dresser and pulled out her favorite set of flannel pajamas before heading back into the bathroom.

* * * *

Rhodes swore again as he walked around to the passenger side of the car to lock and close the door Maddy had left open. He ensured the garage door was closed and locked tight before walking across the wooded area to the big house. He knew that surveillance cameras and Fly had been tracking their approach from a few kilometers away. He was also aware that the entire perimeter of the compound had been locked down and armed the moment they crossed through the heavy gates.

Sighing, he rubbed at his face before heading up the walk and into the house through the main kitchen. He wasn't surprised to find Cricket and Hound in there, with Cricket mixing something in a blender. The noise was harsh compared to the silence outside and he flinched involuntarily as he shut the door behind him.

"Rhodes!" Hound exclaimed, jumping off his stool by the kitchen island and hurrying towards the bigger man. "You all right, boss?"

"I'm fine," Rhodes replied, probably a little harsher than was necessary. His conversation with Maddy in the loaner had set him on edge. His eyes went to the clock on the stove and he groaned inwardly when he saw how late it was. "Everyone else gone to bed?" he asked, walking further into the kitchen and throwing his coat onto a chair.

Hound snorted at Rhodes' inquiry and returned to his stool, watching Cricket complete some sort of mixed drink for him. Rhodes narrowed his eyes at the younger man and Hound looked away self-consciously.

"What Hound means to say is that everyone is still wide awake," Cricket answered, smiling congenially at her superior. She removed the blender jug from its stand and poured the purplish liquid into a mug for Hound. "Jack and Grimm went downstairs to work out and Emilio went to the rec room for some pool, I think. Fly is holed up in his rooms, probably watching the world from one of his computers."

Rhodes listened, rolling his head from one side to another while rubbing at the side of his neck. The headache was slowly starting to recede and he thought he might get that sleep he'd been hoping for.

"Maddy?" he asked in spite of himself.

Cricket and Hound exchanged a quick look that Rhodes caught and didn't like one bit.

"She's here," Cricket replied, filling the blender with more fruit and fixings without looking at Rhodes.

"I know she's here," Rhodes snapped. He crossed the kitchen to lean his two hands on the kitchen island. "We arrived together."

"She passed through a minute ago but didn't say a word," Cricket told him, still not looking his way.

"What did you do to her?" Hound asked and flushed when Rhodes turned his cold eyes on him.

"I did nothing," Rhodes said and straightened. "It was all her."

"As usual," Hound muttered and took a big swig of the drink Cricket had given him.

"I'm going to my rooms now and I don't want to be disturbed for the next twelve hours." Rhodes turned away and walked out of the kitchen. "Understood?" He threw the word over his shoulder, not waiting for a response but he could almost feel them saluting him.

He felt like his limbs were getting heavier with each step up the two flights of stairs to his apartment. He paused at the second floor landing and glanced down the darkened hallway. He heard a distant thumping, like that of a stereo and nodded to himself, guessing that Fly was lost in his music and surveillance. Grimm's apartment was across from Fly's, but Cricket had said Grimm was down in the basement working out with Jack. Cricket's rooms were directly in front of the staircase and she was still downstairs feeding Hound.

Drawing in a deep breath as though steeling himself for something difficult, he continued up the steps until he reached the third floor, occupied only by himself and Maddy. Whatever twist of fate had brought them together in TAITS had also moved her across from him and he felt his heart lurch within his chest as he reached the third floor.

He turned briefly, looking at the door to his right, wondering if Maddy was pacing through her rooms as she tended to do when upset. He wasn't quite sure how upset she was with him after their argument in the car, but he was sure he didn't want to revisit it. So instead of knocking on the door to Maddy's apartment, like he might have done any other time, to rehash the discussion and work it out, he turned to the left and entered his own private apartment, looking forward to sleep.

It was well past midnight and he was utterly exhausted. It had been a long time since a job had affected him this much. He suspected it had something to do with the fact that he'd arrived back from the West Coast only a week ago before being thrust into the middle of this latest mission.

Like tonight's job, his mission in Vancouver had not gone according to plan. Not at all.

He was still sporting fading bruises all over his chest, back and even down his legs from the beating he'd taken. Well, not a beating exactly, more an exaggerated questioning period during which he'd learned enough to kill his captor and take the other man who'd been there into custody. However, he'd had no time to heal before being handed the file on what had happened tonight.

Slowly he removed the holster from his shoulders and carefully set it down on the chair by his main door. Then as he walked through his living room to the master bedroom beyond the ornate double doors, he pulled his shirt off over his head. Grimacing in pain, he dropped the shirt as he walked and turned his attention to the button of his pants. By the time he reached the bathroom he was mostly naked and he leaned over the bathtub slowly, breathing heavily.

Jeez, he thought with a head shake. I'm acting like an out-of-shape retiree or something.

He straightened and turned on the water for the shower. Then he turned and sat down on the toilet, propping his elbows on his knees and resting his face in his hands while he waited for the water to heat up. He liked to wait until the shower and the entire room was steaming hot before getting in. He found it more relaxing that way.

I can't do this much longer, he thought, his mind replaying the events of the past twenty-four hours. He knew something serious had gone wrong. Just like he'd known when it had gone wrong in Vancouver a week ago.

He was a smart man, adept at planning the search and destroy missions that TAITS specialized in. It was what had gotten him the position in the first place, way back when TAITS had been just him and Grimm.

A lot can change in ten years, he thought and groaned, leaning back against the toilet tank, running a hand down his face. Ten years, Christ.

Before being 'discovered' by Tait and asked to spearhead a new tactical team, he'd been an experienced officer with the RCMP. Before that, he'd served in the armed forces, learning the way of the world overseas. Before all that, he'd been lucky to complete high school before taking off to make his mark on the world. All his adolescent life he'd longed to escape his small town surroundings and high school had not held his attention at all. But graduate he did and the moment the ceremony was over, he'd boarded the bus in Cranbrook, British Columbia, and left the mountains behind to go east. Now here it was, nearly seventeen years after his graduation and he felt like he was ready to retire.

I'll retire after I figure out who's compromising my missions, he thought firmly before removing the last of his clothing and stepping into the shower.

* * * *

There were no alarm clocks in his apartment. Rhodes despised alarm clocks with a passion. But it never failed, on mornings when he wanted nothing more than to doze until the sun was high in the sky, Maddy's alarm would go off, waking him up.

We should have made these goddamn apartments soundproof, he thought as he pulled the spare pillow over his head.

He could still hear the tinny music through the padding of the pillow and he cursed out loud. He didn't understand why she needed the damn thing turned up so high. Did she really sleep that heavily? Somehow Rhodes doubted it. He pictured her lying with a pistol in hand, ready to gun down anyone who tried to overcome her. The image of her leaping from a dead sleep to shoot an intruder brought a momentary smile to his face before the music abruptly ended.

Breathing a 'thank you' into the pillow, Rhodes rolled onto his side and settled in to sleep the morning away.

Not ten minutes later that damn alarm went off again, startling him into a sitting position.

That's it.

He bolted from his bed and darted out to the hallway. With no preliminary warning, he pounded his fists against Maddy's door.

"Goddamn it, Maddy!" he shouted, pounding harder when the alarm didn't stop.

"What?!" she hollered as she wrenched the door open.

For a moment he was struck mute by her appearance. He'd never seen her before she'd dressed in the mornings and secured her auburn hair into a ponytail. She stood before him now in wrinkled flannel pajamas, her hair a wild mass surrounding a face creased with lines from her pillow. The scar was almost indistinguishable from the rest of the lines and he felt himself shifting closer to her. Her good eye flashed dangerously at him and the glimmer he saw there brought him roaring back to reality. He suddenly realized that he was standing in front of her in only his boxers and it made him momentarily forget his anger at being woken up.

"What is your problem, Rhodes?" she demanded, her voice high.

"Your damn alarm, Maddy." He glared down at her, recovering enough from his initial shock to be angry again. "Turn that thing down or next time it wakes me up I'm putting a bullet in it."

She laughed condescendingly, making him even angrier. "You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn first thing in the morning."

"You have no idea what I'm capable of first thing in the morning." He leaned closer to her as he spoke, zeroing in on the emerald green and milky shades of her eyes. As he looked into them, he realized suddenly that she maintained some color in her injured eye and it was as brilliant a green as the good one.

"One day you'll have to surprise me then." She stepped back from him and slammed the door in his face.

He stood there in complete shock for a full minute, wondering what the hell had just happened. He'd never lost it so completely over something so little before.

An alarm clock? Shaking his head, he turned around, unaware that Maddy was watching him through her peephole until he disappeared back into his own apartment.

* * * *

Alone inside her apartment, Maddy was still trembling from the encounter with Rhodes. She hadn't been aware that her alarm clock was loud enough for him to hear. She'd even tested it once from the house hallway with her door open and she hadn't heard it then.

Raising herself slightly to look out the peephole again, she wondered how light a sleeper he must be to have heard it through two doors and several walls. She also wondered why the sight of his naked torso had thrown her so completely when she'd opened the door.

What the hell was that? she thought, freaked out like she'd never been before.

Shaking herself slightly, she moved away from the door and stood in the middle of her entryway, picturing his chest again in spite of herself.

She'd been wrong the night before while watching him interrogate the men at the office. She had thought he maintained a fit body through some other method besides lifting weights. Now she wasn't quite so sure. No mere service work could maintain a physique like that.

Or perhaps it had been the fiery look in his deep blue eyes when he'd threatened her that had her quaking in her flannel pajamas. As she replayed his words in her mind, she decided it hadn't sounded like a threat.

A promise, she thought and felt herself begin trembling anew.

She was sweating underneath her flannels pajamas and looked down at herself. Realizing she'd answered the door like this, she groaned aloud, slapping a hand to her head in mortification. Her fingertips slid into the mass of tangled auburn waves and her embarrassment grew another notch.

How do these things happen to me? she wondered before dashing to the bathroom, where she started to untangle her hair.

A half hour later she felt sufficiently recovered to head downstairs and begin her morning routine. She hoped that Rhodes had gone back to bed for a while and they wouldn't have to deal with each other right away.

Of course, she didn't think her luck was that good and she walked into the kitchen to find Rhodes pacing with a cell phone to his ear.

He was dressed at least, and Maddy thanked him silently for that, looking away as he turned in her direction. She made a beeline for the big fridge in the corner and searched for longer than necessary for one of her premixed protein shakes. When she closed the door on the fridge and straightened, Rhodes was nowhere in sight. Breathing a sigh of relief, she chugged her milkshake and rinsed the bottle out before heading outside for her morning jog.

Chapter Five

"I understand that, sir," Rhodes was saying, trying to pay attention to the man on the other end of the phone as he paced the kitchen floor. It had been nearly an hour since his rude awakening and he still wasn't feeling quite right following the confrontation upstairs. He was thrown even further off balance as Maddy entered the kitchen. He whirled around and strode out into the hallway, needing to escape her presence.

"I don't think you do, Rhodes," Tait barked at him from the other end. "What you're asking me to do is going strictly against all the rules that have been set forth. You and your people don't operate outside the guidelines. Ever."

"I think we have to make a concession this time, sir," Rhodes pressed on, refocusing his mind on the conversation. He had plenty of time to deal with Maddy but right now he needed to find some things out and he couldn't do it from Calgary. He needed to go east to HQ.

"A concession?" Tait repeated, his tone incredulous. "Any concessions that you had coming your way were used up last night, Rhodes. Are you aware the trouble your little shootout has caused me?"

"No, sir," Rhodes mumbled, though he could damn well guess.

"I'm facing an inquiry from the cabinet members themselves and I can't tell them a damn thing they'll want to hear," Tait went on, his voice rising in volume with each word. "I need to smooth this over or you and your people will be out of jobs, or worse!"

Rhodes nodded, knowing what the 'worse' would entail. He didn't like it but he was somewhat relieved to know that Tait didn't sound pleased with that option either.

It bothered him when Tait chose to remind him of their 'guidelines.' Sure, when the team had first been formed, Tait had tried to implement the so-called rules. It hadn't taken long for Tait and Rhodes to realize that it wouldn't always be so clear-cut. Of course, Rhodes knew Tait was throwing the rules in his face now because of the mess last night.

On the other end of the phone, Tait drew in a deep breath before speaking again.

"I'm heading to Ottawa tomorrow and I need to know if you can manage not to fuck things up even worse than they already are."

"Sir, what happened last night was not a result of anything I or my team did. That's what I've been trying to tell you. Something is going on at HQ and we need to find out what or who is fucking up our missions. Sir," he added as an afterthought, his heart rate climbing.

Maddy wasn't the only person in the world who got his blood up.

"Rhodes, do you have any idea what you're asking me?" Tait asked after a moment of silence, his voice sounding strained.

"Yes, sir." Rhodes straightened up.

Again Tait breathed deeply before speaking. "I will find out what I can while I'm there and see if I can arrange something for you and one team member. Two of you, Rhodes, that's it. Any more and our entire cover would be compromised."

"I understand."

"Do you honestly think someone within our own government is messing with TAITS?"

"I sincerely hope not, sir. But what other explanation is there?"

"One of your team?" Tait suggested, though Rhodes could tell from his tone of voice that he didn't really believe that.

"You know how we operate here." Rhodes wandered over to the window just in time to see Maddy move past, jogging briskly. He drew in his breath sharply and then berated himself in silence.

"I do, Rhodes. And I'm going to find out all I can, believe me."

"Yes, sir."

"I'll contact you when I have something," Tait said and the call was over.

Sighing, Rhodes snapped his cell phone shut and turned away from the window. He walked back to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water before heading down to the basement for a workout.

* * * *

Cricket crept out of her apartments and tiptoed down the hallway to tap on Grimm's door following the episode on the third floor between Maddy and Rhodes. Her handsome teammate opened the door looking as though he'd had a rough night, but he smiled welcomingly at Cricket and stepped back to let her inside.

"Can you believe all that?" Cricket asked in a whisper though they both knew no one else would hear them.

Grimm made some noise that didn't exactly sound like a response but Cricket needed very little encouragement to continue speaking. As Grimm moved back through his apartment, Cricket followed, chattering away in a low voice. She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Grimm was half naked, wearing only his boxers.

"I've never heard them act like that before," she said as she walked a step behind Grimm all the way into his still-dark bedroom. "I really thought they might start throwing punches."

Grimm snorted as he flopped back into his bed, idly pulling the covers back over his lower half. Cricket perched on the edge of the bed and half turned towards him as she continued speaking.

"I sure couldn't hear her alarm clock, although we are on the floor below them," Cricket went on, touching her face in an absent-minded manner as she considered the facts. "Rhodes sounded really angry. One of these days they are going to have a shoot-out, I swear. It's unbe—"

Grimm's strong arm snaked out from under the covers and hooked her around the waist, pulling her down on to the bed beside him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Cricket demanded, though she was shaking with barely contained giggles. She was horribly ticklish—a fact she tried her hardest to keep from everyone in the big house—and Grimm was holding her just where she was most sensitive.

"Lie still," Grimm said gruffly into her bare shoulder. She slept in a tank top and boxers most of the time, and today was no exception. "I can't think with you going on like this."

Through the sleepy timbre of his voice, his accent was stronger in the morning and Cricket obeyed his request for a moment, not moving or speaking.

"But don't you think it's a little odd for them to be flying off the handle like that?" she finally burst out, unable to remain quiet.

Grimm sighed and turned his face further into the pillow under her shoulder. He mumbled something that she didn't catch and he didn't repeat it when she asked what it was.

"It's been tense around here lately, sure, but that was just crazy!" Cricket went on, oblivious to Grimm's obvious desire for more sleep. She kept talking, asking and answering her own questions without waiting for him to respond. She wasn't silenced until Grimm moved suddenly and swiftly a moment later, covering her body with his own and laying his lips against hers.

At last, she went absolutely still, letting his lips move against hers and allowing his hands to creep up her sides until they were cupping her face gently. Slowly he pulled away and smiled down at her. She smiled back, not in the least embarrassed or awkward. It just wasn't her way.

"Good morning, Cricket," he murmured and leaned down to kiss her again before she could respond.

So it went for several long minutes. They didn't move, aside from his mouth working against hers. All the while though, her mind was moving at light speed, trying to sort through the events of the past twenty-four hours and trying to determine at what point Rhodes and Maddy had completely lost it. When Grimm finally realized Cricket wasn't giving in to his advances, he ended the kiss and rolled onto his back, releasing her.

She turned onto her side and rested her head on one raised hand while studying his profile. It wasn't every morning that she came to Grimm's room to chat but almost every time she did, he attempted to shut her up in the same manner. She didn't object really; he was a pleasant enough kisser. She never encouraged him to go further and usually after a few minutes, he would allow her to carry on with whatever conversation she'd started upon her arrival.

As she looked down at his face she wondered why she didn't feel that thing that women always seemed to feel for Grimm. She thought he was handsome, but she certainly didn't think he was handsome enough to sleep with after just one meeting. Or several meetings. Not even after years of living across the hallway from each other.

"Do you think we should try to talk to them about it?" she asked, breaking the silence between them.

Grimm slid a sideways glance at her and smiled. "Are you out of your mind?"

"I don't think so. I think if they carry on this way, it could start to affect the team."

"Rhodes is a big boy," Grimm said a minute later, throwing the covers off and rising to his feet. "He can handle Maddy on his own."

Now it was Cricket's turn to snort as she got up. "I'll see you downstairs in a few. I think I'll make waffles today!"

Grimm watched her go with a smile and shook his head ruefully as she disappeared. He wasn't sure what it was about Cricket, or any of the women in TAITS for that matter, that intrigued him so much. Not only did none of them seem interested when he did his best to draw them in, but they were strong, independent women; complete opposites of the women he was generally involved with.

He walked to his bathroom and had a quick shower before heading downstairs to eat the promised waffles. As he reached the foyer outside the main kitchen, he ran into Jack and Hound, both coming upstairs from their apartments in the basement. Neither one of them looked happy.

"What's up with you guys?" Grimm asked as they walked into the kitchen together.

"Rhodes came down way too early this morning to work out," Hound replied, rubbing his eyes like a little kid. He was still dressed in his pajama pants, topless, and his skin all over was marked with sleep lines from his bed sheets.

Jack on the other hand, was fully clothed and showered, ready to face anything, it seemed. Grimm looked her over once as she passed by him to take a seat at the breakfast bar. He walked over and took the stool next to her, smiling in greeting. She nodded without smiling and he took that as a good sign. Usually she'd tell him off the first chance she got.

"I think he's working through something," Jack commented and watched Cricket mixing the ingredients for her special homemade waffles.

Cricket looked over her shoulder at Grimm and he smirked back at her. Jack and Hound noticed the look immediately.

"What's going on?" Jack demanded.

Grimm shrugged and reached for the newspaper that lay on the edge of the counter.

"No, come on, guys," Hound spoke up, around a broad yawn. "After a night like last night, we shouldn't see Rhodes for most of the day. And we all know it."

"Yeah," Jack agreed with a nod. "So what gives?"

"Apparently Rhodes and Maddy had words this morning," Grimm told them.

Cricket snorted from her position near the stove where she was looking over some bacon that was frying. She might say that she would cook waffles for breakfast but that always meant waffles, bacon, eggs, hash browns and possibly some fresh fruit. It was never just one item with Cricket in charge of their meals.

"What was that, Cricket?" Hound asked, smiling for the first time that morning. "Did you just sneeze all over our breakfast?"

Cricket threw a grin over her shoulder and pushed up the glasses sliding down her nose. Like Hound, Cricket was also still dressed in her pajamas. Of all of them, Cricket and Hound took the longest to get ready on any given day. However, while Hound was meticulous with his final look, Cricket came out looking much the same as she had going in; rumpled clothes, wild brown hair and smudged glasses.

"Really, guys," Jack spoke up again, rolling her eyes. "What was the fight about?"

Grimm shrugged when Jack looked his way. Cricket took over as she went back to the waffle iron.

"Maddy's alarm clock was set too loud and it woke Rhodes up," Cricket said. "He threatened to shoot it if she ever set it so loud again."

Jack's eyebrows shot up almost to her hairline. As Grimm looked over, he smiled when he saw her expression almost matched Hound's.

"That's not like him to freak out over something so small," Jack said after a minute.

"That's not like who to freak out?" A new voice spoke up and they all turned to see Fly walk into the kitchen. He headed for the bacon cooling on the counter and received a sharp rap on the knuckles with a spatula for his troubles.

"Man, you are vicious in the mornings, Cricket," Fly told her but kissed her cheek in greeting.

"Sit your ass down and stay out of my way, Fly." Cricket waved the spatula in warning when he snatched a piece of bacon.

Grimm watched it all with amusement. The favorite part of his day was the morning, especially mornings like this one. The morning after completing a job, they all gathered for whatever grand breakfast Cricket made and they were genuinely happy to be around each other. Or rather, they were relieved that all of them were still alive to enjoy breakfast together.

"So what's going on?" Fly asked again. "Someone lose it last night that I don't know about?"

"Not last night, this morning," Hound replied, taking up a section of the newspaper that Grimm had discarded. "Rhodes and Maddy."

"That was them?" Fly said. "I was afraid there'd be a bloody mess when I came out this morning."

"It couldn't have been that bad," Jack said.

Cricket and Grimm exchanged another look before Cricket responded.

"It was bad enough," she said, tossing a few more waffles into the pan she had resting inside the warm oven. "I could feel the tension through my door."

"Man, what is up with those two?" Hound asked after a moment, looking up from the newspaper he was holding but not reading. "There's been nothing but tension between them all week."

"Ever since Rhodes got back from Vancouver," Jack added with a nod. "Maybe something happened there that we don't know about."

Fly shook his head. "No way. I saw Rhodes' report. Nothing happened that would make the two of them fight like they have been this past week."

"Then what's Maddy done?" Jack asked, her eyes narrowing. She'd had a problem with the little sniper since her arrival.

"Nothing that we know of," Cricket answered. "Aside from having the volume on her alarm turned up too high to suit Rhodes."

"They've lived across from each other for months and it's never bothered him before this," Grimm said. He wasn't a morning person either, but there was definitely something going on with the boss and if it was affecting everyone else on the team, then they needed to figure it out.

"Maybe something did happen in Vancouver that he's not telling us," Hound said with a shrug. "Whatever it is, I'm sure he can deal with it."

They all nodded in agreement at that, their faith in Rhodes great enough to remove any doubt. A few minutes later, Emilio entered the house through the side door of the kitchen and he strode over to Cricket to give her a morning hug and kiss on the cheek before greeting everyone else. Grimm glimpsed a movement to his far right that caught his attention. Hound had sat up a little straighter and something in his stance told Grimm that it bothered him to see Emilio touching Cricket.

Interesting, Grimm thought. I wonder if Hound's even aware that he's doing it.

"So what's the plan for today, Fly?" Emilio asked, grabbing a slice of bacon and getting away with it, earning him a dirty look from the tech genius.

"Not sure," Fly said. "The report has been sent off to Tait and we have no other job lined up at the moment."

"Day off!" Hound exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air in jubilation.

"Don't count on it," Grimm spoke again. "I'm sure Rhodes will have something for us to do."

"Seriously?" Hound replied, his expression wounded.

"We haven't all been together like this for a while," Jack spoke next. "Before Rhodes was in Vancouver, Emilio and I were in the Caymans and before that Hound and Fly were at that overseas convention."

"So?" Hound couldn't comprehend what any of that meant.

"So Rhodes probably has some training planned for us and he'll expect us to be around," Emilio filled in. "Plus, he did say last night that the job wasn't over yet."

"Coffee anyone?" Cricket asked loudly to be heard over the sound of Hound's groaning.

Grimm stepped down from his stool and walked around the island to retrieve some coffee mugs from the cupboard while Cricket set the coffee pot on the island, along with sugar and cream. While they moved about, finishing up with the breakfast prep, footsteps sounded on the stairs coming up from the basement.

"Here comes the big guy now," Hound said, setting the newspaper down to accept a mug of coffee from Grimm.

Just as Rhodes made his way from the hallway to the kitchen entrance, the side door to the house opened and Maddy strolled in from outside, sweating from her morning jog.

Everyone froze.

For a second or two, Maddy and Rhodes didn't notice each other but then their eyes met, and everyone else in the kitchen could feel the air crackling between them.

Grimm coughed to break the silence a minute later and that shook everyone out of their trance. Cricket moved to the oven and removed the tray of waffles and scrambled eggs she'd done earlier. Jack jumped up to pull out some plates and utensils while Hound shuffled the newspapers out of the way so everyone could sit at the breakfast bar lining the island.

Rhodes kept his gaze fixed on Maddy while everyone started moving around and he was mildly satisfied to see her drop her eyes before he did. She walked into the kitchen, mumbling a greeting to everyone while she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Rhodes watched her for a moment before walking further into the kitchen.

"Morning, boss," Grimm greeted him and offered him a cup of coffee, which Rhodes declined.

"What's the word this morning?" Fly asked as he scooped some eggs onto his plate.

Rhodes wandered over to the fridge to get his own bottle of water while keeping a wary eye on Maddy, who circled the island to the opposite end. He could feel the curious glances of his team members as he did so, but he couldn't help himself. Maddy had set him on edge this morning and he didn't know what to do about it. He cursed silently a moment later when he registered Fly's question and realized what it meant.

"Emilio, I'm going to need you to drive me back to the office today," he said, ignoring the surprised looks on several faces.

The big man at the end of the breakfast bar merely nodded and asked when.

"In an hour," Rhodes said, glancing at the clock over the stove. It wasn't quite nine o'clock yet. "Fly, you and Cricket need to spend the morning cataloging the goods we picked up last night and I want details when I return later."

Both of them nodded their acquiescence.

"Grimm, take Jack and Hound downtown and see what you can find out about what happened yesterday. Someone has to know something and I want extra info on what's being said street level."

"What about me?" Maddy asked when he'd finished doling out his orders for the day.

Rhodes looked over and met her eyes. "You're coming to the office with me. Be ready in an hour." With that, he turned and walked out of the kitchen, not touching the food that had been laid out.

Chapter Six

Maddy stayed, feeling her cheeks color and hating herself for it. She took the plate Cricket offered her and loaded a few items onto it, taking a generous helping of fruit. All the while, she wondered what could possibly be going through Rhodes' head to make him take her into the office with him, without the others.

Sighing, she sat down at the kitchen table, away from the others and munched absent-mindedly on the food before her.

"You all right, Maddy?" Cricket asked, sitting down next to her.

Maddy nodded and smiled at the scattered-looking woman next to her. She knew it wasn't the way Cricket really was. Like everyone in TAITS, Cricket had special skills and she'd put them to use many times over the years. Maddy studied her face for a few seconds, trying to figure out how old Cricket was. Though they could guess, no one in TAITS knew how old each other was. Rhodes was the only one who had any details on any of them and Maddy was pretty sure that not even his files contained some info, like what their birth names were.

"I'm fine, Cricket," she replied. "Thanks for breakfast. It's great."

Cricket beamed and nudged the glasses back up her nose. "Anytime. Let me know if you want anything else."

"No, thanks." Maddy pushed away her half-eaten plate of food. "I should get changed before we head out." She stood and hurried from the kitchen, conscious of the color still in her face.

Her run had done nothing to erase the memory of that morning's encounter with Rhodes. Now she had to spend another day with him, without the others around. Well, Emilio would be there, so that was something she could work with. Trying not to think about it, she ran up the two flights of stairs to her room and stripped down for a shower. Then she quickly dressed before heading back downstairs and out to the garage where Emilio and Rhodes were already waiting for her.

"Ready?" Rhodes asked with a smirk.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I wouldn't want to cut into your primp and curl time with something as insignificant as work," he replied sharply.

"Does it look like I primp and curl?" she asked, throwing her arms wide on either side of her. She regretted it immediately when she felt his eyes travel up her body, slowly and with great prejudice, she suspected. She crossed her arms over her chest as his eyes met hers again, feeling exposed and cursing inwardly when her face colored yet again.

"I stand corrected," he said and turned away to get into the van beside Emilio.

Rolling her eyes skyward and asking for patience she didn't quite have enough of, she followed and climbed into the middle row behind Emilio and Rhodes. The drive to the office was silent for the most part, with Emilio tapping his fingertips on the steering wheel.

When he pulled up in front of the gray tin office building, Maddy jumped out, glad to escape the tension. Rhodes followed and turned back to speak to Emilio, who made no move to get out at all. Maddy's inner warning flag went up immediately as they spoke. Then she felt her stomach drop when Rhodes closed the passenger side door and Emilio drove away.

"Where is he going?"

"Back to the compound to pick up Hound, Grimm and Jack for their assignment," Rhodes replied, not even looking at her as he walked over to the main doors. He entered a code into the number panel beside the door and pulled the door open before turning to face her. "What? You won't stay here if you're stuck alone with me?"

"No," was all Maddy could manage to say, and then she walked past him.

He turned the lights on as he walked in behind her and they made their way silently through the building and up a single flight of stairs to his private office. Once there, he sat behind the desk and started the computer.

"What am I doing here, Rhodes?" Maddy asked, not sitting down.

"You're here because I ordered you here," he replied and she had to bite back a scathing retort. As though sensing her anger, Rhodes looked up and met her eyes. He then gestured at one of the chairs across from him. "You're here because of last night."

"Because of what I did?" she asked with a frown. "Am I being reprimanded?"

"Reprimanded? What for?"

She shrugged. "For setting my alarm too early and too loud?" she offered, knowing she was being a smartass and not caring.

When he narrowed his eyes at her, she quashed the urge to cross her arms in front of her again to disguise the shiver. Not until this morning had his looks had such an effect on her. She found it entirely unnerving and that pissed her off.

"I told you what I would do if your alarm ever woke me up again," he said mildly, though his expression spoke volumes about what he was really thinking. "However, that is not why I brought you here today."

"Then what?"

Rhodes settled back in his chair, his face relaxing. "Last night we talked about the chance that there's a leak."

"Yeah?" Maddy perked up at last.

"Well, Tait is going out east this week and he said he'd find out all that he could before he'd allow me to go as well. I need to spend all my time this week until he calls again going over the details of last night. Something went wrong in that warehouse and I want to find out what before I have to talk to Tait again."

"What do you need from me?"

"I need your help, Maddy," he told her, startling her with his honesty. "You had a different view on everything that went down last night. Everyone else, myself included, was on the ground until you arrived." He paused, as though remembering something. "Where were you yesterday?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked, playing dumb, though she knew exactly what he was referring to. She'd been the last one to show up at the building before everything happened and no one until now had questioned her about it. Some small part of her had been hoping no one would recall her absence the day before.

"Don't do that, Maddy," Rhodes warned her, leaning forward on the desk. "You were supposed to be at the compound last night. When Fly tried to reach you, all he got was your voice mail. Then you suddenly show up at the last minute? Come on. I'm not stupid."

"I never thought you were, Rhodes." Maddy looked away from the intensity in his eyes.

"So are you going to tell me? Or am I going to have to beat it out of you?"

Maddy snorted and swung her eyes back around to his face. "You could try."

"Don't tempt me."

They fell silent again, their eyes locked and Maddy swallowed hard before opening her mouth to respond.

"Can't I keep anything to myself?" she asked, her voice sounding small and insignificant even to her own ears.

He studied her in silence for a moment before speaking again. "Does what happened with you yesterday in any way compromise your position with TAITS?"

She shook her head.

"Will you ever allow yourself to be late to a job again?"

She shook her head again.

Rhodes nodded after another moment of silent study and sat back in his chair. "Fine. I can handle that."

"Thank you," Maddy whispered, feeling genuinely relieved. As much as she'd tried to distance herself from her old life since joining TAITS, it seemed to have a way of sneaking up on her when she least expected it. Yesterday had been no exception and if she didn't have to talk about it ever again in the next ten years, she'd be happy.

"Now about last night," Rhodes went on, tapping at a few keys on the computer keyboard before him. "What did you see from up top?"

Maddy described the events that had unfolded following her arrival at the scene. She then explained that she'd left the rooftop after firing that shot, coming down the fire escape on that side of the building. At the time, she hadn't taken note of everyone else's location. She'd only been thinking of getting down to Rhodes as quickly as possible.

"That's when you went to the back of the building and stopped the second guy from getting away," Rhodes said and glanced over at her.

She nodded. "Then it was all over," she concluded. "I don't see how that's going to help you at all though."

"It helps. Every point of view helps. Fly gave me the rundown on what electrical signals came and went from the warehouse and the interrogations gave me some other info as well."

"So what are you thinking?"

"I think that once Cricket and Fly get through those containers and tell us exactly what we're dealing with, we'll be able to narrow down the playing field."

"How so?"

"Well, every item that gets smuggled in or out of the country is classified into separate categories," Rhodes explained, wondering if she'd ever heard this before. From the expression on her face, it was all new to her. "Drugs are a top priority so they are classified as Gold. Illegal immigrants are next, Silver. Stolen goods are Bronze, but they are also broken down into subcategories. Cars are Bronze One, electronics are Bronze Two, and so on." He paused to see if Maddy was following him. At her nod, he continued.

"Each category of smuggled items is looked after by a corresponding group in the government. That group takes care of tracking, surveillance, apprehension. We, as you know, deal mainly with Gold cases. We're also called in when a smuggler or group of smugglers has caused too much grief and regular authorities can't bring them in."

"So we were called in last night because no one's been able to apprehend Javier?" Maddy asked, frowning as she tried to process it all.

"That was my first thought," Rhodes said with a nod. "But Javier wasn't even the guy running the deal. And he wasn't known as a smuggler."

"No, he wasn't," Maddy agreed as she recalled the details surrounding their local crime guy. "He was a drug dealer and a thug, but he'd never been the one pulling off cross-border deals." She paused and Rhodes remained silent, watching her work through her thoughts. "So why would he have been in that warehouse with truckloads of goods to smuggle? It's more than anyone would start with, even if that were the case with him."

"Exactly," Rhodes said, pleased that she'd caught on so quickly. For his part, he'd spent the better part of the night stewing over all possibilities before coming to the same conclusion. "Javier was connected to others around the country, known smugglers, but no one at HQ told us who he'd been in contact with leading up to last night."

"They must know," Maddy broke in. "Every group watching each category of smuggled items probably keeps tabs on their major players. They would know when someone from Quebec was talking to someone in the Yukon, wouldn't they?"

"Yes," Rhodes replied with a nod.

"Why would they send us on a recovery mission without giving us all those details?" Suddenly her face lit up. "And why wouldn't they tell us that someone would be contacting Javier last night?"

Rhodes grinned. He couldn't help himself. Maddy was quick. Her mind worked light years faster than most of the team, himself included. At that moment, he found it difficult to be annoyed with her for being so young and accomplished.

"That is why I brought you with me today," he told her, pointing a finger in her direction. She smiled in reply and he was surprised to see the blush staining her cheeks. "So what do we do now?" she asked as he clicked away on the computer.

"Well, not much can happen until we know what goods were in those crates and barrels."

"Then we can analyze the group looking after that category of smuggled items," Maddy finished for him.

He grinned and nodded again. "Boy, you're quick in the mornings."

"I'm quick all the time," she replied tartly, settling back into her seat. "You're just too much of a grump to see it most of the time."

"A grump?" he repeated, raising his eyebrows at her. He'd been called many things in his life, some more colorful than others, but he'd never been referred to as a 'grump' before.

"Yes."

"Why? Because I don't spend every waking hour praising your many talents?"

"That's not what I meant," she began but he held a hand up to stop her.

"I may not say much, Maddy," he told her. "But I am well aware of all your credentials. You would never have been asked to join TAITS without my approval in the first place."

"Your approval? Is that what you call it?"

"Yes, my approval."

Their eyes met again across the desk and this time, he had to look away. She hadn't affected his blood rate since first thing this morning but this conversation was so far beyond anything they'd ever discussed before that he was slightly put off by it. Most days, they said 'hello' and 'good-bye' and he issued orders in between. Often she'd talk back but he rarely registered any of it, chalking it up to youth and a desire to prove something. Now as she sat across from him, repeating so many of his own thoughts from the past twelve hours, he realized something else. And that made him extremely uncomfortable.

