He was acutely aware of her hand lingering on his arm. “Will do. Right now, I just wait until I talk face-to-face to the investigation team.” He placed his hand over hers and turned toward her. “There is one more thing.”

“Uh-oh. I don’t like the sound of this.”

“Mason wants you to go to some counseling sessions.”

She broke the contact between them and pulled away. “I hope you told him that would be completely unnecessary and a waste of time.”

“I told him I thought you were doing well and that I felt you’d resist this.”

“And you were right!”

“But he asked me to try to sweet-talk you into it because, Cass, he’s going to make it mandatory if you don’t go willingly.”

She threw her head back and groaned. “If I were a guy, we would not even be having this conversation.”

He didn’t fully agree with that. “I believe it has less to do with gender and more to do with your experience.”

“You’re a Marine, so you can handle it.”

“Do I sense some sarcasm there? I’m just being honest with you. I saw all manner of things when I was on my two combat tours. Mason is well aware of that, because he was there too. You didn’t go through that, and he just wants to make sure you’re handling everything okay. It has been a lot, and even though we see things on our DEA ops, what has transpired over the past couple weeks has been on a different level.”

“You’re obviously right about our experiences being different, and up until the last attack, I think I was pretty composed. Unfortunately, you’ve seen some of my weaker moments.”

“I would never hold that against you, and I promise I didn’t give Mason any indication that you were weak—just the opposite. You’re strong, Cass, and a great agent.”

She sighed. “Okay. I’ll do it, but only because I don’t want a mandatory order in my files.”

He smiled. “Good. Let’s get out of here and call it a night.”

Layla looked at Hunter as they walked toward the door of the trendy Georgetown hotspot. “Nick will be hanging out at the bar. Please keep your distance. I need to do this alone. If he thinks I’ve brought someone with me, it will be a completely different conversation, and I’m not sure I’m going to get a second shot at this.”

“Absolutely. But if there’s any problem, I’ll be there in a second.”

“There won’t be. I can handle Nick.” Or at least that was the message she wanted to convey to Hunter. She didn’t want him to think Nick was in control.

“If he’s not here, we can wait and see if he shows.”