Alex POV

I haven't done this kind of work in a long time.

Not this end of it anyway.

For nearly a year, I'd been in Logan's shoes.

I'd been the one in the criminals' sights, bullshitting my way through a cover story in an effort to trip them up and get them to say something incriminating.

In those cases, mine was the life in danger.

I actually preferred that to this, especially since I was the one who'd put Logan in danger in the first place.

What had made me suggest him?

Did I want Hassan so badly that I was willing to put Logan at risk?

I was the leader.

His boss.

My job was to protect him.

I should've offered to do the undercover myself.

Hassan didn't know who I was.

And yeah, I know. Semere was a man.

But we could've come up with another story, right?

"Absolutely not," Bobby had said when I said those words aloud.

"Because it's too dangerous?" I fired back. "So then why is it okay for Logan to do it?"

"Not because of that. Because in order for this to work, we have to remove all suspicion. Exchanging a man for a woman would bring about suspicion. Logan can be Semere and not cause any red flags to be thrown up."

He was right, of course. But it didn't ease my guilt.

I had to make sure that Logan came out of this thing okay.

Bobby and I left the hotel shortly after my arrival.

We went back to the apartment and changed clothes since neither of us had been prepared for this to happen today.

I couldn't exactly provide covert back-up while wearing three-inch heels.

"I feel like a cat burglar," I commented blandly as I laced up my black hiking boots.

I was in dark jeans and a black sweater. I was going to put on a vest over the sweater and then a black jacket on top of that.

"You look pretty sexy," he remarked. "You would've made a hell of a criminal."

I smirked at him and shook my head.

"I could never turn to a life of crime. Orange is not my color," I retorted.

"Every color is your color," he argued lightly. He walked over to where I was sitting on the bed and sat down next to me. "I wanted to strangle Banta today."

"I think we should talk to Casteel after this. He has no business running a team. Lacey should have that spot, not Banta."

"If we go talk to Casteel, he'll beg us to come back."

"Let him beg. I'm not going anywhere. Are you?"

"You don't even need to ask that question," he replied as he gave me a quick once-over. "You should put your hair up."

"I will," I said, reaching back to pull my hair into a pony tail. "Do you have your extra piece?"

He nodded and got up from the bed, showing me the second holster clipped to his belt.

There was no way we were going to run the risk of a gun jam.

There would be at least four body guards, possibly more. We expected that once we made our presence known, Hassan would attempt to run and the others would do their best to ensure his escape.

"I'll get Hassan," Banta had stated firmly. "The rest of you secure his associates and protect the plant."

The plant. That was Logan.

And I didn't point it out to Banta, but he had the priorities backwards.

We would protect the plant and then secure the associates.

And I knew damn well why he was insistent upon the fact that he'd go after Hassan.

There were two reasons, actually.

One – Hassan was the brass ring. We could arrest a thousand associates for little recognition. Hassan was the one who counted.

And two – Hassan wasn't known to carry a weapon. He didn't do his own killing. And I pegged Banta as a coward.

So this thing would go down one of two ways.

Either Logan would pull it off and as soon as the exchange was made, we would rush the room and take them into custody.

Or they'd sniff out the ploy and pull their guns.

"Are you ready?" Bobby asked me. It was still early, not even six o'clock, but we wanted to get there. We wanted to secure a good position and we needed to make sure we were there before any of Hassan's men.

"Let's go."

An hour later, I sat crouched behind a crate on the upper level of the warehouse.

There was a railing next to the crate and on the other side of that, the floor gave way to the concrete first level which was twelve feet below. From my vantage point, I could perfectly see the first twenty feet inside the door. I'd be able to watch them come in and I couldn't imagine why they would need to go inside very far, so I hoped to be able to see the whole thing without having to change positions.

Bobby was almost directly below me, fairly close to the door. Agents Lacey and Banta were on the side wall and McHale was keeping an eye on the back door. We didn't expect them to use that entrance because it was visible from a main thoroughfare.

So now that we were all in position, it was time to wait.

And for the record, I don't wait well.

Bobby waits even worse.

I knew some cops who could sit for hours, watching a suspect's house or waiting for a buy to happen, but I wasn't one of those cops.

"Everyone situated?" Banta said over the com device.

I was starting to hate even the sound of his voice.

I joined the chorus of affirmations and then made another visual pass of the building.

Honestly, I was starting to doubt myself.

Again.

Why had I put Logan up to this?

What if Hassan acted unpredictably? I mean, he and his men could just walk in here and gun Logan down without a second thought. Then he'd have the weapons and the money.

Were we so sure he wouldn't do that?

Bobby was, I reminded myself. He knew every detail about Hassan.

And I trusted Bobby.

"He wants to maintain this connection," he'd assured me repeatedly during the drive over. "The only way he'll get violent is if he's suspicious."