"So what exactly am I doing here?" she asked, breaking the silence between them and shifting in her seat. "I've told you everything. Now what?"

"You're the only one I want to know about what's really going on," he confessed. "It's not that I don't trust the rest of the team. They're just not—"

"As disciplined as we are," Maddy finished for him with a smile. "You said that last night."

"Did I?" Rhodes asked, frowning as he tried to recall.

"Yes." She studied him silently for a moment. "How's your head today?"

"My head?" Rhodes raised a hand to his forehead in confusion until he recalled the blow he'd taken and Maddy's discovery of it. "Oh, all right I guess. Is it bruised?"

She shook her head. "Not really."

"Good." He returned his attention to the computer screen.

"What do you want me to do while you're doing that?"

"In the archive room, there are files containing our intelligence on Javier. Find all you can and bring it up to the boardroom. We may have to wait for some info from the others before we can do much, but we can at least start our own list of all his known contacts and their known contacts."

"Gotcha," Maddy said and rose to do as he'd asked.

Rhodes watched her disappear out his doorway before he turned back to the computer, shaking his head in wonder.

Chapter Seven

Maddy wasn't sure how long she spent in the dusty basement of the office building. She had done as Rhodes asked and gone to the archives room to look up everything they had on Javier. It had sounded straight forward.

It wasn't.

The room was a mess. She'd located the listing of what files should be there, but when she'd opened the box that should have contained all Javier's information, it was filled instead with files labeled 'Mission File A-1.'

Maddy had never before seen evidence of the first official case handled by TAITS. She looked over her shoulder before opening the first file.

Inside were several documents and pictures dated nine years ago, from Rhodes' first year in TAITS. This file apparently held all the information and reports from the first major mission carried out by TAITS. There were pictures and call lists, several long excerpts from foreign correspondence and an incident report from the end of the mission. This Maddy pulled out and scanned with great interest. When her eyes fell on a single line halfway down the third page, she stiffened and didn't realize her mouth had dropped open in shock.

Agent Alpha suffered an injury resulting from close contact with primary target, Janis Herring, alias: Black Miranda. Pursuit of Black Miranda ended when Agent Alpha shot target with standard issue 9mm. Target was fleeing transport from safe house to helicopter at downtown Toronto location. Black Miranda did not die from initial gunshot wound, struggling against her captors; Agents Alpha and Beta. Agent Alpha suffered stab wound from target who held concealed weapon not confiscated during holding period.

Maddy inhaled sharply as she read that, covering her mouth with one hand. She read on in silence. Alpha—she knew that was Rhodes—was stabbed in the thigh, close to the femoral artery, resulting in a long recovery. He'd lost a lot of blood at the scene, prompting Grimm to get him on the chopper and ensure they made it to the closest hospital. The target, the notorious Black Miranda, died before being transported off that roof top. The fatal strike? Another gunshot wound delivered to her chest, directly through the heart. The killer? Agent Alpha, Colossus of Rhodes.

Even as she read the report, Maddy couldn't believe that it had been her superior, her own Rhodes, who had taken down the single most notorious spy in the recent history of the nation. She'd been terrorizing Canada from all corners and from abroad for more years than Maddy knew. As part of her own training before joining TAITS, Maddy had learned all about Black Miranda. What she hadn't known was how the woman had died.

Pride for her fellow teammate swelled within her until she finished reading the report. As she read on, her shock grew.

She'd never seen Rhodes bring a woman back to the compound or to the locations they'd been sent to over the past several months. She'd never heard him speak of anyone with any sort of affection, other than Grimm, but she wouldn't even classify that as affection; more a sort of respect.

Agent Alpha to undergo strict evaluation to determine further effectiveness as an operative in TAITS. Obvious compromise to credibility as a result of close, intimate relationship with target; possibly led to altercation on rooftop during removal of target to secure location. Uncertain whether knife was received from Agent Alpha during time spent alone in safe house. Agent Beta confirms necessary action on part of Agent Alpha during altercation on rooftop, therefore no further action to be taken following evaluation. Following discharge from hospital, Agent Alpha to report to Headquarters for evaluation.

Upon finishing the report, Maddy set it down on the table next to the box and sat down on the small stool. She was in absolute shock.

Rhodes' first mission and he had an affair with the master spy? Then he killed her when she turned on him? This was too much. She shook her head in disbelief. She couldn't see him doing it.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been downstairs in the storage room, but she didn't move until she heard Rhodes calling her name from the stairwell.

"Maddy?" he called. "You found anything yet?"

Just then something crashed above them. Something loud and strong enough to shake the building from top to bottom.

Maddy dove to the ground but was on her feet again before the second boom. She drew her gun from the small of her back and made her way to the door, kicking fallen boxes out of her way. "Rhodes?" she called up the hallway.

She spotted him sprawled at the bottom of the stairwell.

"Rhodes! Are you all right?" She hurried to his side and gasped when she saw blood dripping down the side of his face.

"I'm fine," he growled, touching his face and glaring at the blood that came away on his fingers. "You?"

"I'm OK. What the hell was that?"

"I don't know," he replied as he got up and drew his own gun. He glanced down the hallway towards the interrogation rooms and then back up the stairwell. Not looking back, he slowly began to creep back up the stairs.

As they climbed the stairs, Maddy listened for any sound of machinery. Since those two initial impacts, nothing had happened. It was eerily silent.

No. Not quite silent.

Maddy strained and then she heard it again, the sound of a helicopter propeller. Even as she listened and tried to get a sense of where it might be, the sound started to fade.

As soon as they reached the top of the stairs they began a sweep of all the rooms. After a few minutes, they met up again in the hallway after finding the place empty.

Another boom rocked the building and ceiling tiles crashed down into the office behind them. It was obvious now that explosives were being detonated all around them. But who was setting them off?

Rhodes and Maddy headed towards the main doorway but stopped when they saw that it was almost entirely caved in. It looked as if someone was determined to trap them inside the building.

Maddy kicked open the door to the board room on her right and entered, holding her 9mm pistol in front of her. This room was dustier than the others and glass shards were everywhere but it boasted two wide, western-facing windows.

"Watch the door," Rhodes ordered, making his way to the windows.

Maddy turned her attention to the hall door and kept an eye out for anything or anyone. She crept towards the doorway and checked the hall once then withdrew, closing the door behind her. When she turned to check Rhodes' progress, he was leaning partially out one window. A minute later he turned and waved her over, holstering his weapon.

"I'll boost you out. Cover me as I follow."

She nodded and stepped into his folded hands. He shoved her up and out. Although it was the ground floor of the building, it was still about a six foot drop and Maddy tumbled less than gracefully as she landed. A second later she was up and holding her weapon before her, watching for any movement. Any at all.

This side of the building faced a gravel roadway used only by local traffic. She knew there was another building a hundred feet away, opposite the gravel road, and another building just south of them. She shifted on her knees and turned north to where the gravel road met the main road out front. As she shifted, Rhodes jumped out the window to join her, drawing his weapon as he landed. They remained in that watchful stance for several seconds before determining that it was safe to move.

"What now?" Maddy asked. She didn't take her eyes off the corner of the building as they started to move away from the main road.

Rhodes was reaching into his pocket for his cell phone when a movement to Maddy's right, at the tree line between their property and the neighbor's, caught her eye. She fired a round and Rhodes swore, dropping his phone in the grass at his feet. He bent quickly to scoop it up as Maddy spoke.

"Pursuing," Maddy stated and took off at a swift jog, keeping low and in the shadow of their office building. She reached the corner and stopped, pressing her back to the wall. Glancing around the corner she was rewarded with return gunfire. Swearing out loud now, she rounded the corner and fired back, three times, until she heard the distinctive sound of a round hitting flesh. An accompanying cry followed as she shifted back around the building, out of their line of fire.

Rhodes approached on her other side and asked if she'd seen who they were.

"No, but I got one," she replied.

Rhodes pressed his arm across the front of her shoulders, moving past her to look for himself. In the distance, about halfway down on that side of the building, he saw one man bent over another man on the ground. Rhodes lifted his weapon and fired, catching the standing man in the arm. They both heard cursing and a second later shots sounded again as that man fired back on Rhodes and Maddy.

"Cover me," Rhodes ordered and swept around the side of the building, breaking into a run.

Maddy moved out from the corner of the building and fired at the man Rhodes had just shot. He was moving away slowly, holding one arm with a gun dangling from his injured hand. He must have heard the sound of Rhodes' pursuit because he spun once, bringing the weapon up with a cry and firing. Rhodes shot him in the leg, just above the knee, taking him down.

Following at a run, Maddy came up behind Rhodes just as the boss was kicking the man's gun away from his fallen hand.

"Who are you?" Rhodes demanded, standing over the fallen man with his gun aimed at his head. "What are you doing here?"

The man said nothing, writhing in pain, trying to hold his arm and leg all at once. Rhodes kicked him in the thigh near his most recent wound and the man screamed in pain before passing out.

Maddy glanced behind them to see the dead man a few paces away. As Rhodes drew out his cell phone to make a call, she made her way over to her first target and checked him out. She couldn't find any ID on him, but he looked vaguely familiar, like she'd seen his picture or something. That was a definite possibility. Anyone with the gall to take on TAITS on their home turf would be someone they'd know about.

"Fly, we need a clean-up crew here now," Rhodes said into his phone, walking a few steps away from the unconscious man. "The office. There's been a move against us." A pause. "It's not good. Get Emilio to bring the others here and contact our clean-up crew, One." Another pause. "Yes, it's that bad." A moment later he said, "Fine," and hung up the phone.

"What do we do now?" Maddy asked, walking back over to him.

He opened his mouth to answer but they both froze where they stood when they heard the sound of a helicopter moving closer. He signaled and they dashed for the tree line on the south end of the property. There they crouched low, hiding themselves in the dense coverage of the shrubbery beneath the trees. Then they watched as an unmarked chopper moved closer, its shadow falling across the building and then the yard behind it.

"Who the fuck is that?" Maddy whispered and earned herself a stern look for speaking, even in a whisper.

They watched as the chopper circled one more time and dropped something onto the office. As it whirled away from the building, another explosion went off and Maddy couldn't stop the gasp from escaping her as debris flew from the top of the building and rained down around it.

Eventually the sounds of the chopper faded and were replaced by the distant sounds of sirens.

"Shit."

Maddy knew Rhodes hoped that the clean-up crew would get here before the local authorities. He turned to face Maddy and she glanced at him before spotting movement on the far north end of the building.

Four men moved into sight around the northeast corner, brandishing automatic weapons slung over their shoulders. They moved towards the south side and the fallen bodies. Maddy could see them signaling to each other. One drew a com unit out and Maddy could hear just the faintest crackle of communication.

"We have to move," Rhodes hissed at her, without looking away from the new arrivals on the scene.

Those men were not local authorities.

Rhodes grabbed Maddy's hand and they moved back through the trees, away from their office building and towards the neighbors.

Luckily it was a Saturday, a fact which had escaped Maddy until now. As they ran across the gravel parking lot of the next nearest office building, she was grateful that no one else would be involved in this. Civilians always made a job more difficult. It was much easier to deal with a threat without having to worry about innocent bystanders.

As they rounded the building and lost sight of the four armed men, and they were certain they hadn't been spotted yet, Rhodes pulled his phone out again and handed it to Maddy. "Call Fly and tell him we'll need to be picked up from a new location."

"Here?" she asked incredulously.

"Of course not," Rhodes growled at her as he continued to slide alongside the building. "But he won't want to be sending a pick up to the office if we're not there. He can track our progress over the phone once you call and get us where we end up."

Maddy listened to him explain but she was already dialing the number as she followed him. They stopped at a rear door with a wide window. Rhodes didn't hesitate, reaching up and breaking the window with a single blow from the butt of his gun. He reached in through the broken window and found the lock. They moved inside swiftly and closed the door behind them.

* * * *

"Don't fucking argue with me, Jack!" Fly yelled into the phone from his position back at the compound. He was watching the dot on the screen that signaled Rhodes' and Maddy's last location near the office. "Do it now and get your asses moving towards the office."

"That's the best location you can give us?" Jack demanded, her own lack of patience evident in her tone.

"I am not going to repeat myself again, Jack," he said slowly, as though speaking to a child. "Rhodes needs back up and you're going to give it to him. I will call you when you are five minutes from the office with a better location."

"Fine," she replied at last, not sounding fine about it at all.

"Fine," he repeated and disconnected. The next call he placed was to Cricket who had remained in the stock room beneath the garage, cataloguing the goods they'd confiscated the night before. "I need you in here, Cricket. This is bad. Worse than we thought."

"I'll be there in a minute," she said. Fly could already hear the sound of her jogging over the phone.

The next call Fly placed was to Rhodes as he set up the trace on the computer. He watched the blip on his screen with a grim expression.

Cricket burst into the room, breathing heavily, her hair wilder than usual and her glasses nearly falling off the end of her nose. "Clean-up One is en route to the office." She went to her desk across from his own.

"I heard sirens last time they called," Fly said. "This is not going to end well."

Cricket nodded and then focused her attention on the computer screen, her fingers dialing a number on the phone in her left hand while she moved the mouse with her right. Fly turned his own attention back to the screen with Rhodes and Maddy's location. After Rhodes' first call, he'd aligned a satellite and now watched as several other figures moved across the office property to the neighboring land in pursuit of Rhodes and Maddy.

Chapter Eight

There was a goddamn alarm going off in the building.

Rhodes' head was pounding from his fall in the office basement stairwell and the whining of the alarm was doing nothing to assuage that pain. All he knew for sure was that he and Maddy were alive and someone had tried to destroy them. Them and possibly the entire team.

He was also wondering how the hell someone had found out where their office was located.

"The compound," he whispered, stopping short in his search for the alarm panel. He spun around, looking for Maddy and not seeing her, his heart rate kicked up. A second later the whining of the alarm stopped and Maddy reappeared at his left side.

"Don't you ever do that again," he barked at her.

"Do what?" she demanded, checking her gun and not meeting his eyes.

"Take off in a situation like this."

"Well, seeing as we've never been in this sort of situation before, I took the initiative to end that god-awful noise."

Rhodes looked down at her and she turned her face up to look back at him. Their eyes met and held for a long moment before a noise outside spurred them into movement. Rhodes grabbed her arm and they headed left, seeking out the side entrance to the building.

Once they reached the exit, Rhodes stopped and pressed his arm back against Maddy, pinning her against the wall just behind him. He turned his head back to her and motioned twice with his hands, signaling for her to veer right when they left the building. She knew that would take them close to the main road and expose them. Or it would put them in sight of the arriving fire trucks and ambulances.

One hell of a gamble.

A second later, Rhodes was propelling her towards the doorway and she went, not questioning, just following orders. No gunfire greeted her exit and Rhodes followed a moment later, sweeping the area immediately outside the building once before racing after Maddy. He came up close behind her and as they reached the street that ran in front of their office building, he grabbed her arm and yanked her towards the left.

They ran along the side of the road for several minutes, pausing only when they reached the next grouping of trees a few lots down. Once there, Rhodes pulled her under the cover of the branches and they both sank to the ground. The shadows fell over them and branches settled while they arranged themselves as low as possible.

Out of sight. Silent.

They lay there for a long time, not speaking, barely breathing. Rhodes slowly became aware of the slight rustle of leaves as Maddy breathed. It was chilly in the autumn air with the sun hidden from sight but the heat coming off of her body was palpable.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Rhodes used every ounce of his talent and strength to move an inch away from her.

After another few minutes, Maddy turned her head and fixed him with a fierce look from her one good eye. "Now what?"

Rhodes took stock of the situation. They had three handguns between them with maybe another three spare clips. Their pick up was at best, still twenty minutes away and that was only if they reached a spot safe enough for extraction. Their pursuers outnumbered them and, whoever they were, wanted them dead.

Beside him, Maddy was waiting for his next orders and he had nothing.

Perhaps she sensed his hesitation or recognized the blank look on his face, but when he didn't respond to her question, she shifted and began to slide away, back towards their feet. He watched her go for a second before turning his attention to their surroundings, watching for any sign of their four mystery guests. Maddy slowly disappeared and after another second, he heard nothing.

Normally that would unnerve him, but inexplicably, he felt a warm swelling within his chest; pride for the young recruit who was becoming someone to be reckoned with. All under his watch.

He allowed himself a moment to savor the feeling before refocusing all his attention on the area outside his hiding place.

The sirens were very loud now and he guessed that they were only a block away, if not already at their office. He heard no footsteps and no breathing, not that that was an accurate indicator. The kind of people required to pull off this sort of hit were the kind of people who moved silently, stealthily and with deadly accuracy.

After what felt like an eternity, he heard something at his feet. He allowed himself a quick glance and spotted two familiar feet: Maddy's. She knelt down and tugged gently on his ankle. He shimmied out from under their cover to crouch before her.

"The locals are there," she whispered.

"And the attackers?" They were crouched close together, their faces very near to each other so they wouldn't have to raise their voices. He found her close proximity suddenly disconcerting.

Get a hold of yourself, man! He blinked and looked away from her.

"We can hoof it to the steel yard just there," she told him, pointing to the familiar building and yard of the rebar shop on the corner. "From there we can either find a few new weapons and make a stand, or catch the bus." She checked her watch. "It arrives in...five minutes."

"Bus?"

She nodded, a smile quirking her mouth.

It was an expression he found he enjoyed very much. Too much.

Shaking himself mentally, he nodded slowly. "Bus. Five minutes. We can hold out until then." He knew they had a better chance of getting on the bus than taking on the four men tracking them, even with whatever additional weapons they managed to devise at the rebar shop.

Maddy nodded and placed a hand on his forearm. She leaned forward to wipe away the blood on his face with her sleeve. A sigh almost escaped him when she settled back into her crouch.

"Now?" she asked, twisting slightly, ready to make a run for it.

He nodded, banishing all irrational thoughts from his mind and bolted with Maddy to the steel yard. Behind them they heard shouting and a shot was fired, followed by another and another.

"Fuck!" Rhodes darted behind a lamp post where he spared a look for the men pursuing them. He fired once and smiled in grim satisfaction as one man tumbled, the bullet piercing his abdomen. Then he took off again, spotting Maddy behind a parked car, firing her own weapon as he passed her.

A minute later they were on the steel yard's property. Rhodes reached out to toss Maddy over the fence as high as he could. Then he spun and fired another couple of rounds, taking out another man before turning and vaulting over the fence himself.

He spotted Maddy at the corner of the building and he ran to join her as she covered him. From the sound of another man crying out in pain behind him, Rhodes knew she'd hit another one.

That leaves just one, he thought.

He dashed behind Maddy and looked around for the road with the bus stop. He spotted it just at the end of the building they were using as cover.

"Come on!" he ordered urgently.

Maddy fired two more shots before she got up and ran after Rhodes to the far end of the lot.

"How long for the bus?" he asked breathlessly as they slammed themselves back against the building wall.

"Two minutes," she replied and peered back around the corner to see if she'd got the last man.

"Anything?" he asked as she settled back beside him.

"No." A relieved smile crossed her face as she turned to look up at him. "I think I got him."

"Dead?"

"I don't know," she replied. "I don't think so."

Rhodes didn't care that they weren't dead, as long as they weren't following them anymore. They couldn't be certain so the bus was still their best chance to get the hell away from there.

He glanced back down at Maddy. "What are you smiling at?" He was unable to stop himself from smiling back.

She shrugged and looked past him, up the street, checking for the bus. As she leaned around him, Rhodes breathed in and exhaled sharply as her arm brushed his.

"You all right?" she asked, halting her movement while her arm was still in contact with his.

He barely managed a nod and felt himself leaning down, his face coming to within an inch of hers.

"The bus," she said and he was startled out of his trance.

They put away their weapons and hurried out onto the street just as the lumbering vehicle reached the stop in front of the rebar shop.

As they boarded the bus, Rhodes looked behind them, watching for any sign of the men hunting them. When he saw nothing, he followed Maddy to the back of the bus, and settled into a seat.

Was I going to kiss her? he asked himself, not even allowing himself to look over at her. He'd never thought of kissing her before. Ever. But there she'd stood, so close and looking so kissable that he almost couldn't help himself.

"Should I call Fly?" she asked him, breaking into his thoughts.

She produced his phone from her pocket and he looked over at her, nodding.

Flipping it open, she dialed and smiled when Fly came on the line. Rhodes could almost hear Fly's words from where he sat and he gathered from Maddy's side of the conversation that the clean-up crew was just arriving at the office.

"They're prepared for the locals?" Maddy asked. She waited, listening, and Rhodes tried to tear his eyes away from her lips.

He couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like. He'd only ever known her as a killer, an annoying young woman who thought she had all the answers. A rookie who made his blood boil.

Is that it? he wondered. Is that why she bothers me so much?

"We're on the bus," she told Fly over the phone and grinned.

Rhodes couldn't help but smile, too, picturing Fly's expression and his response.

"How about the end of the line?" she asked. "All right. Thirty minutes." She snapped the phone shut.

"Thirty minutes?" Rhodes repeated, slanting a look at her.

"Yup." She handed the phone back to him.

As he took it from her, their fingertips brushed together and he fought down a shiver.

Enough! he told himself. The last time you reacted this way to a woman, it ended badly. Very badly. He shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the memory.

Thirty minutes. Thirty minutes until they could be picked up and he could get away from her long enough to sort through his unexpected feelings.

"So what do you think that was all about?" Maddy asked a second later.

"It was a hit," he replied shortly, his eyes narrowing. "Professional. Someone wanted us to be killed in those blasts and they sent men to ground level to ensure we didn't get away in case the explosives didn't work."

"So much effort," Maddy breathed, facing forward, one hand on the bar of the seat in front of them. "Why?"

"Beats the hell out of me. It could be any number of people we've pissed off over the years." He paused and frowned. "What concerns me is how the hell they found the office."

"Do you think it's connected to the deal last night?"

"I don't know. It's possible, I suppose. We didn't even get a chance to go through any files or find out any extra info about the goods. What could it have to do with what happened just now?"

Maddy shrugged, looking over at him. "It just seems to be happening very suddenly."

He looked down at her and smiled. "You prefer a slow build up?" he asked and immediately regretted his choice of words.

They didn't seem to bother Maddy. She smiled in response and turned her gaze back to the front of the bus.

Rhodes faced forward as well, his mind running back over the past few hours. While Maddy had been in the storage room, he'd been searching on-line for recent news headlines that might have had anything to do with Javier or his more obvious connections. By the time he'd stopped to go looking for Maddy, nothing had jumped out at him, which seemed even stranger than if he'd found something.

No news was not necessarily good news, not to him.

"Do you think that if they knew where the office was that the compound might be a target as well?"

"That's a definite possibility."

"Unless the hit at the office wasn't intended for us," Maddy went on, raising one shoulder in a half-hearted gesture. "Perhaps it was just random."

Rhodes snorted and shook his head. "I doubt that very much."

"It was just a thought," Maddy mumbled and looked away.

They rode in silence through a few stops until they reached the nearest train station. They didn't look at each other the entire time.

Chapter Nine

During the ride, Rhodes' mind worked through the information he had. He was finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the likelihood that whoever had targeted their office, also knew about the compound. It meant that they couldn't go back there. It also meant that Fly and Cricket were going to have to leave the compound to join the team somewhere else.

"I don't like it," he stated as they walked downstairs to the train platform.

"Don't like what?" Maddy asked.

"This entire situation," he told her. "It's too...close."

"Close?"

"Yes, close. Here we are in the middle of an investigation into a possible mole at HQ and we're suddenly targeted by unknowns? When the location of our office is supposed to be highly restricted? So restricted that only a handful of people know where it is?" Maddy nodded. "Definitely doesn't look good."

"It fucking stinks!" Rhodes exclaimed, drawing a few startled glances from others standing on the train platform.

"Yes," Maddy spoke slowly. "But what are we supposed to do about it?"

Rhodes crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Maddy, even though he knew it wasn't her fault. "I have no idea and that's what stinks."

"You'll figure it out, Rhodes," she said before wandering over to the edge of the platform to look down the track for the train. "You always do."

Rhodes studied her profile and narrowed his eyes, wondering what was inspiring her kind words. She'd never spoken to him like that before and it unnerved him to hear it from her now. He supposed the events of the past hour would bother most people but he hadn't expected such a transition from her. Then he regretted his thoughts, feeling he was being unfair to Maddy, who had conducted herself like a true TAITS team member. He wandered over to stand next to her.

She glanced up at him and frowned. "Your face is a mess. Maybe we should get you cleaned up before we get on a train."

Rhodes reached up and touched his face, his fingers coming away with dirt and blood. "Maybe, but where are we supposed to do that?"

"There's a washroom inside the station."

"It's probably as filthy as I am," he retorted.

Maddy wasn't listening and Rhodes allowed himself to be pulled back along the platform and inside. He let her take him to the single unisex washroom.

Rhodes balked. "It's..."

Maddy pulled him inside and locked the door behind them.

"Way too small," he finished as Maddy slid around him, her body brushing against his. His heart rate spiked and he felt dizzy for a moment.

"It'll do," she replied, unfazed by their close quarters. She turned the taps, testing for warm water. Then she reached over and yanked out several paper towels from the wall dispenser. "Sit down." She gestured at the toilet next to the sink.

"You have got to be kidding me," he said, staring down at the toilet.

Sighing, Maddy bent and dropped the lid on the toilet. "Sit," she ordered, pointing at the seat.

Reluctantly, Rhodes did as he was told. He watched as she ran the paper towel underneath the stream of water before shutting the taps off and turning to him. She dabbed the wet paper towel against his forehead and he hissed in pain as she reached the actual cut.

"How's it look?" he asked as she cleaned around the wound.

"Not bad." She leaned in closer and peered down. "Clean, no glass from what I can tell."

"Stitches?"

"I doubt it."

They fell silent as Maddy reached under his chin and pulled his face up to wipe the dirt and blood streaked on his face. He watched her work and tried hard not to think about how she smelled or how she looked as she concentrated. A moment later he was lost.

She shifted her feet and slid a leg between his so she could get closer as she moved back up his face to the area around the cut. Her fingers moved from his chin to the base of his skull and pressed gently until he tipped his head forward. As he did that, he realized how close he was to her chest. Drawing in a deep breath, he blinked a few times before turning his head slightly, looking away from the tempting shadows.

"Don't move," she reprimanded him, dropping her hands and cupping his face. She maneuvered his head back around and he felt his heart rate climbing to the stratosphere.

"Are you almost done?" he asked a minute later, growing stiff from holding himself so rigid and not reaching for her like he wanted to.

"Just about." She discarded the paper towels and reached for more. She didn't move from her position between his legs while she turned on the water again.

Rhodes shifted uncomfortably and Maddy set a hand on his shoulder to still him.

"This will go much faster if you just sit still," she told him, her eyes meeting his.

He froze and he couldn't move, couldn't protest, couldn't look away from her. And for some inexplicable reason, he saw the same thing in her face and posture. He didn't know how long they remained that way but they both started when a loud clanging sounded in the hallway outside the washroom.

Reflexively, Rhodes reached up and grasped Maddy's waist, pulling her down and out of his line of vision. She landed on his thigh but she was twisting as well, reaching behind her to pull her weapon forward. He retrieved his own gun and they both aimed for the door, listening intently.

"Dude, you dropped your keys!" a male teenage voice yelled in the hallway.

"Grab them for me!" another male teenage voice replied from further away.

"Fuck you, man, I'm not your slave!" the first boy said, dropping something that sounded like a skateboard on the floor.

Both voices and the set of skateboard wheels faded and Rhodes felt his breath leave his lungs in a whoosh. He wasn't sure what he thought he'd heard outside the washroom but he hadn't been prepared and that bothered him. Looking over at Maddy, he saw the same surprise and irritation mirrored in her face.

Then her eyes met his and he was rendered immobile again.

Rhodes became acutely aware of the fact that she was perched on his knee and his arm was wrapped around her waist. They still had their weapons drawn, although they were now lowered. Both of them were breathing fast and the little washroom was suddenly getting very warm.

Swallowing with great difficulty, Rhodes holstered his gun; the movement jostled Maddy.

She jumped to her feet and replaced her gun at the small of her back. Then she leaned against the little porcelain sink, breathing hard.

"Are you all right?" Rhodes asked and coughed when his voice came out thick.

"I'm fine," she replied softly, not looking at him. "I just need a second."

Rhodes nodded, looking away. He wasn't sure what had just happened but he was a little off balance now and he suspected from the way Maddy was acting that she was more than a little rattled as well.

She straightened and tossed the balled-up paper towel she'd had clutched in her left fist into the garbage. Turning to Rhodes, she studied his face and he remained where he was seated, as though worried he might spook her.

"I think you're clean enough now," she said shortly and turned to open the washroom door. She scanned the hallway quickly before stepping outside.

Rhodes followed at a safe distance and when they reached the platform, their train pulled alongside. They hurried to the nearest door and pushed the green button to open it.

Once inside, Maddy sat down on the nearest bench; Rhodes sat in the seat facing her. They didn't say a word for the entire train trip. The tension was nearly unbearable, but Rhodes did his best to not look in her direction.

Ten minutes later they were at the last train station on the line, Bridlewood. Outside, Rhodes spotted the van right away and the side door opened to reveal their team, minus Cricket and Fly.

"What the hell is going on?" Jack demanded the moment they were within earshot.

"Keep your damn voice down!" Rhodes growled in a low voice. She flushed and stepped back to allow him and Maddy to get in. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

Maddy climbed into the very back row of the van and ignored the look Jack was giving her. Rhodes didn't even look over as Jack climbed in next to him and Grimm. Rhodes signaled to Emilio and once the doors were locked, they began to move again.

"Fly," Rhodes said into his phone a second later. "Yeah, they've got us. No, we can't come back to the compound. It might be compromised, too."

This earned four identical shocked expressions from Emilio, Grimm, Jack and Hound. Rhodes ignored them all, continuing his conversation with Fly.

"No, you and Cricket can meet us at the alternative meet point," he went on, glancing out the window as they rolled to a stop at a traffic light. Several tall condos loomed ahead of them and Rhodes longed to be out of sight.

"We can be there in..." He glanced at the dashboard clock. "Oh man, I didn't think it was so late already. I guess traffic is going to be a bit of a nightmare so we won't be there for a good forty-five probably. Yeah, you'd better. Oh, and bring whatever you managed to find out about the goods with you."

"Forty-five minutes?" Emilio said after Rhodes had ended the call. "To where, exactly?"

"Downtown. There's a condo leased for us in Tait's name. Just keep driving, I'll tell you which way to go when we get closer."

"So what's going on?" Grimm asked after several minutes of tense silence. "What happened at the office?"

"Someone bombed it," Rhodes replied simply.

"What?" Grimm exclaimed as everyone else's mouths dropped open in shock. "How the fuck did that happen?"

Rhodes shrugged as looked over at his longtime ally. "They flew a chopper overhead and dropped explosives onto the roof. Maddy and I were lucky we were in the basement when the first one hit."

"Lucky; that's one way of putting it," Grimm remarked, turning his face away from Rhodes.

"You don't have any idea who these people were?" Jack asked.

"We didn't get a close enough look while we were running for our lives," Maddy snapped from the back row.

Jack whirled around in her seat to throw a glare at the redhead.

"They weren't wearing any identifying clothing and the chopper was unmarked," Rhodes said, interrupting the blowout brewing between the two women. "We eliminated a few of them that landed on the ground to take us out but there were too many of them. That's when we caught the bus."

Hound snorted on a laugh from the passenger seat and glanced back at Rhodes who narrowed his eyes at him. "Sorry, boss. It's just not a very...sexy getaway."

"It was the best we had to work with," Maddy retorted. "What would you have done?"

Shrugging, Hound faced forward again.

"That's what I thought," Maddy said and slumped back in her seat.

Rhodes sighed and rubbed his eyes with one hand, wondering if they were going to make it through this day.

"Cricket and Fly know where to meet us?" Emilio asked a little while later, breaking the long silence that had descended.

"Yes, Fly has known about this place since I acquired it. I figured that it could be a secondary base for us," Rhodes replied.

"Why didn't you tell the rest of us about it?" Hound asked.

"Because you would have used it as a pleasure den, Hound," Rhodes replied, not taking his hand away from his eyes.

That earned a few laughs from the others in the van but Rhodes was painfully aware of the silence behind his back. Maddy hadn't moved or said a word since her little exchange with Hound, and Rhodes wasn't certain he liked that. Better she got out whatever it was that was bothering her and save them all from the inevitable meltdown.

"Is this it?" Emilio asked a few minutes later, pointing at the high-rise apartment building to their right as they rolled down 14th street.

"Yes," Rhodes answered, lowering his hand to look outside. "There's a parking garage around the back. Turn just up here."

Emilio followed his directions and in minutes they were all filing out of the van and waiting for Rhodes to fish out the keys so they could go upstairs. His phone rang and he jumped, scowling at the offending piece of machinery as he pulled it out of his pocket.

Tossing it to Maddy, he walked away from the van, everyone following in his wake. He ignored the looks they exchanged as he passed off the call.

"Fly," Maddy spoke into the phone, "we're here already." She hurried to keep up with the others as they moved towards the elevator. "OK. See you in five." She shut the phone and handed it back to Rhodes as they got on the elevator. "Fly and Cricket are only a few blocks away."

"Good." Rhodes reached out and pressed the button for the sixteenth floor and they all stood in silence as the doors slid shut in front of them.

* * * *

"Have you got anything yet, Damien?"

"No signal. But I'm sure she'll turn her phone back on eventually."

"Why would she have turned it off in the first place?" the first man asked, moving around the desk until he was standing in front of Damien.

"Who knows why women do anything? We have the number so we can locate her at any time."

"As long as she turns her damn phone on." The man sat down in the chair behind the desk, rubbing his face. "We have to make this happen fast, Damien."

"I am well aware of that, sir. And it will happen quickly, once we pinpoint their next location."

"But if that bitch doesn't turn her phone on again, we'll have no way of knowing what their location is!"

"Sir, there are other methods of tracking a target," Damien said, his tone intended to be soothing. "The ground troops are following up on leads from the area surrounding the office hit and we should have some idea of where they were headed soon."

"I hope you're right, Damien. I have a lot riding on this."

"I know that, sir."

"Enough with this 'sir' crap. You're my cousin, for Christ's sake. Call me by my name."

"Whatever you want, Khristian," Damien replied, directing a tight smile at his cousin before focusing on the computer screens before him again.

"Should we get Lukas to call her again?"

Damien shook his head. "Perhaps we could try that if she doesn't turn her phone on in the next few hours. If we use him too often, they might catch on."

"That's assuming she told anyone about his first call."

"You don't think she would have?"

Khristian shrugged. "I don't think they go into that much detail with their personal lives, do they? I sure wouldn't."

"Trust no one?" Damien asked, raising a single dark eyebrow.

"Exactly," Khristian answered firmly, not picking up on Damien's teasing. "Let's just hope she doesn't fess up until after we've killed Rhodes."

"Agreed."

Chapter Ten

Maddy wasn't certain she liked the fact that Rhodes singled her out in this manner. Then she silently berated herself for thinking that he would do it intentionally. He was already dealing with so much, trying to keep the team from freaking out. He probably just didn't want to take another phone call. Well, she could handle it this time and hopefully no one else read anything into it.

"What do we do now?" Jack asked as they exited the elevator.

Rolling her eyes skyward, Maddy followed at the back of the group. Jack was always the first to ask what they should do next and the first to disagree when Rhodes decided. Never once had she made a suggestion.

"We wait for Fly and Cricket," Rhodes replied shortly, stopping in front of a door labeled 1669.

"Seriously?" Hound remarked, seeing the apartment number. He turned a grin on the boss and was rewarded with a dirty look. "I'm just wondering if it was intentional," he added, his grin not faltering an inch.

Rhodes didn't respond and pushed the door open, leading everyone inside. Maddy took one last look up and down the hallway before following. She brushed past Rhodes with a brief glance up at his face while he stood holding the door open for everyone. His eyes met hers briefly before flitting away and she felt oddly disconcerted by it.

"Wow, Rhodes," Grimm said as he walked around the apartment's living room. "This place is unbelievable."

