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me -- please.”  
    She opened the door and I stepped out, letting her lead me into the building. The interior was hollowed out, filled with rusting machinery surrounded by a few ceiling high partitions. Ten feet in from the door we entered there was a folding table and a few chairs. A graying male sat in one of them. His jacket was a darker blue, the lettering on it boldly proclaiming DEA. Above him, a lamp was suspended from the ceiling, its small but intense circle of light like some parody of a cop show interrogation room.  
    Hollman pointed at the chair across the table from the man. “If you’ll have a seat, Miss Williams.”  
    Listening for movement in the building, I nodded at the man and sat down. Everything was quiet, no sign of Dino -- if that was even his real name. I was starting to think it wasn’t.  
    “We understand you’ve had a pretty rough day.” Hollman sat down and pushed a crop of bangs aside to reveal dark brown eyes. She smiled and pushed an unopened bottle of water toward me. “Do you know what WITSEC is?”  
    Rough was an understatement and, right at that moment, I didn’t give a fuck what WITSEC was.  
    “Where is--” Feeling a blush heat my cheeks, I dropped my question, opened the water and took a long drink.  
    “Agent Ramirez has returned to the field, where I hope you’ll let him stay.” It was the man who spoke, his eyes as gray as his hair and openly hostile.  
    Hollman raised a hand, her previously relaxed gaze cutting in the man’s direction and narrowing. “We’ll get to that, Joe. WITSEC--”  
    “I know what it is.” Realizing Dino had left without so much as a good-bye, I felt myself closing down. I was safe, but I had been abandoned to strangers with just a hand squeeze. I looked at Hollman and tried my best to keep the hurt out of my tone. “What are you offering?”  
    The short answer was “not much.” A fresh start, a new name, a butt load of rules to follow to stay in the program and a good-bye to my teaching degree. Half an hour later, Joe, who still didn’t have a last name, pushed a piece of paper toward me.  
    “Release from liability...” I quirked a brow at Hollman. “What’s this?”  
    She shifted in her seat, her eyes darting in Joe’s direction.  
    Scowling, he pushed a cheap pen at me. “It means you’re not going to sue the government or Agent Ramirez for anything that happened today.” Folding his arms across his chest, his scowl deepened. “Or press charges.”  
    Staring at Joe, I forgot to breathe for a few seconds. Did he know? My gaze darted to Hollman. Did she? How goddamn much? My eyes growing moist, I blinked.  
    Hollman put one hand on the pen, the other reaching across the table to rest lightly on my wrist. “You don’t have to sign this. It won’t affect your acceptance into the program the slightest bit if you don’t. You certainly don’t have to sign it today. You should at least think it over.”  
    “Bullshit!” Joe pointed a finger at me. “You sign it. I can still--”  
    Hollman rose up, anger staining her cheeks as she pointed at the opposite end of the building. “Leave us, now! You don’t have any authority to do jack shit. She’s mine.”  
    I sat there, fuming, while they continued to argue over what could or could not be done to or with me. Hollman called another marshal in, confirming my suspicion that there were more people in the building. Dino -- Ramirez -- had to be there unless he’d left on foot, which I couldn’t imagine. As quiet as the building had been, I would have heard the sound of any engine.  
    In the end, Hollman and her reinforcement cleared Joe from the area, leaving me alone with the woman.  
    “I don’t belong to anyone.” Doing my best to look her in the eye, I picked up the pen. “And I want to sign -- Ramirez saved my life.”  
    I wasn’t sure it was just gratitude making me sign. If I didn’t sign, it was an admission that something had happened,