Page 10 of Redeeming Meg

He allowed her to embrace him while all his senses stayed tuned to Meg. Had she recruited Tessa for this mission? “Imagine meeting you here.”

“I know.” She stepped back, a cunning grin on her face. “Strange bedfellows and all that, right?”

“Enough chatter,” Meg said. “We need to move.”

No acknowledgment of him, then. That’s how she wanted to play it.

Fine, but he wasn’t going down without a fight. “Glad to have you,” he said to Tessa. To Meg, he said, “Thought you were still retired.”

Meg’s gaze flicked to him, away. “I am.”

Tessa and Spence exchanged a glance.

Mini Van Damme punched the air in front of him. “Pay up, mister.”

Declan did.

After the boy scampered off, Tessa drew out a folded map. She pressed it out on top of one of the enormous pipes, the noise louder here from the moving water inside. Steam hovered down the way, rising from grates in the floor.

“These tunnels run close to the old embassy.” She pointed. “We’ll follow this one there. “Another tap. “A second will lead us away from the old place and into the new, where I built in a back door.”

“Surveillance?” Spence asked.

“Of course,” she told them. “Here and here, but we can handle it.”

Spence dug in his backpack, bringing out a series of electronics. Each of them received an earbud with a mic and cameras the size of a button to attach to their clothing. Meg waved his offering off. “I’ve got mine already.”

Spence got in her face, studying her eyes. “You got a pair of Eagle Eyes, didn’t you? Where’s my pair?”

“There was only one in my kit,” she told him.

“Show me all entrances and exits,” Declan ordered Tessa.

She did, and he committed them to memory, using her map to create his own virtual version. His memory had always been one of his skills.

The last embassy he’d been in was similar in some ways, but each had its own distinct floor plan. “Let’s go over tactical requirements for the various scenarios: best case, worse case, holy shit case.”

“I’m going in alone,” Meg said.

Declan scoffed. “The hell you are.”

She pointed to the map and drew an X with her finger. “Spence and Tessa will stay outside the building here to monitor the riot and feed me intel. We need to get Tessa a rifle with a scope so she can be our eyes in the sky while Spence tracks me inside via his phone. You station yourself here.” Another X. “If I need help, I’ll message you.”

Fat chance. He stuck an earbud in and secured the camera on his coat lapel. “We’re a goddamn team, Meg. If Flynn wanted you to do this alone, he wouldn’t have sent for me and Spence. Grab your gear.” He started walking, his insides boiling. Of course, she would try to cut him out of this mission.

She could blame him all she wanted for the past, but he was still a swan and her second in command. “Let’s get this over with.”

FIVE

If only the Eagle Eye contacts had a “looks could kill” setting. Shoot laser beams. At the very least, freeze assholes who refused to follow orders.

The gadgets of comic books.

She glared at Dec’s back as he marched away, shadows swallowing him up. He was a shadow. A goddamn spook in the most literal way.

This was why she’d wanted to get in and out before he and Spence had arrived, but she and Tessa had gotten waylaid by Bruce Lee—the man who ran the underground tunnels like his own personal sovereign state. Nobody went anywhere down here without him knowing about it.

Plus, Tessa had gotten pissy and forced Meg to message Dec with their location. Meg needed Tessa and her blueprints, and letting her down wasn’t an option. She had to play nice with Dec.

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