Maddy allowed herself her first real look at the apartment and she was just as impressed as Grimm. Her jaw dropped when she saw the broad, tall windows facing west and the fine furniture decorating the entire space.

"How many rooms are there?" Hound asked from somewhere down the hallway.

Glancing in that direction, Maddy gasped when she saw how much larger this place must be. To the left of the entrance and the living room was a large kitchen fitted with stainless steel appliances. Off the kitchen to the far left was a half-bathroom, with just a sink and toilet. To the right down the hallway were the bedrooms. Maddy wandered that way, trailing behind Rhodes as he went to answer Hound.

"There are four bedrooms and one office fitted with everything we'll need," Rhodes said.

"I call the master bedroom!" Hound cried, thrusting his hand into the air.

Rhodes laughed and continued walking down the hallway. "Over my dead body. It's mine. The rest of you can decide how you want to arrange yourselves."

"Is there anything to eat in here?" Grimm asked from the kitchen, drawing all three of them back to the main room. The dark man was going through all the cupboards and whistled when he opened the pantry in the corner. "I'll take that as a yes."

"It should be fully stocked," Rhodes replied, walking over to the windows and looking down at the ground. "Help yourselves to whatever you want."

Maddy stood watching the others wander through the apartment before turning her gaze on Rhodes, who stood motionless by the windows.

Exhaling slowly, she walked up beside him, determined not to let anything affect their working relationship. "What can I do?"

Rhodes didn't look over at her but he blew his breath out in frustration. "Keep everyone out of my hair when Fly and Cricket get here. I need space to think and I can't do that if they're all moping around, asking about this place and what happened."

Maddy moved closer, looking down at the view from beside him. "Do you still think you should keep everything from them?"

Rhodes looked at her. "I don't know. I suppose they should know the entire story before we can move forward, right?"

"You're asking me?"

He nodded.

"I think they might get suspicious if you don't," she said slowly, not looking away from his face. "Or even more disagreeable."

Rhodes smiled. He actually smiled and Maddy felt the floor shift and tilt beneath her.

"You're just talking about Jack now, aren't you?" he asked, amusement evident in his voice.

Maddy shook her head, unable to tear her gaze away from his face, so lit up as it was with his smile.

Rhodes looked away from her and went to the front door. He swung it open to Fly and Cricket as they walked up the hallway from the elevators. Maddy was once again stunned by his abilities.

"Nice digs," Fly commented as he entered the apartment. He was weighed down by several laptop cases that hung from his shoulders.

Cricket was similarly loaded down and was dragging a large suitcase on wheels behind her. Maddy jumped forward to help as they walked into the apartment.

Breathlessly thanking Maddy for her help, Cricket began to draw the straps from her shoulders while Fly followed Rhodes down the hallway to the office.

"So what's the deal, Maddy?" Cricket asked. "What happened?"

Maddy sighed and shook her head. "Rhodes will explain everything to everyone in a bit."

Cricket studied her in silence before nodding. "I guess I'd better take the rest of this stuff in there to set up." She hauled the cases down the hall to the office. Maddy helped her before returning to the living room.

She wandered over to the main door and locked it, glancing through the peephole. Then she went into the kitchen, searching through the cupboards as Grimm had. She didn't hear the larger man come up behind her until he spoke.

"You and Rhodes all right now?" Grimm asked, smiling when she jerked around, her hand going immediately to the gun at her back on reflex.

"You should know better than to sneak up on someone like that, Grimm," Maddy snapped, turning back to her search.

"I can handle it," he replied mildly, leaning against the counter next to her. "So?"

"So what?"

"Don't give me that, Maddy. You and Rhodes were practically at each other's throats this morning and now you're taking his calls?"

Maddy shrugged and moved on to the next cupboard, unsure if she was actually looking for anything, or if she was just trying to avoid Grimm. The rumble that issued forth from her stomach told her that she was definitely looking for something edible. She moved to the pantry, trying to think of a suitable response as she did so.

"We're fine." She located a box of granola bars and tore into it greedily.

Grimm nodded, watching her closely. She found his gaze unnerving.

"And you won't be fighting like that again anytime soon?" he pressed on.

"Not each other," Maddy conceded and bit into a granola bar.

"All right." Grimm didn't sound very convinced though. "When are we going to get the lowdown on what happened today?"

Shrugging, Maddy took the box of granola bars and walked back into the living room, heading for the suede couch. She sighed in genuine pleasure as she sank into the plush cushions. Grimm followed and sat down next to her, exclaiming with his own pleasure at the fine furniture.

"Damn, I didn't know Rhodes had such good taste," he said, letting his head fall back.

Maddy smiled. She suspected that Rhodes was so much more than just an operative with TAITS.

"Fly and Cricket just got here," Jack announced as she entered the living room, followed by Emilio.

"Thanks for the update, Jack," Maddy remarked snidely, unable to stop the words from leaving her lips the moment she thought them. "I saw them arrive."

Jack narrowed her eyes at the shorter woman before moving across the room to sit in a chair opposite the couch. "I don't like your attitude, Maddy."

"Should that bother me?"

"Does anything?" Jack retorted.

Maddy shrugged. She couldn't help herself. Something about Jack got under her skin and she genuinely enjoyed upsetting the other woman. Sometimes she did it because she was bored but most of the time, like now, she was just responding to Jack's own hostility.

"You'd better smarten up, Maddy," Jack went on, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms in front of her. "You won't get very far with TAITS if you don't."

"Words of wisdom," Maddy replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. When Jack opened her mouth to respond, Maddy cut her off. "If I wanted your opinion, Jack, I'd ask for it. As it stands now, yours is the very last I'd seek when looking to advance myself in TAITS."

Jumping to her feet, Jack fixed her fierce glare on Maddy, her face brightening with rage. "Why you snotty little bi—"

"Settle down, Jack," Rhodes interrupted her, returning to the living room.

Jack clamped her mouth shut but stayed where she was looking positively mutinous. Maddy didn't falter under her gaze.

"Are you two done?" Rhodes demanded, his voice harsh.

Maddy looked away from Jack, moving her eyes to Rhodes and feeling herself flush when she met his gaze. She had to look away from him and did so. Quickly.

"What's up?" Jack asked tightly.

"Fly is setting up our communications and Cricket is sorting through the information she got out of the shipment."

Hound appeared behind him and took a seat on the couch next to Grimm, crowding the older man and earning a curse for his efforts.

"What do you want us to do?" Jack asked.

"Stay out of their way," Rhodes replied shortly. Jack's scowl deepened and she sat back down on the chair she'd just vacated. "There are towels and some clothes in each of the rooms so feel free to shower or change. Eat something," he added, his eyes sliding to the box in Maddy's hand and she felt her skin grow warm again. "Or watch TV. I really don't care. I'll brief all of you when I've finished with Cricket." With that, he turned and walked back down the hall to the office.

Chapter Eleven

After a minute of silence following Rhodes' exit, Maddy leapt to her feet and tossed the box of granola bars onto the kitchen counter before heading down the hallway to check out the bedrooms. She passed the office, now whirring with the functions of several computers, without a second glance, determined not to think about Rhodes; if she could manage it.

She smiled when she saw the twin beds in each room and even a bunk bed set up in another. Then she reached the master bedroom at the far end of the hallway. Her mouth opened slightly in awe as she walked inside.

There was a full bathroom to her right with what looked liked a Jacuzzi tub next to the walk-in shower. To the left of the bathroom was an enormous closet filled with clothes and cardboard. Walking further into the room, Maddy looked around at the walls, smiling in appreciation of the art Rhodes had hung up. It was all very colorful without being gaudy. The bed was a massive king-size and it was situated directly under a broad window that faced the city.

That caught her attention and she walked over to look out the window. Once again the view of the city stole her breath away. Even in broad daylight, she loved the sight of the downtown buildings and the less impressive but still lovely houses and condos spreading outward from the core. She wasn't certain how long she stood there just staring out the window, but it wasn't until Rhodes spoke to her that she moved.

"I figured you'd get a kick out of the view," he said, coming into the room behind her.

She looked over her shoulder with a half-smile and nodded. "It's amazing." She forgot for that moment the tension that had been swimming around them all day. "How did you ever find this place? No, scratch that. Why did you ever think we'd need a place like this?"

Rhodes smiled then and she felt like a weight was suddenly pressing against her chest. She watched in fascination as he turned to close the door quietly behind him. Then she was held immobile as he crossed the room to stand in front of her.

What the hell.

"Don't tell the others," he said, looming over her. "But you can stay in this room if you want."

She blinked.

Again, what the hell?

"I don't understand," she heard herself saying, feeling the heat creep up her neck again. She turned slightly away from him, reaching up to touch her cheek. Her fingers brushed against the scar there and she flinched involuntarily. Rhodes saw the movement though and she hated herself for letting him see it.

A moment later she was floored again as Rhodes' hand came up to rest on her skin just where she'd touched herself.

What. The. Hell.

"Does it hurt?" he asked and, so help her, she thought he sounded pained just asking her that.

As much as she hated talking about her scar, she'd never been able to not reply to his direct questions and now was no exception. "No," she whispered, bringing her eyes up to look into his again.

They stood there for a long time; his fingers just touching the skin of her face and their eyes locked on each other's. Maddy wanted to say something or do something but she felt rooted to the spot.

What is this? she wondered, blinking. Why doesn't he say something?

"Maddy," he spoke, as though answering her thought. His voice was very low and Maddy felt herself sliding out of control.

If he didn't say something else soon, or move, she was going to do something very embarrassing and possibly disastrous.

"Maddy," he said again, in the same tone of voice and she began to tremble. "I don't know how to tell the others about the leak."

She blinked several times, trying to catch up to him.

One second, a deep-voiced possibility.

The very next, a deep-voiced boss.

Boss. Right. Of course that's what he is.

Swallowing hard, Maddy tore her gaze from his and stepped deliberately out of his reach. After regaining her self-control, she turned to face him and was momentarily surprised by the pallor of his face. He looked troubled.

"Are you all right?" she asked, frowning. Even with her concern, she couldn't bring herself to move any closer to him. Not after what had just happened.

What had just happened?

"I'm fine."

"Do you want...Cricket to look at your cut?" she asked, being very careful not to volunteer herself for the task. He shook his head, not acknowledging her hesitation, a fact for which she was grateful.

"I'm fine." He sat down on the bed and drew in several deep breaths before opening his eyes wide and looking at her again. "Do you have any ideas?"

"I think you should just be blunt," she told him. "Don't let anyone interrupt you and just tell them how it is."

He nodded, absorbing her advice. "I think you're right." He rose to go. Before reaching the door, he paused and turned back to her. "I meant it about this room, Maddy. It has your view." With that, he was gone.

Maddy stood there by the windows and wondered if she'd ever be able to sort herself out after all this was over.

* * * *

"All I could figure out was that it wasn't stolen goods," Cricket informed Rhodes while he stood over her desk in the office. "All the serial numbers checked out and it was a shipment that was actually supposed to be there."

"Are you sure?" Rhodes frowned.

Cricket nodded, picking up a list of what she'd catalogued before their impromptu departure from the compound. "Yes, all of it," she said, running a finger down the list. "Mostly electronics but some furniture, small appliances, uh, some toys..."

"Toys?" Rhodes repeated incredulously, his scowl deepening.

"Yup, toys," Cricket affirmed, looking up from the list. "Technically this stuff wasn't stolen until we took it to the compound."

Rhodes swore succinctly and spun on his heel. He began pacing the small office, ignoring the nervous glance exchanged by Cricket and Fly. "What the hell does this mean?"

"I think it means someone set up Javier," Fly spoke up. "He couldn't have possibly known this stuff was legit."

Rhodes froze to the spot. "Everyone to the front room, now!"

Once everyone was together, Rhodes drew a deep breath and began to tell them everything. Once or twice he thought someone might interrupt with a question or remark, but he didn't let them. Maddy's words echoed in his head and he fought to quell the distraction she presented.

"Cricket just informed me that the stolen goods we recovered from Javier and his men last night were not really stolen. They were all part of a legitimate shipment of goods, probably going to the nearest Walmart or something." He shook his head at that, feeling like kicking himself for allowing this to get so complicated. "Fly suggested that Javier was set up to take the fall on a phony shipment. I think, considering today's events, that Javier wasn't the one being set up—we were."

He held a hand up to stop the flood of questions he saw issuing forth from everyone's mouths; everyone but Maddy's, of course. He allowed himself a single glance in her direction and, from the flat line of her lips, he figured she'd already guessed where this was going.

"Someone probably wanted to track us to a central location and take us all out. After the job last night, I think we were followed back to the office. Once they confirmed we were all there, they set up the hit. I don't know why they would have waited until this morning to do it, but maybe they thought we never left the office. So this morning, the explosives were dropped and ground troops were dispatched to take us out should we manage to escape the wreckage.

"I've been wondering why Javier had even been present at the warehouse last night, since we all know he's not famous for smuggling of any kind. I went to the office today to pull all our intel on him and his contacts to see if we could make a connection between the goods and one of Javier's contacts. That might have told us what group was behind the entire thing. But now, since this stuff we picked up last night isn't even stolen, we can't tie Javier or his contacts to any of it."

He paused, drawing in another deep breath while scanning all of their faces for understanding. His eyes stopped on Maddy's face and he held her gaze for a long moment before speaking again.

"I think there's an internal leak," he announced and continued talking over the exclamations from several of the team members. "Tait has been made aware of this and he's going to find out all he can while he's out east this week. He'll call me when he has any information. Until then, we're basically on our own. We have to find out who wants us dead and why. Then we'll stop them."

He stopped long enough to allow them to ask questions. Like clockwork, Jack was the first to open her mouth.

"Are you certain they want us all dead?"

Rhodes blinked. It had never occurred to him that these people might only be hunting one TAITS member.

"I suppose there's always that chance," he conceded. "Given the fact that we were all in or near the warehouse last night when this whole thing seemed to have started, I think it's more likely all of us."

"Even if they wanted to take out only one of us, they must realize that we're not lone agents," Grimm added, looking at Jack. "Take on one TAITS operative, take on eight."

They all nodded their agreement.

"What do we do with the shipment?" Cricket asked.

Sighing, Rhodes crossed his arms over his chest. "Return it to the proper owners? Anonymously?"

Cricket laughed and nodded. "I think I can manage that."

"Anyone else?" he asked, turning to the rest of them.

"I'd like to go to the office and see what I can find," Hound said, sounding more professional than usual.

"Good," Rhodes said with a nod. "Emilio, take Hound to the site after sundown. The authorities will hopefully be cleared out for the night. If not, stake it out and wait until they're gone." He turned his gaze back to Jack and Grimm. "Did you guys find out anything downtown?"

"Not much," Grimm answered, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "Word spread quickly about Javier's bust and some people are worried. Others are relieved; debts cleared, that sort of thing."

Rhodes nodded, knowing they'd done at least a small favor for everyone's well-being, however twisted it had all become.

"I spoke to Beckett," Jack added.

"What could he have possibly had to say about all this?"

Beckett was a former armed forces officer who now made his living panhandling on the streets of downtown Calgary. He was also a self-proclaimed psychic and often thought he could lend a hand whenever they might—or might not—need it. Rhodes was skeptical of the man's claim but he also knew that Beckett would never betray them. Plus, the man did see a lot of what happened around town.

"He said there's been a lot of activity at an older building downtown; on 6th. A helicopter coming and going at all hours and lights in the higher, unused floors."

Rhodes raised his eyebrows at that. "Really? He's sure it's not the Stars or Hawcs helicopters?"

Jack nodded.

"All right. I suppose that will take some investigating. Jack, you and Grimm can head over there tonight and see what you can find."

"And me, boss?" Fly asked.

Rhodes chewed his lip for a moment before responding. "Do you think you could find out if there's a signal being given off around the compound?"

"Besides our own? Probably."

"Good. Get onto your computers and find out if there's a secondary signal leaving or coming in. Whoever is tracking us may not have found the compound yet." It was a long shot, but Rhodes wanted to feel optimistic about something. "If there is a signal, we need to find out where it's originating and how to cut it off."

"Can do," Fly said and hurried back to the office.

"Cricket, maybe you should go back to the office with these two tonight and sift through the archive room," Rhodes said, turning to her. "Maddy had started to pull the files on Javier but didn't get very far before the hit."

Cricket nodded. "What should I look for?"

"Anything that survived the blasts and fire. Not just Javier but everything. We had a lot of intel stored down there and we don't want to lose any of it. See what can be salvaged and bring it back here."

"And until we leave?" Grimm asked, glancing out the windows, which showed the sun sinking lower on the horizon.

Rhodes shrugged. "Do what you want. Just don't leave the apartment and stay out of my way."

Grimm and the rest of them nodded. No one mentioned Rhodes' lack of direction for Maddy as he walked out of the living room but they were all thinking about it.

"I think I'll make dinner," Cricket announced, jumping up and heading to the kitchen. "Any requests?"

"Steak!" Hound called.

"I'm good with just a salad," Jack put in, not moving from her seat.

"I'm not sure if there are fresh veggies or anything in the fridge," Cricket replied, moving to the stainless steel beast. Opening it, she was surprised to find it stocked with all fresh or mere days old items. "God, how often does he come here?" she wondered aloud.

"Who, Rhodes?" Grimm asked as he entered the kitchen. "He usually disappears for a day or two after he's been on a mission alone. This is probably where he comes to unwind and regroup."

"Why not come back to the compound?" Cricket asked with a frown. "We've all got our own private apartments there."

"Rhodes doesn't always get the complete privacy and solitude he wants, I think."

"Well, whatever his reasons, it was a good idea to have this place on stand-by," Hound spoke up, sliding onto one of the bar stools on the other side of the kitchen counter. "If the compound really is compromised, we might be here for a while."

Grimm and Cricket nodded in agreement before moving on from the fridge to ferret out whatever food they could find to make a decent dinner for everyone. Emilio and Jack moved over to occupy the other bar stools beside Hound and they all watched as Cricket moved about the kitchen, pulling out utensils and food.

"Do you think there really is someone on the inside trying to take us out?" Jack asked after a few minutes.

"If Rhodes says there is, then I believe him," Cricket said without looking up from the cutting board where she expertly began chopping some onions and carrots.

"Don't you think there is?" Grimm asked. His eyes shifted and he looked at Maddy who remained where she'd been throughout Rhodes' briefing. She was gazing out the window with an intense expression on her scarred face.

"I think there's definitely something going on," Jack said, drawing his attention back to her. "I just don't like to think of it being as screwed up as an informer on our side."

"Like it or not, it sure is shaping up that way, isn't it?" Hound put in, his eyes following Cricket's movements around the kitchen. "Everything Rhodes was saying seems to fit. I think the only explanation is someone on the inside wanting to remove us altogether."

"That blows," Jack breathed and set her chin in one hand.

Grimm smiled at her and nodded. "Indeed."

Chapter Twelve

Rhodes wasn't sure at what point the apartment emptied out but when he rose from his impromptu nap following the briefing and issuing of orders, the place was eerily quiet. He rubbed at his face and got up from the bed then sighed when he saw the state of his clothes and face in the mirror over the dresser.

He walked into the bathroom, stripping his shirt off as he went, and turned on the water in the sink to splash his face. After toweling himself off, he leaned on the bathroom counter and studied his face in the mirror. His cut had pretty much sealed itself, which meant no stitches. He then returned to the bedroom and changed his clothes.

I suppose I should find out if anyone is still here, he thought.

Out in the hallway, he saw shadows cast from lights on in the living room. He didn't hear anything and wondered if everyone had really left him alone. As he passed the office, he noticed that not even Fly had remained behind.

There he stopped short when he saw Maddy sprawled out on the couch, a book lying open on her stomach. Her eyes were closed and her hair was a stringy mess around her head, having come mostly loose from her ponytail. She stirred, murmuring something in her sleep and the book slid from her stomach to land on the floor with a dull thud.

Rhodes grinned as he watched her. Moving closer for a better look, he wondered how long she'd been sleeping. When he stopped to stand next to the couch, she shifted again, flopping on to one side and flinging an arm out, catching him smartly in the knee.

He cursed out loud and in the next second she was sitting upright, her hand going for her back. But the gun wasn't there; Rhodes spotted it on the table next to her head and her eyes registered surprise before turning up to his face.

"Rhodes, what..." She touched her face and looked around. "What time is it?"

"After nine," he answered, not moving away.

Her face was pink and her eyes were puffy from her nap. A moment later she touched her head and flushed a deeper shade of red when she realized how she must look. She stood up and Rhodes stepped back as she made a beeline for the washroom.

"I'm sorry I woke you up," he called. He sat down in the space she'd just vacated. It was warm and smelled faintly of her shampoo.

"It's fine," she replied from beyond his sight. "I shouldn't have fallen asleep."

"Don't worry about it. It's been a crazy couple of days." Rhodes leaned down and picked up the book she'd been reading—Pride and Prejudice.

"That's no reason to fall asleep on the job," she replied, coming out of the washroom a second later. She spotted the book in his hands and tried to take it from him. "I...I've never, I mean, I don't usually read...these sort of books."

He grinned up at her and, feeling playful, held her back with one hand while he flipped the book open with his free hand. "You don't read this?" he asked and proceeded to read a random passage while she struggled with him. "'My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.'"

With a muttered exclamation, Maddy ducked beneath his hand and drove her elbow into the right side of his ribcage. Groaning in pain, he dropped the book and clutched at his side.

"What's wrong with you?" Maddy asked with a frown and crouched down, the book lying forgotten on the couch. "You weren't hurt in the blast this morning were you?"

"Just the cut," he wheezed, feeling as though his entire ribcage was squeezing the air from him. "I'm fine."

"Not hardly," Maddy protested, trying to get him to lean back. "Let me see."

"No!" he cried, feebly trying to fend off her inquisitive hands.

"Please, Rhodes. It could be serious. You could have a cracked rib."

"From you?" He laughed breathlessly. "Not bloody likely."

She glared at him and sat back on her heels. "Why do you have to be like that?"

"Like what?"

"So defensive. We're supposed to look out for one another."

"You and me?" The pain was slowly starting to recede but her words were making little sense to him at the moment.

She rolled her eyes and tried to reach for him again. He deflected her and she sighed, rising from her crouch. "I mean the whole team."

"Oh, the team." He sat up straighter and tentatively felt the spot she'd hit. She must have nailed one of the unhealed bruises he'd brought back from Vancouver as a souvenir. "Right."

She fixed him with a glare and he smiled in return, trying his hardest to alleviate her concern.

She wasn't buying it.

"Don't you think this situation is serious?" she asked.

"Of course I do," he replied, standing up and slowly rising to his full height, wincing as something pulled. "But there's no sense in flying off the deep end because I'm a little banged up."

"Was it from the explosions at the office?" she asked again, stepping aside as he walked towards the kitchen.

"Sure."

"That's not an answer!"

Rhodes spotted a phone on the breakfast bar. "Is that yours?"

Her eyes went to the cell phone. "Oh, yeah. I set it down when everyone left earlier."

"It's dead," he remarked, picking it up and tossing it to her. "You should charge it."

"Yes, sir," she said, the sarcasm evident in her voice. She took the phone and walked down the hallway; presumably to hook it up to a charger in one of the bedrooms. Instead, she returned a minute later with the cord and plugged the phone into one of the kitchen outlets. It blipped at her as she turned it on again.

"You have a message?" Rhodes raised his eyebrows.

She glared at him before putting the phone to her ear and listening. Her frown deepened as she listened and Rhodes watched her closely, wondering who in the world could possibly be calling her on what he thought was a confidential number. The next second he was looking away, wondering why he thought it was any of his business.

I'm the boss, he answered himself with a scowl, moving around the kitchen and pouring himself a drink. It's my business to know. The phones are supposed to be for work.

Still, he couldn't bring himself to look at her again while she was still listening to the message. She was done quickly and set the phone back on the counter, leaving it on as it recharged.

"Important message?" he asked, trying to be nonchalant.

She shrugged and moved through the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge before walking to the pantry.

"I didn't think anyone outside TAITS had that number."

So help him, the words were out before he could stop them.

She turned to look at him, her gaze cold and defensive and he immediately regretted being the cause for the change.

"What does it matter?" she asked, stepping closer to him.

"I...it matters." He set his drink down.

"Why?" she demanded, not backing away, moving closer instead. "Why does it matter? Because you don't know about it? Is that it?"

Rhodes swallowed and told himself to stand firm. She's the rookie! he reminded himself. What could she possibly do to him? Regardless, he couldn't stop himself from backing away from her.

"Maybe you should spend a little more time worrying about your missions and less time on who calls me on my cell phone." She pointed her finger at him. "What gives you the right to ask these kinds of questions anyway?"

That's it.

"Who's asking questions?" he snapped, coming back to himself with a suddenness that surprised both of them. "I'm sure as hell not asking. I'm your superior and you're required to tell me what's going on."

"With my personal cell phone?" she said with a sneer.

"Your personal cell phone that was given to you by this company and should only be used for work purposes!"

"How do you know it wasn't work related?"

"If it is work related, why are you being so defensive?"

"I'm not being defensive!" Maddy shouted, standing almost toe-to-toe with Rhodes. "You're being a jackass!"

Rhodes gaped at her. He could not believe that she'd resorted to name calling. No reply came to mind and he simply stared at her.

She stared back and Rhodes was fascinated by what he saw in her face. She was flushed and her good eye was flashing brightly in the dim light of the apartment. Every muscle in her body was tense and the heat of her anger practically singed him. He suddenly wished that he was anywhere else but within two feet of her.

He needed to say something. Now.

"As for what right I have," he began, his voice even and his eyes holding hers. "I am the leader of TAITS."

No response from her.

"Isn't that enough for you?" he asked as another minute slid past. His voice was barely above a whisper and his resistance was fading. Fast.

The fire seemed to seep out of Maddy's face and she opened her mouth once before closing it without speaking.

Oh God. Resistance at an all time low.

"Enough?" she repeated, her voice softening and the look in her eyes even softer. Resistance. None.

Aware of the monumental risk he was taking, Rhodes reached for her, closing his hands on her waist and drawing her close. Before he could regain his senses, and before she could beat the hell out of him, he lowered his face to hers. He heard her suck in her breath right before their lips connected and he smiled, knowing that she had lost the battle as well.

For a long minute, he just pressed his lips against hers; not pushing for more but not drawing back either. He breathed her in, wrapping his arms more tightly around her, as though securing her before taking it any further. Then her hands went to his arms, her little fingers resting hesitantly on his forearms.

He opened his lips slightly and slid his tongue against the seam of her lips. Tentatively, she tipped her head back and opened under his mouth.

Now he pressed forward, delving into her open, welcoming mouth with his eager tongue. She responded and he wasn't sure what shocked him more; her willingness or his own.

He clenched her waist as her tongue moved against his and realized his heart rate wasn't through the roof at that moment. It was fast, sure—and he was pretty sure that was her heart racing against his chest—but it wasn't the out-of-control, chest-pain sort of fast he'd experienced before.

One of her hands began to move up his arm until she was touching the back of his neck. The feeling of her cool fingers against his skin sent a shiver through him and she murmured against his lips. The sound of that sent the shiver racing back through his body and straight to his groin.

He pulled his lips from hers to trail kisses along her cheek and down the side of her neck. She swooned in his arms and he strengthened his hold, loving the feeling of her weight against him. He licked her ear lobe and she trembled in his arms.

"What is this?" she whispered and Rhodes wasn't sure he was meant to answer.

To remove any worry about a response, he returned his lips to hers and devoured her. Their tongues met and an electric current shot through him. With a groan, he clutched her to him and spun around, pressing her back against the breakfast bar. She met the counter with a muffled sound and he drew back to ask if she was all right.

She nodded without a word and pulled his face back to hers, leading this kiss where he'd been in control before. He was now entirely at her mercy as she placed little kisses on his mouth before sucking lightly on his lower lip.

Then she ran her tongue over his lips and he opened to her as she'd done for him only moments before. She kissed him full on the lips as he ran one hand up her back and slid the other down to haul her hips against him. He wanted her to know what she was doing to him right now. Her lips curled into a smile against his and he knew she'd gotten the message.

He wasn't sure how long they stood in the kitchen, pressed against each other and making out like teenagers. At some point, he'd set her up on the counter and she had her legs hooked around his waist. Somehow she'd undone the buttons on his shirt all the way and slid it back off his shoulders. She was working at pushing off the holster holding his two handguns while he was busy releasing her auburn hair from its familiar ponytail.

When the long, deep red waves of her hair were released, he wrenched his lips from hers to bury his face in them. He brought his hands holding the mass of hair up to his nose and inhaled deeply. The next moment he nearly shot his load in his pants as her lips closed on his ear lobe and she began to suck rhythmically.

"Oh God, Maddy," he murmured into her hair, tilting his head and surrendering to her ministrations. When he couldn't take it any more, he turned his head and brought both hands up to cup her face. He kissed her, no hesitation, no room for doubt over what he intended to do to her. He drove his tongue inside her mouth and she clutched at his shoulders, making some small noise against his lips. He felt her tongue rise to meet his and savored the taste of her.

Slowly he eased away and with deliberate gentleness, he traced all the lines of her face with his lips, nibbling on her chin lightly when she tipped her head back. He drew her back down and kissed her all over. When he reached her forehead and the jagged white line that intersected the porcelain skin, she froze abruptly and Rhodes felt the change in her all the way down to his bones.

Drawing on every reserve of strength he possessed, he stopped kissing her and moved his face away so he could look at her properly. She had her eyes squeezed shut and he could have sworn he saw a tremor run across her lips.

"Maddy," he whispered, leaning forward to kiss her lips again. When she reached for him, opening her mouth for more, he stopped and pulled back again. "Maddy, look at me."

She refused, shaking her head feebly within his grasp.

"Please, Maddy," he asked, his voice low, gentle.

Still she wouldn't open her eyes to look at him. With a sigh, he leaned forward to kiss her again, keeping his eyes open and trained on hers, wanting to see the lovely green in them.

A second later, they flew open and she stopped trembling. He froze also, his ears perking up.

"I hear it, too." He barely got the words out before a black shape appeared in the big windows across the living room.

The intimacy of their encounter was shattered as a hail of bullets splintered the windows, coming from an unmarked helicopter right outside the building.

Chapter Thirteen

Rhodes dove behind the breakfast bar, thrusting Maddy beneath him as the gunfire continued, destroying everything in sight. They remained there, unmoving, covering their heads as the apartment showered debris down on them.

Rhodes finally dared a look and reached for his discarded holster. He handed one gun to Maddy as she rolled over. He moved to the cupboard under the sink and pulled out a small case. When he opened it to reveal several extra clips and an extra .45, Maddy grinned at him.

In the midst of the gunfire and the rain of plaster and drywall, Rhodes felt his heart swell with something inexplicable. The next minute she removed the safety on her gun and chambered a round in one swift move.

He gestured to Maddy with one hand and she nodded when he signaled that he was going to see if he could reach the door from beyond the range of the gunfire. He crawled towards the main entrance, just to the right of the kitchen while Maddy peered around the far side of the breakfast bar.

Rhodes was about to reach for the door knob when he heard a low whistle from Maddy's direction. She jerked her head towards the window and Rhodes froze, listening. The chopper was still moving and still firing on them, but it had moved down the apartment, hitting the bedrooms instead.

"Now!" Rhodes yelled and leapt to his feet. He jerked the door open and covered Maddy as she darted from her position to exit the apartment behind him. Slamming the door with one hand and grabbing Maddy's with the other, he whirled around to see several neighbors peeking out of their apartments. "Stay inside!" he yelled at them. "Call the police!" For the first time since outfitting the apartment, Rhodes was glad he'd taken the extra precautions to fortify the walls between their apartment and the neighbors.

"Where should we go?" Maddy asked him in a low voice, holding her gun behind her so they didn't disturb the civilians any further.

Rhodes looked up and down the hallway. "The roof," he answered, taking off for the staircase at the far end of the hall.

"The roof? What are we supposed to do up there?"

"Take them out, once and for all," Rhodes replied, banging the stairway door open. "I'm sick and fucking tired of people trying to kill me!"

Maddy said nothing more, just followed along behind the boss as they made their way to the rooftop of the condo building. Once there, they quickly surveyed the area before moving away from the door.

"Do you expect us to shoot down the helicopter with our handguns?" Maddy asked.

"No," Rhodes replied, trying to focus on the task at hand and not on how her hair looked blowing wildly in the wind. "I expect to shoot them down with the semi-automatics I have stashed over there." He pointed to a small metal box on one corner of the building.

Maddy ran for it and shot the lock off. She stashed her handgun at the small of her back and withdrew the rifles from the box as Rhodes approached.

"Now do you think we can take them down?" Rhodes asked as he took the offered weapon.

Maddy only answered him with a grin.

* * * *

"What?" Grimm exclaimed into the cell phone. "What the hell are you talking about? The same chopper?"

The others—Jack, Hound, Emilio and Cricket—all froze and turned to look at Grimm. They had just finished with their inspection of the office when he got the call.

"You can't be serious, Rhodes," Grimm said. "You two can't take them on alone!"

"Oh Christ," Hound muttered.

"Where in the hell do you want us then?" Grimm demanded with a scowl. "That's at least ten blocks away!" A pause. "Fine. Western Canada. We'll be there." Another pause and then he exploded. "Of course I'm going to argue with you, you son of a bitch! This is a serious, deadly situation and you're not—" He drew the phone away from his ear and stared at it.

"Come on, Grimm," Emilio said, waving him over to the window that they'd used for their entry into the wrecked office building.

"That bastard hung up on me."

"Yeah, well if we want to have any hope in hell of saving his ass, we've got to move now," Hound spoke up and hopped out the window.

Swearing profusely, Grimm pocketed the phone and followed them out the window. He raced to the van with the others and they were soon rocketing through the virtually deserted streets of Calgary to the senior high school near the condo building.

* * * *

Rhodes stood at the edge of the building, looking down as the chopper slowly began turning and, presumably, reloading for further assault.

Maddy glanced up and saw several flashing lights heading through the streets towards the building.

Locals. Shit.

"We have to do this now and get the hell out of here," Maddy said as she shouldered her weapon and aimed for the men moving around on the open side of the chopper.

Rhodes nodded and they opened fire.

It happened quickly; two bodies fell out of the chopper and dangled grotesquely from the cords secured to the inside. The chopper tilted and the propeller blades came dangerously close to the building before it righted itself. Return gunfire followed as two more bodies filled in the opening the fallen ones had vacated.

Maddy narrowed her eyes and aimed for the one on the right, guessing that Rhodes would take out the one on the left or the pilot. She focused, inhaled and squeezed the trigger, releasing several rounds at the chopper. Another body fell and she leapt back as the stonework on the side of the building exploded in their faces.

"Clip!" Maddy shouted. Rhodes tossed her one out of his back pocket and she reloaded. "I'll cover you while you take out the pilot."

"I can't friggin' see the pilot!" he yelled back, dropping down as another volley of bullets chewed off more stonework.

"What do you want to do?"

They only had seconds before the chopper cut the fallen men loose and rose to the rooftop to take them out. There was absolutely no cover up here. Their only option, if they didn't act quickly to take out the remaining threat, would be to make a run for the entrance back into the apartment building. But knowing these people after them, even the little that they did, meant they'd probably drop an explosive on the roof, destroying everyone.

They sat there, breathing hard and stewing, until Maddy heard the sound from the chopper change. It was on the rise now.

Fuck.

"Cover me," she said and rose before Rhodes could protest.

Maddy took aim and fired, over and over until the last man standing inside the chopper dropped to the end of his cord. Then she switched her focus and took aim at the pilot. The window was dark. She couldn't see anything but she fired anyway, trying to stop him as best as she could.

Rhodes suddenly rose beside her, firing at the machine as it rose slowly. His rounds hit the base of the rear propeller, sending it careening off into the sky. They watched as the chopper spun over and over, until it crashed into the parking lot across the street and exploded.

After their building stopped shaking, they sat back down to regain their breath.

"Do you think that's it?" Maddy asked. She couldn't bring herself to look at him but she could feel the heat coming off of him in waves.

