“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,