"Semere's European. Hassan will pick up on it if Logan's speaking with a Brooklyn accent."

"Logan listened to the tapes for hours. He's got it. You heard him."

And yes, I had heard him.

He had the accent down.

I was just panicking.

"What about the clothes?" I'd asked.

"He's got it covered."

We'd thought of everything. Or so it seemed.

But as the hours passed, my mind kept going over everything.

It was eleven-thirty and the closer we got to the witching hour, the more my stomach clenched in anticipation.

"He took off his ring?" I asked suddenly into the com device.

"Yes," Bobby answered. "Eames…"

"I know," I said.

I was making myself sick.

This was going to work.

Logan was going to be brilliant. Bobby and I were going to back him up. The bust was going to go smoothly.

I repeated those sentences in my mind for the next several minutes until I heard the heavy rumble of a truck engine.

"That's Logan," Lacey said.

"I bet Hassan's watching him," Bobby said. "My money says he'll be five minutes behind."

"He'll wait to make sure he wasn't followed."

"Exactly."

We all fell silent as the engine went quiet and then a minute later, the door to the warehouse opened.

Logan came in and just from looking at him, I felt better.

He looked the part. And he looked at ease.

He walked in slowly, looking around the inside of the building, and then he leaned against a stack of crates and pulled out his pack of cigarettes.

Bobby was dead-on with his estimation.

Five minutes after Logan's arrival, Hassan came through the front door. He had five body guards with him.

Two stayed behind to keep an eye on the front door. One wandered toward the back of the building.

The other two flanked Hassan.

Hassan tipped his head toward one of the closest guards and said, "Check him."

Logan stood up straight and took a long drag from his cigarette and then held out his arms from his side to allow the body guard to pat him down.

"He's clean," the man said as he stepped aside.

"Efram Semere," Hassan said as he moved in front of Logan. "We meet at last."

It's a test, I wanted to shout. We knew they'd only become aware of each other a month ago.

"It's only been a month," Logan replied. "I couldn't get them here any faster. I was tied up with other ventures."

"But you do have them."

"Would I have called this meeting if I didn't?"

"Maybe. If you're working with the cops."

"You're the one making last minute changes," Logan fired back. "Are you sure you weren't followed? Because right now, I'm the one with the truck full of illegal weapons. All you have is a briefcase full of cash, so which one of us is taking the risk here?"

Hassan nodded thoughtfully and said, "So does it make you nervous?"

"I'm alone, meeting with five armed men in an abandoned warehouse at midnight. What do you think?"

Hassan remained impassive even as his guards chuckled.

"I think I'd like to see what you've got."

Another test.

The deal had already been made.

Hassan knew exactly what Logan had.

"Rocket launchers, automatic weapons, hand grenades…I've got it all, exactly as you requested. You give me the money and it's all yours."

"What's to stop me from shooting you?" he asked. "I can have my money and the weapons."

I'd had my weapon out since Hassan and his crew had walked into the warehouse and at the moment, I had it trained on Assaf's head.

Bobby and I had discussed this.

I would take out Assaf. He would get Najjar.

After that, the remaining guards would be handled as needed, but I wasn't going to depend on the agents to get any of them. And I wasn't going to shoot to maim. There wouldn't be time to risk having one of them still able to fire a weapon.

"You could," Logan said calmly. "But then you'd have to find someone as good as me the next time you want a shipment."

"Thieves like you are under every rock," Hassan said. "It wouldn't be hard to replace you."

"If you get the reputation of killing your suppliers, then yes it will."

I let out a long breath in order to steady my aim as Assaf reached down and settled his hand on the butt of his weapon.

Don't do it, I thought.

I started to breathe normally again when I saw Assaf shift his hand slightly away from his weapon and relax his stance.

It was a bluff.

They were trying to draw out any potential back-up who might have come along with Logan/Semere.

Hassan flashed Logan a smile and then raised his hand between them. His hand was empty, and I'm sure that he was just asking for Logan to give him the keys to the truck.

In fact, any good cop would know that's what he was doing.

His movement was cause for attention, but not action.

But Banta wasn't a good cop.

"Hassan, FBI! Freeze!" Banta shouted, bursting out from where he'd been hiding.

Multiple curses spewed forth on the com device as everything happened at once.

Assaf pulled his gun.

I shot him.

Najjar got his weapon out as Assaf dropped to the floor next to him. He looked up towards my now-exposed position, but Bobby took him out with one shot.

Hassan took off running for the door as the guards positioned at the exits came running inward.

Logan dropped to the floor as gunfire rang out through the warehouse. I didn't think any of Hassan's men would be aiming for him, but I couldn't be sure.

I got up from my position and pulled my second weapon, firing on them with both guns. The two men from the front went down, and when I turned to find the other one, I saw that he was on the ground as well.