"I doubt it," Rhodes said, not looking at her either. "Anyone with enough money and power to send something like that after us has got to have a back-up plan."

Maddy nodded in agreement and they fell silent. Her mind wandered back to their heated embrace in the kitchen and she wondered if he was thinking the same thing. She risked a glance in his direction.

"I think we should stay focused on the situation at hand, Maddy," Rhodes said, breaking the silence. His gaze was focused somewhere straight ahead in the distance.

"I didn't say anything," she whispered, turning her face to look at him directly.

He turned as well and she felt her heartbeat quicken at the look in his eyes.

"You didn't have to say it. I can see it...I can feel you thinking it."

Maddy swallowed hard and rotated her body towards him. Rhodes did the same and soon they were locked in a firm embrace.

After a few minutes, Rhodes cupped her head with one big hand and tipped her chin up for a gentle kiss. He drew his arm tighter around her and she sighed against his lips. It was all the encouragement he required. His lips parted and his tongue sought hers, which she willingly surrendered to him. They slid together and melded in a way she'd never felt before.

"Freeze!" came a voice from across the rooftop.

Chapter Fourteen

They broke apart and looked over to see several members of the police force pouring out of the rooftop doorway towards them. Rhodes and Maddy raised their hands over their heads and remained seated. One of the police officers grabbed Rhodes by the arm and yanked him to his feet.

The officer was momentarily stunned when Rhodes rose to his full height, and towered over him. "Keep your hands behind your head," he ordered and to his credit, there wasn't a tremor in his voice. He quickly handcuffed Rhodes.

Maddy watched without moving a muscle until one of the officers approached her. "Ma'am?" he asked, reaching a tentative hand out to her. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

She stared for a second at him and wondered what the hell he was talking about.

Slowly she shook her head and took the offered hand, rising to her feet. She dusted off her backside and risked a glance at Rhodes who was grinning like a fool in her direction. She tried not to smile back, going along with the scenario being laid out. These officers obviously assumed she was in trouble or being held on the roof against her will.

"I think I'm all right," she said quietly to the policeman as he took her arm and led her to the door. "What's happened?" She tried to sound appropriately confused while still struggling not to smile at this strange turn of events.

"Something serious, ma'am." He helped her all the way downstairs to the main lobby where about a hundred people had convened; residents of the building, police, firemen and some paramedics. "I'm just going to take you to a paramedic and they're going to check you out and make sure you're OK."

"OK," she agreed with a nod. "Thank you, officer."

"Just doing my job, ma'am," he said with a kind smile and she allowed herself a real look at this man.

He can't be much older than I am, she thought, glancing at his badge. She memorized his name and filed the information in the back of her mind.

After assuring she was safe in the care of the paramedics, he turned and hurried away; presumably back to the roof. She faced the health care professional before her and smiled, allowing the young woman to check her. Aside from a curious look at her scar, the woman said she was all right.

"Have a seat over there," the paramedic said. "They'll probably be by later to question you."

Maddy took a seat as the paramedic suggested and watched for the same officer to come find her again. She didn't see him again but she waited in the lobby for some time, wanting to see Rhodes when they brought him down. She alternately sat in a chair and paced across the lobby for an hour and a half before realizing that they weren't going to parade him through the building.

They might even wait until people have cleared out for the night, she thought, looking around.

Most of the residents had been allowed to return to their apartments. Those affected by the attack and subsequent helicopter explosion on the one side of the building had already been taken somewhere to spend the night. The majority of firefighters and paramedics had left, leaving only a few law enforcement officers behind. Then she spotted one of the elevator lights blinking and casually made her way to a shadowed corner of the lobby to watch, out of sight.

Sure enough, a minute later several officers and one very big detainee exited the elevator. She watched in silence as he was hurriedly ushered across the lobby. The group was stopped by an officer near the door. Maddy strained to hear what they were saying.

"We're taking him downtown for questioning," the man standing nearest Rhodes said.

"Who gave the order?" asked the officer who'd stopped them.

"We found him on the roof," another officer replied. "With several weapons."

"He claims to know Lt. Murphy."

The officer at the door nodded and stepped aside, letting them escort Rhodes outside. Maddy watched and when the coast was clear, she slipped down a hallway, heading for an exit on the side of the building. Once there, she hurried around to see what vehicle they were putting him into. She made it just in time to see the doors on a large police van shut before it drove away.

"Shit," she whispered as it drove off. She looked around and her hand went to her pocket. "Shit!" she repeated when she realized that she didn't have her phone. She'd left it in the apartment, charging—it was now most likely destroyed.

Rhodes had told the others to pick them up at Western Canada High School, about eleven blocks east of where she was. Sighing heavily, Maddy looked towards the main road running parallel to the apartment building. Then she allowed herself a minute to complain inwardly about the distance before she took off jogging.

* * * *

"Where the hell are they?" Jack demanded for the fifth time, pacing alongside the van. They were waiting in the lot outside the high school. She looked at her watch for probably the hundredth time as she continued to pace. "It's been too long. Something's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong," Hound said, watching her warily. He was fiddling with the gun in his lap but at a glance from Cricket, he put it away.

"How would you know?" Jack asked, turning on the fair-haired man.

He shrugged. "It's Rhodes."

Grimm watched the two of them and shook his head before getting up to walk over to where Fly sat inside the loaner, tapping away on his laptop.

"Anything useful?" he asked with a smile. "Or are you just playing a game?"

Fly sent him a withering glance. "I don't bother with games anymore since I've completed them," he replied as he returned his gaze to the computer. "So far, not much has changed."

When they'd all met up again, sans Rhodes and Maddy, Fly had filled them in on what he'd found out since leaving the apartment. There had been a signal transmitting from the office that had led whoever it was to the building. Since the attack at the apartment building, he'd traced the same signal from there. He'd found no trace of any signal near the compound, coming or going. This led them to believe that Rhodes or Maddy must have some kind of tracking device on them. They hadn't agreed on what sort of device yet, or which of the two of them had been tracked initially.

Grimm watched Fly work over his shoulder for a minute. "So which games have you completed?" he asked, breaking the silence and attempting to make conversation.

"All of them," Fly said.

Wide-eyed, Grimm gave a low whistle and backed away. He turned to see Cricket standing near the van and wringing her hands in frustration. Hound was watching her as well, and Grimm hid another smile before walking back to the van.

"Don't worry, Cricket," he told her, reaching out and pulling her into an embrace. Looking over her shoulder, he saw the dirty look Hound gave him and responded with a brilliant grin. "They're fine."

"How do you know that?" she and Jack asked at the same time.

"It's Rhodes and Maddy," Grimm said, still holding onto Cricket, loving that Hound was fidgeting madly where he sat on the open edge of the van. "They can make it through this."

"They probably just got held up by the cops and fire department," Emilio added, speaking for the first time since they'd arrived at the school parking lot. "Questions and such."

"Or worse, if they didn't get rid of their guns before the cops showed up," Hound countered and they all fell silent as they realized what that meant.

"I'll call downtown and find out if they've been booked," Fly said with a resigned sigh, pulling out his cell phone and flicking it open.

"Not necessary, Fly," a new voice spoke up and they all turned in surprise to see Maddy standing next to the loaner.

"Maddy!" Cricket exclaimed and yanked herself free of Grimm's arms to rush at the other woman.

Maddy graciously suffered through Cricket's heartfelt embrace with a wry smile. She was breathing hard and her face was covered in a sheen of sweat.

"What happened?" Grimm asked after Cricket released her.

"The chopper attacked the apartment."

They all knew the gist of it from Rhodes' call but they allowed her to run through the events anyway, finishing with Rhodes being hauled off by the police.

"They're taking him downtown," Maddy concluded, her breathing gradually slowing. "I heard them mention it before they were out of sight."

"Why didn't you call us?" Fly asked.

"I left my phone in the apartment and Rhodes had his on him," Maddy replied, still kicking herself for her mistake. She blushed when she recalled what had happened before the helicopter attack. That detail she'd opted out of explaining to the rest of the team.

"Well, we should get downtown and pick him up," Emilio said and turned in the driver's seat, slamming the door beside him.

"What about Tait?" Jack asked.

"Tait's gone to HQ," Grimm reminded her as he walked towards the van behind everyone else. "He won't be able to bail Rhodes out this time."

"Christ," Hound swore as he buckled himself in. "Lt. Murphy will roll over dead before she lets any one of us take Rhodes out of there."

"We'll just have to convince her," Grimm replied and slid the side door shut. "Fly," he said out the window, "you'll meet us there?"

Fly nodded and waved them off, still typing on his laptop.

Once everyone was safely buckled up, at Emilio's insistence, they headed off for the downtown police station. Everyone bombarded Maddy with questions, which she tried to answer, but she was tired and becoming extremely cranky.

"What time is it?" she asked as a moment of silence descended over the van.

"One," Emilio answered.

Groaning, Maddy sat back in her seat and closed her eyes, trying to summon the strength she would need to get Rhodes out of lock-up.

"Don't worry, Maddy," Grimm told her with a smile. "We'll get Rhodes out and I'm sure he'll only be a little pissed off that you got away and left him behind to face the music."

Maddy glared at him as everyone else laughed, the tension of the night breaking.

Sighing, Maddy turned her face to the window and frowned again. As the chatter started up between the others in the van, she descended into her recent memories, calling to mind the image of Rhodes' face above hers. A shiver traced her spine and she wrapped her arms around herself.

They would get him out of the police station but that wasn't a real concern. She was worried that he would be able to see how badly he'd messed with her and she hated for anyone to see her this way. She was worried that the second they were in the same room together, everyone would be able to tell what had happened between them. She tried to push the thoughts from her head.

It was just a kiss, she told herself. Nothing more.

Nothing more than a bone-melting, electron-charging, earth-shattering kiss.

Correction: Two such kisses.

Maddy dropped her face into her hand and ignored the sideways glance that Grimm gave her. They'd be at the police station soon and she'd have plenty of time to stew over Rhodes' reaction when she saw him again.

* * * *

"Goddamnsonofabitch!" Damien hollered. He slammed the cover on his laptop down with enough force to shake the legs of the table holding it.

From across the room, his cousin looked over and raised his flawlessly maintained eyebrows before standing up. He walked over and stood next to him. "What's the problem, Damien?" Khristian eyed the computer, wondering if the monitor was cracked.

"The chopper went down," Damien replied shortly.

Khristian allowed that tidbit of information to sink in while the muscles in his jaw clenched and unclenched. "How do you know that?"

"The ground crew a block away saw everything. That bastard and his bitch shot them down from the rooftop."

"This is most unexpected," Khristian said with a sigh, settling himself on the corner of the desk and running his fingers across the closed laptop. "What else did they report?"

Damien shrugged. "The police, fire department and who knows who else showed up, so they got away from the site."

"Where are they now?"

"They're on their way back here."

"And Rhodes?" Khristian asked after a minute of silence.

"They suspect he was arrested," Damien answered at length, raising his eyes to face his cousin. "He's downtown now, I suppose."

"And the woman? Her phone?"

"The phone was presumably destroyed in the assault," Damien said. "Unless she took it with her, but the signal is completely gone. As for where she is, I have no idea. Maybe she was arrested as well."

They fell silent following that. Khristian mulled over all the information as Damien opened the computer to ascertain the damage he'd done in his momentary rage.

"Well, at least we know where they are," Khristian broke the silence, moving off the desk and stretching.

"We don't know for sure if they were both arrested," Damien remarked, glancing up at his cousin. "The ground crew only reported that Rhodes appears to have been taken into custody."

"The woman will go to pick him up," Khristian added. "Along with the rest of their team."

Damien nodded, seeing the positive at last. "I'll tell the crew to get to the precinct and watch for them. They can take them all out when they leave."

"No," Khristian said, holding up a hand, a frown creasing his features. "Tell them to follow them and let us know their destination."

"What do you have in mind?"

"I think we should send in someone else," Khristian said with a wicked smile on his face. "Perhaps a little sibling reunion is in order?"

Damien responded with a smile of his own. "I'll make all the arrangements."

Turning, Khristian walked back over to his armchair and picked up the newspaper he'd been perusing. He glanced up at the man secured in the chair across from him; his head hung low and blood still spattered the floor surrounding him.

"What do you say, Lukas?" Khristian spoke to the restrained man without looking up from his newspaper. He flipped a page. "Are you willing to cooperate some more?"

The man in the chair made a noise and jerked his head to one side, sending more droplets of blood flying. Khristian did look up then and tsked while wagging a finger at him. After a second of silence and a heated glare from the man duct-taped to the chair, Khristian grinned and returned his attention to the newspaper.

Chapter Fifteen

Although the holding cell was not the same as the one he'd been in the previous night, it might as well have been. Rhodes had spent time in each of the cells in this downtown holding facility at some point during his time with TAITS. Each time it had been only hours before someone had managed to get him out. Tonight though, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to leave so soon.

His mind was plagued with thoughts of the past several hours and he couldn't stop himself from replaying the amazing scene in the apartment kitchen over and over again. Then he'd find himself too worked up and, shifting uncomfortably on the unforgiving bench, he'd try to think of something, anything else that would take his mind off of Maddy and the kiss.

Kisses. Multiple.

God help him.

Rolling his head back and forth, he rubbed at the knot in his right shoulder and warily eyed the man in the cell next to him. Turning, he ignored the intent look the man was giving him and tried to refocus on what had happened between the first and second chopper attacks.

They knew where we were both times, he thought. No one knows where they're located, at any spot, except for the people at HQ with the highest security clearance; even then, it was only a handful of people. So how did they find us?

The same question had been rolling through his mind over and over, in stereo. If it wasn't for the adolescent fantasies he was replaying in his mind, he might be able to figure something out. With a heavy sigh, he rose and wandered across the cell to lean his arms on the bars facing the hallway. A quick glance in either direction let him know, yet again, that he was alone; except, of course, for his neighbor.

We must have been tracked somehow. But when would they have planted a tracker on us?

Suddenly he stood up straight, a scowl marring his face.

Not us—me.

Both times the attacks happened it was me, he told himself, turning away from the bars and pacing across the small cell.

Well, me and Maddy, but who could be after her? She's so new. Christ, I bet she still has ties to her old life; at least that's the impression I get, especially after that conversation about where she was before the Javier job.

It was as though a light went on inside his head. It was too much of a coincidence that Maddy was nowhere to be found the night before last and for them to now be attacked at secure locations.

She's the source of the tracker, he thought and before he could think of what possible device they'd planted on her without her knowledge, someone opened the door at the end of the hall.

He hurried back to the bars at the front of his cell and watched as the leggy lieutenant walked down the hall. She stopped before him and he couldn't help but grin at the disgusted expression on her plain face.

"You have an angel on your shoulder, Rhodes," she said in a tight voice.

They observed each other through the metal bars. She was a pleasant-looking woman but there was a hardness to her eyes that revealed nothing of what she thought. It was probably why she'd become a lieutenant so early in her law enforcement career. Being known city-wide as someone who didn't take crap from anyone, least of all the thugs that ran the underground, made her a target of much speculation. Rhodes would be lying if he didn't admit that he'd done his own speculating. It shocked him that as he looked at her now he couldn't help but compare her to Maddy.

"You've managed to elude prosecution yet again," she told him when he offered nothing.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning your friends are here and they've vouched for you," she said, pulling keys out of her pocket and unlocking the door to his cell.

He gratefully exited the harsh, cold room and smiled as he passed the lieutenant.

"Don't think I won't haul your ass down here again if I ever find you at another scene like the one tonight," she warned him as she escorted him down the hallway and up a flight of stairs.

"I don't doubt it for a minute, Murphy."

"It's Lieutenant Murphy to you, Rhodes," she seethed, grabbing his arm as they rounded the corner and came within sight of the room where his team was waiting.

She stopped him long enough to sign some paperwork and collect his personal belongings. Then she walked him through the heavy steel door to the room beyond and fixed all those gathered with a firm glare.

"Next time you decide to cause a scene like that, do it on someone else's watch," she told them and spun on her heel, leaving Rhodes with his team members.

"I don't think you all needed to come here." A quick glance told him they weren't all there. "Where's Maddy?" he asked, suddenly very worried. "Didn't she meet up with you guys?"

"She's with the van," Grimm assured him as they all turned and made their way through the building.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Rhodes accepted the concealed weapon Hound handed him from his other side. Emilio, Cricket, Fly and Jack all trailed behind them as they reached the side doors and headed out the parking garage attached to the precinct.

"So who's going to give me an update?" Rhodes asked as they made their way through the parkade. When no one responded immediately, even Jack, he looked around at them in surprise. "Oh, come on, guys. You've got to have something!"

Still nothing.

"Grimm, what did you find out at the building downtown?" he asked, going for the direct approach.

"We didn't make it that far," Grimm answered. "We all went to the office first and you called before we were done."

Rhodes clenched his jaw but kept moving towards the van parked at the far side of the deserted parkade. A movement near the vehicle caught his eye and he stopped short when he saw Maddy step into the light. She froze also and for a long, tense moment no one spoke or moved an inch. Coming back to himself, Rhodes continued on, walking right up to Maddy and the van.

"Fly," he said, turning and seeking out the rumpled techie.

"Boss," Fly replied, stepping forward while the rest of them hung back warily.

"You came in the loaner, right?" Rhodes asked. When Fly nodded, he continued. "Did you find any signals going in or out around the compound?"

"No."

"Good," Rhodes said and turned to face them all. "I'm pretty sure I know how they've been able to find and attack us."

"How?" Jack asked.

"I can't tell you right now, but trust me when I say that I don't think they've found the compound yet."

"There's still the possibility they could follow us from here," Grimm spoke up. "If we'd tried to pull a job like that hit at the apartment, we would have had a crew standing by, observing and reporting. We'd know if someone got arrested."

"You're right," Rhodes agreed. "Which is why Fly is going to take the loaner ahead of us to check the area around the compound again and find a location for a stakeout. You're going with him, Grimm."

His old teammate nodded and the two walked over to the beat-up Tempo. A few nods and words were exchanged before they got in and drove out of the parkade.

"What are we going to do now?" Hound asked.

"We'll wait a bit to give Fly and Grimm a chance to get ready," Rhodes answered, turning and sitting down in the open side of the van. "Once we leave, we'll assume we're being followed, though Emilio will be able to spot a tail right away."

The big driver nodded briskly, crossing his arms over his chest. He took his part in the team extremely seriously, which is why Rhodes relied on him so much.

"If we're being followed, then we'll let Fly and Grimm know. They'll tell us where they've staked out and when we reach them, we'll find out what the hell is going on."

"How long are we going to wait?" Jack asked after a brief silence.

Instead of answering her, Rhodes turned to Hound and asked about his findings at the office.

"It's pretty sophisticated," Hound said, his eyes lighting up. "I haven't seen anything this good since my training."

Rhodes rolled his eyes and touched a hand to his forehead. That wasn't necessarily good news. Then he felt eyes on him and he dropped his hand to see Maddy's gaze fixed on his face. Their eyes met before both blushed and looked away.

Meanwhile, Hound had jumped into the back of the van behind Rhodes and pulled out his box of goodies. "This here," he said, pointing at a blackened piece of metal that looked as though it had been torn from the underside of a car. "This was part of the casement of one of the devices."

"A piece survived those blasts?" Rhodes asked incredulously, looking over his shoulder at the younger man.

"Oh yeah!" Hound sounded entirely too enthusiastic. "I found more pieces of the casings and even residue of what they were filled with."

"All this was left behind by the locals?"

"I don't think the inspector had been there yet. There were spots of the office that were still smoldering when the locals left," Cricket added, sitting down beside Rhodes. "They left one guy on site to keep an eye on things and that's when we went in."

Rhodes turned his attention back to his explosives expert, who was rummaging around in the box for more to show him. He held up his hand as Hound pulled out more pieces of debris to show him. "Hound, please, just tell me what it all means."

Sighing and stuffing the goods back into the box, Hound began to explain. "These parts are only available in Canada through the government."

Rhodes gaped at him before frowning and shaking his head. "But we know that almost anything can be moved on the black market."

"Exactly, almost anything. Not this stuff. It's not even out of the experimental stages. They were just introducing it when I was in training. It's an extremely volatile mixture which is why it rocked the building so bad and probably why they had to circle away before dropping each one." He paused. "You said there was a delay between each explosion, right?"

"Yes," Maddy spoke up, standing beside the van with Emilio and Jack. "A few minutes at least."

Rhodes nodded without looking her way. He wasn't quite ready to face that just yet and he was desperately trying to sort through this new information.

"You want to know what I think?" Hound asked, bringing him out of his silence.

"Shoot."

"I think the mole you talked about has been bribed or blackmailed into giving up all kinds of information. They knew where to find us, how to plant a tracking device on at least one of us and now we know they had technology for their explosives that only government agents would have any knowledge of, let alone access to. Knowing what we know about this now—" Hound paused and gestured at the box of debris from the office, "I'd say that narrows our search to a group of ten or twelve people."

Rhodes nodded, slowly absorbing Hound's words. It was true that the only possible way someone could have ended up so close, twice in a single day, was if they had an internal connection. He glanced up at Hound as a thought occurred to him.

"You said that someone is being bribed or blackmailed?" When Hound nodded, he continued. "Why would you think that someone just isn't out to get us? Someone we've pissed off over the past ten years? Could be any number of people."

"You've told us how many times that Tait is the only one who knows the real details about our operations?" Hound replied. "We work with new clean-up and apprehension crews every week, right?"

Again, Rhodes nodded as he followed Hound's logic.

"Whoever TAITS may have pissed off obviously wants us very dead and they want it enough to go to these lengths," Hound concluded. "But if it was someone from our own organization, one of us would already be dead."

Silence greeted this remark and Rhodes looked over at the younger man with raised eyebrows. Hound grinned in response and Rhodes shook his head.

"All right," Rhodes said after another minute. "I think we've given them enough of a head start. Let's get going and find out if we're going to be followed."

He stood up and turned, allowing everyone to pile into the van, noting that Maddy climbed into the back row. He wondered as he watched her settle in if she was intentionally avoiding him, or presenting him with an opportunity.

He decided to go with opportunity and sat on the seat beside her, leaving Hound to fill the last space in the middle row. The door slid shut a second later and they were heading out of the parking garage into the dark night beyond.

Chapter Sixteen

Unsure of what to make of their current situation, Maddy remained silent for the first part of the ride back to the compound. Rhodes' presence next to her was overwhelming after all that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. His smell and the sound of his breathing invaded her senses and she struggled not to curl up against her side of the seat to escape him. Up front, Cricket chattered next to Emilio while Jack and Hound dozed in their seats in the middle. In the back row of the van, Maddy and Rhodes sat ramrod straight, not speaking and most definitely not sleeping.

The relief she'd felt when she'd seen Rhodes approaching the van in the parkade had stunned her with its sudden intensity. She'd been afraid on some level that the police might not release him and she wasn't sure if the rest of them would have known what to do if that happened. She supposed in some way she felt responsible. Shaking her head, she recalled the events on the rooftop and wallowed briefly in the guilt she felt for leaving him alone on the roof.

"It's not your fault," he told her, breaking the tense silence between them.

Startled, she looked in his direction and saw him looking over at her. "What are you talking about?" she asked, keeping her voice low.

"Tonight, the rooftop," he said with a half-hearted shrug, his eyes intent on her face. "It wasn't your fault they arrested me."

"But I just left you there. I should have done something."

"Anything you'd have done would have just landed you in jail along with me. It was just as well that you left when you did."

"I don't think so, Rhodes."

"I'm out now, aren't I? What does it matter?"

She regarded him silently for a moment, trying to make out his features in the dim light. The lights from the street outside slid across his face and she caught a glimpse of his blue eyes before looking away.

"I'm just saying that it's not your fault," he repeated.

In the silence that followed, Maddy tried to sort through her feelings. More than just his arrest had happened on that rooftop and she confessed, if only to herself, that the kiss they'd shared had more to do with her current state than anything else. She was so deep into her own thoughts that she was entirely unaware of his hand sliding closer to hers on the seat between them.

It caught her by surprise to feel his fingers grip hers and she reflexively jerked her hand away. Turning her head to look at him, she saw, as one of the street lights illuminated his face, a look of hurt pass across his features. Feeling her stomach twist, she lowered her hand and closed her fingers over his. His exhalation brought a few extra beats to her heart in the seconds that followed and she didn't pull away as he turned his hand over to entwine their fingers together.

She looked away again but a smile touched her lips. His fingers gently rubbed against hers and she felt like a teenager sneaking around behind her parents' backs.

Rhodes spoke up, directing a question at Emilio behind the wheel.

"You see them, Emilio?" he asked, his voice stirring the two sleepers in the middle row.

"Oh yeah," the big driver replied. "I think they must be new at this. I spotted them a block from the precinct."

They were approaching the southern outskirts of the city. At this point in the early morning hours, they were only about another ten or fifteen minutes from the compound.

"You want me to call Grimm?" Emilio asked.

"No. I will," Rhodes said and used his free hand to pull his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. Maddy glanced his way, impressed by the quick moves of his single hand in opening the phone and dialing Grimm's number. His blue eyes came up suddenly to meet hers and he grinned, giving her hand a squeeze. Grateful for the darkness within the vehicle, Maddy blushed but couldn't take her eyes off of Rhodes' face.

"Grimm, we're about fifteen minutes out," he said by way of greeting. "Yeah, they're following." A pause. "I'm not sure. Emilio, can you tell how many there are?"

"It's too dark and if they were smart, a couple would be out of sight on the floor or in the back."

"No, we don't know. My guess is at least four, " Rhodes said. "Sounds good. Where are you?" Another pause and then he nodded. "Yeah, I know it. I'll tell Emilio. OK, we'll be there shortly." When he hung up he described the location along the route to the compound where Fly and Grimm were waiting.

Emilio knew what he was talking about and no one spoke again for the remainder of the drive.

They came upon the secluded area along the highway surrounded by a dense growth of trees and bushes. Emilio looked in the rearview mirror before suddenly jerking the wheel to the right, forcing the passengers towards the left. They were unprepared for the sudden move and Emilio allowed himself a small chuckle before their attention was drawn by the events that unfolded.

The car tailing them followed closely as Emilio drove through a thin patch of trees and into an open field just east of the compound. So intent on their target were the pursuers, that they didn't see the other car come up behind them. When Emilio pulled around to the left in a swift move and stopped, the tail vehicle was caught between them and the loaner.

Maddy jerked her hand free of Rhodes', and they both drew their guns forward from the small of their backs. In front of them, Hound and Jack did the same. The side door of the van was flung open and the four TAITS agents aimed their weapons at the unfamiliar car trailing them.

A window on one side of the dark sedan came down and shots were fired at them. They darted around the van for cover and Grimm rose from behind the passenger door of the loaner to return fire. Until that point, the strangers were unaware of the loaner trapping them. The rear window shattered as Grimm fired his gun, while Hound came back around the front of the van to shoot out a side window.

"Three!" he hollered.

At his word, Jack crept past him while the others covered her. She reached the driver's side just as Grimm and Maddy reached the passenger side. Two more windows were broken, along with the windshield, as more shots went off. Someone from inside the vehicle cried out and Maddy could see blood splattering the last intact window.

"We want them alive!" Rhodes bellowed and, brandishing his own gun, came forward as the doors of the car were yanked opened.

Two men were pulled free, ordered to drop their weapons and not move while Maddy moved to check the person still inside.

"He's wounded," she announced as Rhodes approached.

"Badly?" Rhodes replied shortly, keeping his gaze trained on the men as they were forced to their knees in front of their car.

Reaching inside, Maddy felt for a heartbeat on the unconscious third man. "Bad enough. Hardly any pulse."

Nodding, Rhodes turned away and walked over to stand in front of their captives. "Who wants to go first?" he asked, his voice cold and hard. His gaze was equally fierce and the fair-haired man before him turned away. His companion, also light-haired, remained looking up at Rhodes, boldly meeting the big man's eyes. Neither of them responded to Rhodes' inquiry.

Rhodes raised his gun and shot through the gaping windshield at the man inside. Blood and brain matter dotted the interior of the car, and splattered beyond the broken windows.

Directing his gaze back to the two men on the ground before him, Rhodes calmly asked, "Who would like to tell me what's going on?"

"Fuck you," the man facing him spat out. "We don't answer to you."

"Oh, you do right now." He leveled his gun between the two men. "Which is why you're going to tell me everything." He squeezed the trigger, hitting the engine of the car, causing the silent man to yelp involuntarily.

Rhodes flicked his eyes to him with a scary smile spreading across his face. "I'm really very interested to hear why you were following us." As he spoke, he stepped closer to the man who wouldn't face him. "And who asked you to do so."

"We won't tell you anything," the first man seethed.

Turning his face towards the man who'd spoken, Rhodes grinned wickedly before grasping the hair of the other man's head, and pressing the barrel of his gun to his forehead.

"No!" the captive cried feebly and Maddy saw that he was truly terrified. He looked young; early twenties, maybe, she guessed. Whatever his story, tonight there was no mercy in Rhodes' face.

"Go ahead, kill him," the first man spoke, shifting on his knees and gasping in pain as Hound rewarded him with a knee to the ribs. "He doesn't know anything anyway."

"Really?" Rhodes replied, his eyebrows rising. He looked down at the man he held.

"How about it, junior? You know what I want to hear. According to your buddy, I should just kill you."

"Please, no," he mumbled. He squeezed his eyes shut and his Adam's apple bobbed frantically.

Maddy hid a smile as she watched Rhodes work. She wasn't certain how turned on or disgusted she felt but somehow, as she regarded Rhodes from under lowered lashes, she found she just couldn't look away. He was utterly captivating; his face a mask of severity and his eyes black in the starry light. Every muscle in his body was tense and focused on pushing the man until he spilled the beans.

"Please what?" Rhodes responded to the man's plea, his tone almost parental. "I'm an impatient man and I'd rather kill your friend, but to do that, you'd have to tell me something."

"He's not going to say anything," the first man spoke up again.

Barely looking up, Rhodes jerked his head at Hound and Grimm who stood on either side of the talkative guy. At Rhodes' signal, Grimm raised his arm and brought down the gun in his hand to strike the man's head. He fell forward with his eyes rolling back. It drew the terrified gaze of the man in Rhodes' arms.

Slowly his eyes shifted to Rhodes' face and he spoke quickly. "I'll tell you everything I know, just please don't kill me."

Rhodes nodded and stood up. "Start talking." He pointed the weapon at the man's head.

Everyone listened intently as the man began to tell his story. Apparently this was his first job; isn't it always? Maddy shook her head as she listened, her attention straying a little when she saw Fly wriggling under the bullet-riddled car out of the corner of her eye.

"Who hired you?" Rhodes demanded, still holding his gun at the man's head.

"John brought me to this building downtown and I talked to a guy named Damien," he said. He trembled from head to toe and his eyes were glued to Rhodes' face. "That was at about noon. They told me to stick around and that I'd have something to do real soon."

"Damien?" Rhodes repeated. Something in his voice drew Maddy's gaze back to the main scene. "Was there another man there with this Damien?"

"Uh, I d-don't...uh, I mean, I d-didn't s-see any...Oh God, p-please don't shoot me!" His voice faltered as Rhodes stepped closer to press the barrel of the gun against the man's forehead.

"And who are you exactly?" Rhodes demanded.

"What?"

"It's a fairly simple question," Rhodes said, his voice rising in volume. Maddy watched his face, a shiver running up her spine and down her arms at what she saw there.

"What is your name?" Rhodes pressed, pushing with the pistol until the man was forced to lean back.

"R-Ray," the man stuttered, closing his eyes and swallowing.

"Well, Ray, tell me and my people where this building is and we might let you go."

His eyes flew open and he looked up at Rhodes in shock. "W-what?"

With a heavy sigh, Rhodes dropped the arm holding the gun. "Don't make me repeat everything I say, Ray. Tell me where John took you to meet Damien. If you don't know the address, you're going to describe exactly what you saw on the way there and what happened after you got there."

Ray nodded.

"Tell me what you know about this Damien and why the fuck he wanted you to tail us tonight!" Rhodes said, his voice rising to a shout as the gun came back to rest on Ray's forehead.

"Oh shit, oh...oh God...O-OK," he stammered, sweating so much it was beginning to run into his eyes.

"Ray, don't make me do anything drastic," Rhodes whispered.

"OK! I-it was down on Sixth, I think."

"You think?"

"Y-yeah, it's one they're renovating. It's gonna be an office building or a school or something. I met Damien and there was another guy there with him in the same room. Didn't talk though."

"Did you catch his name?" Rhodes asked slowly, emphasizing each word as though speaking to a child.

Ray shook his head, wincing as his skin brushed the barrel of the gun in Rhodes' hand. "N-no. Like I said, he didn't talk."

"Go on."

"This Damien guy said they were waiting for some info and they'd call us when they needed us," he said, his stammer increasing with each word. He paused and swallowed hard, struggling visibly to calm himself down. "So we hung out at a bar down the block until he called John. We went to the precinct downtown and waited until you came out."

"That's it? That's the extent of your knowledge about this whole episode?"

Ray nodded, squeezing his eyes shut again as though trying to will away the image of the gun being held at his head.

Rhodes lowered his gun and studied the other man for a long minute. During that minute, Ray's companion came around and muttered something, drawing everyone's attention.

Rhodes nodded and Grimm reached down, taking hold of John's head as he returned to consciousness. He jerked him to his feet, then groaned in annoyance as his captive bent over and retched. Everyone took a step back as Grimm gritted his teeth and hauled John towards Rhodes.

"Ray's been very cooperative so far, John," Rhodes said. "He even told us that you were the expendable one."

That drew a strangled noise from Ray and Jack gave his collar a good jerk to silence him.

John shook his head feebly. "Ray's a dumbass."

"Please, John, elaborate." Rhodes kept his gun at his side.

"Ray's got no idea what's really going on. All he knows is that he was getting two hundred bucks for riding with me tonight."

"Of course," Rhodes said with a nod. "So you wanted to follow us from the precinct downtown tonight? Is that it? You're the one calling the shots?"

John fixed a glare on Rhodes who met his eyes unfalteringly. "I already said I wasn't going to tell you shit."

"You don't have to," Rhodes shrugged, gesturing at Ray cowering on his knees, bleeding from a cut on his face. "Ray already confirmed that Damien is in charge."

All those present were gratified to see John's eyes fly open wide and his face turn ashen. He swallowed with some difficulty and glanced at Ray before meeting Rhodes' eyes again.

"Damien isn't actually the one in charge." He seemed to come to a decision before speaking, finally realizing that he was trapped.

Rhodes didn't move and didn't speak. Maddy's gaze was fixed on her boss as he used his mere presence to eke information out of the once taciturn captive.

"I'm dead if I tell you anything," John said, his voice cracking involuntarily like an adolescent boy.

Rhodes raised his gun and held it directly in the other man's line of vision. "You think I'll let you live if you don't?"

"Look, we were just told to follow you and report when and where you stopped," John was speaking quickly now.

"Why?" Rhodes' tone left no room for discussion.

The man before him shrugged, trembling from head to toe.

"Because Damien wanted us followed?"

"Just you. He wanted you followed," John said with a shake of his head, his face even more pale than before.

Everyone drew in a breath at his pronouncement. Maddy watched Rhodes' face and felt her breath catch when she saw, not shock or surprise, but a look of resignation, as though he was having his theory confirmed.

"Damien wanted me followed," Rhodes stated and John began to shake his head again. "Because Khristian wants to know where I am. And when he finds me he's going to kill me."

All the TAITS team members froze in place, shocked by Rhodes' words.

Chapter Seventeen

Rhodes searched the faces of those around him. A pained expression came over his own face as his eyes fell on Maddy. Before she could react, he turned away again.

"Fly?" he called.

His tech guy popped up from the far side of the tail car. "Boss."

"Do they have a tracker on them?"

"Yup," Fly replied, holding something up in his hand that was, presumably, the tracking device. "What do you want me to do with it?"

"Hold on to it for now." Rhodes turned his attention back to the two captives before him. "You realize what this means, don't you?"

Both men shook their heads mutely.

"You were never expected to survive this detail. They put a tracker on the car so that they could locate you even after we took you out."

Ray began whimpering again at that while John paled.

