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“If all you wanted was for me to get your assassin close enough to blow some fucking dog’s head off, you should have said so from the start.”
    Jaden Lightfeather rolled his eyes. “Is she always like this?”
    Crap. The assassin had a sexy voice.
    Milos spread his fingers on the table. He wore a wedding band, but his wife had died before Hell started at I-Ops. “My ass is on the line for you, Helen, so sit up and listen. We won’t get a second chance. If we eliminate Elijah then his Beta or some other dog we don’t know takes his place and God knows what happens. If, however, you do your job, as I know you can, then Elijah plays on our side. If do your job well, Elijah and his demons play with us instead of against us.”
    “Then why do you need him?” She glared at Jaden.
    “Jim, tell Hell who killed your predecessor on this team.”
    “Tuan Ng.” West smiled at her. “Say, are you still dating him?”
    “Fuck off.”
    “I heard Tuan is great in the sack,” West said. “That true? Did he do it for you?”
    She heard several snickers. “I heard you’re an asshole,” she replied. “And I know that’s true.”
    West clicked on the penlight and pointed it at her head again. “You filing a pair of nice sharp fangs, Hell?”
    She pushed out of her chair, shaking with anger. “Guys, it’s been an honor, honest, but get yourself another patsy for this job.”
    “Afraid to smile for us?” West asked.
    Milos stood up hard enough that his chair crashed to the floor. “That’s enough.” The room went quiet. “Step out of line again, West, and you’re off this task force.” He looked around the room, ending with her. “We believe Ng won’t be so quick to dispatch you if you succeed in getting close to Elijah. In addition to turning Elijah, we want you to find out who’s controlling the DX and where that damn portal is so we can destroy it. Is that clear?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “And, while Lightfeather is quite capable of wet work, that’s a last resort.”
    “You want him to babysit me? I do not need a babysitter.” Hell was far too aware of Jaden’s attention on her, and it sent another shiver of arousal through her. Hunk or not, she didn’t want I-Ops guarding her back.
    Milos righted his chair and sat with his clasped his hands atop a black folder. “Agent Lightfeather’s job is to keep you alive until you’ve done what you’re supposed to.”
    “Yeah,” said one of the agents. “But if he offs Elijah, Tuan or the DX, that’s a bonus.”
    “Maybe he’ll off Hell,” someone said to more than a few chuckles.
    Hell gave the room the finger.
    Milos glared at her. Like she hadn’t been provoked. “You are not to interfere with Lightfeather.”
    She slumped on her chair. “What if he interferes with me?”
    “He won’t.” Milos’s interlaced fingers tightened.
    “Hell,” West said. “Just do the job you’re being fucking paid to do, all right?”
    She ignored West. “And for doing this I get?”
    “Your discharge from U.S. Internal-Operations will indicate a voluntary separation retroactive to the date of your administrative leave.”
    “What about my clearance?” Voluntary dismissal opened the door to reinstatement.
    “That, too.” Milos licked his lips. “Do we have a deal?”
    She waited a beat. “Sure.”
    Milos smiled. “I hope you like Moroccan.”
    “Love it,” she said.
    “Excellent. Because the dog will be at Mimouza tonight.” He pushed the black folder at her. It slid about half way and stopped. She leaned across the table and grabbed the edge with her fingertips. “Bring me Ng, Elijah and the DX, Hell. I know you can.”
    Her response was automatic. “Yes, sir.”
    Milos smiled again and for a minute, she was back before her life went down the toilet, when she’d been Milos Sanders’s most promising field agent. “I wouldn’t be putting my career on the line for you if I didn’t believe that.”
    “Thanks, Chief.” She pulled the folder toward