Page 81 of Code Name: Scorpio

“Cass.” Fallon let out a sigh. “You’re not an agent. We need to get you out.”

“Believe me, I want out of here. But Ryder is right. The data is heavily encrypted. Decrypting it could take days, even with Rogue’s systems. We can’t afford to blow this operation before we know what’s on that drive.”

“I’m worried about you.” This wasn’t a team leader talking; it was a woman worried about her best friend.

Cassandra didn’t respond.

“Ryder.” Fallon switched to him when she didn’t get an answer. “What’s the undercover status?”

He had to be honest here. “Tentative, but holding. I agree that egress is the best move. But give us a chance, Fallon. We’ve come this far. Let me see if I can get Cassie out on our own, even if I have to stay.”

“Twenty-four hours.” Fallon’s voice had shifted into the register he recognized from mission briefings, but underneath it was something harder. Not authority. Fear. She was scared for both of them and handling it the only way she knew how. “You’re on the road in twenty-four hours or I send a team. Nonnegotiable.”

Ryder looked at Cassandra. She was still staring at the phone.

“Agreed,” she said.

“Agreed,” he said.

“Be safe.” The line went dead.

The silence that followed was worse than the call. Outside, the brush country was doing its nothing. No wind, no cars, no sound at all except the AC unit cycling in the window. The same hum he’d been listening to for a week. He’d started to hate that sound.

And Cassandra still wasn’t looking at him.

They had to get out of this lodge without making the Diehls suspicious, and he had no idea how.

“I can’t work Arlo again. He was the one who came out while you were on the computer. I kept him in the kitchen, gave him something personal to chew on, steered the conversation until he lost interest and went back to bed.”

Now she looked at him. “You figured out what he needed and gave it to him.”

Which was just another nail in the coffin as to what she thought of him.

“Cassie, I⁠—”

“It got the job done. That’s what counts. You used your talents.” Her voice was empty.

Damn it, he couldn’t stand it anymore. He wanted her out of here. Fallon’s deadline had nothing to do with it.

“So how do we leave without raising suspicion?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. If I tell them I need to take you back and handle some business, Heath’s going to want to know what business. If I say a family emergency, they’ll want details, and details can be checked. No matter what I come up with, Heath’s going to pick at it.”

She was quiet for a long time. Long enough that he thought she was done, that they’d sit here while the clock ran out and Fallon sent her team and the whole thing fell apart.

“I can get us out,” she finally said.

He looked at her. Something had shifted behind her eyes.

“How?”

“Tonight when we go out into the common area, instead of looking at the floor, I let myself look around. I let the spiral run all the way. It’ll turn into a migraine within just a few minutes and then will continue to get worse if I don’t stop myself. And I won’t stop myself.”

His fists closed against his knees.

The last time she’d gone down like that, he’d had to carry her. She couldn’t even walk. And that was with stopping the spiral as soon as possible. Letting it run unchecked?

He wasn’t sure what that would even look like.