"So now we're going to leave and your bosses will find us when we want them to."

"And...us?" John struggled to get the words out.

Rhodes stared at them for a long time, not speaking. "Well, we can't have you running around, warning your friends before we've dealt with them. What good would that do?" Turning to Grimm and Hound, he ordered them to tie the two men to trees and set a timed explosive on the car.

"When do you want it to go off?" Hound asked, excited at the prospect of blowing something up.

"Give us a few hours, I don't want these assholes having too easy a time finding me," Rhodes said and walked away, ignoring the pleas of Ray and John. He headed straight for the van and got in, leaving the scene behind him.

Maddy watched the activity before walking slowly to the open sliding door of the van. Emilio was back in the driver's seat and Rhodes was telling him to take them back to the compound.

"Grimm, you and Hound can come back in the loaner when you're done," he called out the open door and drew back suddenly when he saw how close Maddy had come.

Maddy looked away, feeling embarrassed for no good reason.

"I'll stay behind too, if that's OK, Boss," Jack spoke up and Rhodes nodded his assent.

He looked up at Maddy, who remained standing outside the van. "You coming?"

Nodding, she hopped into the van, settling into the seat beside Rhodes. Fly got into the row behind them, carrying his precious laptop and the tracking device he'd pulled off the other car.

"What are we going to do with this, Boss?" Fly asked, referring to the tracker, as the van started to roll off the field.

"Can you reactivate it when we get to the compound?" he asked, not looking over his shoulder at Fly. Somewhere in the darkness of the middle row of seats, Maddy felt his hand groping for hers. Sighing inwardly, she turned her palm up and ended his search, strangely relieved when he gripped her fingers tightly.

"Uh, sure, but why would we do that?" Fly asked.

"Because then we can set up for them," Cricket spoke up from the passenger seat. She glanced back with a smile. "They won't know we're expecting them."

Rhodes nodded. "We can't know for sure but it's always better to make a stand on your own terms." He paused and then glanced sideways at Maddy. "Maybe reactivate it in a couple hours," he added as an afterthought.

The five of them fell silent as Emilio drove them back home to the compound. He pulled into the garage and got out, followed closely by Cricket. Maddy made a move to get out but Rhodes' grip on her hand was firm, holding her in place. Fly got out a moment later, glancing back and about to say something to Rhodes, who hadn't moved. Then he shook his head and walked away, leaving them alone in the garage.

Neither Maddy nor Rhodes spoke while the garage door slid down the metal rails and settled with a light thud on the concrete pad of the garage floor. Maddy shifted uncomfortably in her seat and tried to extricate herself from Rhodes' grip but he seemed to tighten his hold on her in response.

"Rhodes," she whispered, surprised by the hoarseness of her voice.

No response.

She willed herself to remain calm but her heart was racing. She wasn't certain she wouldn't pass out the moment she tried to stand up.

"Rhodes," she tried again, turning to face him better. "I'm not going anywhere."

He raised his gaze to meet hers and her breath caught in her throat when she saw the unfamiliar sheen of tears in his eyes. Her mouth dropped open and she felt her chest constrict, which did nothing at all for her erratic heartbeat. Seeing her expression, Rhodes looked away and she immediately regretted her reaction.

"I'm sorry, Maddy," he said in a soft tone, still not looking at her. "I just...it's all come back to me now and I...I wasn't prepared to deal with...this."

"With what?" she asked, her voice just as soft. She wasn't sure why they were whispering.

Sighing heavily and resting his head on the seat behind him, Rhodes closed his eyes, shielding Maddy from the pain she'd glimpsed.

"From this, from...from her," he said at last.

She held her breath and said nothing, waiting for him to elaborate on his own. A file, possibly destroyed in the office wreck, flashed through her mind and she felt a momentary spike of guilt that she already knew what he was about to tell her.

Slowly, haltingly, he explained what had happened all those years ago on his first mission with Grimm. He'd been young, he explained, and unaware of what the job entailed. He'd never thought anything like that could ever happen to him.

"But it did," he said and opened his eyes, looking directly at her. "Janis...Black Miranda, whoever the hell she was, she got to me." He shook his head and a change came over his face. The softness and all the vulnerability vanished as quickly as it had appeared. "I was a stupid bastard and she knew it. She used me and I'd be dead right now if it wasn't for Grimm."

"You don't know that," Maddy felt compelled to say, returning the death grip he maintained on her hand. He looked her way. "You don't."

"I don't know a lot, Maddy," he said, a smile creeping to his lips. "A fact of which you're constantly reminding me."

Blushing, she looked down and saw their entwined fingers. Unable to deal with the ramifications of that, she looked out the front window, trying to discern shapes in the dim interior of the garage. As though in response to her searching eyes, the light on the garage door opener blinked off, leaving them in total darkness.

"Maddy," Rhodes' whisper washed over her in the dark and she shivered, unable to hide her reaction. He shifted and she felt the heat from his body as he moved closer. "Janis had a brother," he told her and she was momentarily confused.

"A brother?" Turning her face, she saw nothing but the black outline of his head.

"Yes, and a cousin. You're probably wondering how I knew the names of the two guys ordering Ray and John around."

Something clicked into place in Maddy's mind and she could have kicked herself for not realizing the connection earlier. She'd read the file. Seen the names listed under relationships and family.

"Damien and Khristian Herring," she whispered.

"I thought you might have seen the file."

"I never meant to snoop." Flushing and touching her cheek to cover it up, Maddy felt guilty and then idiotic for trying to hide a blush in the complete darkness of the garage.

Chuckling, Rhodes moved even closer. She felt the length of his hard thigh touch hers and began to tremble when his free hand came up to trace the line of her scar.

"I know," he said then exhaled, his warm breath stirring the hairs on Maddy's forehead.

For several long, charged minutes, Maddy didn't move or say anything. She simply sat, letting her eyes slide shut as Rhodes moved his fingertips across her skin, gently tracking the scar marring her face. Slowly he moved his fingers from the scar to other parts of her face; her closed eyelid, her flared nose, one overly sensitive earlobe.

"What is this?" she breathed, the sound of her voice startling them both. She hadn't meant to speak out loud.

Rhodes withdrew his hand from her face and settled it on her leg alongside his. "I wish I knew, Maddy." His voice was husky.

She opened her eyes and could now make out some of his features. A small slice of light poured in through one garage window and she turned to see the gray of dawn invading their space.

"Back in the apartment—"

"It doesn't matter," he told her.

"Doesn't matter?" Her shrill voice made her cringe but she hated the feeling that he didn't think anything exceptional had happened between them.

"I didn't mean it like that," he said, withdrawing his hand from her leg and she saw him pushing a hand through his hair, mussing it up even worse. She fought the impulse to reach out and smooth it for him.

"This whole day—past few days have been so crazy, even by our standards," he said. "I don't want you to think that what happened back there was..."

Maddy squinted, trying to make out something of his expression. "Was what?"

"I don't know! I just don't know anything anymore! All right? Are you happy now?"

She snorted. Couldn't help herself. One moment they'd been on the verge of something and the next...this.

"I can't tell you it was anything or nothing because I don't know what the hell happened," he went on, oblivious to her annoyance.

"You know very well what happened," she spat out, trying to pull her hand away from his.

At her words, his fingers closed more securely around hers and she winced.

"Do I?"

"Don't use that tone with me, Rhodes. I'm not one of your interrogations. I deserve more than that."

He fell silent and blew his breath out forcibly. "You're right. You do deserve better, Maddy, and I can't give it to you." With that, he released her and moved away, sliding the door of the van open on his side.

"What?" She recovered well enough after another minute to follow him, stumbling out of the van and across the garage in his wake.

"Stop right there, Rhodes!" she shouted as he opened the side garage door, ready to walk across the property to the big house. She walked up to him with a glower. "What has gotten in to you?"

He met her gaze with an even one of his own and shrugged, a completely uncharacteristic move for him.

Maddy threw her hands up in frustration. "Look, I'm exhausted and I don't have the patience to deal with your mood swings. I just want some answers!"

"I already told you I don't know," he replied, sounding just as frustrated. "I can't tell you what it means, because I don't know. Will you just drop it?"

"Drop it? How? We're together every day, Rhodes. We live across the hallway from each other and we have to deal with everyone else who seems to know more about...this, than we do! Doesn't any of this bother you?"

"Of course it does." He ran his fingers through his hair again.

"Then what do you suggest we do about it?"

Without another word, Rhodes took hold of her shoulders and jerked her closer to him, sealing his lips over hers. Shocked, Maddy's initial reaction was to fight back and she did, for about a nanosecond. Then she melted against him, all the feelings of confusion creeping away with the pressure of his lips and the slick wetness of his tongue on hers.

* * * *

Rhodes had felt her pull away at first, resisting his embrace, but she'd given that up almost immediately. Now she was clutching his arms and making little noises in the back of her throat that had his blood pounding through his body and straight down to his groin. A moment later, he knew she felt it too.

They remained locked together, their lips sliding and sucking against one another's. Rhodes moved his hand up to cup one side of her face in an attempt to control the depth of the kiss but she was just too hot beneath his mouth. He wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to think clearly. His other arm slid down to her waist and pulled her snugly against him while he leaned his back on the wall.

Moving with him, Maddy raised her hands to his shoulders and then the back of his neck. Once her fingers grazed the skin under his hair, he shivered and squeezed his hand on her waist, eliciting a whimper from her.

Drawing back, he stared down into her upturned face, breathing heavily. She was flushed, he could tell even in the dim pre-dawn light. He touched her cheek and felt the heat of her skin.

"What is it?" she asked, her voice a breathy whisper.

He could only shake his head and deliberately loosen his hold on her waist.

She glanced down and laughed. "You've probably already bruised me." She moved to pull his hand back to rest on her waist, while she reached up to bring his face back down to hers.

He surrendered, kissing her and meeting her tongue eagerly with his own. Raising his hand, he trapped her to him, holding the back of her head, his fingers becoming hopelessly tangled in her auburn ponytail. She sighed and tilted her head back, running her own fingers through the mess of his hair, sending an electric current through his body.

No words would ever be sufficient to describe the torrent of emotions she was stirring within him at this very moment. She was hot under his touch and open under his mouth and—God help him—her pelvis was very gently pushing against him.

Moaning, Rhodes reached down to still the movement of her hips, struggling to slow the kisses they exchanged. She wouldn't let him. The little minx was clinging to him, her fingers digging into the muscles of his shoulders, her mouth sucking his tongue and making him forget what he was trying to do.

"Maddy," he murmured, pulling far enough away to speak. She didn't listen, just pressed her lips to his jaw and then slid over his skin to his neck. He opened his mouth to say something when she opened her mouth and licked his neck, grazing the spot at his collarbone where his pulse pounded under the skin.

"Oh shit, Maddy," he whispered, his voice louder now. His mind was reeling and he knew that they should stop but he didn't have a damn clue as to why. So he let her kiss his neck and nip at his skin. He held her waist, his fingers holding her securely against him. There could be no mistaking the heat between them or the stiff evidence of her actions driving him gradually insane.

He opened his eyes and looked down at her. After another second she tipped her head back and met his eyes, her gaze foggy with desire. Then she smiled and it completely transformed her look. He smiled and leaned down to capture her lips with his own. She kissed him back, opening immediately to his seeking tongue and he was lost again.

She was sweet and hot and moving against him. It occurred to him that if he wanted any sort of control over this situation, he needed to do something about their current position. Gripping her firmly, he straightened, moving away from the garage wall and guiding her back until they were pressed against the hood of the van. She gasped and one of her hands dropped behind her to brace her against the still warm engine hood.

"Sorry," Rhodes whispered and grinned before lowering his head to kiss her neck.

Sighing, she let her head fall back, baring her throat to him and he ran his tongue down one side and up the other. Her hands were moving on his body, sliding the gun loose from his waistband and placing it carefully on the hood behind her after checking the safety. It slid down the vehicle and dropped to the floor with a clatter. Rhodes raised his head and glanced down at his feet, his eyes coming back to Maddy as a giggle escaped her. Reaching around, he removed her own weapon from the same spot and let it fall to the floor beside his own.

"Better?" he asked, touching her cheek.

She nodded and placed her open fingers against his face, running them from his temple down to his chin. They gazed into one another's eyes for several seconds and neither moved to kiss the other.

"What is this?" Maddy breathed, breaking the silence and asking the same question she'd been repeating since they'd first touched, ages ago in the apartment.

Rhodes could only shake his head. "I don't have any idea."

They stared in silence at each other again. Then Maddy smiled and kissed him. "I like it." He felt her smile.

"Me, too."

As the kiss deepened and Maddy's hands circled his shoulders, drawing him down against her, Rhodes wondered if they could manage this against the sloped hood of the van. A minute later, he didn't have to worry as the big garage door began to open with a rumble, the interior light flooding their dim space with a bright glare.

Chapter Eighteen

Maddy pushed on his chest and leapt to her feet beside him. Lost in equal surprise, Rhodes stepped back and leaned down to scoop their discarded guns into one hand. Exchanging a single look, they turned and bolted out the side door, disappearing before the loaner crept into the garage behind them.

Laughing breathlessly, they darted across the short distance to the big house. Rhodes opened the door and stepped inside, reaching for Maddy as she followed. He slid a hand around her waist and drew her close as he stopped to listen. No one was in the kitchen but he heard voices coming from the rec room down the hall.

"Do you think we can make it without anyone seeing us?" Maddy asked in a whisper.

Rhodes looked down at her, tucked against his chest, and grinned. "Make it where, exactly?"

She blushed and turned her face to his chest, trying to hide. Chuckling, he gave her a squeeze before he pulled her towards the doorway and the staircase beyond. There was no one in sight and they dashed up the stairs, not stopping until they reached the third floor. Once at the top of the staircase, they faced each other, laughing breathlessly.

Rhodes stopped laughing first and, letting the guns fall to his side, he moved closer to Maddy where she leaned against the door to her own apartment. She stopped laughing abruptly, though she still heaved with shortened breaths. He reached for her, pulling her away from the door until she was against him and fully aware of the exact state of his arousal.

"Uh, I think we should get out of the hallway," she murmured, putting her hands on his muscular forearms and tipping her head back to look up at his face.

"What are you suggesting?" He bent his head to capture her lips with his own.

He kissed her lightly at first, teasing her by sliding his lips across hers and not meeting her tongue with his when she offered it. She made some noise beneath his mouth and he grinned against her lips. She tried to pull away but he put one hand behind her head and drew her close again, this time taking the kiss deeper. She parted her lips and licked the corner of his mouth in a move that drove him almost to the edge.

Taking a step, and then another, he backed her up against the wall beside her apartment door and pressed his tongue between her lips. He kissed her fiercely, twisting his lips over hers while his tongue delved deeper into her mouth. She moaned and wound her arms behind his neck, holding him against her.

He eased the pressure of his lips on hers until they broke apart, gasping for air. She looked up him, a hazy expression on her face and he couldn't stop himself from kissing her again. He pressed his mouth to hers and groaned out loud when she licked his lips in an attempt to draw out the embrace. Then he took hold of her hips and stepped away from her.

They stared into each other's faces for several long, charged moments and then Rhodes moved to take hold of her hand. He turned and led her across the hallway, into his apartment. Once inside, he locked the door and pulled Maddy with him as he made his way to the bedroom. She balked at the doorway to his bedroom and yanked her hand free of his.

Startled, Rhodes turned and faced her. She was staring at the bed and a strange look had come over her face. "What?" he asked, moving closer to her. "Maddy, what is it?" He spoke in a soft tone, as though afraid to startle her.

"I didn't...I mean, I don't, uh..." she stammered and blushed, not meeting his gaze.

"Just tell me what's wrong." He pulled her into his arms and held her close.

She exhaled slowly and pushed him away, turning her face up to look at him. "This will change everything, Rhodes," she whispered and the color in her cheeks deepened. "I don't want to ruin the team."

He chuckled at that and dipped his head to kiss her.

"Don't laugh at me," she said, frowning now. "I'm being serious here."

"I know and I'm not laughing at you," he assured her. "This isn't exactly a serious situation, Maddy. At least I didn't think it was."

She raised her eyebrows at him and stepped back. "You don't? So what is this to you then? Just another romp under the covers?"

Rhodes winced. "You know that's not what I meant." He took hold of her, ignoring her small sounds of protest. He drew her close, seeing the look in her eyes and realizing that she wasn't angry with him. Something about what was happening between them was scaring the life out of her and she was becoming defensive because of it.

"Maddy," he said, his voice low as he drew her struggling back into the circle of his arms. "Maddy, stop."

She didn't but her strength was no match for his. At last she stopped moving and stood still, trembling. He felt the tremor all through his body and it hurt him deeply that she was suddenly reacting this way. This wasn't the Maddy who'd wrapped her legs around him at the downtown condo and this wasn't the Maddy who'd licked his neck and moaned against his lips in the garage.

As much as whatever was between them frightened him, the way she was acting now frightened him more. His raging libido could wait until he was sure that she was all right.

Gently he tugged her towards his bed and she went with him, every muscle in her body rigid. He didn't lay her down on the covers, instead sitting down on the edge of the bed and pulling her into his lap. She shivered and he held her, his hands gently but firmly holding her in place.

"What?" he asked, raising one hand and turning her face to his.

"It's stupid," she murmured and wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Just tell me, Maddy," he whispered, brushing her cheek with his fingers, his gentleness and patience surprising even him. He wanted nothing more than to cover her naked body with his and make them both see stars but something was seriously wrong. He respected her too much as a person and a teammate to hurt her. "Just tell me what's wrong."

She sighed and opened her eyes to look at him. "It's just that...well, you and I, what's been happening..." Sucking in a deep breath, Maddy's next words came out in a rush. "I know we've been kissing like fools and all over each other but now...now that we're here, in your room, I can't help but see the last guy who touched me and kissed me like this. And he, well, he's the one who did...this." She raised a hand, gesturing vaguely at the scarred half of her face.

It was a full minute before Rhodes worked through the red haze of rage that sprang up at her words. He clenched and unclenched his jaw and fists multiple times before meeting Maddy's emerald gaze again.

"Maddy," he whispered, reaching up and cupping her cheek with one big hand. "My Maddy."

"Rhodes—" she tried to speak but he stopped her, pulling her face down and sealing his lips over hers.

When she whimpered helplessly against his mouth a second later, he pulled back and brushed away the hair that had come loose from her ponytail. He brushed another kiss there and slid his lips across her skin to kiss the scar that cut through her creamy skin.

"I want to do this, Rhodes," she told him and he nodded with a smile touching his lips. "I just...you'll have to...go slow, is all."

He exhaled and nodded, holding her face with both his hands. "I'll do my best, Maddy. But you have...you've...I want you more than anything or anyone I've ever known. I'll do my best to make you forget the bastard who did this but I can't promise that I won't make you mine in the process."

She snorted and Rhodes had to grin at the change in her demeanor. Something of the old Maddy was coming back and that's what he wanted.

His Maddy. The Maddy who'd done this to him.

"You could try," she told him.

"I intend to," he assured her and brought his mouth crashing down on hers, kissing her and driving away all negative memories—for both of them, he realized as her arms snaked around his shoulders to cling to him.

Twisting, Rhodes took her with him as he lay down on the bed. They landed with a light 'whump' and Maddy laughed. She threw her arms out to either side of her while Rhodes began to methodically kiss her and slide his hands over her body.

He found the edge of her shirt and pulled it up, sighing contentedly when he got his first glimpse of her bra-covered breasts. She wriggled out of the shirt and tossed it away while he ran a hand up her bared stomach to the underside of one breast. As he touched her there, her breath caught and his gaze was drawn back to her face.

"Who knew a little hard-ass like you had such sexy underwear on," he said, his thumb tracing the scalloped edge of the black lace he'd discovered.

She giggled and shrugged. "I could put my shirt back on if you don't like it."

Scoffing at the idea, Rhodes lowered his head and brushed kisses along the edge of the bra.

Her breasts were smallish and round and fit perfectly into the palm of his hand. Something about the shape of the bra made them seem larger and curvier but that didn't make him want to remove the item of clothing any less.

Raising his lips, he exhaled on her and was gratified to see goosebumps rise all over her skin. He smiled and moved his hand to scoop the bottom of the bra up and over her breast, exposing her to the chilly air of his dark bedroom.

She shivered but eased up onto her elbows as he reached around to release the catch at the back of her bra. When she was naked from the waist up, Rhodes took a moment to drink in the sight of her lying beside him. She caught the look he was raking her with and the color rose to her cheeks.

God, when she blushes like that, she has no idea what she does to me, he thought and lowered his head to taste her lips again. She opened her mouth under his and her tongue met his with a force he wasn't expecting.

She pulled him down on top of her, arching so that her naked breasts pressed against his chest, all while her kisses were driving him insane. She sucked his tongue into her mouth and moved her hips against him in a matching motion while her fingers dug into his shoulders, trapping him to her.

Surrendering to her, he lowered himself, cradling her somewhat awkwardly while he kissed her. For a long while they held each other close, kissing slowly and luxuriously, as though they had all the time in the world to do this. Then Rhodes couldn't handle leaning on his swelling erection this way any longer.

He rolled off of her, leaving her with a stunned expression on her flushed face. Laughing, he leaned back over and gave her a quick kiss. Then she watched with avid fascination as he sat up and pulled his shirt over his head.

He caught the look she was giving him and grinned. "What?" He moved over her again, touching her face and running a finger across her lower lip.

She didn't answer at first, allowing him instead to continue touching her. As his fingertip moved across her lip, she exhaled and let her mouth fall open.

"What?" Rhodes asked again.

She shrugged and smiled at him, closing her lips and planting a kiss on his fingertip. "I just...I like to look at you. I've always liked looking at you."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Are you telling me that you've always had this crush on me, Maddy?"

"Crush?" she repeated with a laugh. "I never had a crush on you!"

"You just told me you like watching me," he said and lowered his hand from her mouth to squeeze her side. "If I didn't know you so well, I'd say that sounds like something a stalker would do."

"Stalker!" she sputtered and tried to sit up.

"Well, you did move into the apartment across the hall awfully soon after joining the team," he said and laughed when she tried to hit him.

He wrestled with her for a minute before pinning her hands against the bed; one over her head and the other by her side. She glared up at him and deliberately turned her face away when he tried to kiss her.

"Oh, come on, Maddy," he pleaded, while attempting to kiss her. When she still refused, he shrugged and lowered his head to kiss her neck instead.

"I'll just amuse myself elsewhere," he said against her skin, lifting his head after a moment to see the look on her face. Seeing the color still high in her cheeks, he grinned and lowered his head to the bared skin of her neck and torso.

She smelled amazing, unlike any other woman he'd known. She smelled sweaty and musky and like something faintly floral. He breathed her in as his lips slid across her collarbone. He raised his head to look down at her face, smiling when he saw that her eyes had drifted shut and her breathing was labored.

"Are you wearing perfume?" he asked.

She blinked rapidly a few times before focusing on his face. "Perfume?"

He nodded and released the hand at her side so he could run his fingers over her stomach. She shivered delightfully under his hand and closed her eyes before answering.

"I don't wear perfume," she answered at length, still breathing hard. "You probably smell my body wash."

"Well, whatever it is, I'm going to buy you truckloads of it after this job is through." He returned his attention to her responding body.

He moved his lips from her collarbone to the soft valley between her breasts, pausing to plant daring little kisses while his free hand cupped the side of her breast. She gasped as his thumb rubbed frightfully close to her nipple and he watched as the pink tip pearled under his touch.

His erection was growing almost painful within his pants and he ached to free himself from the restraining clothing. But that meant tearing himself away from her body. Even a few seconds seemed like unnecessary torture to him. So he continued to kiss her and touch her until his hand reached the button on the front of her jeans.

He paused there, his fingers curling around the metal button and he lifted his head, running his tongue along the pleasant curve of her breast. She sighed and shifted beneath him, her hips rising ever so slightly. It was all the encouragement he needed; confirming that she wasn't alarmed by the pace he was setting. The last thing he wanted was to freak her out again.

A second later, while still holding the button, he felt her move again and suddenly her hand covered his. Surprised, he looked up to see her gazing at him, a hazy look in her emerald eyes. Then her fingers moved past his hand to slide the zipper of her jeans down.

"Are you going to undo the button?" she whispered when the fly was lying open before him, revealing black lace panties.

He was dimly aware that he was nodding but his gaze was fixed on the underwear beneath her jeans. Another giggle escaped her and her hand brushed his aside to undo the button herself. Then she slid both hands under the waist of the jeans and began to push the pants over her hips.

Coming back to himself, Rhodes stilled her hands and met her gaze, the look in his eyes full of desire, directed wholly at her. She lay back and watched with her hands awkwardly held to her chest as he grasped of the waist of her jeans and began to pull them down.

His gaze was locked on the sight before him, her soft, petite form being revealed in achingly slow motion. Exhaling sharply, he lowered his head and planted kisses all along the skin just above the waist of her panties, all too aware of the overwhelming scent of her. As he removed the jeans altogether, he touched her little feet and she flinched as his fingertips brushed the soles.

"Ticklish?" he asked, not expecting a reply.

She shook her head feebly before letting it fall back against the bed as his hands slid higher. He slowly caressed every inch of her, his breath touching her skin and raising more goosebumps everywhere. The sight of her trembling and panting under him was more than Rhodes could ever have imagined. Until this moment, he hadn't even known what he'd been imagining.

So he slowly stroked her, inching his hand up her legs to clasp her hips and feel the silken texture of the black lace underpants she wore. He couldn't help grinning as he touched her, feeling the pulse under her skin as it beat frantically out of sync with her breathing. He slowly slid a finger below the waist of the black panties and looked up to meet Maddy's wide-eyed gaze. Grinning, he released the elastic against her skin with a snap and moved his hand higher, loving that she groaned in frustration as he moved away from her heated center.

"Patience," he whispered, kissing the sensitive skin just under her ear as he ran his hand up her side to cup her breast again.

She turned her face to his and kissed his mouth, her tongue touching his lips before pressing between them. Rhodes let her lead the kiss, holding her close and trying to ignore the pressure building within him as he did. Her little fingers came up to hold his arms and then she slid them to his shoulders, pulling him down to her. He eased himself down, kissing her in return, their tongues gliding against one another's. Every heaving breath she took pressed her bare chest to his and he felt his skin burn with every move she made.

Soon he found himself touching her everywhere he could reach; up and down her sides, her taut nipples, the warm space between her legs, still covered by the sexy black underwear. He tore himself away from her kiss, breathing hard and looked into her eyes as he moved his hand under the black lace to touch her.

"Oh God, Maddy," he whispered when he discovered her slick wetness. "You're amazingly wet."

She sighed and arched against him, her fingers digging into his shoulders and her eyes squeezing shut as he moved his fingers on her. Leaning down, he kissed her exposed throat, running his tongue over her skin where the pulse quickened. As he kissed her, he touched and stroked her, bringing forth such noises from her, that she startled them both. He hadn't even taken her panties off, or his own clothes yet, and she was a writhing, moaning mess beneath him.

"Rhodes, please!" she cried, clutching the wrist of the hand that was torturing her so.

"Please what?" he replied, kissing the underside of her chin, not willing to give in to her demands just yet, however tortured he himself was feeling.

She tossed her head from side to side, applying pressure to his forearm. Suddenly she tensed and cried out, digging her nails almost painfully into his arm as her orgasm seized her. Rhodes held her close, rubbing her in the same spot while the waves swept over her. When her breathing slowed again, he kissed her lips and withdrew his hand.

"No," she murmured weakly in protest, trying to hold his hand in place but he gently pulled out of her grasp.

As he moved, he took hold of the black underwear she still had on and yanked them down over her hips. She helped him, twisting to one side and scissoring her legs as he pulled the black lace off her body. He took a moment then to enjoy the sight before him. She smiled and touched her face self-consciously, a fresh blush staining her cheeks.

Groaning, Rhodes scooped her up and held her close to his chest, kissing her fiercely, tangling his hand in the long hair tumbling over her shoulders. She clung to him, her hands going around his shoulders to hold him just as tightly. They kissed, mouths and bodies straining against each other. Her tongue was so pliant against his and he worked it with his own, sliding and pushing and tasting.

God, she was so warm and unbelievably soft in his arms. Rhodes stopped kissing her, as the sensations threatened to overwhelm him, and he pressed his forehead against hers.

"Rhodes?" she whispered.

He opened his eyes to see her staring back at him. She placed her palm against his cheek and he released a breath, tilting his head to let it rest against her hand. Then he turned his face and kissed the underside of her wrist, wrapping his arms around her waist and lowering her back to the bed. He stood up to remove his own pants and when he joined her on the bed again, they were at last gloriously naked together.

For several long moments, Rhodes just held Maddy close, letting her feel how hard he was while he tried to catch his breath. Then she moved beside him and slid one hand across his chest, brushing his nipples as she did so, drawing forth a sigh from him. Easing her hand lower, she raised her eyes to look at him, brushing his cheek with her dark lashes. Staring down into her face, seeing the intention there, Rhodes was rendered speechless.

Then she circled his aching erection with her hand and all sensible thoughts were banished from his head. She squeezed gently before she began to stroke him and he groaned, his head falling back on the bed as his eyes closed.

Regaining a few of his senses, Rhodes reached for her, grasping her hips before moving one hand up to caress her breast. She sighed and arched towards him, baring her throat to him again. He leaned forward and kissed her, running his tongue in passionate swirls across her heated skin. All the while she stroked him, up and down, her fingers twisting just slightly to lend an entirely new sensation to the whole caress.

To counteract the feelings and regain some sort of command, Rhodes used his sheer size to roll her onto her back and he began to kiss his way down her body. He got her attention when he licked one erect nipple and drew it into his mouth with a sucking motion. She sighed and her hands slowed but didn't stop touching him. So he increased the pressure, dragging his hand over her body to spread her legs under him. She parted willingly, their bodies shifting so that he suddenly found himself settled between her thighs.

They both stopped then, their eyes meeting and their bodies growing still, save for their labored breathing. She let him go and rested her hands on his waist. He swallowed and moved his own hands until he was cradling her face with one and stroking her side with the other. That hand stroked lower and lower until he was touching one smooth thigh.

With a sigh, Maddy let her legs fall open wider and Rhodes felt his cock brush the molten heat of her. He froze and gazed down into her face, searching for any sign of doubt or hesitation.

None.

She moved beneath him, the motion pressing his member closer to her moist, heated entrance. He groaned, his eyes closing and rested his forehead against hers as he slowly slid into her. She gasped and dug her nails into his hips and his eyes flew open. Her lip was trapped between her teeth and she was making little noises that were sending him dangerously close to the edge, but her eyes were open and the look he saw there startled him. She must have sensed his hesitation because she moved again, driving more of his cock inside of her.

They both moaned out loud and almost before Rhodes was aware of what was happening, they were moving together, more and more of his hard length disappearing inside of her. She was hot and smooth and so tight he almost couldn't stand it. When she raised her hips with a cry and he felt the first tightening of her muscles around him in another orgasm, he had to press her down into the bed to stay his own climax.

Her mouth opened against his throat as he fought the sensations building within his body. When her tongue flicked out and slid in a heated arc across his skin, he drew in a sharp breath and ducked his head to kiss her on the lips. Their tongues met and pushed and moved together, driving Rhodes mad with desire. Then Maddy arched beneath him, taking him deeper into herself, deeper than he would ever have dreamt possible.

"Maddy," he moaned, unaware that he was even doing it. Slowly he added his own movements to hers, their bodies pushing and thrusting in unison.

Her hands were no longer on his waist; she'd flung them to either side of herself, hands opening and closing on the bed covers. He looked down at her face and watched the transformation take place; she was flushed and her mouth was wide open on a soundless cry. He kissed her lower lip as she came around him and he reached between them to touch her just above where they were joined, drawing forth a cry at last from her lips.

As the waves of her orgasm faded, he began to thrust into her with greater force. She opened her eyes and gazed up into his face, bringing her hands back together behind his head, her fingers playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. The feeling sent a hundred little shivers racing through his body and he groaned as he tried to hold back and not hurt her with the force of his thrusts.

"Rhodes," she murmured and at first he didn't hear her.

He moved inside of her, savoring the feeling of her heat and wetness surrounding him. It was utterly intoxicating.

"Rhodes," she repeated, louder. She drew his face down to hers and kissed him lingeringly, her tongue teasing the edges of his mouth.

He slowed and looked down at her, really looked at her. She smiled up and touched his lower lip with the pad of her thumb. Then he watched, enraptured, as she nodded and slid her hand all down the side of his body to clasp his hip. That's where she pressed her fingers into his skin at the same moment that she lifted her lower body off the bed, setting her hips firmly against his.

He kissed her and thrust again, understanding what she meant with the gesture. He kissed her lips, her cheeks, her closed eyes as he moved in and out of her, gradually increasing his speed and pressure. She sighed and held him to her, raising her legs and wrapping them around his waist. Moaning, Rhodes buried his face in the crook of her neck, licking her skin and tasting the salt of her sweat there.

"Oh shit," he hissed, lost and not hearing anything he said. Maddy agreed with her own expletives as he thrust into her again and again, pounding her into the bed.

Then it happened, and it caught him off guard. Caught them both off guard. Just as he felt his body release, he felt her coming around him yet again. They clung to each other as he moved over her, inside of her and cried out loud into the gray light of morning creeping through the curtains over the windows.

Gradually Rhodes came back to himself and became aware that he was still moving, albeit very slightly, within Maddy. He shifted as though to move off of her but she made a small sound of protest and her arms tightened unexpectedly around him. So he remained where he was, though he eased some of his weight off her.

After a time, he shifted again and tilted his face to look at her. She was looking up at him and their eyes met and held. Then she smiled and the color swept into her cheeks yet again, making Rhodes breathless for a moment.

"Hi," he whispered and reached down to touch her face, brushing a stray lock of hair off her face.

"Hi," she replied just as softly, her hand going to her head and following the movement of Rhodes' hand. Their fingers met the tangle at the back of her head and she groaned while he chuckled. "I blame you for this."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," he replied and bent his head to capture her lips with his own.

A minute later he realized that he was still buried inside of her and he moved to extricate himself, drawing a mingled sound of pleasure from them both. He lay on his back and drew Maddy close so that her head rested where his shoulder met his chest. He slid an arm underneath her shoulders and cradled her against him, loving the feeling of their breath mingling and stirring the hairs on his chest.

"Rhodes?" she whispered but he shushed her, bending down and kissing her again.

They didn't have much time before Fly was supposed to reactivate the tracking device and Rhodes was in no hurry to face the realities awaiting them. Maddy remained quiet, kissing him back, her tongue no longer forceful against his but almost tentative, shy.

So they stayed that way, wrapped around each other, bodies glistening with sweat and their breathing slowing until they both dozed off.

Chapter Nineteen

"Did anyone see where they went?" Jack asked as she, Grimm and Hound entered the big house after returning home.

Cricket, coming into the kitchen to greet them, shrugged and shook her head. "I thought they were still in the garage."

"We didn't see them in there," Grimm remarked and stretched his hands over his head. "Where are Emilio and Fly?"

"Emilio is down in the gym, I think, and Fly is in his apartment, hooking up the tracking device," Cricket said. "I just came down here to get a couple drinks and then I was going up to help him."

"Hooking up the tracking device?" Jack repeated, walking around the kitchen island to join Cricket at the fridge. The shorter, rumpled brunette handed the tall blonde a bottle of juice. "What the hell would he want to do that for?"

"Because Rhodes told him to," Cricket answered as she straightened and closed the fridge door. "We're going to bring the fight to our door."

They all stared at her silently for a moment before Hound clapped his hands together, startling them all.

"This is gonna be awesome!" he exclaimed with a wide grin splitting his boyish face.

Cricket grinned in response and nodded.

"When was Rhodes going to fill the rest of us in?" Jack demanded with a scowl.

"Oh, come on, Jack," Cricket said as she waved her hand. "We can't expect Rhodes to give us every detail of his orders."

"Actually, that's exactly what I expect."

Hound met Cricket's eyes over Jack's shoulder and rolled his skyward. She smiled and then quickly hid it behind the bottles in her hand as Jack glared at her.

