Free Reckoning by Jo Leigh

was.
    It was warm and crowded and so dark she worried that they wouldn’t get even one clear picture. Not her problem. She got out a twenty and headed for the bar, adjusting her purse on her shoulder.
    “Christie?”
    She jerked at Nate’s voice. In addition to the camera, she had a small receiver in her ear.
    “Don’t worry about the lighting,” he said. “We’ve got it covered. As soon as possible, find yourself a seat at the bar. We need to make sure the camera is at the right angle.”
    She wasn’t wearing a mike, so she just went ahead and did as he said. The bartender, tattooed and long haired, took her order, and then she turned to face the man on her right. He didn’t seem like someone who’d be given top secret security clearance, but that wasn’t her problem, either. “Hi.”
    “Hey. I haven’t seen you here before.”
    “I’m new in town. I heard there was work out here that wasn’t in a casino.”
    He nodded. Christie touched his arm, and laughed, sounding more like an idiot than a flirt. “I mean, if I have to serve one more drink…”
    It worked like a charm. He looked her in the face, his smile hopeful, his eyes glassy from too much beer.
    “We got it,” Nate said. “Move on.”
    She turned back to the bar, looking for the bartender. He showed up, she took her beer and handed him the cash. Then she turned to the man on her left.
    Now he looked like someone who might work for Omicron. He never smiled, he didn’t even try to check out her boobs and if she hadn’t spilled some beer on him, she wouldn’t have gotten the shot.
    It was a relief to stand after the all clear, but that moment of happiness slipped away as she gazed out at the crowded room. It was going to be a very long night.

    NATE GOT BACK TO HIS ROOM at 3:00 a.m. They got a lot of faces on tape, but they wouldn’t have results until Boone and Seth reviewed them.
    For his part, all he wanted was to crawl into bed and hold Tam.
    He still wasn’t sure the arrangements were going to work out. This was their second night at Motel Sleaze, and they still hadn’t made love.
    From the look of things, they weren’t going to tonight, either. Which, he hated to admit, was a relief. What he really needed was three days of nonstop sleep. It didn’t help that every waking moment was filled with tension. There was so much to do, so few people to do it and they all had to hide like outlaws.
    He looked at Tam, sleeping peacefully on her side of the bed, her hair still neat in a ponytail, her skin pale and perfect in the light from the john. He should wash up, brush his teeth, take off his clothes, but he couldn’t seem to move. She’d become his anchor. His reason. Not that he didn’t love his sister and care deeply about the rest of the team, but Tam was different. It shook him how badly he needed her to be okay. Nothing had panicked him as much as finding the lab torn apart. He’d seen a body seconds before the lab had blown up, and it could have been Tam. He’d raced to find her, but the anxiety had nearly crippled him. It was never to be mentioned, especially not to her, but there was no doubt in his mind that he would have lost it completely if she’d been killed. He’d have marched right into Omicron and murdered Leland Ingram with his bare hands.
    Senator Raines would have loved that. He’d milk the publicity for all it was worth, making certain the public believed that Nate was not only a traitor to his country but also a cold-blooded killer.
    He stretched his neck and moved his jaw as he headed for the bathroom. He felt like he’d aged twenty years in the last two. At least he had his friends and his sister right beside him. That was something to be grateful for. Tam was another.
    She’d lived. That’s what he needed to remember. Tam was alive. They’d made love, which had helped him remember why he was fighting so hard, and now there was a plan in motion to put this nightmare behind them.
    It didn’t take him long