“You have a lust problem, not a distraction problem,” he teased before she had a chance to defend her gawking.
“Same thing,” Ana murmured. A.J. couldn’t help smiling when her eyes widened a fraction, obviously realizing what she’d just unwittingly confirmed.
He leaned in closer and playfully waggled his brows. “So, you admit it, then?”
A flick of the back of her hand toward the door was all he got. But he’d take it.
“Let’s get you out of here and to someplace safe.”
“I’m still not so sure the words ‘you’ and ‘safe’ are synonymous.” Ana’s voice was soft. Nervous now. She needed to panic-clean, didn’t she? She was worried he was going to wear her down—make her fall for him.
And would that be such a bad thing?
“This is going to end badly.” Harper stood next to Roman and Wyatt in front of her Chevy Suburban rental. “We were brought to D.C. to find the leak and maybe that ledger, and now you’re running off with a suspect?” Harper folded her arms, eyes pinned in the direction of A.J.’s SUV, where Ana sat behind the steering wheel, windows closed.
A.J. glanced back her way, confirming she was still in the car as he’d requested, then focused on his teammates. “I know this is crazy, but she’s on the brink of becoming the fall guy the way Aaron was last year. At least, she thinks so.”
Aaron Todd had gone through BUD/S with A.J., and A.J. couldn’t help but go to bat for him when he’d been maliciously set up as the man who attempted to assassinate Isaiah Bennett. A.J. had never been great at standing by when a friend was in trouble.
“I don’t think she trusts her team, which is why she’s intent on going to Atlanta without their knowledge,” A.J. added.
“And aside from Porter going missing in Atlanta, she won’t tell you her reasoning as to why she needs to be there on Friday?” Too many unknown variables made Roman uptight.
“No, but I think she knows something about where Porter may be. She doesn’t act like a woman whose boss just died. Maybe she thinks he’s alive,” A.J. pointed out, and Wyatt’s brows dipped inward.
“And you don’t think it’s because she—”
“Don’t say it,” A.J. cut off Wyatt. He didn’t need Echo One suggesting Ana was behind Porter’s disappearance because she was some cold-hearted killer or traitor. “Someone on Ana’s task force must be behind the missing sources. Or the Volkovs. Or the supposed owner of the mysterious ledger. But not her.” A.J. tucked his hands into his pockets, uncomfortable with his lack of information and having to rely on his gut to justify to his friends his decisions.
Wyatt stepped forward and set a hand to A.J.’s shoulder. “I know you’ve been thinking about this woman for quite some time, but we have to look at the facts. We were brought in by POTUS to protect national security.”
“Not to run away with one of the suspects,” Harper chimed in, and Roman nodded in agreement.
It was one against three. And he knew they didn’t bring Chris or Finn with them to this face-off because Echo Three and Five would probably side with their hearts, like A.J.
“Luke and Knox will be in D.C. tomorrow. They wrapped up their assignment, and they’ll be providing an assist,” Harper announced the news. “Jessica is back behind her keyboard in New York to help, too. She’s going to try and confirm it’s The Huntsman who kidnapped the sources.”
“Sounds like you’re good, then. Won’t need me here.” A.J. pulled his hands from his pockets and fidgeted with the brim of his ball cap.
“A.J.” He knew that tone from Harper. She was going to try and talk him off a cliff of crazy.
And maybe it was crazy he was blindly trusting Ana, but he knew she wasn’t a traitor. And if he had to prove it to his best friends, that was exactly what he’d do.
“Listen.” A.J. stepped closer to them, hating what he was about to say, but he needed to convince his team to let him go. “You want me to find out the truth, this is the best way. Let me get her safe and near wherever it is she wants to be. I’ll gain her trust. We’re working in the dark now. Once we get real insight into what’s going on from her, and believe me, she knows a lot more than us, it’ll expedite our assignment. But her in an FBI holding cell won’t do us any damn good, and you know it.”
Wyatt removed his hand from A.J.’s shoulder and exchanged a quick look with Harper.
“We need to know what the Feds neglected to include in the files we were provided,” A.J. added. “And find out what Ana was after in Porter’s house.”
“Then we’ll go, too,” Roman firmly stated. “You can’t be twelve hours away from us without any backup if needed. We can stay in Birmingham instead of Atlanta to prevent being noticed, which will also put us closer to your immediate location. Just don’t tell her we’ll be nearby.”
“No more solo ops, remember?” Wyatt’s words had A.J.’s eyes shutting, a memory tugging at his mind.
“Never again. Understood?” Luke had once eyed the guys on the teams, stabbing a finger in the air, emotion choking his words. “No more solo ops. No more falling in love. No weddings. No babies. No more fucking heartbreak. Got it?”
“Marcus should never have gone in alone. We shouldn’t have followed orders,” A.J. had responded and lowered his hat to his chest, his eyes on the ground beneath his boots.
“A.J.?”
A.J.’s eyes flicked open at the sound of Harper’s voice. “Yeah, well, this isn’t an op. It’s just me keeping an eye on someone while we all work to piece this case together.” To see where the hell she needs to be in three days.
“I don’t know if we can get approval for any of this.” Harper faced the SUV and set her palms to it.
“Natasha can,” Wyatt said after the longest few seconds of A.J.’s life. “I’ll talk to her.”
“Thank you.” A.J. stepped forward, grabbed Wyatt’s hand, and leaned in to slap his back twice. “I should get on the road now.” They were going to drive to Roanoke and finish the drive in the morning.
“We’ll head back to the city, put together a plan, then some of us will go to Birmingham,” Wyatt said, his tone low.
“Look at it this way, the sooner we wrap this up, the sooner you can get back to focusing on your wedding.” A.J. smiled, but Wyatt’s lips didn’t budge. He was worried. About a lot, probably.
“Speaking of weddings,” Wyatt said, his tone grim. “Brian didn’t cheat. Gwen pulled the surveillance footage from Vegas.”
A.J.’s stomach tightened at the news. Why did he feel so disappointed? He should’ve been happy Brian hadn’t done anything to break his sister’s heart, but he still didn’t like Perfect Brian, and he truly believed Ella was going to get hurt down the road. “Okay.” He wasn’t sure what else to say. “Thanks.”
“We’ll check in once we get back to the safe house in D.C. Probably wait until tomorrow to head to Alabama,” Harper said. “Well, if some of us get the green light to go, that is.”