Page 3 of Avenging Jessie
He sighed, raised his eyes to her. “We all paid the price.”
Fury rose hot and fast inside her. She jammed a thumb at her chest. “I was the one he tried to break. The one he used her own brother against.” The memory of Brewer threatening Tommy still made her guts churn. “He set me against all of you. He failed, but that makes everything he does personal to me.”
Spence’s jaw flexed. He didn’t like being reminded of what it had cost her. Each time his gaze landed on one of her scars, it bounced away. “So, you’re the avenging angel now? Brewer doesn’t give a damn if it’s personal to you or any of us. He only cares if he wins—and if he takes you down with him.”
Bastard number three. She was racking them up this morning. “You think I don’t know that?”
“Then stop acting like this is some solo redemption mission. We’re a team. I know it’s been a while, but you need to remember how this works. It’s the Black Swan Division, not the Jessie Mendoza Vendetta Team.”
She opened her mouth to fire back, but Flynn slammed his travel mug on the desk. “Enough. Both of you.”
They fell silent.
Flynn finished reading another email, then rubbed his temple. “Just what I need.” He pecked at his keyboard. “The interagency review committee meeting has been moved up, thanks to the breach. Kill me now.” He finished his response and hit send. “Meg and Declan are heading to D.C. to check on federal infrastructure security. You two are going to Munich. Together.”
What? Elation at getting her way to return to the field was quickly replaced with fury. Then the enormity of what he said hit.Together.
The word clanged around in her head. Her eyes flicked to Spence, who had the gall to smile. Smile!Asshole. “I can’t work with…” She stopped herself. Felt more than saw the way Spence narrowed his eyes at her. “I can’t work withthe team. They don’t trust me.”
Spence snorted. He tapped the edge of a silver coin on the desk and twirled it around. A habit of his that she desperately wanted to ask him about, but never did. That would imply she cared. “That’s the least of your issues. Working with me—that’s your real problem.”
“No arguments.” Flynn sucked on his coffee, typed another fast reply, and hit send. “I need the best on this, and like it or not, you each excel at different variables when it comes to Brewer. I want you working together every step of the way. Spence is lead.”
Her stomach fell to her knees. “But… That’s not fair.”
Flynn glared at her, and she wanted to take it back. She didn’t sound like the highly trained operative he needed—that she’d been trying to convince him she was. She sounded like a three-year-old having a tantrum.
His phone buzzed with an incoming call. “It is if you want to be on the op. Take it or leave it, Mendoza. If you want back in the field, you do it my way.”
Spence didn’t say a word. Just closed his laptop. Pocketed that damn coin.
Jessie scowled at Flynn, then at him. The war inside her churned. Good thing she hadn’t eaten anything since midnight. The abject terror she felt at working with another BSD member might have brought it up. Not just any division member—Spencer.
Not to mention the fact that she was about to come face-to-face with the man who’d nearly ruined her—heart, body, and soul.
Harris Brewer.
She didn’t have names or curses strong enough for him.
But getting back in the field was herdream. Her purpose. The only thing that kept her from skydiving into madness while sitting in her boring-ass cubicle in counterterrorism.
This mission mattered more than her feelings. Brewer was moving again. Targeting again. She had to stop him once and for all.
For the world. For her teammates. For her friend and mentor, Tessa Vulpe, Brewer’s stepdaughter, who’d lived through so much abuse from the man.
Maybe even more than Jessie herself.
If Brewer thought he could outsmart her this time...
She was about to become his worst nightmare.
And this nightmare is going to hunt you down.
“Yes, sir,” she said, trying to keep the edge out of it. It didn’t work. Unable to help herself, she snuck one last glance at Spence before opening the door.
Brewer was the enemy. But Spence? He was the complication she couldn’t afford.
Two
