Page 39 of Deep Cover

She understood why. Blackout didn’t know where the leaks were coming from, and she represented one of the agencies they no longer trusted.

But somewhere along the way, that had started to change.

They didn’t lower their voices every single time she approached now. O sometimes left his laptop open when she walked past. Rorke still gave her shit, but at least these days it seemed to be because he was Rorke and not because the letters FBI followed her name.

And here she stood in the middle of their training session with no one questioning whether she belonged.

The realization warmed a place inside her she hadn’t known was cold.

Then her attention drifted back to Reid, and warmth became something else entirely.

For a moment, she drowned in lurid images of moving with him, mouths colliding as their bodies said all the things neither of them dared to speak aloud.

Shaking herself, she redirected her attention to the mat. Monk was walking Jolie through the maneuver of breaking an attacker’s hold in slow motion while Rome played the grabber with a smile she knew was meant to keep it lighthearted and playful as well as instructive.

After what Jolie had shared about the kidnapping, Caryssa understood why the skill mattered. But even the best training only took a person so far. Reid had been trained for combat, and he’d still been brutally shot.

If there was one lesson worth learning, it was never to underestimate the enemy.

“Any pointers for Stina?” Younger called out. “She’s fighting the rotation.”

Caryssa started across the mat, instinct and some swelling feeling of sisterhood pulling her toward her new friend.

She assessed her in a glance. “Your weight’s too far back.” She crouched slightly in demonstration. “You want it centered, low. Pretend you’re about to sit in a chair that isn’t there.” She adjusted Stina’s shoulders and tilted her hips forward a few degrees. “There. Feel the difference?”

Stina rolled her shoulders, testing the position. “Yes, actually.”

The next try, Stina’s position needed another tweak. Caryssa patiently walked her through it. She’d never taught anyone a physical move before, but it turned out she was pretty good at it.

Stina broke Younger’s grip cleanly on her third attempt, twisting free with a startled gasp of triumph.

“That’s it!” Caryssa cried, delighted with her friend’s quick progress.

Stina beamed at her. “I can’t believe how easy that was.”

“It’s all in the technique.”

“All right.” Younger threw Caryssa a smile. “Your turn.”

She leveled him with a serious look, aware of Rivers crossing the mat in slow strides to circle behind her.

“Everyone runs through it once.” Younger beckoned her forward.

Caryssa stepped within reach of him. He slowly curled his fingers around her wrist. How cute that he thought her a beginner. Maybe he thought she knocked Townie on his ass by luck.

She met Younger’s gaze. Then moved.

She didn’t rotate her wrist the way he anticipated.

She shifted her weight and caught his ankle with the same easy sweep of her leg she used on Townie. With a whoosh, the man who outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds went down on the mat, flat on his back, before he could register what happened.

Stina shrieked with laughter. “That was incredible!” She lunged toward Caryssa, palm up for a high-five.

With a chuckle, Caryssa slapped it, grinning wider than she had…in years.

She walked over to Younger, extending a hand to help him up, but he rolled to his feet with quick agility.

The whole room was laughing at his expense while shooting Caryssa looks of newfound respect.