Free Skin Dive by Ava Gray Page A

colada. The umbrella kept the sun off her fair skin, but the warmth was welcome, and this vacation was long overdue.
    “I’m not telling you my name,” he said, sighing. “Not yet. But I will tell you this much now . . . I used to have another handle. People knew me as Apex.”
    “Huh.” It was more concession than she’d expected, though it still didn’t tell her much. But she might be able to do some digging and turn up some information. Most likely, she would choose not to, however. If she found out, it could cost everyone else down the line. It sucked that they lived in a world that demanded such caution, but it was what the Foundation had made it.
    “Does that make you feel better, like we’ve formed an indisputable bond?”
    “Haven’t we?” she asked, her tone serious for once.
    Funny, but Mockingbird knew her better than anyone else. He had been the one to save her, when everything went so disastrously wrong, after—well. After . She had known him for years, longer than any other agent; Tanager had been with him since before he realized their organization had to grow inexpressibly more paranoid and complex if people like them weren’t all going to wind up in Foundation prison cells. She called damn few people friend, but he fit the bill.
    An awkward silence followed. Sometimes she wished she could fucking find him and see what he looked like, the guy who seemed like he never slept, never stopped fighting the good fight. Only through his diligence did all the balls stay in the air, and God only knew what would become of everyone else if anything ever happened to Mocks.
    “Yeah,” he said finally. “You’ve been with me almost as long as Shrike, and you still haven’t quit on me.”
    Shrike was an interesting case. He had executed some of the bloodiest revenge that their organization had ever seen, but in the end, he just walked away. Last they heard, he was operating independently, solving problems that didn’t fit easily into any jurisdiction.
    “I won’t either. Can you see me giving up all this?”
    He laughed. “Not really. Anyway, the reason I pinged you is twofold. First, I have news about the Exeter facility. I have confirmation . . . five subjects made it out alive. I already rescued a couple of them, but they weren’t interested in signing on right then.”
    “Give them time. Once they see how hard life is for people like us without a little help, they’ll take the recruitment package.”
    “I think so, too. I don’t care as much about the healer, but we could use another warrior.”
    “Careful. You’ll make me feel unwanted.”
    “Not my intention.”
    “So what’s the second part?”
    “I’ve been thinking about this, ever since Kestrel was taken. We used her before we discovered the tungsten-blocking properties . . . and she found a lot of test subjects for us.”
    “Made recruitment a dream,” she agreed.
    “So how did they find her? They didn’t have anyone who could pinpoint locations like that. I’ve thought all along it couldn’t be coincidence, and now I’m sure. Someone sold her out.”
    Fuck.
    “Have you looked at everyone’s financials?” Tanager sighed and shook her head. “Never mind, I know. Most don’t even have their own bank accounts, just cards you gave them.”
    “Yep. All the money flows through me. Doesn’t mean somebody didn’t take a briefcase full of cash, though, and I have no way of tracking that. The Foundation makes payments all the time. Needle in a haystack, even for me.”
    “So what’s my part in this?”
    He outlined it for her.
    “Really? Shadow detail?” She sighed in frustration. “I’m the last person who should do this. I draw attention. I thrive on attention.”
    “Tan,” he said quietly. “You’re the only one I trust. Everyone else is too new. I can’t tip my hand . . . I can’t let them know I’m not the all-powerful Oz—that I am, in fact, just the little man behind the curtain.”
    What must it be like