“It’s over,” Thomas said, appearing exhausted.

I opened the door wide, and Thomas stepped inside, pulling me into his arms. He didn’t speak. He barely breathed.

Since my transfer, we had lived on opposite sides of the country, and I had become accustomed to missing him. But when he’d left with Travis a few hours after supervising the delivery of the rest of his belongings to our new home in Quantico, I’d been worried. The assignment hadn’t just been dangerous. Together, Thomas and Travis had raided Benny Carlisi’s offices, and organized crime in Vegas would never be the same.

By the look on Thomas’s face, it hadn’t gone well.

“Have you been debriefed?” I asked.

He nodded. “But Travis refused. He went straight home. I’m worried about him.”

“It’s his and Abby’s anniversary. Call him tomorrow. Make sure it’s done.”

Thomas sat on the couch, dug his elbows into his thighs, and looked down. “It wasn’t supposed to go down like this.” He breathed as if the wind had been knocked out of him.

“Do you feel like talking about it?” I asked.

“No.”

I waited, knowing he always said that before he began a story.

“Trav’s cover was blown. Benny and his men took him underground. I panicked at first, but Sawyer got a location on them. We listened while they beat Travis for a good hour.”

“Jesus,” I said, touching his shoulder.

“Travis got some good intel.” He laughed once without humor. “Benny was making a grand speech and giving him everything, thinking Travis was about to die.”

“And?” I asked.

“The stupid son of a bitch threatened Abby. He began detailing the torture she would endure after he killed Travis. It was pretty graphic.”

“So, Benny’s dead,” I said, more of a statement than a question.

“Yeah,” Thomas said with a sigh.

“Years of work, and Benny won’t even see the inside of a courtroom.”

Thomas frowned. “Travis said he was sorry. We still have a lot of work to do. Mick Abernathy has contacts with a lot of bosses besides Benny. We can work the case from that angle.”

I raked my fingers gently through Thomas’s hair. He didn’t know that Abby and I had a secret. She would be handing the Bureau everything she had on her father in exchange for keeping her husband home and out of trouble. Abby had agreed to give it to Travis by their anniversary, and he would furnish that intel to Val, who had been promoted as the new ASAC in San Diego.

“I promised you I’d be finished unpacking by the time you got home,” I said. “I feel bad.”