"Rhodes can't take this lightly," Jack went on, glancing around to see Grimm and Hound's faces. "These people are serious about tracking him down and killing him. Doesn't he care enough to have a real game plan?"

"I'm sure he does, Jack," Grimm spoke up and moved across the kitchen to sit down on one of the stools beside the breakfast bar. "But he's also been awake for almost a solid twenty-four hours and the man needs his rest."

"Rest?" Jack repeated and this time, Cricket rolled her eyes at Hound. "How can he rest at a time like this?"

Grimm grinned suddenly, as though he knew some great secret that no one else did. Cricket saw the look and narrowed her eyes at him from behind her smudged glasses. He returned her gaze benignly and leaned back, folding his hands behind his head.

"So what's the plan then?" Jack asked, oblivious to what was going on. She turned around and leaned against the kitchen island, looking at Cricket, Hound and Grimm. "Or what we know of it."

Cricket shrugged as she walked around the island to sit down on the stool beside Grimm. Hound followed her with his eyes and moved closer to her and Grimm, leaving Jack virtually alone on the other side of the island.

"Rhodes told Fly to reactivate the tracking device in the next hour or so," Cricket told them all. "Then we'll watch to see who approaches and we can deal with them then."

"If they come," Grimm said.

Everyone's eyes turned to him and he shrugged. "It's a sound plan, but there's no guarantee that they'll follow the tracker after it's been off-line for several hours."

"That's true," Hound agreed, leaning his forearms on the kitchen island. "These people that are looking for Rhodes are hard core. They've had all kinds of intel on us from the start and I doubt they'd care enough about those idiots we found following us to send a retrieval crew."

"No," Cricket agreed reluctantly. "But they also seem to be getting desperate. I mean, Rhodes and Maddy shot down the helicopter and killed how many of their men? They've got to be freaking out right now."

Turning his face towards her, Grimm grinned at Cricket. "Freaking out?"

She nodded, her eyes wide and serious.

"All right," he said with a nod. "They probably are. I know I would be if our situations were reversed."

"So when is all this going to happen?" Jack asked.

Glancing at her watch, Cricket sucked on her lower lip while she calculated. "Maybe another hour before Fly turns on the tracker again. Then in another hour, max, we could expect to see someone approaching."

"Or several someones," Hound added.

Cricket nodded in agreement.

"What do we do until then?" Jack asked.

Grimm glanced her way and shook his head. Always so full of questions; that was Jack.

"I guess you could have something to drink or eat," Cricket suggested, waving a hand at the kitchen behind the tall blonde. "Then prepare for the job, like always."

"This isn't like always, Cricket," Jack said sharply. "Someone is trying to kill our boss and we're bringing the fight to our own doorstep. This has never happened before and we can't treat this like any other job."

A brief silence met her pronouncement and no one responded immediately. Then Grimm surprised them all by agreeing with her.

"She's right," he stated as he stood up. "We're forgetting that no matter how this goes down, our cover may be blown for good. We might even have to consider finding a new place to live."

"If we live through this," Hound added ominously and ducked as Cricket swiped at him with a bottle of water.

"What the hell was that for?" he demanded indignantly.

"For bringing us down," she said with a glare. "We can't be thinking that way if we're going to do this right."

Hound nodded, chagrined. "I'll go downstairs and find something special for our guests when they arrive." With that, he left the kitchen, heading downstairs to his own apartment, presumably to find some explosives to set for their 'guests.'

"I'll go with him and get the rest of the stuff ready," Jack said and followed Hound downstairs to the armory.

Left alone together, Grimm and Cricket faced each other and the dark man smiled, resting one arm on the bar stool.

"What is that?" she asked, pointing at his face.

"What is what?" he replied, the picture of innocence.

"Don't give me that, Grimm." She leaned closer to him. "I saw the smile you had on your face when Jack asked how Rhodes could possibly rest right now."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Cricket," he said but couldn't hide his grin. Then he yelped as she dug an elbow into his side. He twisted away from her, giving her a wounded look. It was easy, looking at her, to forget sometimes what a punch she packed.

"Don't lie to me, Grimm. What's going on?"

"You tell me," he shot back, rubbing the spot she'd hit, guessing that there'd be a bruise in the morning. "You're the one who told us you left Rhodes and Maddy alone in the garage. When we got here, they were nowhere to be found."

Cricket's eyes grew wide. "No way."

He nodded slowly in response. "It's possible."

"But...they hate each other!" she exclaimed, sitting back and blinking in shock.

Grimm shook his head and massaged his ribs, stretching tentatively. "They don't hate each other. They just..." He wasn't certain how he'd classify the relationship between Rhodes and Maddy.

"They just don't get along," Cricket supplied for him. "Ever. How could this happen?"

Grimm had to smile at her tone. She sounded truly distraught over this sudden turn of events. "It's not the end of the world, Cricket. This may even be good for the team."

"How?"

"Well, they do...whatever it is they're doing and in the end they might get along better."

Cricket leveled a look at him and his smile fell away. "Don't be so naive, Grimm. What happens if they do...whatever and they find out it's not right? What happens to the team then?"

For once, Grimm didn't have a ready answer. She nodded and stood up, grabbing the bottles off the island as she did so.

"If this goes badly tonight, and I don't just mean the job and the tracker and all that," Cricket said as she moved to the doorway. "Then we'll probably be looking for more than just a new place to live."

Grimm watched her go over his shoulder and sighed, realizing that she was right. He'd had a sneaking suspicion about Rhodes and Maddy for months now but he'd never revealed his thoughts about it to anyone. As the weeks had passed, he noticed more happening between the boss and the sniper than even they knew. It wasn't until Rhodes had returned for the Javier job, that he'd seen them start to change how they acted towards each other. Now that it seemed that something had happened, he wasn't feeling quite so smug.

Sighing, he walked out of the kitchen, heading off to find Jack and finish preparing for the job ahead.

* * * *

Cricket shook her head as she walked up the stairs to the second floor that she shared with Fly and Grimm. She loved Grimm, and all the other team members, but sometimes she felt like a glorified babysitter, or high school counselor. Sighing, she couldn't help but recall her own torturous high school experience. Shaking her head again, she banished those thoughts from her mind as she made her way down the hall to Fly's apartment. She punched in the code on the keypad beside the door and walked in. "Fly?" she called as the door snapped shut behind her.

She gazed into the dim interior of Fly's lair and frowned. She would never understand why he kept his apartment the way he did; no open windows, virtually no lights, and hardly any furniture. What he did have was shelving and cabinets filled to overflowing with technology, computer parts and any number of dismantled weapons and various gadgets. It had been weeks before she'd ever even seen his bed; until then she'd assumed he slept at his computer desk.

"Fly?" she called again, walking further into his apartment as her eyes adjusted to the dim light.

"Back here!" he replied, his voice coming from the vicinity of his center of operations.

Cricket walked through the apartment and found Fly seated at his broad desk, four computers lit up in front of him and a stereo pumping some sort of alternative rock from speakers high on a bookshelf. She walked over and planted the extra bottle of water on the desk beside him. Not looking up, he grabbed it and removed the cap, taking a long drink.

"I'm going to change my door code again after this is over," he said as she pulled a chair over and sat down beside him, instead of across from him at her own desk.

She scoffed and drank from her own bottle of water. "Then I'll just figure it out again when you do," she retorted with a smile.

It was a constant game between the two of them, changing and attempting to keep their door entry codes from each other. This week, Cricket had figured out his code within hours but he'd been unable to decipher hers so far. In all fairness, they'd all been a little busy.

"Has Rhodes come in from the garage yet?" he asked, tapping away at the computer keyboard before him. Something clicked to their right and began whirring. Cricket eyed the hardware warily before rising and checking it out.

"Not sure," she said as she bent over the piece of equipment. It was a specialized printer that she and Fly had tweaked together to shoot out converted files at a single click. "When Hound and the others got back they said they hadn't seen Rhodes or Maddy in there."

Fly looked away from the computer screens at that and met Cricket's gaze in the hazy blue light. She glanced at him and shrugged while pressing a button on the printer. With a nod, Fly returned his attention to the computers in front of him.

"I suspect he's upstairs changing or showering," Cricket went on, settling back down beside him.

"What about Maddy?" Fly asked after another minute, glancing sideways at his teammate.

Shrugging, she drank the water she held. "I'd rather not speculate at the moment. How about we focus on this tracker and the perimeter for right now?"

Fly nodded in agreement and they began conversing in that techno language that only they seemed to understand. Cricket moved the mouse on Fly's right as he tapped on the keyboard and together they had the tracking device configured to their system in minutes. Then they turned their attention to the compound itself, setting a rotating check system all along the property lines while double checking the capabilities of the cameras at the main entrance.

As they repositioned one of the cameras along the main drive leading to the garage, Cricket spotted a movement in one corner of the screen and pointed it out to Fly.

"Are you sure you saw it there?" he asked, squinting at the screen.

"Positive. Zoom out." He did as she said and she pointed again. "There."

"I see it now. That's a man."

"Walking," she added, equally as perplexed.

"From Calgary?"

She shrugged again. "How can we tell?"

"We could ask him," Fly said and glanced over at her.

She met his eyes and shook her head. "I'll go get Rhodes."

Chapter Twenty

It was extremely warm. Maddy wasn't sure when she'd last felt so hot all over.

Rolling slightly as she stretched an arm above her, she connected with something equally hot and unbelievably solid. A moment later the solid, warm object beside her moved as well and she froze.

Rhodes flopped onto his side and opened his eyes. Their gazes met and locked; Maddy couldn't help the smile that crept across her face.

Seeing Rhodes lying naked in a bed next to her was utterly amazing and she never would have expected it to happen. Ever. But it had, and now she wanted nothing more than to look at him and stare into his blue eyes forever.

He really was a handsome man, but not in the traditional sense. With eyes as blue as his, most people were too captivated to see beyond that, which was probably the basis of his appeal for many women. For her part, Maddy liked his smile best, revealing slightly crooked teeth behind uneven lips. The whiskers on his chin and cheeks grew in spotty patches and his graying brown hair constantly looked like it needed a severe cut or comb; or both. As for the rest of him, he was built like a tank, as was devastatingly apparent when he shifted and reached an arm out to draw her close to him again. Shivering, she reached for him as well and settled against his broad chest, her nose bumping against one well-defined pectoral.

"Good morning," he murmured into her hair, his breath tickling her scalp.

"Good morning," she replied. Her mind was reeling, had been for the past several hours.

What the hell just happened? she wondered and spread the fingers of one hand wide against his chest, delighted in spite of herself when the muscles flexed beneath the skin in response to her touch.

The events that had transpired in this room stunned her on several levels. She'd never thought she'd be able to open herself up to a man in such a way after her previous disastrous relationship. What she'd told Rhodes had been the truth; the last guy she'd had sex with had been the one to scar her permanently. It hadn't been during or even directly after sex, but he'd used the intimacy of their relationship to catch her off-guard one night. After that, she'd decided to never allow herself to get close to another man again. Then Rhodes swept into her life less than a year ago and here she was, utterly captivated in his arms. It was wonderful and frightening all at once.

She shivered under the covers and turned her face to look towards the windows. It was still mostly dark, but it wouldn't be long before the morning sun flooded the room. She wasn't sure she even wanted the darkness to go away. She was enjoying this half-light; it lent a distinctive ambience to everything and she wasn't quite ready to return to real life yet.

"Did you sleep at all?" Rhodes spoke again, moving to look down at her tucked warmly against his side.

She jerked against him as he touched her bare skin and then relaxed as his hand slid leisurely up her side and back down again. "A little," she replied tilting her head back to look up at him. "You?"

"Better than I have in weeks," he confessed with a grin.

Her eyes went to the clock on his nightstand though and she groaned. "It's only been forty-five minutes. How could it have been so good?"

Shrugging one shoulder, he moved his hand around to place it gently over one breast, making her catch her breath. He squeezed and ran the pad of his thumb across the nipple, drawing forth another unfamiliar sound from her.

She'd never made such noises before in her life. She hadn't even known until an hour ago that she was capable of making such a racket. But Rhodes seemed to enjoy it and so she was glad to do it.

"With you here I guess all I needed was forty-five minutes," he told her.

Rolling her eyes, Maddy poked him in the ribs and laughed when he winced and moved away. She followed him, not feeling in the least self-conscious. After all they'd been through in the past twenty-four hours, she'd never felt closer to another human being before in her life. What surprised her the most was how much that thought pleased her.

"Are you trying to make me kick you out of my bed?" he asked as she moved almost on top of him, her hands everywhere at once all.

"You could try," she replied tartly and yelped when he took hold of her arms while sitting up.

"Don't tempt me, Maddy," he growled before setting his mouth on hers and silencing any further protests she might have voiced.

Sighing and allowing herself to relax on him, Maddy savored the feeling of his tongue moving against hers. He was an amazing kisser and she thought she'd give up anything if he'd just promise to keep on kissing her. Lazily he explored the corners of her mouth with his tongue, pushing here or retreating there, until she was a whimpering mess in his arms. As she shifted until she straddled his legs, she felt the hard, hot evidence that he wasn't immune to his own treatment of her.

He pulled her back down, cuddling her over him. She went willingly, her body sliding along his until she was nestled on top. Maddy grinned against his lips and rubbed against him, elated when he groaned and gripped her hips hard.

I could stay here all day, she thought with a sigh as one of his hands moved from her hip to lightly trace up her rib cage. And all night...and all week...

Her thoughts trailed off into oblivion as Rhodes raised a hand to hold the back of her head. Holding her face to his, he deepened the kiss, allowing her tongue to glide over his and then back again before licking her lips and delving into her eager, open mouth.

A moment later, it was over.

Rhodes sat up abruptly and caught her waist, making her stop.

"Someone's knocking."

"You can hear that?" She placed her hands over his, scowling at being interrupted.

Rhodes nodded before leaning forward to capture her lips with his and they kissed for a long moment before he jerked away again with a muttered curse. "They're knocking again."

"It must be important if they're risking waking you."

Rhodes' eyes met hers. "You're right."

"It's best that you accept that early on," she told him before kissing him. She laid back down and pulled the covers over her naked form.

Rhodes watched her movements, his gaze hungry, and she felt her face coloring from the intensity she saw there.

The knock at the main door to his apartment sounded again and this time, even Maddy could hear it.

Stifling another curse, Rhodes rose from the bed and searched for his pants, which had been carelessly discarded earlier. When he bent over the bed for one last kiss, Maddy brushed her hand over the noticeable bulge at his crotch.

"You'll pay for that, Maddy Fax," he told her in a low voice that sent a delightful shiver up and down her spine.

He walked away and she fell back against the pillows with a contented sigh. She tried to listen for the sounds of him answering the door and speaking to whoever had come knocking, but it was useless. She didn't know how he did it but he truly must have some special talent.

A minute later, Rhodes came striding back into the bedroom and she was instantly on alert when she saw the fierce scowl on his face. "Who was at the door?"

Rhodes entered the walk-in closet on one side of the room and exited a moment later, holding a shirt in one hand and a holster in the other. "It was Cricket. Someone's shown up at the front gate."

"Already?" Maddy yanked her shirt over her head before hopping out of bed and pulling the jeans up her legs.

"Fly hasn't reactivated the tracker yet so they have no idea who this guy is or how he found us," Rhodes explained as he started to walk away.

Maddy followed him out of the bedroom and through his apartment to the front entrance where Rhodes had a couple of guns stashed near the door. When he turned to offer one to Maddy, she shook her head.

"I'll run across the hall to change and meet you downstairs," she told him.

He nodded while he slid the two handguns into his holster and pocketed an extra clip. Then he leaned towards the door and glanced out the peephole.

"All clear," he murmured, looking down at the petite, bed-rumpled woman beside him.

Maddy pulled at the hem of her shirt, trying to disguise the fact that she was wearing absolutely no underwear. She looked up after struggling to rearrange and blushed when she saw the look Rhodes was giving her.

"What?"

Rhodes reached for her, drawing her close to him and lowering his head to press his lips against hers. The kiss quickly intensified, turning hungry, and Rhodes backed her up against the wall next to the door. A knock from the other side startled them out of their embrace.

Swearing, Rhodes stepped back from Maddy and opened the door, keeping her out of sight. It was all Maddy could do to keep from laughing out loud at the absurdity of it all.

"I'm coming," Rhodes growled and walked out, letting the door swing shut behind him.

Maddy waited an extra minute before darting across the hallway to her own apartment. Once inside her bedroom she swiftly changed her clothes and studied her flushed face in the mirror.

I can't go down there looking like this, although she was grinning in spite of it. She'd never had a better reason to look so disheveled.

She pulled a brush through her hair, trying to tame it into some semblance of order, finishing by pulling it back into her traditional tight ponytail. She studied her renewed appearance in the mirror before exhaling sharply and rubbing a hand over her cheek, as if that might get rid of the color there.

At last she hurried from her apartment and ran downstairs one flight to Fly's apartment. The door was open and she followed the sounds of talking to make her way through the labyrinthine interior until she reached Fly, Cricket and Rhodes who all stood in front of a large monitor.

"He doesn't register on any of the databases we've got," Fly was saying to Rhodes, who was scowling at the screen.

"Who the hell could he be?" Rhodes muttered.

"He's got to be someone sent by this Damien character, or Khristian, or whatever they call themselves," Cricket spoke up from where she sat on Fly's left. "Who else would know where to find us?"

Rhodes turned his gaze on her and shook his head. "Why would they send some lackey? Why not come themselves?"

"They haven't been doing anything but sending lackeys since this whole thing started," Fly said from where he stood behind Rhodes.

Rhodes nodded. "Well, we're going to have to do something about him. Get the others together, Cricket, explain the situation and have them take up concealed positions near the front gate."

Cricket nodded and rose to carry out his orders, leaving an empty seat behind her. Maddy slid into it and leaned forward to get a good look at the man who'd apparently walked right up to their secretive compound. He had his back turned to the camera but he wasn't especially tall and stood with a hunch to his shoulders, probably because he had his hands pushed into pockets or something; it was still chilly this early in the morning. He wore a baseball cap and his clothes were pretty nondescript. But, as soon as she laid eyes on the screen, Maddy got an awful sinking feeling in her stomach.

"You said he's not registering in our databases?" She squinted at the screen, silently willing him to turn around.

"That's right," Fly answered. "I started running his face through the foreign intel but so far I've had no hits." He clicked on the mouse in front of him and a clear shot of the man's face popped up.

The sinking feeling in Maddy's stomach turned instantly to a gaping pit.

"Do you recognize him?" Fly asked but she hardly heard him. All her attention was riveted on the screen and the face she saw there.

Now the baseball cap looked familiar, as did the hunched-over stance. She spotted some of the dark hair peeking out from underneath the cap and knew without a closer shot, that his denim jacket was worn through entirely on one elbow.

Her expression must have altered drastically because Fly peered over at her and asked if she was all right. At that point Rhodes also turned his attention to her and she felt herself growing cold all over.

This can't be happening, she told herself. Not after we...not after last night...

"Maddy?"

She turned her head to look at Rhodes and felt guilt spear her through the belly when she saw the genuine concern in his dark eyes. She forced herself to smile and knew that it was an utter failure when Rhodes frowned.

"I'm fine," she said, unable to tear herself away from his gaze now.

It was Rhodes who broke the look between them as his eyes flicked to the screen in front of her, with the small inset still visible. His frown deepened and she desperately tried to escape his look again as he turned back to her. He circled around behind Fly and brought his face close to hers to whisper directly into her ear. "Who is he, Maddy?"

She shook her head.

"Don't do this," he whispered.

She shook her head again and bit her lip.

Rhodes straightened up and crossed his arms. "Fly, head downstairs and see that everyone is ready to move in five minutes."

Fly stood up with a nod, hurrying from the room and the tension that was suddenly filling the dark space.

Chapter Twenty-one

Left alone with the boss, Maddy didn't know what to say or do. She hated that feeling more than she hated what this would mean for her and for them.

"Maddy, I'll give you those same five minutes to tell me what the hell is going on." Rhodes' voice was no longer low and intimate. He had become the leader of TAITS again and Maddy cringed.

"I don't know, Rhodes," she whispered.

"I saw your expression when you first saw this guy's face. I know you recognize him." He leaned over and trapped her in the chair.

"Rhodes, I don't know what you're talking about." She glanced up at him briefly before her eyes flittered away.

"Damn it, Maddy! Tell me now and don't make me ask again!"

"I can't!" she said, pushing him aside and leaping to her feet. She stalked away from the computer, not certain of where she was going but knowing that she needed to not be so close to him.

"Don't you walk away from me!" Rhodes grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. "Maddy, tell me who he is and what he is to you, or so help me..."

"So help you?" She met his gaze at last. "Or what, Rhodes? You might have to interrogate me the way you do every other captive?"

"Don't do that, Maddy," he hissed at her, drawing her close, his grip on her upper arm tightening painfully. "Don't lash out at me. This is not the time. I need you to tell me who that man is and why you're trying to protect him."

"I'm not trying to protect him!" she spat out, struggling to pull her arm from Rhodes' grip.

"Then what? Tell me!"

With a heavy sigh, Maddy dropped her eyes and shook her head feebly. "I can't tell you, Rhodes."

He exhaled sharply and his free hand came up to grasp her other arm. "Maddy, look at me."

Not wanting to, but incapable of fighting him any more, she raised her eyes until they met his. Again, the concern and caring she saw reflected there made her feel awful.

"I can't just let this go, Maddy." His voice was gentle.

"Our lives are at stake here," he went on, his grip easing on her arms but not enough to allow her to escape. "All our lives. Please. Tell me."

"OK," she whispered, not looking away from his bluer-than-blue eyes.

The relief that crossed his face was visible and his grip loosened further. "Who is he?"

"His name is Lukas. Lukas Faraday. I...he...we grew up together."

Rhodes frowned at that and dropped one hand from her arm. "Is he...?"

She shook her head and allowed herself a brief smile when he breathed out a sigh of relief.

"How did he find us?"

"I honestly don't know," she answered, looking at him again. "The last time I saw him was Friday and that was purely by chance." Hesitating now as the events replayed in her mind, she wondered how long it would take for Rhodes to piece it together. "He said he'd just moved to Calgary for work. I...I gave him my cell number and told him to call me if he needed anything."

The pieces fell into place for Rhodes almost immediately; Maddy could see it in his face. "Friday," he repeated, his eyes narrowing. "Then he called and left a message Saturday."

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Still, she held his gaze and tried to ascertain what he was thinking.

"Maddy, who is he to you?"

Blowing a breath out, she smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. "He's my brother."

"Brother?"

"Half-brother. We have the same father but Lukas' mother died when he was a baby. Our father married my mother a few years later."

"And then came you," Rhodes finished, his eyes wider than before as he digested all this information. "What is he doing here? How did he find the compound?"

"I don't know, Rhodes." She raised her hand and laid it on his forearm, her fingers pale against his darker skin. "Truly."

"I believe you, Maddy. Unfortunately, this doesn't look good."

She nodded ruefully and glanced back at the monitor. "He must be involved with the Herrings."

"Willingly?"

Her eyes snapped back to his face and she scowled. "He would never betray me like this."

"I'm not saying he would, Maddy." Rhodes' face was serious and Maddy couldn't deny the truth of his words. "This can't all be coincidence; him running into you on Friday, then the job going badly and everything else? Somehow the Herrings found out about you and him, probably through the same damn leak at HQ that we first suspected, and they located him to use him against you."

"But they don't care about me," she said with a head shake. "They're trying to get to you."

"Maybe they have information on all of us but your brother was the first family member they could locate. Maybe it's because you're the newest member of the team. Maybe Lukas sought them out." He paused and dropped his hand from her arm. "There's only one way to find out for sure."

Maddy sucked in her breath and stepped back from him. "Let me talk to him."

"That's not a good idea."

"Please, Rhodes," Maddy replied, taking a step forward and reaching for his hand. She flushed when he slid it easily out of her reach. "He knows me and he'd expect to see me if he's come all this way."

Rhodes still didn't seem convinced.

"Lukas isn't stupid, Rhodes, he must have some idea of what's going on, willingly or not. I can talk to him and get him to tell me what he knows."

"You really think you can get him to tell you everything he knows?" Rhodes asked, frowning down at her.

She was standing so close to him she could feel the heat radiating off his chest. She could smell his masculine musk, faintly tainted by...her scent, still warm on his skin. Blushing furiously at the torrent of images that flooded her mind, she forced herself to keep looking into his face.

The muscles in his jaw bunched and relaxed multiple times before he spoke again. "All right, Maddy."

She exhaled and turned to hurry from the room.

"On one condition," he added, his voice louder now. She turned back to look at him as he went on. "You stay on this side of the gate and I go with you." Her eyebrows rose and she opened her mouth to protest. "No arguments. I'm in charge here and until we're certain that they aren't out to get you as well, you'll do as I say. Understood?"

Left with no choice, Maddy nodded in acquiescence before turning and leaving Rhodes standing in Fly's office. "That was two conditions, by the way," she called over her shoulder.

She was gratified to hear his responding laugh.

* * * *

When Rhodes reached the main floor he was confronted by Grimm, Jack, Cricket and Emilio.

"What's going on, Rhodes?" Grimm asked, oddly being the first to speak instead of Jack.

"Didn't Fly and Cricket fill you in?" he said while continuing down the stairs towards the basement.

"Yeah, sure, they said there's someone at the front gate," Grimm said, following along behind Rhodes. "And that no one knows who he is."

"Well, that seems to be the gist of it. What's the problem?"

Grimm reached out and stopped him with a firm hand on his shoulder.

"The problem is that Maddy just blazed through here saying that she was going to be the one questioning the guy."

"That also sounds about right."

"What the hell is going on?" Grimm released Rhodes' arm but his tone implied that he was nowhere near finished.

"We don't have time for me to go into it right now, Grimm. We need to get in place and make sure that nothing happens that we don't want to happen."

Grimm studied his long-time companion's face and narrowed his eyes when Rhodes couldn't maintain the direct gaze. "This cannot be happening again."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You know damn well what it means. You're letting your judgment be clouded by some woman!"

"Maddy is not 'some woman,'" Rhodes said a second before Hound, Fly and Maddy approached from the armory, carrying an assortment of weapons.

"Where do you want us, Rhodes?" Hound asked, checking his pistol and glancing at Fly who came up beside him.

"Hound, you and Emilio take the east point. Fly, you, Cricket and Jack can all head for

the far west point. You've got your laptop?"

Fly nodded and, along with Hound, headed up the stairs to join the others, leaving Rhodes alone with Grimm and Maddy.

"Is everything all right?" she asked as she glanced from one man to the other.

"Everything is fine," Rhodes answered before Grimm could speak. "Get upstairs and wait between the house and garage for me."

She stood there for a moment, looking like she was about to say something more but Rhodes turned his gaze on her and she remained silent. With a nod, she brushed past the two men and walked upstairs.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Grimm demanded after Maddy was out of earshot.

"You have no idea what you're talking about, Grimm," Rhodes replied, turning away to walk to the armory.

"I think I know better than anyone else on the team," Grimm stated, slinging his assault rifle over his shoulder. "I was there the last time you let a woman get under your skin, or have you forgotten that?"

Rhodes whirled around and grabbed the front of Grimm's shirt. "Enough. Maddy's not Janis and this situation is entirely different."

"How is it different?"

"This is Maddy we're talking about," Rhodes said without releasing Grimm. "She's practically militant about her job with TAITS."

"That still doesn't explain why she's the one who's going to question this guy," Grimm said, after Rhodes had finally moved away to select a new weapon.

"I already told you that we don't have time for explanations." Rhodes pulled a new handgun off the wall before spinning around to face the other man. When he spoke, his voice was even and controlled. "We're going to do this my way, Grimm, and we're going to finish this job, if it's the last thing we do." And with that, he headed upstairs.

Chapter Twenty-two

On the main floor, Rhodes and Grimm were greeted by the eager and tense faces of the rest of the team, minus Maddy.

"The intruder is still at the front gates and he looks like he's talking to someone," Fly announced, his eyes on Rhodes' before flicking back to the computer screen in his hands. "Someone on our side of the fence."

Rhodes' head came up and he swore vehemently. His blood began pounding through his veins.

Oh yeah. That's familiar.

Rhodes checked the gun in his hand and stalked out of the big house, heading straight along the pathways to the front gate.

Sure enough, the petite sniper was already standing several feet away from the gate entrance on the driveway.

"Maddy," he called when he was a short distance away.

She didn't look back at him but he watched the tension snap her ramrod straight and the conversation with the supposed half-brother come to an abrupt halt.

He tightened his hand on the pistol and clicked the safety off. The noise carried across the short distance and he watched, with some satisfaction, as Maddy stiffened up even more.

"Uh, is he going to shoot me?" the stranger asked, nervously eyeing Rhodes around his half-sister's shoulder.

"Not if you're careful, Lukas," Maddy said.

Direct, no sugar-coating, Rhodes thought. That's Maddy.

Lukas' eyes went back to Maddy's face. "I'm so sorry, La—"

"Don't!" she exclaimed sharply. "I'm going to ask you some questions now, Lukas. Please be honest. We already know who you're involved with and we know how bad they are."

Lukas shook his head.

The movement caught Rhodes' attention and he noticed strange shadows playing across the man's face. After a second he realized he was bruised.

"You don't know what's been happening," Lukas said. "It's so messed up."

"Believe me, I do know. I know more than you do about what's been happening." Maddy studied him in silence. "Why don't you start by telling me how they found you?"

"I don't even know. I was working at a bar in Toronto one night and this guy walked in and started talking to me."

"What did he look like?"

"I don't know, he was kinda tall." He lifted one hand a short distance above his head. "And had a goatee."

"Is that all you can remember?"

"Yeah, but I never saw that guy again. He gave me a card with an address on it and told me he knew of a job opening at this new bar on the east end."

"You just went there? Without checking on them first?"

Lukas leveled a look at her that Rhodes was certain meant to intimidate. He then blew out a breath and stuffed his hands back into the pockets of his denim jacket. "We live in different worlds. I'm not like you. I don't do this...whatever job you want to call it. You ask me why I didn't check them out? Where do I do that? With who?"

Maddy remained silent.

"I went to this place and that's when I met Damien. He seemed all right."

Maddy snorted at that and Lukas glared at her. "You want me to tell you or not?"

"Go on," she replied. "When did this meeting take place?"

"I don't know, almost a year ago, I guess. Right before we saw you that last time."

Maddy nodded and Rhodes was figuring out the timeline in his head. It had been nearly a year since Maddy had come to TAITS. He guessed that whoever was ratting them out at HQ had given up the information on Maddy when she'd joined the team. Her file wouldn't have been deemed high level classification until after she came to Calgary. Tait was the one who took care of that.

"So you met Damien a year ago and then what? You worked at their bar?"

Lukas shrugged. "Yeah. I worked at the bar for a few months and Damien would drop by occasionally. He'd talk to me and the other bartenders."

"What did you talk about?"

Another weak shrug.

Rhodes shook his head. This guy was starting to annoy him now.

"I don't know. Stuff. He'd tell me stories from when he was younger and I'd talk about growing up in Greece."

Greece? Rhodes eyes flicked to the back of Maddy's head.

"Then he started asking about my family and telling me about his. I told him about you and our parents."

"Why would you do that?" Maddy demanded.

"I didn't know who he was!" Lukas scowled at his sister through the iron gate. "He was a nice guy who gave me a decent job, the first decent job I've had since high school, and he would talk to me. That's it."

"You have no idea what you've done," she told him, shaking her head.

Lukas yanked his hands out of his pockets and gripped the bars of the gate, pulling himself closer to Maddy. "You think you're the only one who's suffered because of this? I've been kidnapped and tortured and made to do things that I never wanted to do. All because you took this goddamned job."

"You're blaming me for this?" Maddy asked, not drawing away from her brother as he practically spit at her through the gate.

"You told us it was a great job," Lukas went on, his tone revealing the anger and bitterness he was feeling. "You said you'd get to see the world and make things better for people. You told us that we'd all be safer because of this job."

"You don't have any idea what you're talking about."

"I know enough. I've been threatened, beaten up and sent here to tell you something. Why don't I just tell you what I came here for and get this over with?"

Rhodes could almost see the wheels turning in Maddy's head. He ached to reach for her but he couldn't let his guard down. The man might have been related to her by blood but he was also a large part of the reason for the attempts on their lives over the past few days.

"Fine. Tell us what you're supposed to." Maddy glanced back over her shoulder at Rhodes. He met the questioning gaze in her eyes and nodded. "We can protect you afterwards, Lukas."

Lukas looked over at Rhodes and snorted. "Who? You and the titan with the gun?"

"There're more of us, Lukas. We can protect you, believe me."

His gaze came back to rest on his half-sister's face. "I have a lot of trust issues these days."

Maddy didn't respond.

Finally Lukas sighed. "They want some guy named Rhodes. He's all they care about. You and I were just a way to get to him. I think he must be someone you work with and somehow they knew about you and me."

"Because you told them all about us."

"I told you, they came to me before you even left home. They must have known about you even before I started working at the bar."

"He's right," Rhodes spoke up for the first time, earning a scathing glare from Maddy that he ignored. He lowered his weapon and walked up to the gate.

"I'm right about what?" Lukas asked, eyeing Rhodes warily.

Rhodes reached for Maddy, gently pulling her a few steps away so Lukas couldn't overhear. "They had to have known about you before you started with us," he told her. "We've already decided that no one in the team could possibly be the leak so it had to have come before someone joined."

Maddy went white.

"You think that I gave up the team?"

Rhodes gaped at her. "That is not what I said. We've discussed this already. Someone at HQ has been passing along inside information. They probably found out that you were about to join the team and turned over your personal information before your file was sealed." He shrugged as another thought occurred to him. "Maybe they even thought this would place suspicion on you since you're the newest member."

Maddy's color began to seep back into her face and Rhodes resisted the urge to brush her cheek with his hand.

Maddy turned back to the gate and her brother. "Lukas, you'd better come inside."

"Inside?" Rhodes asked.

Lukas looked just as surprised. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

Rhodes turned to look at him. He'd just said that the Herrings intended to kill him. Why wouldn't he accept help?

"Why not?" Maddy asked. "We can't send you back to those people. Look what they've done to you."

"They sent me here for one thing," Lukas said. "To deliver a message."

"Which you've done," Maddy agreed with a nod.

Lukas looked at her in silence. "Don't you get it? They know where you are, where this place is. They wouldn't have sent me here if they didn't know."

Rhodes and Maddy exchanged a glance before nodding again.

"Right," Rhodes spoke up. "So you're saying that they're right behind you?" His eyes and went past Lukas' shoulder to the empty road beyond.

"Well, not literally," Lukas replied with a wry smile. "They dropped me in the area and told me to walk until I found a gated driveway. I think they must have tracked you somewhere close and guessed what sort of place you'd be hiding out in. They also told me to tell you that if this Rhodes guy doesn't give himself up, they'll destroy this place and anyone who's inside." He paused again to allow that information to sink in. "So thanks, but no thanks. I don't want to come inside right now. I'd much rather walk up the road and never think about any of this again."

Rhodes narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "You'd just leave your sister behind?"

Lukas returned Rhodes' glare with one of his own. "She's the one who chose this life."

Maddy winced.

The man was lucky. Lucky there was a two inch thick iron gate in front of him. He must have sensed it and took an involuntary step backwards when he saw the look on Rhodes' face.

"Maybe you should just go, Lukas," Maddy said.

"I'm glad we finally agree on something," Lukas replied and shared one last look with his half-sister before turning away from the gate.

"Lukas, wait!" Rhodes called. The other man turned. "You've probably got some kind of tracking device on you. As soon as you can, buy all new clothes and leave those behind."

Lukas stared at him without comment for a second before nodding. His eyes went to Maddy and his features took on a pained expression. "We're even now, right?"

Maddy shook her head with a heavy sigh. "I never thought you owed me, Lukas."

Lukas turned and walked away without looking back.

Hound and Grimm approached a minute later with their weapons shouldered.

"What now?" Grimm asked, his tone cold.

Rhodes narrowed his eyes at him and remained silent.

