Page 2 of Cross Point

Lost in the foster care system, she had fallen into the wrong crowd until her life changed at thirteen when she tried to steal a car belonging to Homeland Security agent Ben Cross. Ben and his wife, Veronica, had taken one look at the bruised and battered young girl and welcomed her into their home.

From that day on, her life had changed drastically.

Following in her father’s footsteps, Trinity joined Homeland Security after graduating from college early, becoming one of their youngest agents. Although she had specialized in cybercrimes, she had also qualified for sharpshooter status, making her a viable asset to any operation. The problem was that Trinity had never really grown out of her rebellious nature or her disregard for authority, especially when she knew she was right.

Despite her numerous accolades, she’d also held one of the highest number of reprimands in the agency. Equally proud of both, when the chance to work for IAD came along, she jumped at the chance.

And Trinity had never regretted her decision.

Even after the last clusterfuck she’d been through, she still enjoyed every second of being an IAD agent. That said, Trinity had just come off a pretty nasty mission that left her battle-scarred and, in her opinion, slightly mind-fucked, which was not conducive to being a field agent. Taking herself out of the game was killing her, but she would never put her fellow agents and friends at risk.

Until she got her mind right, Trinity had no choice but to bench herself.

However, that was turning out to be a problem since no one was listening to her.

She silently cursed as her interest was piqued, just like her friend knew it would be. Damn her. An interesting case always got her revved, and this was no exception. Still, she knew she shouldn’t involve herself in any IAD missions until she had fully recovered.

“You know, I haven’t even officially been on leave for a full month yet, and you’re already trying to drag me back on active duty.” She paused, then said, “I was even considering retirement.”

Tara laughed so loud that Trinity had to hold the phone away from her ear.

“Bullshit, Trinity. You know you can never really retire from IAD…unless you retire from living. It’s like Hotel California. You clock in, not out. You never stop being an agent until you’re six feet under.”

Damn her again, Tara was right.

“Anyways, you’ve been doing nothing but sitting on your fabulous ass for weeks now,” Tara said. “I thought you could use something to do.”

Trinity hadn’t been sitting around for shits and giggles. She’d been on medical leave recovering from a grueling mission. She had gone undercover in Mexico to help take down a particularly nasty ring of Coyotes, traffickers who took money to help people sneak across the border into the US.

This particular group had a tendency to use those who came to them for help as drug mules. They also ended up extorting more money from them to gain their freedom once they were on American soil. For the pretty young men and women, the outcome was even worse. After they were taken across the border, they were forced into sexual slavery or sold to the highest bidder.

Trinity had positioned herself with a group asking to be taken across the border, as IAD had been trying to track down who the buyers and contacts were on the US side. She had been tagged with a tracking device that had been affixed to her skin and was untraceable to most sensors. The mission had seemed simple enough. She just hadn’t planned on four of the assholes running the smuggling ring to join her in the back of the truck, wanting a taste of her and the other young woman in the group during the trip over.

That had been a serious miscalculation on her part.

With her hands tied behind her back and using nothing but her bare feet, Trinity had stopped the men, earning a couple stab wounds to the side and a bullet graze on her thigh for her trouble. She had also been beaten to shit by the time the truck had arrived at the drop point, but what had done the most damage to her psyche had been being locked in the back of the truck with four dead bodies in the heat and the dark.

The doctor monitoring her recovery had been able to help heal her physical wounds with the aid of an experimental drug, but her mind was a whole different story. Her brain was a minefield that she was told would take time to heal.

Personally, she thought she was fucked.

What the hell kind of agent could she be if she freaked out in the dark?

Unwilling to put her friends at risk, she’d put herself on an extended sabbatical from the agency, only to find that it really was impossible to leave completely. She sighed again and knew, without a doubt, that this was going to be a mistake.

“What do you need me to do?”

Trinity could practically hear her friend’s grin as Tara responded. “Julian’s family is working on an expansion project on an island off the coast of Florida. Seriously, I’d never even heard of the place before he told me about it. They’re expanding the Palace Resort and Spa there, but things have gone FUBAR, and no one can figure out what’s going on. We were going to fly down, but I got called in to help the guys from the LA office and can’t now.”

Damn it.

Julian King was Tara’s fiancé, and Trinity really liked him. He’d basically become a part of the IAD family, and everyone knew that Trinity would do anything for family.

“Give me the basics.”

“The resort is located on an island that caters to the wealthy and elite. It’s one of their most lucrative properties in the US, and they recently bought the land next to the hotel for their expansion project. The problem is that nothing seems to be going according to plan. There have been delays and other problems, especially with the finances of the project.”

“Can’t Julian have one of his minions go down there and bash some heads together?”

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