Page 15 of Over the Edge

“Umm, about that—”

Her grandmother cut her off. Or maybe the connection was just bad. “I’ll see you in a few days, Anna.”

She set down the receiver and glanced up in time to catch Trevor studying her intently. He looked away hastily. What must he think of her, throwing herself at his mission like this? He must be convinced she was some kind of pathetic

She realized with a start that all her teammates were staring at her as she stared at him. Crud. She looked away from Trevor’s stony profile hastily herself. Her teammates were nothing if not observant, and she surely didn’t need them figuring out that something was going on between her and Trevor.

She definitely didn’t need Cal figuring out there was some sort of friction between them or he would never send them out to work together. Particularly not on her first field mission when he was already reluctant to let her go.

She could do this. She could work with Trevor like the professional she was. After all, Kenny needed their help.

Oh, who was she kidding? She was totally doing this to impress Trevor. Which was a stupid reason to jump into a dangerous mission. Kenny. This should be about finding and rescuing their missing teammate.

Focusing on that, she said formally, “Would you like to go to a wedding with me, Trevor? You’ve been invited to my cousin’s wedding as my plus one. You’ve got your cover story.”

“Nicely done,” Jojo commented.

“Good job,” Axe added.

Lily smiled proudly at her.

She looked down the table at the one person whose opinion really mattered. Cal. “Are we good to go?”

He frowned fractionally. “Are you ready for this?”

“I’ve been ready for a while. Lily and I both have been.”

“There’s a lot riding on this, Anna. People will be watching you. It’ll be the first actual mission for a female SEAL.”

Gee. No pressure there. “Umm, maybe don’t tell anyone I’ve gone along until we find out how it turns out? I’d rather not be under a microscope the whole time.”

Cal’s brows twitched in what she knew to be worry. “I’ll see what I can do. But no promises.”

She risked glancing at Trevor and commented dryly, “You’re welcome.”

“Thank you,” he mumbled unhappily.

Cal asked, “Where will this wedding take place?”

“Karaken.”

“All right then,” he said. “That will put you two not far from where you need to go.”

Karaken and Swat might not be far apart geographically, but they were worlds apart culturally. The Swat Valley was in relatively modern Pakistan. But Zagistan, particularly its most remote regions, might as well be five hundred years in the past. They would have to pass through those remote mountain areas to get to the Pakistan border.

One of her cousins sent her a screen shot of the wedding invitation, and they used that to apply for last-minute visas to Zagistan. But, the paperwork was in order by the end of the day. She suspected the CIA had pulled strings to make that happen, bless them.

She didn’t even want to know what two plane tickets from North-of-Nowhere-Carolina to Zagistan on one day’s notice had cost. She guessed it had to have run well into the thousands of dollars. Cal had charged them to a government credit card supplied by the CIA to fund Trevor’s search for Ken.

The team spent the evening in their training facility, a giant warehouse they configured tonight to look like a traditional Zagistani farming compound. Trevor insisted on infiltrating the compound by himself. He entered from every conceivable direction while the Reapers played bad guys whom he had to neutralize or sneak past to rescue Kenny. He failed to make it to the mannequin representing Ken depressingly more often than he succeeded.

Anna’s tension ratcheted up with every failed attempt. Trevor was going todieon this op if he refused to work with her. Finally, she lost her temper and burst out, “Oh, for the love of Mike. Will you stop trying to be a macho idiot and let me help you infiltrate the damned compound?”

Trevor looked stung…and irritated…as Cal said evenly, “Let’s reset, folks. This time, Anna you work with Trev.”

No big surprise, the two of them working together had much better success at getting to the Ken doll. Even if Trevor was more of an ass than not and tended to avoid using her to the full extent of her skills. She refrained from pointing that out, however. It was enough for now that he’d been shown in no uncertain terms she could be useful on the op.

Bright and early the next morning, she sat beside Trevor in the back of a Jeep while Cal drove them to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Trevor made a point of not touching her in any way, crunching himself into the far corner of the vehicle and closing his eyes for the entire trip.

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