McHale was yelling, "Hold your fire!" as Lacey chased after Banta and Hassan. I went down the stairs three at a time so that I could get down and assess the situation.

"This one's dead!" McHale called out after checking the one who'd run from the back.

"Bobby! Logan!" I yelled as I finally got to the bottom of the stairs and began running in their direction.

"We're fine," Bobby answered. I skidded to a halt as he got to his feet after checking the pulse of one of the body guards. He looked up at me and said, "These four are all dead, too."

"What the hell was he doing?" Logan shouted, looking in the direction to where Banta had gone.

"I don't know," I said.

Anger flooded through me at Banta's recklessness and since I knew that everyone was safe and the suspects were secured, I started running after Banta. He and Hassan and Lacey had gone out the back door.

By the time I reached the other side of the warehouse, Banta appeared in the doorway.

"I got him," he said. He was out of breath, but he had Hassan by the arm, and he jerked him into the warehouse.

"What the hell was that?" I yelled.

Lacey came in behind Banta, and always the peace-keeper, she quickly stepped up next to him.

"You guys are all okay, right? It worked out."

"It's not okay," I insisted. "We got him on what? Hanging out in a warehouse?"

"You're dead," Hassan said to Logan. "I don't know who you are, but I'll find out. And then I'll kill you."

"Looks to me like all your muscle is dead," Logan said. "What, are you going to kill me yourself?"

"He's not killing anyone," Banta said. "He's going to prison."

But I was so infuriated. The whole sting had been a waste. Logan could've been killed for nothing. We were no further along than we were before. Now we'd only have Semere's testimony and the emailed evidence, but we hadn't caught him in the act of anything.

"Take him to the car," Banta said to Lacey, shoving Hassan in her direction. "And tell McHale to get the NYPD out here to clean up this mess."

"You blew it," Bobby said, stepping up in front of Banta after Lacey had taken Hassan away. "What were you thinking?"

"I thought he had a gun," Banta said, turning toward Logan. "He looked like he was pointing at your chest."

"He had his hand out, waiting for the keys," Logan said heatedly. "Five more minutes and we would've had him on everything."

"We've still got him," Banta said dismissively. "What are you so pissed about? It came out okay."

I knew what Logan was going to do before he started to move.

And I wasn't going to let him.

The least I could do was this.

I shoved Logan out of the way and punched Banta square on the jaw, sending him backwards on his ass.

"Alex!" he cried out from his spot on the floor. "You just hit a federal officer! When I call the chief about this…"

"About what?" Bobby said. "I didn't see a thing. Did you Logan?"

"The only thing I see is a glory-seeking jackass," he scoffed. "One who's prone to premature…what's the word I'm looking for?"

"Ejaculation," I supplied, shaking out my hand. Maybe Logan was going to avoid being blunt, but I wasn't. I glared down at Banta and added, "And it's Eames. Tell the chief I said hello."

The three of us turned and left Banta were he sat on the floor.

"He might really call the chief," Logan said in a low voice. "You should've let me hit him."

"You've spent enough time on the hot seat today," I answered. "And Moran's not going to fault me for taking that guy down. He totally botched this whole thing."

"We're going to Casteel tomorrow," Bobby said.

"Yes we are. And Logan, you're taking the day."

"Just Logan?" Bobby asked.

"You, too," I told him. "After we go to the federal building."

"Eames!" McHale called out. "The 3-8 is on their way!"

"Good," I replied. "We're not staying. As far as anyone else is concerned, we were never here."

McHale nodded at me and said, "It was nice working with you again. I'm sorry about…well, let's just say I'm sorry."

"Watch your back, McHale. And Lacey's too," Bobby told her.

We got to the SUV and the three of us climbed in. Logan sat back against the seat and let out a heavy sigh.

"You did good," I told him. "You had Hassan going. If Banta hadn't jumped the gun…"

"I know," he said, pulling out his cigarettes.

"Are you an all-the-time smoker now?" I asked him as I started the car.

"After a day like today?"

"You're right. Give me one," I replied. Bobby raised an eyebrow at me, but I just shrugged. "You smoked one earlier. Are you going to get on me for doing it now?"

"No," he said with a grin. He held out his hand and Logan gave each of us one.

"So…Logan," Bobby said after he lit up a cigarette and then handed it to me before lighting the other one.

"Yeah?"

"Where should we drop you?"

"You know where I live."

"You're going home?"

"Yeah," he answered with a grin.

"Okay," Bobby said thoughtfully. He took a drag and then he turned to Logan again. "Well, it's over, right?"

"Uh huh."

"So what's her name?"

"Oh, did you think I was serious when I said that?" Logan said on a laugh.

"Who's name?" I asked. "Is he going to tell us who he's sleeping with?"

"No," Logan answered. "He's not."

"But you said…"

"You guys are the legendary detectives. You figure it out."

TBC...