"We go after the Herrings," Maddy said. "We take this fight to them."

"One problem with that," Hound spoke up and turned his head as more of the team materialized out of the surrounding trees. "We don't know where they are."

"That office building downtown," Jack said as she came to a stop next to Grimm.

Rhodes looked around at all their faces before allowing his gaze to settle on Maddy. She wasn't looking at any of them; her face was still turned in the direction her half-brother had walked off. Sighing heavily, he rubbed his face and ignored the pressure building in his chest.

"Jack's right," Rhodes said. "All our intel points to that new building."

"That doesn't mean we have the means to storm the building and take care of them," Grimm retorted, earning another glare from his boss. "Who's to say their chopper won't be flying overhead in the next ten minutes anyway?"

"Their chopper was destroyed," Cricket spoke up, jogging up in time to hear Grimm's last comment. "I don't think even the Herrings could get another armed helicopter ready in that short amount of time."

Everyone but Grimm nodded in agreement with Cricket's reasoning.

A minute of tense silence descended as the rest of the team gathered close and everyone's gaze turned to Rhodes. He felt them all looking at him but he couldn't tear his eyes from Maddy's profile.

"Rhodes?" Fly spoke up. "What do you want us to do?"

Without looking away from Maddy, Rhodes issued his orders in short, clipped tones. "Get the communications together, Fly. Emilio, get the van ready. All of you change and help load the van with everything we'll need that we can fit in. I want to be out of here in ten minutes."

"Are we leaving the compound unmanned?" Jack asked.

"We have no choice. We need everyone downtown to finish this."

At last Maddy turned and raised her eyes to meet Rhodes' unwavering look. She was pale and looked extremely upset.

Good, Rhodes thought. She can put it towards something productive.

"I can arm the place before we go and monitor it with my handheld," Fly added. "If anyone breaches the fence line, I'll know and we can deal with it."

"Good," Rhodes said and looked up at all of their faces. "Now go."

As one, they turned and jogged back to the big house to carry out his orders. Left alone at the front gate, Maddy turned to follow the others but Rhodes stopped her with a hand on her arm. She wouldn't look at him until he forced her face in his direction with one firm hand.

"I don't blame you for any of this," he told her, his tone just as firm as the hand on her jaw.

She blinked and he guessed that she was surprised at his words.

"You should," she said.

He studied her face for a long moment before sliding his hand around to the back of her neck and leaning down to touch his lips to hers. When he pulled away he saw her gazing at him, a strange gleam shining from her emerald irises. He smiled. "I don't take orders from you."

Chapter Twenty-three

Grimm looked over his shoulder after they scattered to obey Rhodes' commands. He saw the kiss between the sniper and the boss. He wasn't sure what pissed him off more; that Rhodes had allowed himself to become attached to another woman involved with their work, or that Rhodes had tried to keep it a secret. Shrugging it off, he ran the last of the distance to the house, deciding it would be better to revisit the situation when—if—they made it through this day.

There had been a time, not that long ago, when Grimm would have been pleased with the developments between Rhodes and Maddy. Lord knew he'd recognized the tension between them before they had and he'd been dropping hints to both of them as a source of his own amusement. There was no amusement now as he recalled the looks exchanged at the front gates and the heated embrace he'd witnessed.

How could he let this happen? Grimm fumed silently as he hurried upstairs to change.

Here they all were, getting ready to launch an attack on the people who were related to the last woman he'd been involved with. Rhodes knew it, Grimm knew it, and he had a sneaking suspicion even Maddy knew it. No one except Grimm seemed concerned by how all the events of the last few days were connected.

As he banged drawers open and closed in his darkened apartment, he stewed over the whole situation. He didn't even hear the knocking on his main door until he returned to the entrance.

"What's with the noise?" Cricket said as she nudged her glasses up her nose.

Grimm swept his eyes over her once, taking in her black clothing and perpetually smudged glasses, and he was momentarily distracted from his frustration with the boss.

"You really should consider contacts, Cricket. You can't keep pushing your glasses up in the middle of jobs."

Her eyes narrowed and she whirled away from him without another word. Grimm shut the apartment door behind himself and followed her downstairs. He hadn't meant for his words to come out so harshly, but he was angry and Cricket was the one who'd knocked on his door. He knew it would be useless to apologize right now. They were all on edge.

Down on the main floor he greeted Hound, Jack and Fly before all of them walked outside without a word. In front of the garage they saw Emilio waiting beside the idling van. They loaded up their weapons and filed into the van, leaving one back row seat and the front passenger seat available for Rhodes and Maddy. Once settled, they all exchanged silent glances before turning as one to look back at the house. As if on cue, the boss strode out the side door of the house, followed closely by the sniper.

Grimm had to admire their professionalism as they made their way across the lawn. Both had changed into their black uniforms and gathered the necessary weapons in less time than the others. Maddy had her dark hair pulled into her no-nonsense ponytail and Rhodes was wearing reflective sunglasses. A minute later, they were all in and Emilio was driving through the heavy iron gates.

"The compound is armed," Fly said as they turned onto the gravel road. "Here are all your pieces." He handed out the tiny earpieces they used for communications. "Test." Fly clicked away at a few keys on his laptop as he began the test of the earpieces that signaled the start of every op. He would record their presence and after the op was completed, the recording would be sent with the full report to Tait.

"Colossus of Rhodes."

"Emilio Jones."

"Cricket."

"Ulster Hound."

"Jack."

"Grimm Rapier."

"Maddy Fax." Maddy's voice was barely loud enough for anyone to hear but Fly picked it up with his equipment easily, clicking another key before adding his own name to the roster.

"Fly Ratio," he said, then closed the laptop and tucked it underneath his seat. He pulled out his handheld device and clicked a few buttons. "I think the best point of entry is Banker's Hall on 8th."

"It has underground access?" Rhodes asked, pulling his sunglasses off and looking over his gun.

"Yeah," Fly replied, rolling the little dial on the side of his hand held. "We can go in through the parkade and move the last few blocks underground to 6th where that office building is being renovated." It was a little known fact that Calgary's downtown core had a network of mostly unused tunnels below the streets. They had been built decades ago with the intention of creating a subway system. That had never come to pass. It worked out well for the team, as they could use the tunnels to make a hidden approach to their destination.

"Will they see us coming?" Rhodes asked.

Fly looked up from his little device and met Rhodes' eyes over the back of the big man's seat. "Being as it's Sunday morning and there'll be virtually no traffic downtown, I'd say they'll see us coming and send a greeting party, even if we do use the tunnels."

"How polite," Hound said with a smirk as he dug around in his pack and came up with a small gadget.

Grimm's eyes followed Hound's hands as the blond man worked with the gadget, connecting a few protruding wires and then clicking a button on his big wristwatch. He placed the newly formed explosive back in his pack and pulled out another device, quickly working over that one as well. Grimm couldn't help but smile at the younger man's easy skill with the volatile materials. Hound looked up a minute later and met Grimm's eyes; he grinned broadly.

"So we hit the tunnels and deal with whatever they throw our way," Rhodes said, twisting around in his seat to look at everyone. "Cricket will stay with the van and Fly will take the lead with me. The rest of you will fan out behind and beside us, depending on the terrain."

They all nodded and fingered their weapons in agitation as he continued.

"This is not the type of job we're used to doing. We're not getting paid to do this. Once we're underground, you follow my lead and do exactly as I say. When we get to the building, it's even more imperative that you follow my orders to a T. If anyone has a problem with that, tell me now so we can drop you off along the way."

With that, he fell silent, his steely gaze going over each one of their faces in turn. He was met with firm and determined looks all around and even Grimm had to acknowledge Rhodes' natural leadership in all situations. As the boss' eyes met his, Grimm gave a nod which was reciprocated.

"We may not be getting paid for this, boss," Jack spoke up as Rhodes moved to face forward again. "But these people crossed the line when they came after you. They need to be dealt with in full TAITS style."

Rhodes smiled at her words and so did Grimm. As he turned to look at Jack in the back row, he saw that everyone else was grinning as well.

"I'm glad to see that everyone agrees," Rhodes remarked before turning to Emilio. "How soon can you get us there?"

"Fly was right about the traffic," the big driver replied, glancing at the digital clock on the dashboard. "There's no one out on the roads this early on a Sunday."

"Police presence downtown will be at a minimum," Rhodes added. "Good and bad, just like Fly said."

Grimm grinned and looked over at Fly on the far side of the middle row. He was completely engrossed with his little handheld device and appeared to not be paying any attention to the conversation. Exhaling and running his finger over the ridged pattern on the handle of his assault rifle, Grimm turned his face to the window on his other side.

The rural landscape would give way in minutes to the concrete and steel of the city and Grimm just couldn't shake the feeling that they were still missing something about this whole ordeal. From the start something had been off but other than acknowledging an internal leak, no one had managed to pin anything down. He couldn't help but feel as if everything had been going according to a plan; just not their plan.

Shaking himself mentally, he blinked and faced forward again, meeting Rhodes' steady gaze for a second.

Focus. Grimm needed to focus; for his friend's sake and the rest of the team. He would focus because he was a professional. They all were. They were TAITS and that was all that mattered right now.

* * * *

From her position in the back row, Maddy repeated Rhodes' orders to herself and tried to picture the events as they would likely unfold. But that was difficult since it was impossible to anticipate what might happen once they moved underground. For one thing, she'd never been in this tunnel system that Fly had mentioned and she knew from recent experience that these guys they were dealing with meant business. They wouldn't stop short of bombing an entire city block just to get to Rhodes; they'd already taken out almost an entire apartment building downtown. A shiver went down her spine at the thought. Not out of concern for herself or the danger she was surely moving into.

No.

She was worried about Rhodes.

Taking a deep breath, Maddy narrowed her eyes as she stared out the window, clenching her jaw and tightening her grasp on the rifle across her thighs.

The absolute last thing she needed to be thinking about right now was Rhodes, but she just couldn't help herself. He was clear across the van, with six people between them, and she was as aware of his presence as if she was sitting in his lap.

Turning her face from the window, she flinched when she met his gaze head on. He grinned at her and her stomach did a nauseating somersault below her ribcage, unsettling her entirely. She glared at him, hoping she was conveying the correct message for a moment like this: concentrate on the task at hand.

Still grinning, he turned away to face forward again, saying something in a low voice to Emilio.

"When did this start?" Cricket whispered into her right ear.

"What?"

Smirking, Cricket pushed at her glasses and rolled her eyes towards the front of the van. "You know what."

Maddy felt her cheeks coloring again and was helpless to disguise it. She clenched her jaw and met Cricket's gaze steadily, ignoring the heat in her face. "Is it any of your business?"

Cricket blinked. "I just want to know that this won't affect your judgment once we get downtown."

Studying her face, Maddy suspected that Cricket was being honest. She knew the bespectacled brunette did nothing but tell the truth. "It won't because 'this' is nothing."

"Hm," Cricket said and looked away.

It wasn't much longer before the shadows of the downtown buildings were passing over the van. Maddy looked outside again and noticed that they were alongside a casino on the left and the Stampede grounds on the right. Another few blocks and Emilio made a left turn onto Tenth Avenue.

Everyone in the van watched through the front windshield, looking for any sign of activity. All anyone could see were a few homeless people walking along the sidewalk and the odd car driving past in the opposite direction.

"You should be able to access the parkade on the next block," Fly said.

"I know," Emilio replied and made a right hand turn on the next street.

After another couple of minutes, he was gliding under the sign of the Banker's Hall parkade and the van was enveloped in darkness. The parkade lights slid over the van, casting odd shadows within as Fly quietly guided Emilio to the nearest underground access point. Once Emilio had pulled into a parking spot and stopped, Rhodes turned around to face everyone.

"No questions," he said, his voice low. "Cricket, you're here. We'll contact you with our exit point. Fly, you're with me. Everyone else..." he paused as he let his gaze skim all of their faces, "...you know what to do."

"Yes, boss," they said in unison.

The doors slid open on either side and the TAITS team, sans Cricket, filed out. They stood in a semi-circle at the rear of the van, facing one another as they carefully checked over their weapons one last time. Once finished, they each held a hand to their earpieces and listened as Fly sent a test signal to all of them. When they had all nodded, Rhodes looked over at Fly.

"Lead the way."

Chapter Twenty-four

Fly moved towards the half door in the parkade wall and pulled a small lock-picking instrument out of his back pocket. The rest of the team stood by, eyeing their surroundings while Fly pulled the door open. Rhodes moved ahead through the small opening. He had to bend over almost double and turn sideways just to fit. If the situation hadn't been so serious, he was certain there would have been snickering upon his movement through the doorway.

Once inside, he pulled a small flashlight from his belt and illuminated the small portion of the space he now occupied. Behind him came Fly and the others, with Maddy and Hound bringing up the rear.

Rhodes' mind slid into action mode and every sense sharpened as they walked along the pathway away from the parking garage. They soon reached a steel staircase leading down along one solid concrete wall. Fly indicated that they should go down and Rhodes went first. At the bottom they moved down another long passageway until they reached another downward staircase.

And so it went, Fly gesturing here or there when they reached a turn or another stairway. Rhodes walked out in front and Maddy covered Hound in the back as he set his small explosive devices along the way. Somewhere in the last hundred yards, they'd left the smoothly finished concrete walls surrounding the parkade and entered an underground area that was partially used by the waste water treatment facilities set up around the city.

God almighty, it smelled awful.

Rhodes grimaced and pulled his neck wrap up to cover his nose. A quick glance back revealed that several of the other team members had done the same.

He looked over at Fly who was fiddling with his little handheld, determining which turn to take. They were stopped briefly at an intersection and Rhodes had no idea if they were under a street or a building.

"This way," Fly said and the team moved with him around a bend.

Gunfire ripped through the silence of the dark tunnel, throwing them all to the ground.

"Back!" Rhodes ordered. They all followed him as he wriggled along the ground and slid back around the corner. "Did anyone see how many?"

Everyone shook their head.

"Shit! Hound, quarter-ounce."

Hound pulled what looked like a miniature grenade out of his pack. It was one of what he called his 'noise-bombs.' It didn't do much structural damage but it could cause serious injury to someone standing close enough.

"Grimm, Maddy, get me a visual."

They rearranged themselves in a matter of seconds. Hound threw himself to the ground just past the corner and chucked his tiny grenade down the tunnel as Maddy and Grimm stepped behind him.

More gunshots sounded, stone and concrete dusting the team members where they stood. There was a simultaneous round of gunfire from Maddy and Grimm while Hound slithered back along the ground and out of the way of the flying bullets. He directed a swift warning at the two shooters on their side and both of them leapt back around the corner seconds before the explosive went off down the tunnel.

"Six," Maddy breathed and Grimm nodded his confirmation.

"About two hundred feet straight down," he added. "I hit one, but I don't think he's dead."

"The explosion will have missed them if they're two hundred feet," Hound spoke up from where he knelt with his pack at his feet, another grenade in hand. "At best, it's blocked their view."

Rhodes nodded. "Another. Everyone move at Hound's signal."

Hound threw his pack back across his shoulders and drew his 9mm forward from his hip, explosive ready in his other hand. Rhodes watched him count silently to three before leaping away from the corner again.

Grimm ducked around the corner and fired off several rounds at the figures he saw at the far end. Maddy knelt at his side and covered Hound as he dashed along the far wall, moving closer to the targets, and flinging the small explosive towards them. He then ducked behind a small outcropping and waved a hand towards the team, palm down before switching the signal to two fingers pointed down at the ground.

"Move twenty feet now!" Grimm hissed and darted alongside Maddy to the far wall, followed closely by Rhodes and the others.

Not two seconds later the explosive went off, just after they'd dropped to their knees and covered their faces. Rhodes looked up first and leapt to his feet, firing three rounds. A cry sounded further down the tunnel and he smiled in grim satisfaction.

"Hound, another. Grimm, cover Hound. Maddy, watch the rear. Let's move!"

As a singular, fluid force, the team did as Rhodes ordered; Grimm dashing ahead, firing his gun as Hound threw himself to the ground, whipping another grenade at the enemy. Maddy stayed on her knees, twisting to face the back end of the team, her rifle firmly set against her shoulder and her good eye focused through the scope.

"Down!" Hound ordered suddenly and they obeyed, protecting their faces as the explosion rocked the tunnel, showering more stone and concrete debris on their heads.

Something about this explosion sounded different to Rhodes. As the smoke cleared somewhat and he listened to the familiar steps of Grimm and Hound ahead of him, he realized that the explosive had taken out one or two of the men at the far end of the tunnel.

Gunfire sounded and Grimm signaled them to follow. Rhodes confirmed and moved ahead of the others, Fly just behind him while Jack, Emilio and Maddy brought up the rear.

"You won't make it!" someone was yelling. It was the last of the men sent to kill them.

Grimm approached, his arm extended and the business end of his 9mm pointed at the man's head. "You won't ever know for sure," he said quietly and squeezed the trigger.

The man dropped like a stone.

They all stood still for a moment, listening and looking further up the tunnel, watching for any signs of more adversaries.

"Fly?" Rhodes said.

Fly ran his fingers across the buttons on his handheld. "We keep going this way for about a half kilometer and then we should be underneath Seventh Avenue."

"The train," Rhodes whispered and Fly nodded. "All right, let's go."

Without another word, they moved past the bodies lying on the ground and continued down the tunnel, intent on their destination. Maddy cast one last look at the fallen men and drew in a deep breath before following the rest of the team. In another few minutes they reached an intersection and paused while Fly worked on his device.

"OK," Fly whispered, drawing Rhodes' attention. "From here there are two ways to get to the building."

"Which way is the quickest?" Rhodes asked, looking at the screen on Fly's handheld and not recognizing a thing.

"As far as I can tell, this way is the most direct. But if they were smart, they'd have sent a team the other way....to come up on our backside."

Rhodes followed his glance down the long dark tunnel to the left and chewed on the inside of his lip for a minute. His eyes passed over everyone's faces and he nodded. "Right. Grimm, you and Emilio stay here and watch for anyone coming from that direction."

Grimm and Emilio nodded, their grips firm on their weapons. Rhodes nodded again and turned back to the others.

"We'll go on this way," he said and gestured for Fly to lead the way.

As each team member passed Grimm and Emilio, they nodded or touched their shoulders to acknowledge them. Rhodes knew it wasn't because they thought they wouldn't see them again, it was just another habit. Still, he couldn't stop himself from looking back and meeting his old comrade's eyes one last time before facing the darkness of another tunnel. Grimm nodded in return before turning to face his own task.

A rumbling sound echoed around them as they rounded a long bend. Everyone froze. They lifted their guns and looked in every direction.

Fly's chuckle echoed in each of their earpieces. "It's the C-train."

Not another word was spoken as they moved through the tunnels closer to their destination. Then Fly laid a hand on Rhodes' shoulder, stopping the big man as they came to what looked like another steel staircase, one they hadn't seen since first descending below the city.

"Here," Fly said.

"I'll go first," Rhodes said to the group around him. "Jack, you're staying here and keeping watch."

The tall blonde nodded briskly and pulled out her small flashlight.

Everyone slowly moved past her, following Rhodes up the stairway. They heard noise as they ascended another set of steps and Rhodes paused, shining his light on the path ahead. The beam of the flashlight settled on a pair of unfamiliar eyes.

Rhodes had only a moment to draw his weapon before gunfire sounded all around them.

"Down!"

"We know why you're here!" someone called from not far ahead. "Give yourself up, Colossus!"

Rhodes couldn't stop the choked laugh from escaping his lips and was rewarded with another volley of rounds over his head, spraying concrete dust in the team's direction. He waited patiently for the gunfire to pause and then he leaned forward, sighting his target and firing precisely before leaning back, all in a matter of seconds. This time the shouted message was somewhat strained.

"Don't make this harder on yourself than it already is!" called the same man who had spoken before. "You've already put your people in a bad situation; don't make it worse, Colossus."

Now he was starting to get annoyed.

Glancing at his teammates, Rhodes signaled to Maddy and made a few hand gestures to which she responded with a nod. She silently set her rifle down next to Hound and drew the pistol from her back holster before carefully stepping past the others until she was directly beside Rhodes. He nodded at her and leaned forward again, waiting a split second before firing a round, giving Maddy just enough time to lean forward as well and assess how many men were waiting around the corner.

A return volley of bullets greeted them as they pulled back and when the pause came this time, Maddy stepped out from her cover and shot three rounds. Silence followed her shots and Rhodes moved to stand next to her. Together they eyed the one man who'd been firing at them from his position at the base of a steel ladder.

"No one calls me Colossus," Rhodes muttered and kicked the dead man's foot out of his way as he strode past him to the ladder. It was bathed in a ring of light and a quick glance up told him that they'd reached the office building. A glance over his shoulder told him everyone was still with him and he nodded, holstering his pistol before gripping the rails above his head, and pulling himself up.

Behind and below him he heard a weapon readied and knew someone was covering his progress up the ladder; probably Maddy. A smile touched his lips.

His Maddy.

He was liking the sound of that more and more.

A shadow passed over the small circle of light overhead and he froze where he was. He waited, eyes trained on the circle above him, watching for any sign of movement. Slowly, he moved one hand to the gun under his opposite arm and drew it, clicking the safety off as quietly as he could. Only when no one moved for a long, tense minute and no sound reached his ears did he continue, one-handed, up the ladder.

When his eyes finally peeked out over the top of the shaft he saw that whatever cover there had been was no longer in sight. Rhodes knew that had indeed found the correct building.

Semi-transparent sheeting hung from all sides of the room and white dust clung to every surface. Stacks of bricks and pallets of mortar lined one side and a draft blew from the other side, shifting and ruffling the sheeting. The lighting provided was from weak construction lamps hanging in the doorways.

Rhodes eased himself up and off the ladder, sweeping his gun in a low arc all around him before lowering a hand and waving at his team members below.

"Clear."

One by one, they pulled themselves out of the shaft from the underground and joined Rhodes in the sheeted and dusty room. He eyed each of them, the habit formed to ensure himself that everyone who was supposed to be with him was.

"Fly?"

"Give me just a second," Fly tapped away at the keys on his handheld. "Cricket?"

"Yeah?"

"Open my laptop and key in nine-one-six-eight-tango-delta."

A second of silence descended. "The building schematic," Cricket said in a low voice, even though she was sitting alone in the parking garage four blocks away.

"Infrared."

"Got it. Four, parking level two."

"That's us," Fly said, glancing at the team members surrounding him.

"Three, parking level one," Cricket went on and they knew she was scanning each floor. "Four, lobby. Then no one until the eighth floor, then you've got two at the main stairwell, two at the elevator shaft, and half a dozen in a room maybe...two-thirds of the way down the left hallway."

"OK," Fly said, turning the dial on the side of his device. "Send it to me. Four-six-one-eight-nine-five-seven."

"So where's the staircase?" Hound asked, giving his handgun a once-over.

"Just outside and down the hall about a hundred feet," Fly replied, not taking his eyes off the tiny screen in his hands.

"Do we stop and clear each floor?" Hound asked.

Rhodes glanced over from where he stood near the doorway. They were all waiting patiently for their next orders.

If we pause to take out more then we risk giving our position away, he thought. If we don't get rid of them now, we may be flanked when we get further up. Damien and Khristian wouldn't be on the ground floor or anywhere near it, so we don't need to stop and check for them.

Rhodes shook his head at Hound.

Hound nodded and moved closer behind him. Fly and Maddy followed, their eyes flicking around the room once more before moving on.

Chapter Twenty-five

Rhodes moved into the hallway, holding his gun ahead of him. He hurried along one side of the hall, spotting the stairway just ahead. Sheeting surrounded them on all sides, hanging down and shifting in various spots with the drafts that flitted along the floor. They reached the base of the stairwell and Fly nodded to proceed, his gestures telling them that the three on the next level were at the far end.

They hurried up the stairs, their footsteps not making the slightest sound in the dust that kicked up all around their feet. Rhodes cursed inwardly when he glanced back and saw the trail they'd left, clear as day. His gaze shifted and he met Maddy's stare.

Nothing to be done about it, her eyes seemed to say to him, flicking to the stairs swiftly before meeting his eyes again.

He nodded and turned to ascend the next bank of stairs. Fly gestured for them to continue. The guys in the lobby must have moved further away as well because there wasn't a soul in sight as Rhodes and his team swept past the lobby entrance. They were all breathing heavily as they reached the last flight of stairs. Fly held a hand up and they all stopped.

"Two at the top," he whispered without looking up from his handheld.

"They know?" Rhodes asked.

Fly met his gaze and gave a short nod. His eyes didn't seem as sure as his motion but Rhodes guessed on his own that there was no way they'd tracked them through the city to the underground tunnels only to lose them inside their very own building.

"Grimm, Emilio, Jack, clear the lower levels now," Rhodes said before signaling to Fly and the others to continue moving.

When they reached the doorway at the top of the eighth floor staircase Hound dug into his pack and produced a larger version of his tiny grenade. Rhodes moved into position by the door and waved Maddy and Fly behind him. Then he cracked open the door just enough for Hound to send the charged grenade through the opening.

"Down!"

Rhodes allowed one second to pass after the explosion before he burst through the door and shot the first dark form that loomed up in the dust and smoke. The man sank to the floor, clutching his chest. Rhodes stepped over him, slamming himself against the wall opposite the staircase. Hound and Maddy came next, firing as two other men came running down the hall towards them.

"This way!" Fly called as he headed to the left.

"Goddamnit!" Jack's voice burst over the earpiece. "The two from the lobby are heading your way, fast!"

"Hound, take care of it," Rhodes ordered.

Before they'd even gone another ten steps, gunfire sounded at their backs and Hound could be heard swearing.

"Hound!" Cricket said over their connection.

"I'm fine," Hound replied. More rounds were fired.

Rhodes stopped and reached for Maddy, slamming her back against the wall beside him. Fly followed suit, all of them pointing their weapons in the direction they'd just come from. About fifty feet back, Hound was on his knees, gun drawn with one hand, a grenade cradled in the other. He fired another round before pulling back his other arm and letting the explosive fly.

"Down!"

Rhodes pulled Maddy off the wall as quickly as he'd tossed her against it and covered her body with his own as they sank to the floor. The grenade exploded and the building shook around them. The dust stung his eyes as Rhodes looked up, probably too soon.

"Hound?" he whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Hold your position." The feeling of relief that washed over him was replaced almost instantly with a cold, steady rage.

No one took shots at the TAITS team.

No one did it and lived to tell the tale.

Maddy shifted underneath him and he eased off of her to kneel on the floor. He glanced around until he was looking in the direction they'd been headed towards.

"Fly?" It came out more sharply than he'd intended but his patience was at an end. He wanted nothing more than to hold the barrel of each of his guns against the Herrings' foreheads.

"Still six in the room," Fly replied, crouching beside him and Maddy. He'd once again traded his gun for his handheld.

Rhodes met Maddy's gaze through the thin layer of dust floating all around them and couldn't stop himself from reaching for her. She sucked in a sharp breath as his palm rested briefly against her cheek.

"Stay here," he said as he stood up. He saw the immediate protest rise to her lips. He held a hand at her, palm up and fingers spread, a gesture meant to silence her.

One more long glance passed between them and Rhodes couldn't stop the feeling of desire that rocked him suddenly as he looked down at her flushed face.

Later.

Rhodes turned and headed down the hallway, away from Maddy and his team; straight towards the two men who wanted to see him dead.

* * * *

Maddy rose to her feet and looked in the direction Rhodes had gone. She could just barely make out the outline of his body through the dust and smoke filling the hallway.

Stay?

She angrily brushed herself off as Fly rose to his feet next to her. Behind them three figures approached but she knew from the shape and pace that it was the three teammates who had been left behind to cover their exit.

"What's going on?" Jack asked.

Maddy squeezed her eyes shut, controlling the sudden itch she felt in her trigger finger.

"Where's Rhodes?" Grimm asked, looking from Maddy's face to Fly's.

Before either of them could respond, gunfire sounded from the hallway Rhodes had just disappeared down.

Stay?

Fuck that.

Maddy grabbed the handheld from Fly's hands and quickly scanned the layout of the floor they were on. Rhodes was at the doorway to a room three doors down and they were right next to another room with a window.

A window with worker's scaffolding just outside.

She tossed the handheld back at Fly and darted into the room directly on their right. There was the window and she hurried over to figure out how to open it. Someone approached her but she didn't look up from feeling along the seam of the frame.

"Move," Grimm said. He found the latches and opened the window wide enough for her to slide out.

More gunfire sounded. Maddy froze. When she heard Rhodes' muttered expletive she allowed herself a small smile before placing her hands on the window frame. Grimm watched her step cautiously onto the scaffolding outside. He silently handed her the rifle he had on him—it was her own that she'd left behind in the tunnels. Nodding her thanks, she turned to move across the scaffolding which lined almost the entire side of the building.

* * * *

Son of a bitch.

These bastards know how to shoot.

Rhodes pressed himself back against the wall. Through the haze of dust and smoke, he could see the figures moving around. He counted more than the mere three that had accompanied him to the eighth floor. His team was assembled and he turned his mind back to the men he was after.

Half a dozen in the room down the hall.

Oh, he'd found them all right.

And one of their rounds had found the meaty part of his left shoulder.

Son of a bitch.

He ignored the blood soaking through his shirt and reached into a pocket to pull out a new clip for his pistol. The sounds of feet scuffling and low voices could be heard inside the room. He drew in a deep breath and counted to ten in his head.

His glimpse into the room hadn't been enough for him to get a decent look to find out if Khristian and Damien were in there. While he counted, he listened over the earpiece to find out what was going on down the hallway. He thought he heard Fly curse at Maddy and he frowned.

What was that woman up to now?

He winced as the men inside the room fired several more rounds out the doorway.

"We know you're there," a voice called.

Rhodes froze.

Is that Khristian or Damien?

"There are twelve of us in here right now." Rhodes could hear empty clips hitting the floor as the shooters reloaded. "You know you're outnumbered, right?"

Rhodes snorted and inched slightly further away from the door. He pressed a finger to his earpiece. "Find another way to cross this hall and flank the room."

He peered around the door frame and shot off another couple of rounds. One man fell to the floor. They returned gunfire and he backed away from the door.

"Fly, I'm going to need positive ID's on these guys."

Drywall exploded over his head. They were firing right through the wall now and he threw himself flat on the floor. He ended up with his head directly in the middle of the open doorway.

"Fuck!"

Half a dozen men rushed at him. Rhodes fired with one hand, while reaching for his other gun still holstered under his right arm. He ignored the pain in his left shoulder as he twisted, desperately trying to shimmy his way back out of the line of fire.

Another bullet grazed him, this time burning a trail across one forearm.

His guns clicked on empty. The men inside the room swarmed him, turning his world black.

Chapter Twenty-six

"Rhodes!" Fly yelled.

They'd all heard it: the gunfire, Rhodes' swearing and then silence, punctuated by the slamming of the office door two-thirds of the way down the hallway from where they all stood.

All but Maddy.

Grimm hurried everyone into the office Maddy had entered minutes ago. Once inside, Grimm went to the open window and leaned out. He could hear but not see Maddy as she made her way along the scaffolding.

"Maddy?" he said, pressing the tiny piece in his ear.

"Yeah?" she replied breathlessly.

"Rhodes has been taken."

"I know. I'm still at least five minutes from the office."

"Once you reach the window, stay out of sight. Wait for our signal."

"Roger that."

Grimm turned to face the others. They all looked as shocked and as absolutely pissed off as he felt. That was good.

"Fly, how many walls are between us and them?"

"Three," Fly said, tapping the little buttons on his handheld.

"Hound, can you blow big enough holes for us to get through each wall?"

"I need to test the material to find out if its cinderblocks or just drywall." Hound was ruffled, dusty and blood spattered but he wore the same expression of fury they all did. He slung his pack off his shoulders and fished out a handful of his specialized tools.

"Do it," Grimm said, jerking his head at the wall. "Maddy?"

"Yeah? Shit!"

Grimm hurried to the window. The scaffolding was wobbling and veering dangerously against the side of the building.

"Maddy, you all right?"

"I'm fine." Grimm saw a hand come into sight on the scaffolding beneath him and several feet to his left. "I sliced my hand on a piece of metal sticking out on a railing."

"How close are you now?"

"Uh, I'm one over and one down from their window, I think."

"You are, Maddy," Fly spoke up. "And there are more guys in that office than we first thought."

"How many more?" Jack asked, arranging several clips on her belt and checking the clip in her handgun.

"There were ten a minute ago but now there's...eight."

They stood in silence, savoring the fact that their boss was still kicking ass and taking names even while these people tried to contain him.

"I'm ready," Hound interrupted.

"Maddy?" Grimm said.

"I'm in place."

"When the second explosion goes off, you can move in."

"Roger," she replied.

"Hound, how strong are these charges?" Grimm asked, frowning. As much as he wanted to get through three walls and take care of business, he had no intention of getting them all blown to bits in the process.

Hound grinned and patted Grimm's hand comfortingly. "Strong enough, Grimm."

Grimm withdrew his hand and covered his face as Hound squeezed the trigger on his wristwatch.

* * * *

"Well, you certainly don't disappoint, Colossus."

"Fuck you," Rhodes spat out, sending spittle and blood in the face of the person who was leaning down before him.

"That's not very polite," the man said and stepped back.

A new set of feet came into view before one foot connected smartly with Rhodes' midsection.

Rhodes groaned and curled up even more where he lay on the floor. After another well-placed kick, he was dragged to his feet to stand weak and bloody before several men he didn't recognize.

"Are you going to cooperate now, Mr. Rhodes?" one of them spoke, the same man who'd spoken to him as he'd been lying prostrate on the floor.

Mr. Rhodes?

He shook his head at the ridiculous sound of the name and couldn't stop himself from smiling. He regretted it when a fist connected with his chin, snapping his head to one side.

"I don't like to ask the same question twice."

Rhodes swiveled his head back around and focused on the speaker's face. The man didn't seem like the leader of the group and he certainly didn't share any obvious resemblance to Janis Herring. That didn't mean he wasn't a Herring; he just might be the cousin, not the brother. Rhodes decided to take a stab at it.

"Neither do I, Damien," he said.

The man in front of him smiled and crossed his arms over his chest. He was dark-haired, like Janis had been, but where Janis' eyes had been dark and alluring, this man's eyes were a clear blue and icy cold. He was maybe an inch or two shorter than Rhodes and he didn't look like he worked out, but Rhodes had enough experience to know that underestimating someone could get you killed. The clothes Damien wore were very fine: an Armani suit tailored to perfection, although he wore it like he wasn't sure he liked it.

"I knew you were clever, Mr. Rhodes," Damien said, his lips curling up in a malicious smile.

OK, enough is enough.

Rhodes bent one knee and swung his right arm around, punching one of the men holding him square in the face. The man dropped like a stone. Rhodes twisted to his right to attack one of the men on that side but before he could land a blow, he was pushed to the floor and someone placed a heavy booted foot in the center of his back.

"Don't do that again," Damien said as he walked over and crouched down to look into Rhodes' face.

Rhodes looked up and spat a glob of blood at Damien's polished shoes. "Don't call me Mr. Rhodes."

"I thought it was Colossus of Rhodes. If we go by standard name usage, you are either Colossus or Mr. Rhodes. So which do you prefer?"

Rhodes exhaled sharply and fought down the strong desire to spit again. "I prefer you go fuck yourself."

He was rewarded with another kick to the ribcage that left him breathless for several long minutes.

"I don't really have time to teach you the manners you so obviously lack so how about we just move along here, hmm?" Damien walked over to his wooden desk.

Rhodes watched him leave and for the first time he noticed a second man, also dressed in a tailored suit, casually reclining in a stuffed armchair.

"Hello, Khristian," Rhodes managed to get out, his mind reeling as the man's face brought a slew of memories crashing down around him.

This was definitely Janis' brother. Same hair, although shorter; the same dark, alluring eyes; tall and lanky like she'd been, with the same bland expression that implied calmness while emotions seethed just beneath the surface.

"Hello, Rhodes," Khristian Herring said. He rose leisurely from his seat and crossed the room. "So kind of you to join us. I don't think we've been properly introduced."

