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Every one of Jordan’s senses went on alert.

“Benny,” she said, just loudly enough for him to hear. “Put on some pants. We may have company.”

Because the cat had noticed something. The panel van might be completely innocent, or it might be surveillance.

Jordan scooped up Spot and put the cat in her carrier, zipping the top closed before she retrieved her personal weapon from the drawer where she’d secured it.

Benny walked out wearing jeans and a T-shirt, shoes already on his feet. Jordan handed him her weapon, pointed to the van, then hurried to dress herself.

When the knock came as Jordan was exiting the bedroom, they were prepared. Benny handed off her weapon then raised his eyebrows at her. She understood what he was asking. Which of them was going to answer?

She went with her intuition and nodded at him, then angled her body on the other side of the door, weapon at the ready.

When Benny pulled the door open, it was to a delivery guy in uniform holding a box bearing the logo of a meal delivery service.

But as innocent as it looked, every one of Jordan’s cop instincts still screamed at her.

“Delivery for Jordan Gonzalez,” the man said, his voice pleasant enough, but his words were enough for her to know her gut had been right. This house had been rented under an alias. No one but the SMS team and likely Davenport knew she was here.

She moved with a speed she didn’t know she possessed, yanking the man inside by the collar of his shirt and pressing the gun to his temple. Benny slammed the door behind him.

“Who are you, and why are you here?”

Instead of going pale like an innocent man might, the driver looked at her calmly. “Cassandra sends her regards,” he said, pushing the box toward her even with the gun still pressed to his head.

She froze. Cassandra was her CI. If La Sombra had discovered the girl was working both sides, then Cassandra was well and truly fucked. She’d known the cartel leader had resources, she just hadn’t realized they extended this far.

Jordan was afraid to open the box, her mind flashing back to the movie Seven. She was pretty sure Cassandra’s head wasn’t in there, but she was not willing to test that hypothesis right now.

An itchy feeling between her shoulder blades had her swinging the weapon away from the intruder in front of her and toward the back of the house.

Three men pushed through the sliding glass door by the kitchen, two of them obviously bodyguards for the third man who brought up the rear. He was well-dressed and looked vaguely familiar, though Jordan couldn’t figure out why. But she knew who he was without even thinking that hard about it.

Somehow, some way, La Sombra had discovered her location.

“How did you read my man?” he asked in barely accented English.

“He called me by my real name,” Jordan said, her aim not wavering from the two bodyguards in front of him, both armed, with their weapons drawn and pointing at her and Benny. They blocked enough of La Sombra that she couldn’t get a clear shot at him, and headshots were always risky even if there was an opening. But she could and would put both of them down without a second thought.

Even as her attention centered on the threat in front of her, she kept her senses attuned to what was happening behind her. Not just because the delivery guy was an active threat, but because it was Benny back there with him.

The man she loved, the man she’d already lost once. She wouldn’t let it happen again, would die herself before she let someone hurt him again, nanites be damned.

“I’m fine,” Benny said, as if he’d read her mind. More likely her body language. “Dipshit here makes a fine shield.”

She allowed herself to smile, because of course he’d found a way to turn it to his advantage, and turned a hundred percent of her attention to the threat before her.

“How did you find me?” she asked, forcing her voice to remain calm. Damn it, this wasn’t a complication she’d foreseen.

“The cat carrier,” he answered conversationally. “My people planted a tracker in it. I knew where you lived moments after learning your identity. Information is pitifully easy to get in this country. People will often flee their homes and leave their belongings without much thought, but they always take their pets with them.”

Spot? He’d tracked them through Spot’s cat carrier?

Jordan shook her head in amazement. “I’ve heard some crazy things, but that’s a new one.” She tightened her grip on her weapon. “What are we going to do here? We both know I can drop your guys, and maybe you, before they get me.”

“Introduce me to your friend,” the cartel leader said, looking at Benny. “I was under the impression you’d be alone.”

“I’d rather not.”