EDGE OF SHADOWS: The Shadow Ops Finale (Shadow Ops, Book # 3) by C.J. Lyons, Cynthia Cooke Read Free Book Online

He stopped. Looked at his timeline. Saw what she saw and realized she was right. “Chase. His undercover op wasn’t listed in any database. Not even our own. But on that last day—”
    “The Preacher’s men knew he wasn’t who he said he was. How’d they blow Chase’s cover, Billy? He was on the inside for months, and they trusted him completely. It wasn’t until he was forced to break radio silence and call us—”
    “You don’t know that,” he snapped. His mind dissected the timeline of everything that happened to Chase during that ill-fated Christmas mission.
    She kept her gaze on him, expression grim, until he finally met her eyes and nodded. “You’re right,” he conceded. “It was only after we brought the entire team on board that Chase’s cover was blown.”
    “Which means Hollywood is clean—he was there when I recruited Chase.”
    Good thing, because Hollywood was currently headed to Atlanta to pick up a former CDC doctor who had been mentioned in the Preacher’s files. “But that still leaves Marion and EZ, not to mention the folks we reached out to at the NSA and FBI.” Who else was at the STR offices during the op? “Plus, Anderson and our own on-site security and support staff, like Teresa—”
    “And Susan Payne,” she reminded him, an edge to her voice. “Don’t forget the good senator. She knew.”
    “Doesn’t what happened today rule her out?” he argued. For some reason he was always defending Susan to Rose. And Rose to Susan. “Susan didn’t know about the meet this morning. Only people on our own team knew that.”
    She sighed. “So, we’re right back where we started—except now we know for certain we have a traitor in our midst.”
    “We ruled out Hollywood. Plus, we know Chase and KC can’t be involved. And EZ has been pulling intel from the Preacher’s hard drive all week.”
    “Making him less likely. But we won’t be able to rule him out until we see how good the intel is.”
    He nodded at that, hating not being able to trust his own team. “We’ve another problem as well. During the hearing today, I learned that one of the Preacher’s men from the tunnel escaped.”
    “Why didn’t they tell us before this? We could've been searching—” She grimaced and answered her own question. “They don’t trust us. They don’t trust me .”
    “Even worse, they’re unleashing the National Security Division to do a full audit. And they want you to testify tomorrow. Then they’ll decide our fate.”
    She rolled her eyes, understanding that all the committee and NSD really wanted was a scapegoat. “If I fall on my sword, do you think I can save the Team?”
    “Not going to come to that,” he promised, not meeting her gaze. His phone rang again. Susan. Wondering where he was, no doubt.
    “Don’t you need to rush back to the senator?” she asked.
    He didn’t want to know how she knew the call was from Susan. No way could she see his phone screen from where she stood. Sometimes he wondered how much of her Razgravian grandmother’s gypsy blood Rose had inherited.
    Instead of answering, he moved a chair in front of the sink and motioned for her to sit. “Let me clean that cut and get you patched up. Then we can figure out our next step.”
    Billy guided her head back and, holding her thick, dark hair out of the way with one hand, tenderly flushed the laceration with the other. He was glad she had her eyes closed. Rose was far too good at reading people, and after two years of his wanting her, there was no way he could hide it from her face-to-face. Not now when he finally had a reason to fill his hands with her silky hair, stroke her soft skin.
    After what had happened to her in Razgravia, she typically shied away from any uninvited touch. And who would blame her?
    But not with Billy. With Billy, she didn’t flinch, didn’t wince. In Billy’s hands, she relaxed and allowed him to care for her. He enjoyed the moment, knowing all too well she would back