"Go fuck yourself," Rhodes hissed.

This time instead of a kick to his ribcage there was an explosion that rocked the building and sent chunks of ceiling tile down on all of them.

"I thought they were taken care of!" Khristian yelled above the commotion and moved quickly to Damien's side at the desk.

The weight of the foot on Rhodes' back disappeared and he was yanked to his feet. Gasping in pain, he nevertheless stood up straight and faced the men who were planning to kill him.

Then something caught his eye in the window.

All around him, men rushed around the room. Gunfire reached his ears from the hallway and he couldn't stop himself from grinning.

"What the fuck are you smiling at?" one of the men holding him asked and then punched him before he could respond.

Rhodes looked at the man and smiled. As if on cue, the man's fist came up but Rhodes was ready this time. He grabbed the fist and twisted the man's arm. In that same instant another explosion caught them all by surprise, sounding much closer than the last one. The window beyond the desk shattered into a million pieces.

Then all hell broke loose.

Chapter Twenty-seven

After the first explosion, Grimm ordered Jack and Emilio to take down the men Herring sent into the hall. A few seconds later, Grimm heard the distinctive sound of gunfire. He grinned.

Meanwhile, Hound darted forward through the gaping hole he'd just created in the wall. He ran across the next room to the far wall to see if it too was made of drywall.

"There's only six left in the room now," Fly announced. "Assuming Rhodes is still alive, there are five men holding him."

"Two are the Herrings." Maddy's voice broke in through their earpieces.

"Who?" Grimm asked with a frown.

Hound worked away at the wall in front of him and was soon gesturing them back against the far wall as he set another explosive.

"The Herrings. The surviving brother and cousin of Janis Herring."

Grimm stood up straight. "Fuck."

"Who is Janis Herring?" Fly asked.

"Black Miranda," Grimm said and got the full weight of Fly's startled gaze.

"Ready," Hound announced. He ushered everyone back then twisted a dial on his watch to set off the second set of explosives.

When the dust and debris settled around them, Grimm rose and hurried through the hole, as the sound of shattering glass reached his ears.

"Maddy's broken the window." He turned to Hound who was following on his heels. "This wall now."

Hound didn't nod in compliance. He began yanking devices and grenades out of his pack. "Mother fucking cocksuckers. Fucking bullshit assholes!"

"What's wrong?"

"It's cinderblocks."

Grimm echoed his expletives and then ordered Emilio and Jack to hold their positions in the hallway. Through the wall they could hear shouting and more gunfire.

Maddy was inside the room.

"Two more are down," Fly informed them calmly.

"Shit." Grimm moved quickly when Hound shoved them both towards the far wall, setting his last explosive off.

* * * *

From Maddy's shaky vantage point she could see Rhodes in the clutches of two equally large men with semi-automatic weapons under their arms. She barely spared a glance at them. Her focus was solely on the man in the middle.

Rhodes looked awful. One eye was beginning to swell and his face was so bloody she couldn't tell where the cuts were. He was bleeding from a wound somewhere on his arm. From the way he was standing, not quite holding himself but not exactly standing upright, she guessed that his captors had been focusing their strikes on his midsection.

Probably bruised—if not cracked—ribs, Maddy thought and chewed on her lip.

In another second she heard the first explosion go off behind her and she gripped the railing of the scaffolding she knelt on. When it stopped rocking she risked another glance inside.

She froze when Rhodes' eyes met hers across the short distance.

His eyes narrowed and she felt her heart thump wildly inside her chest. He was angry and she knew it. She felt it in the marrow of her bones.

It was only the barest of moments, but she was rattled to the core. She sat back, pressing her hand to her face. That look...she didn't even know what to call it but she knew she was in even deeper trouble than she'd thought. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the armed men surrounding Rhodes.

She looked inside again.

Rhodes was smiling now but he wasn't looking at her. The man next to him said something then punched Rhodes in the jaw. Maddy just about shot out the glass in that instant but was stayed by a single motion—Rhodes' fingers forming a 'hold' gesture and his eyes meeting hers briefly again.

Then the big man on his left threw another punch, one that Rhodes caught. Maddy felt the swelling in her chest again, only this time it was pride. Then the second explosion went off and she gave in to her itchy trigger finger, firing the rifle and destroying the tall pane of glass.

As the glass shattered, she saw Rhodes grappling with the man who'd just punched him. The other two who'd been on his other side were rushing towards the gaping remains of the window. She squeezed off two rounds from the rifle and they dropped to the floor, unmoving. That's when she spotted the two men standing over the desk, neither of them armed.

The Herrings.

Drawing a deep breath, Maddy used that moment of chaos to jump from the scaffolding into the building. It was a greater distance than she'd thought and the scaffolding swung away from the building as she jumped, resulting in a bone-jarring landing just inside the window. The wind swept into the room as she stumbled to her feet and she heard Grimm call out: "The last wall is cinderblocks! Take cover!"

Maddy looked over at Rhodes. He was still on his feet, struggling with the big man who'd hit him. She dropped her rifle and drew her handgun from the small of her back. She took aim in a single motion.

"Rhodes! Get down!"

She was relieved to see him drop to his knees and cover his head with his arms. His opponent had just enough time to look up and see Maddy. His hand moved towards his holstered weapon but she was faster. She killed him with a single shot.

Then the wall beside them exploded, rocking the room and throwing Maddy to the floor, sending her pistol clattering away from her hands. Chunks of cinderblock connected with her head and back. When she reached up to touch a stinging spot just behind her left ear, she felt something sticky and moist: blood.

Someone grabbed her by the neck and jerked her to her feet. Then she felt the cold steel of a knife's blade pressed against her jugular.

* * * *

Rhodes' heart stopped dead in his chest when he looked up to see Khristian holding a knife to Maddy's throat.

Through the newly formed entryway in the wall emerged Grimm, Hound and Fly, with all their weapons aimed at the man holding Maddy. Jack and Emilio appeared through the door from the hall, with guns pointed.

Rhodes rose to his feet and his gaze flicked briefly over the bodies lying around the room. It came to rest on the unmoving body of the other fashionably dressed Herring, lying next to the desk.

"Your cousin is dead. And now you're the one who's outnumbered, Khristian."

"Go fuck yourself." Blood from a cut over his left eye ran down Khristian's forehead. In another few seconds it would impair his vision.

Sirens sounded in the distance and every TAITS member shifted their gaze to the gaping window. Khristian used that split-second to jerk Maddy towards the window.

"Where are you going, Khristian?" Rhodes asked. "Nothing there but the window and the street eight floors down."

"Don't fucking move!" Khristian yelled, twisting the knife on Maddy's neck, drawing blood this time.

Rhodes could barely see for the cloud of rage that descended over his eyes.

No more.

His eyes switched from Khristian's panicked face to the woman he held and she met his gaze fearlessly. He felt the knot in his chest tighten.

"You're not getting out of this, Khristian. Let her go and we might let you stay alive."

Khristian laughed, a sharp, harsh bark of a laugh but he didn't relent on his grip. "And what? I'll be arrested by your people and buried in some federal prison that no one knows about?" He inched closer to the window.

"What other choice do you have?"

Khristian didn't respond and Rhodes could almost see his mind working through the possibilities. Then the man smiled maliciously. "I'll go out this window and me and this bitch will both die."

Rhodes clenched his jaw. "It bothers you, doesn't it? That I killed Janis and you can't avenge her death."

A flicker of anger lit in Khristian's eyes before he locked his emotions away behind a blank expression.

"She didn't die well, Khristian." Rhodes took a step closer. "She screamed and fought back and we had to subdue her—painfully."

Khristian's facade was crumbling. Rhodes could see it in the twitch at the corner of his mouth and in the narrowing of his eyes.

"It was a bloody mess when she finally kicked it."

Khristian drew the edge of his knife across Maddy's throat. Not deep enough to puncture anything serious, but deep enough to leave a sickening trail of blood across her pale skin.

Rhodes growled low in his throat. "Let her go or I'll make sure you regret everything."

Khristian laughed again and maintained his hold on Maddy, who didn't struggle. The knife was still against her skin and she knew, as they all did, if she moved suddenly, she was dead.

"Don't tell me you care about her?" Khristian asked, grinning evilly at Rhodes.

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about," Rhodes ground out from between clenched teeth.

"You do!" Khristian howled with laughter. "You care if she dies!" His eyes narrowed and he pressed the point of the knife against a fresh, unmarred patch of skin, drawing new blood. "If you care about her as much as you cared about my sister, then you won't care how she dies, right?"

Rhodes didn't respond. His eyes had gone back to Maddy's face and what he saw there gave him the strength to do what he did next.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Rhodes lunged at Khristian.

A second later, Khristian shoved Maddy out the window and followed her as she fell to the scaffolding below. It wobbled dangerously beneath them. Khristian knew he needed to grab hold of the railing above his head to steady himself but he couldn't do it while still holding on to his captive. He let go.

Maddy screamed as she slid down between the wall and the scaffolding.

"Maddy!" Rhodes yelled.

Just then Maddy grabbed hold of the first railing her hands came in contact with. Rhodes took off after Khristian who was climbing over a railing to the next platform.

Rhodes caught Khristian by the ankle on the next section and yanked hard on his leg. The man fell to the wooden planks with a thunderous bang, rocking the scaffolding all the more. Rhodes reached out and clutched the railing, his heart in his throat. He hadn't intended to kill himself but if this scaffolding didn't hold, both he and Khristian would be swan-diving eight floors.

Khristian turned where he lay and flung the knife at Rhodes. It sank into Rhodes' thigh, right above the left knee and he grunted from the impact. He drew the knife out as Khristian rose to his feet and swung a fist at his face. It connected with a resounding crack and Rhodes' face was jerked to one side.

I'm getting really tired of being hit in the face, Rhodes thought as he blocked Khristian's next blow with his left arm.

In the next instant he brought his right hand around, the one gripping the bloody knife, and sliced at Khristian's midsection. Khristian stepped back so that the knife only grazed his clothes, slicing a thin line in his tailored shirt.

"Son of a bitch!" Khristian growled and kicked his leg out at Rhodes.

Not moving fast enough, Rhodes caught the polished shoe on his leg not far from where the knife had sunk into his flesh. He hissed in pain and grabbed hold of Khristian's out-flung leg. Rhodes yanked, pulling Khristian forward as he brought the knife down hard into Khristian's upper thigh.

Khristian howled in pain and brought his left fist down on Rhodes' face. Rhodes retaliated, dropping the leg and striking Khristian's face with his right elbow. He followed up with another punch to the head as Khristian fell to one knee, the knife still protruding from his leg. At that level, Rhodes drew his own knee back and brought it up swiftly, catching Khristian's jaw and snapping the other man's head back ferociously.

Khristian fell flat on his back on the platform with another loud boom and again the scaffolding shook ominously. Rhodes approached the fallen man cautiously, gripping the hand rail to his left. Already Khristian was trying to get up and Rhodes blew his breath out in frustration.

"Don't you ever give up?"

"Never," Khristian hissed and coughed, spraying out blood.

"How dramatic. You must be pissed that you've come all this way and you still couldn't kill me. You've sent...how many men after me? Twenty? Thirty? You honestly think your sister was worth all that effort?"

"Fuck you." Khristian kicked his leg out, aiming for Rhodes' back.

Rhodes sensed the move and spun, blocking the leg forcefully. He whirled back around to throw his fist at Khristian's face, spraying more blood across the wood underneath him.

"You don't know what Janis was worth," Khristian managed to get out after he recovered his senses. "You just used her to make a name for yourself."

Rhodes laughed. "Is that what you think?"

"It's the truth!" Khristian snapped and turned his head to spit more blood to the side.

"You don't know fuck all about the truth, Khristian." Rhodes crouched down at the man's side and took hold of his shirt collar. "Your sister used me. She used her body to get what she wanted out of me and then she tried to kill me."

Khristian met his gaze and Rhodes stared hard into the dark eyes before him. Janis looked back out at him. Her brother wore the same expression on his face that she had right before she'd stabbed him. Rhodes blinked and drew back, letting Khristian's head fall to the wooden planks with a dull thud.

As he turned around, he caught sight of Maddy at the edge of the scaffolding. She looked bloody, scraped and bruised. And ticked off.

Rhodes grinned at her and thought he might never stop grinning again.

Then he heard the unmistakable click of a gun behind him and his grin disappeared.

* * * *

After halting her rapid descent out the window, Maddy gave herself a second to catch her breath. Then she looked up and saw Rhodes jump out the window after Khristian. Another second passed and several other faces peered out from the window.

"Maddy!" Grimm called and turned around, ordering someone to find rope or something they could use to pull her up.

"I'm fine," she said through their connection. "Just give me a minute."

Carefully she began to draw herself up the side of the scaffolding. It was made increasingly difficult by the struggle that was taking place above. She pulled herself up, hand over hand until she could see over the eighth floor planks.

Grimm and Hound helped her climb inside the window.

"Gun," she said simply and a pistol was placed in her hand. Turning, she slid cautiously back on to the scaffolding, careful not to disturb the structure and notify the men of her presence. Then she watched. And what a sight to see.

She'd always known that Rhodes was an amazing fighter; she saw the evidence every day in everything that he did. But seeing him in the midst of a real hand-to-hand battle was almost poetic.

Then Khristian was lying flat on his back and Rhodes was leaning over him. They spoke to each other and Maddy couldn't make out the words as the wind blew all around them, swaying the scaffolding gently and flinging her ponytail in her eyes again. She pulled the offending strands out of her face and saw Rhodes turned towards her. She felt a swelling of emotion inside her that only intensified as Rhodes' face split into the most amazing grin. She almost smiled back.

She would have. She was going to.

Except she caught the movement behind Rhodes as he stepped towards her. She lifted her gun. He seemed to realize at the same moment she did. His grin faded and his body shifted to move even as he realized there was nowhere to go.

Maddy's field of vision narrowed instantly. She didn't see Rhodes, didn't see the building to her right. She saw the man on the wooden platform with the gun in his hand pointing at Rhodes' back.

She became very aware of the metal beneath her own fingertips and without another thought, she squeezed the trigger; once, twice, three times. She watched in absent fascination as three blooming red spots appeared on Khristian Herring's chest. She remained in her position for an uncertain amount of time: her arm outstretched, her gaze focused on the motionless form at the far end of the scaffolding.

"You shot me," Rhodes said.

Maddy dragged her gaze from Khristian's lifeless body over to her boss.

Rhodes was crouched against the building, blood seeping from his many wounds.

"I did not," she said.

"You did, too." He shifted so she could see the rip in his right pant leg and the thin line of blood underneath. "It stings."

Maddy rolled her eyes and began to edge back towards the open window where everyone was waiting with relieved expressions. A hand on her shoulder stopped her and before she turned around, she saw Grimm hustle everyone away from the window. She couldn't do anything about the blush creeping up her cheeks and she lowered her lashes as Rhodes turned her around to face him.

"Thank you," he whispered, drawing her close and enfolding her in his strong embrace.

"For shooting you?" she asked, her voice muffled against his chest. She was rewarded by the lovely rumble of his laughter as it rose inside him.

"No," he answered and she felt his lips move across her forehead.

The sensation of his lips on her skin did all sorts of wonderful and unexpected things to her, even in their current circumstances. She forced her gaze up until she met his eyes.

"Then what?" she asked breathlessly.

He was smiling and it was a real smile. His eyes shone at her and his face was creased in a hundred different places by dirt and blood and laugh lines. She thought he'd never looked so beautiful. She began to shake and he held her tighter, his big arms closing around her and pressing her face against him again. It was only when she moved her face and felt the dampness on his shirt that she realized she was crying. Gasping, she drew back and touched her cheek.

"Why are you crying?" he whispered and touched her hand where it rested on her face.

She shook her head and opened her mouth to reply but a sob slipped out instead.

"Oh, Maddy." He pulled her close again and pressed his cheek to her hair. "It's OK. I'm here. I'm right here."

After a few minutes, Maddy regained enough of her senses to speak and she turned her head sideways against his chest. "I thought...I didn't....I didn't know what was going to happen."

Rhodes exhaled, his breath tickling the little hairs over her forehead. "Neither did I."

Tipping her head back so she could look at him properly, Maddy saw the smile on his face in spite of his words and couldn't help but smile in response. He watched it spread across her face and leaned down to kiss her. It was a tender kiss, slow and hot, his tongue barely brushing against hers before withdrawing again. She sighed against his lips and tightened her hold on him, wanting more. He drew back to kiss her on the cheeks and she realized this wasn't the best time or place for this.

As if to confirm her instincts, she heard sirens grow louder. They looked down at the street below, both silently calculating how long it would take before the locals showed up at the front door.

"Uh, Rhodes?" Grimm called tentatively from the window behind Maddy.

He turned his grin on Maddy again before looking over her head at his long-time companion. "Yeah?"

"Cricket is waiting on the west side for us. Fly says the locals are less than five minutes out."

"We should go," Maddy murmured.

He caught her lips for another hot kiss before rising carefully to his feet. Reaching down, he helped Maddy up and handed her through the window to Grimm before climbing through himself. Then together, as a team, they made their way swiftly through the building and out to the waiting van.

Chapter Twenty-nine

The glaring lights of the doctor's office bothered Rhodes. He squinted accusingly at the ceiling light for what felt like the hundredth time since Emilio had driven him to Doc's family practice on the west side of the city.

The doctor, by day a mild-mannered, general practitioner, was hired on a case-by-case basis with TAITS to take care of almost any injury. They all called him Doc out of courtesy for his privacy but Rhodes knew who he really was and he didn't want to face a hospital emergency room at the moment. So he'd called ahead to the Doc's emergency phone line and asked to meet at his clinic. Only Emilio and Maddy had come in the van with him, so he'd felt relatively sure that Doc wouldn't be too pissed about meeting him at his public clinic, on a Sunday.

However, after submitting to a less than gentle examination, Rhodes realized he'd misjudged the Doc's acceptance of the Sunday morning call.

After what felt like hours of torture, Rhodes had nearly convinced himself that dying on that building scaffolding might have been better than treatment at Doc's hands. Doc had stitched his larger cuts, cleaned and stitched up the bullet wound in his shoulder and cleaned every other open wound. He was now working on the ribs.

"I don't think they're cracked," he said as he gently probed Rhodes' side. "But definitely bruised. I can't know without an x-ray, which I know you won't submit to." He leveled a narrow look at Rhodes. "You'll need to take it easy for several weeks, Rhodes."

"As if we can make him." Maddy spoke up from her seat beside the exam table.

Doc glanced at the woman with a grin while Rhodes glared at her. She ignored his narrowed gaze and smiled back at Doc, infuriating Rhodes.

"You can get up now, Rhodes." Doc stepped away as he removed his latex gloves and disposed of all the used supplies.

"Any orders, Doc?" Maddy stood and watched as Rhodes slid off the exam bed.

"Well, the obvious," Doc replied with a smirk and began to tick the points off on his fingers. "No gun fights, no fist fights, no running, jumping, stretching, or strenuous physical activity of any kind."

Maddy rolled her eyes and smirked in Rhodes' direction. He didn't meet her knowing look, reaching out to shake the doctor's hand instead.

"Thanks again, Doc."

Maddy walked out behind Rhodes, pausing to shake the doctor's hand as well. "We'll give you a call in the next couple weeks to check him out again."

"Sounds good, Maddy. You take care."

Rhodes was already halfway down the hallway to the exit when Maddy caught up with him.

"You could be a little less obvious next time," he commented as they reached the glass doors leading to the parking lot. Rhodes blinked and squinted against the bright sunlight as they walked outside.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't give me that! You know damn well what I'm talking about. You might as well have worn a sandwich board announcing our involvement to Doc."

She shrugged and moved to walk towards the waiting van. "Doc doesn't care about that and even if he did, he'd never say anything to the others. Doctor-patient confidentiality and all that."

"I guess it doesn't matter," Rhodes grumbled and reached for her to stop her from walking away. "There's no way we can keep anything a secret around the others." He brushed his lips across her forehead, his mouth tickled by the hairs that had come loose from her ponytail.

She laughed, the sound muffled against his chest. "Good point."

"Are you two coming or am I going to have to throw cold water on you?" Emilio called from where he sat behind the wheel of the van. He honked the horn for emphasis.

Rhodes looked over and made a rude hand gesture.

Emilio laughed.

"That didn't take long," Maddy said with a grin as Rhodes released her and they walked over to the van.

"Nope."

Rhodes slid the side door of the van open, gesturing for Maddy to get in.

"Uh, don't you think you should have the extra room in the back?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at him and doing her best impression of an innocent woman.

Rhodes laughed. "Yeah, right. I'm riding shotgun."

"I think you should let me ride up front and you can sit here."

"In case you've forgotten, Maddy Fax, I'm the man in charge here and you still work for me."

"That doesn't mean you should be the one to ride in the front seat." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Don't make me throw you—"

"Oh, for the love of God!" Emilio shouted. "Both of you get in the back and let's go!"

Rhodes' eyes met Maddy's and they nodded in agreement, climbing into the middle row behind Emilio and sliding the door shut.

"Do you need help?" Maddy asked after a moment when she noticed Rhodes struggling to pull the seatbelt across his body.

He looked up to see her smiling at him and he couldn't help but smile back, nodding and leaning out of the way so she could reach across him to secure his seatbelt. As she moved, she let her hands trail across his groin and he stifled a groan, giving her what he hoped was a dirty look. She covered a laugh with her free hand, keeping her other hand on his body, sliding up and down his thigh, barely grazing his rapidly growing erection.

After a minute of struggling to hide the fact that he was growing increasingly aroused, Rhodes sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, allowing his head to fall back against the head rest. The music drifting out of the radio suddenly increased in volume and Emilio began to whistle along with the song.

Emilio doesn't whistle.

He doesn't listen to the radio either.

"What are you smiling at?" Maddy asked, her voice barely a whisper. She was leaning against him, still stroking her hand along the growing shaft under his clothes, her lips against his ear. The sound of her voice sent shivers running through Rhodes' body and he shifted again, pushing himself further into her hand.

"Nothing," he murmured.

"Do you want me to stop?" Her hand stilled on his body.

His eyes flew open and he lowered his hand to hers.

"I'll take that as a no," she whispered, pressing a kiss to his neck.

The drive back to the compound was blissfully fast. Soon they were passing under the shady trees lining the driveway and rolling into the garage. Emilio leapt out of the van immediately after turning off the engine, saying something over his shoulder about wanting to get something to eat. Meanwhile, the garage door was sliding down in front of them and Maddy's hand was working the zipper of his pants down.

He allowed her to, relaxing as she lifted his shirt over his head, careful not to disturb his bruised torso. She kissed his neck, sucked on his earlobe and ran one hand across his shoulders, still working his groin with the other hand.

"Does this hurt?" she asked breathlessly, lifting her head to look at him.

"Not at all," he replied and then bit back a curse when she slid her hand inside his pants to cup him through his underwear.

"Oh," she breathed, her lips against his collarbone. "Did that hurt?"

"Nope." He lifted his arms to hold her close as his lips moved against her hair. He brought his hand up and loosened her hair from the ponytail, inhaling deeply as the locks tumbled over her shoulders. Then he moved on to her shirt, sliding a hand down her back and lifting the hem, desperate to touch her skin.

"Easy, Rhodes. You shouldn't be moving unnecessarily."

"How the hell am I supposed to get you naked then?"

She laughed and shifted away from him, her warm hand abandoning his erection. "You just have to ask."

Studying her face and the shadows as they slid across her features while she moved beside him, Rhodes wondered what he'd ever done to get so lucky. Reaching up, he cupped her cheek with one hand and drew her close for a kiss, teasing her lips with his tongue before plunging inside her mouth, tasting and savoring every bit of her that he could reach.

"Please, Maddy," he whispered, moving his lips across her cheek to her ear where he drew one sensitive earlobe between his teeth. "Please undress for me so I can touch and taste every inch of you."

She sighed and pressed her hands against his bare chest to set herself upright. She reached down and pulled her shirt off over her head, revealing a sexy satin bra. When he brought one hand up to touch her, she slapped it away gently and he stuck his lower lip out at her, eliciting another delightful laugh.

"I thought I was supposed to be treated gently?"

"Do you want to be?"

Without waiting for him to answer, she opened her jeans and pushed the zipper down, revealing a matching pair of satin panties. Swallowing hard, Rhodes watched as she stood awkwardly to slide the jeans down over her hips.

"Can I touch you now?" he asked, his voice thick with want of her.

She bit her lip and nodded. He fought back another groan, knowing without full light that she was blushing that amazing shade of pink again. He lifted his hands and brushed his fingers across her waist, drawing her down on to his lap. She straddled his legs and looped her arms around his neck as he kissed her throat.

"I think we should go away somewhere," she told him after a breathless minute.

Pausing in his exploration of her satin covered breasts, he looked up at her. "Go away where?"

She shrugged, the motion jostling her breasts against him. Grinning, he leaned forward and licked her skin just above the fabric, raising goosebumps on her. With another sigh, she shifted against him, the heat between her legs settling awfully close to the rigidness between his.

"Where would you like to take me?" she asked.

Chuckling, Rhodes lifted his head and relaxed back against the seat. "Where would I like to take you? You are something else, Maddy."

She smiled at him and moved one hand from his neck, trailing one fingertip over his chest and across his abdomen. "Isn't that what you love about me?" Her hand travelled lower, sliding between his legs.

"Mm," he murmured, his eyes narrowing as he watched her.

She met his gaze directly and Rhodes got the sudden distinct impression that she wanted to hear more than just a single word answer to that. Lifting a hand, he ran his fingers across her shoulder, sliding a bra strap down and following it with hot kisses.

"I love this shoulder," he whispered and moved to her other side. "And I love this one."

A breathless laugh escaped her but her hand didn't stop moving against him.

"And I love these," he said as he cupped her breasts, his thumb circling her nipples where they strained against the satin fabric of her bra "almost as much as I love these." He lifted his head to kiss her lingeringly on the lips.

"Is that all?"

He shook his head as he put his arms around her, seeking the clasp to her bra. "I love your soft skin," he went on, kissing her neck as he worked the mechanism keeping her naked form concealed from him. "And how you smell so...delicious every day."

Maddy shifted as the bra fell loose on her arms. She sat back and allowed him to run his hands appreciatively over her breasts. Then she pulled his pants and underwear off in one smooth move.

Rhodes hooked his fingers around the elastic of her panties. "I love that you wear such sexy underwear." The heat in his gaze brought the color to her cheeks yet again. "And I love that you are letting me take it off you right now."

"What else?" she asked after she had stepped out of the satin panties and settled onto his lap again, her legs on either side of him.

Instead of replying, he drew her face close to his, kissing her while running his hands up and down her sides. He clasped her beautiful round ass, tickled her sides briefly and clutched her shoulders to keep from drowning in the kiss she returned to him.

Her tongue licked along his lips before probing deeper, a move that he met eagerly. They clung to each other as they kissed, breath mingling and bodies pressed tight. He had never thought mere kissing could be so incredible but with Maddy surrounding him and filling every one of his senses, he was rapidly changing many long-held opinions.

With a moan, Maddy pushed a hand between them to take hold of his straining member. He groaned, pulling his lips away from hers to suck in a deep lungful of air.

"Did I hurt you?" Maddy asked.

"No, love. I've never felt better."

Maddy lifted herself and fitted him inside of her in a single, heated move. He slid all the way in, gasping when she settled herself against him.

His ribs didn't hurt anymore. Nor did the multiple stitched up wounds.

How could he be in pain when Maddy was moving against him, rising up and sliding down in such agonizingly slow gyrations that he was struggling just to keep himself together?

"Oh God, Maddy," he breathed, his eyelids fluttering closed as he grasped her hips, pulling her against him.

She sighed and moved again, driving him practically to the edge of madness with every breath. Leaning down, she kissed his closed eyelids before trailing kisses across his face. He stopped her, sinking his hands into her hair as he thrust up into her, and drawing her down for his kiss.

"Rhodes," she moaned his name against his lips, her mouth open and inviting him to ravage her. So he did, kissing her, allowing her tongue to brush against his before withdrawing to tease her into a helpless, whimpering mess on his lap. Then he returned, pressing his tongue against hers, his lips gliding over hers, his hands drawing her closer and pushing him deeper.

They were moving together now, pushing and thrusting as one, breathing hard and whispering nonsense in the steamy interior. Maddy was moving faster on top of him and he returned his hands to her waist, guiding her and struggling to hold off, just for a little while longer.

"Rhodes..."

She arched back, her body tightening around him as she gasped for breath. He held on to her, moving within her, kissing her bared throat and leaving hot, wet trails all over the naked skin she offered to him. When his lips closed on one erect nipple, she jerked against him, still trembling through her orgasm. Pushing into her, sucking on one nipple, Rhodes began to slip towards his own.

"Rhodes." Her body curled back around him, her arms circled his shoulders and her legs flexed amazingly next to his.

"God, Maddy," he whispered, raising his head and kissing the underside of her chin. "Did I mention that I love it when you come around me?"

She shook her head and continued to move against him.

"And I love what you're doing right now."

"Rhodes," she murmured, her tongue swirling around his ear. "Let go."

He shook his head, refusing to. It felt so good, being here with her soaking wet around him, her body lush and warm against his. If he let go, it would be over.

"Let go," she repeated, her voice gentle and filled with emotion. "I'm not going anywhere."

With that, Rhodes felt himself tip over the edge. He bucked underneath her, moaning as he came inside of her. She clung to him, pressing her face to his neck and riding him as he rode the incredible waves of his orgasm.

Then they sat still for several long minutes, her body draped over his. Gradually their breathing returned to normal.

"Greece," Rhodes said breaking the silence at last, his voice groggy with fatigue.

"Greece?"

Rhodes grinned and nodded as he slid his hand up her back and hugged her close. "That's where I want to take you."

"It's a long way," she said, her voice hesitant. "And probably expensive..."

Rhodes silenced her with a kiss, deep and thorough. When he settled back against the seat he touched her cheek, his thumb tracing the flush as it crept across her face.

"Greece," she conceded breathlessly and settled against his chest.

"Uh, I can make all the arrangements if you guys want to come in and pack your bags," a crackly voice broke into their embrace.

Maddy was startled almost out of her skin. "Cricket?!" She slapped a hand to her forehead when she realized she hadn't removed her earpiece following the doctor's visit.

"Yes, ma'am," Cricket said. "Don't worry. I don't think anyone else still has their piece in."

"Small comfort," Maddy muttered.

"I meant to take mine out but something very interesting caught my attention," a male voice came over the connection.

"Grimm?" Maddy squeaked and at that, Rhodes burst out laughing.

"Grimm! Get off!" Cricket cried.

Grimm responded with a hearty laugh. "I already have, darlin'."

Maddy shook her head and buried her face against Rhodes' chest, joining in his laughter a minute later.
Chapter Thirty

Three weeks later - SANTORINI, GREECE

The mid-morning sunshine was filling their hotel room with heat, making Maddy think about hitting the pool very soon. Not too soon, however. She was relaxed and quite content to lie where she was and perhaps sleep another hour.

"So how did you and your brother come to be raised in Greece?" Rhodes asked as he leisurely stretched in bed next to Maddy.

"Hm?" She kept her eyes closed, hoping that maybe if she ignored him, he'd let her keep sleeping.

"You and Lukas?"

The bed creaked and bounced beneath her as Rhodes flopped on to his side to look into her face.

Rhodes kissed her temple and brushed some hair off her face. "Come on, fill me in."

With a heavy sigh, Maddy shifted so that she could look into his face. "Lukas' mother was Greek. She met our father when he traveled here for work."

"Where was your father from?"

"Ireland," Maddy said, resting her head on his outstretched arm, running her fingertip along the curve of one impressive bicep. "My father loved her so he moved here permanently. Lukas was born and then his mother died of cancer not long after. Our father moved the two of them back to Ireland, where he met my mother."

"What were your parents' names?"

She raised her eyebrows at him and he grinned.

"You can trust me," he assured her, giving her hip a possessive squeeze.

"Galen and Moira."

"How did you end up back in Greece?"

"My mother had always wanted to come here, so my father took us all on vacation one year. Well, she loved it so much that she insisted we move here." She paused as the memories washed over her. "I think she knew on some level that my father still had an attachment to this place because of his first wife. She wanted to do something to help with that."

"Your mother sounds like a very understanding person." Rhodes ran his hand from her hip to her ribs and back down again.

"She is," Maddy said with a smile. "But my dad's work eventually brought him to Canada and that's where I've been for ten years now."

"You prefer Canada to all others, right?" he asked with a sly grin.

She laughed and nodded. "Of course. That's where all the hot doctors live!" Then she shrieked as his fingers closed on her sides, tickling her breathless. After a brief struggle, they ended up with Maddy's back to Rhodes' chest. She lovingly traced patterns on his arms as he held her close.

"Can I ask you something else about your brother?"

"Sure."

"When he was leaving the compound, he said you were even now. What did he mean by that?"

"He blames himself for what happened to me," Maddy replied after a moment's hesitation. This wasn't an issue she wanted to revisit but she couldn't keep anything from Rhodes anymore.

"Why?"

"The guy who did it was his friend. He blames himself for introducing us."

"How was he supposed to know?"

Maddy shrugged, agreeing but also knowing it was a futile argument, one she'd had many times with her half-brother in the years following the incident, continuing right up until the day she left to join TAITS.

"Can I ask you something else?"

Maddy laughed and reached back to poke him in the stomach. "You're certainly full of questions this morning, aren't you?"

Not responding, Rhodes just pulled her tighter against him. He kissed her bare neck, a spot he knew turned her to jelly.

"All right, last question though," she conceded reluctantly.

"What's your real name?"

"What's yours?"

He laughed and squeezed her. "You first. I already heard Lukas start to call you something but I want to hear it from you."

Blowing out a noisy breath, Maddy rolled her eyes and twisted in his arms so they were lying face to face. "Promise you won't laugh?"

"Only if you promise not to laugh when I tell you mine."

She nodded in agreement. "Lelianna."

He blinked and a sexy smile spread across his face. "That's a beautiful name. I wish I could use it all the time."

Laughing, Maddy shoved him in the shoulder but he held fast to her. "Now you. Fess up."

"You promised, remember?"

She nodded and held her breath. She imagined that his name was something strong sounding, like Alexander or Arthur, reminiscent of ancient rulers.

"Finn."

She blinked, taken aback for a second. "Finn?"

He nodded gravely as he watched her.

"Finn," she said again, testing the name and smiling at last. "I like Finn."

"I like Lelianna."

They grinned at each other, not moving for a long while.

"I take it back."

Her grin faded and she eyed him warily. "What do you mean?"

His expression didn't change, except for his eyes. They darkened, his pupils growing wide as his hold on her grew tighter. "I don't like Lelianna."

Maddy lifted her eyebrows, curious.

"I love Lelianna."

Her breath caught in her throat and instant tears sprang to her eyes. She blinked to keep them back but Rhodes' gaze was so intent, so open and honest that she couldn't stop them. The tears dropped over her cheeks and she buried her face in the crook of his neck.

After a long moment, she lifted her head and kissed him, her tears flavoring the kiss with the tang of salt. "I love you, too."

He rolled her under him and took the kiss deeper, sweeping them both away.
Epilogue

Report from TAITS Field Team to HQ:

Successful in returning stolen merchandise to proper owners following mission Friday, the 28th of September, covered in depth under report A1-305-7OC. Local authorities have discounted any TAITS involvement and TAITS cover remains intact.

However, upon investigating the aforementioned incident, uncovered illegal criminal activity in downtown vicinity. Two men, confirmed identities Damien and Khristian Herring, first cousin and brother, respectively, to Janis Herring A.K.A. Black Miranda.

TAITS southeast office destroyed. Severe damage also done to alternative inner-city safe house. Damage confirmed to have been initiated by the Herrings.

TAITS was successful in tracing and locating the two perpetrators but in the course of apprehension, both were killed, along with thirty other accomplices. All have been claimed and identified by the local authorities.

In the course of this investigation it has become apparent that an internal leak exists. Recommend that one to two team members go undercover to look into the situation.

Pending further investigation into this matter, this will be the last report filed by the TAITS Field Team.

