Page 2 of Out of the Shadows

Bean’s eyebrows rose in surprise. She’d worked closely with Gavin for just over eight years. The man was the epitome of calm. Missions could get completely screwed up,but he always remained steady. Intense as hell, but steady. It was because she’d worked closely with him for so many years that she heard the tension and fury in his words now. Andthatwas unlike him.

The package had been their mission. The rest of it—the red tape and legalities—were the responsibility of the various agencies they worked with. Gavin was a strong proponent of need-to-know. Of all the intel Hudson Security gathered—and there was always alotof damning information—only the necessary items were shared. But Bean also knew that this package, this mission had hit her boss harder than usual. “Copy, Alpha One. Comms will remain open until you dock.”

Two hours later, Bean dumped her headset onto her desk and stretched. Her lower back protested each and every movement. After a loud groan, she took a swig of her energy drink and wrinkled her nose. She looked longingly at the opposite side of her living area, knowing that her bed was just down the short hallway from her home office setup. She was closing in on forty hours awake—the three catnaps she’d snuck in were long forgotten—and knew she was about to crash. Hard. She was familiar with the signs: trembling hands, jittery vision, and the damn brain fog. But it didn’t matter, because they’d completed the mission.

The package was safe.

No.

As much as she tried to distance herself, after the last couple of hours, she no longer could. Her stomach rolled. The “package” was a three-year-old little boy. Thankfully, he was safe and had been reunited with his family. But he’d incurred substantial injuries that made her vomit. Literally.

The Hudson Security members of the Alpha and Bravo teams were on their way back home to Hudson Island viahelicopter. They were forty minutes out. They generally did a debrief immediately post-mission, but the way her insides were shaking, she wasn’t sure she’d make it.

Just a couple more hours, dammit.Cringing, she chugged the remainder of her energy drink as her computer dinged an incoming video call.

Stifling a groan, she accepted the call. “What’s up, MacKay?”

Oliver MacKay, boss number two and Hudson Security’s second-in-command, was based in London.

“Hello, B— Whoa. You look like hell.”

She glared at him. “You want to try that again, MacKay?” She tried to put effort into always looking professional, but she’d been awake for way too long, not only because of the mission that had just wrapped, but also because of a bunch of research crap she’d done for MacKay. So he could shove it.

“Shit. Sorry. No. I meant, um, I’m just not used to seeing you all...” He waved his hand at the screen.

She rolled her eyes. Yeah, her hair was piled on top of her head, and instead of her usual blouse-and-blazer combo, she was wearing a ratty, oversized sweatshirt. Still, she leveled her best glare at him.

“Sorry, B. You look fine. Tired but fine.”

Shaking her head, she held up her hand. “Stop talking, MacKay. Seriously.”

“Yeah. Sorry, again.”

“What’s up?”

He cleared his throat. “How’d the mission go?”

“Good. We’ll be debriefing in about forty-five. You want me to patch you in?”

“Please. But that’s not why I’m calling.”

“Oh, goody.”

One of his dark-brown eyebrows arched, and she bit back a curse.

“Sorry. I wasn’t supposed to say that part out loud,” she muttered, flashing him a toothy grin. “As you so eloquently mentioned, I’m tired.”

“We’re even, then.”

“Not even close, MacKay.” Letting out a sigh, she leaned back in her chair. “What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to thank you again for recommending Tiny. Do you think he’d be interested in joining full-time? Better yet, would you trust him to join the fold?”

Bean frowned. Alexi “Tiny” Kirilov stood at a whopping six-eight and looked more like a gym bro than a freelance hacker. She’d worked with him numerous times before she’d joined Hudson Security, and she’d occasionally pulled him in on an as-needed basis—more so over the last year as her workload had increased tenfold. He was a talented hacker, though she was better. But did shetrust himtrust him?

“I take it by your silence that the answer is no.” MacKay’s British accent sounded extra snooty.

“I wouldn’t exactly say that,” she hedged.

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