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stepped out of her building. Deciding her next step was difficult enough without his voice in her ear. She already had to force every step of forward progress—progress that meant moving farther away from Jace.
    An overwhelming part of her wanted to do just the opposite, to stick around.
    If only there was some way she knew she could trust him. Maybe she could get her necklace back. Erika almost laughed out loud. The two of them lived in worlds where appearance was all smoke and mirrors. It was his job to slip in and out of roles, as it was hers, and he was a master.
    The migraines were clouding her judgment, as were her feelings for Jace.
    There’d never been a time when Erika had hesitated. Yet another reason she shouldn’t make a rash judgment. She knew full well that getting her necklace back wasn’t the only reason she wanted to see Jace again.
    Scanning the area, she realized it must be noon. The crush of the lunchtime crowd filled the streets. Her hand shook as she tried to light her cigarette, an aftereffect from the migraine, causing her to lose her grip on the lighter, sending it tumbling onto the sidewalk. She bent over to pick it up before someone stepped on it or accidently kicked it.
    Rising, she caught a glimpse of a man out of her peripheral vision. She recognized the assassin from the job she’d done in Berlin.
    In fact, Berlin seemed to be the guy’s territory, but that would make him Agency. What the hell was he doing here?
    His gaze fixed on her apartment as he crossed the street. His clothes, black slacks and a black button-down shirt, helped him blend in with the workday crowd. He’d stood out to Erika the second he’d crossed her vision for his purposeful stride and the fact his head was tilted up when everyone else’s was angled toward the pavement.
    But who’d sent him? Her first thought was Jace, but that didn’t make any sense. If Jace had wanted to kill her, he’d had half a dozen opportunities in the past twenty-four hours alone. Why keep her alive just to send a hit man? Unless…
    Maybe he wasn’t sure about her before? Maybe he no longer needed her after his mystery meeting? Maybe he knew exactly who she was and needed to send someone else to clean up his mess?
    Or, was she making this too complicated?
    What if the guy worked for someone else? What if Jace was hiding because he’d found something that could get him killed? What if he was still the good guy?
    It was possible, right? That whatever was on that hard drive could get them both killed. There was another possibility she had to consider. If the information threatened national security, then Murdock wouldn’t be the only one looking for it. Maybe by turning it over to Sanctuary Jace would be writing his own death warrant and that was why he’d fled.
    She thought about her phone. Had he been trying to warn her?
    There were risks with this job. The fact had been punctuated by her father’s death. Erika had signed on to the agency with her eyes wide open, just as every other sworn officer. But what if the information Jace found had kicked off a chain of events that led to nothing good? She’d had to consider that on assignments before. What to share and what to suppress was always the question.
    She needed a couple of days to get her head straight and sort through her options. Until then, she didn’t plan to contact anyone. Besides, her brain was already throbbing.
    The satellite phone rang again. She ignored it.
    There were more pressing problems. Berlin had just spotted her.
    She needed to deal with him and get the hell out of the country, because all she could think about was Jace’s expression as those damn elevator doors closed.

Chapter Seven
    Erika crouched down, keeping her profile low enough to blend into the crowd as Berlin altered his course, heading toward her. Fighting out in the open wasn’t an option. There were too many risks to those