Footsteps echoed in the plane's main corridor like a death knell for them both, and Hobbs reacted the only way he could: he picked Elizabeth up and pivoted to face away from the bathroom door. Her towel lifted slightly as she wrapped her legs around his waist, allowing him to press her against the wall.

Their gazes met for all of a half second, but it was enough to communicate the obvious. They needed to keep their cover, and short of killing whoever was about to walk into the bathroom, this would have to do.

It wasn't as if either of them would enjoy it anyway.

Elizabeth angled her head and met him halfway, her right hand coming to grasp the back of his neck and eyes half-lidded as Luke closed the rest of the distance between them.

It started off chaste at first. Hesitant and uncomplicated until Elizabeth's grip on his neck and his on her thighs both tightened. Then it turned hot. There was no other word for it—someone cranked up the temperature on their internal thermostats. Her touch seared him to the bone and molten need coursed through his veins, scorching him.

Shit.

Had it really been so long since he last held a woman like this that making out with Elizabeth Shaw felt damn near perfect?

"Luke." She even groaned his name near perfectly. "Fuck."

Neither of them looked at the door lest they broke their rhythm, and there was a rhythm. Just like in the cargo hold when he began to teach Elizabeth how to clear a room properly, they'd fallen in sync again. Her leaning up to meet him, digging her fingers into the base of his neck and pushing herself eagerly against him, allowing Luke to press himself even closer. Molding them together until he wasn't sure where his body ended and hers began.

Their breath came in short, eager gasps, and those footsteps grew louder. Still, Luke didn't break it off. He was a starving man in need and here was a woman offering him a feast. One that would soon end the moment they were caught.

Or so it seemed that way.

Loud turned to quiet as whoever it was made their way upstairs. The bathroom door didn't open, there was no interruption, and neither of them stopped. For whatever reason, he didn't pull away either as it sank in that no one had found them. If anything, his kisses only grew more intense and eager.

Up until the moment that proverbial bucket of ice cold water was dumped on his head.

"We've got a job in one hour." The door flung open and struck the wall, revealing Jakob. An angry Jakob if his biting tone was any indication as he tossed a duffel bag onto the floor. "Get dressed, Shaw."

To no one's surprise, she didn't break her stride for one second. Elizabeth moved her lips from Luke's mouth to his ear and spoke just loud enough for him and Jakob both to hear.

"I guess that gives you one hour to knock my socks off. Think you can handle that, Fed?"

"You want me to get on my knees or my back?"

He shouldn't have said it. The moment the words left his mouth, regret piled on his shoulders and hit him like a ton of bricks. Yet his gut told him Shaw wasn't a pillow princess in any sense of the term. There was no way a woman like her would be on the bottom, let alone lay there and do nothing. No, she had to be in control every time, like she was now.

"Do you even have to ask?"

"Elizabeth." Jakob ground out the word like he was losing his patience. "I said get dressed."

"I heard you, but first I need to get undressed. Do you mind?"

Jakob shut the door without another word, leaving them alone with each other and their thoughts. Luke met Elizabeth's gaze as she pursed her lips, frowning, her mind going a million miles a minute. Was she asking the same questions as him? Wondering just how they'd gotten to this point or where they'd go from here?

"...Hobbs."

"Yeah." He loosened his grip and let her down, taking a step back to give Shaw some room. Luke took one look at the duffel bag before picking it up and dumping it on the sink with her clothes. "Why would Cipher send you on a mission now?"

Elizabeth snorted in derision, as if to say the answer was glaringly obvious if he only thought about it. She reached under the bag and grabbed her tank top and shorts, dropped the towel and pulled them on. After slinging the duffel bag onto her shoulder and tossing the towel in the laundry basket, Elizabeth began to walk out without so much as a 'thank you'.

"Oi! Kakova chyorta?" Hey! What the hell is this?

She froze two seconds later, pivoting on her feet to face him. The look on her face was one of surprise, shock and slight confusion. A thousand bucks said she hadn't expected that to come out of his mouth. It wasn't as if Luke was fluent in Russian by any means, but a certain level of proficiency had been obtained while he was hunting her family down all those years ago.

"...What?"

"You can barely hold a gun, let alone breathe," Luke said. "You really think you'll survive this? Five minutes in a fight and you'll be on your ass with two new cracked ribs or dead from a punctured lung."

"Orders are orders. You of all people should understand that concept."

"And since when do you work for Cipher?"

Were they actually doing this? Having a damn argument over her playing the hand she was dealt? Had Hobbs somehow forgotten what was at stake because she'd made out with him? God, she was going to regret that kiss for the rest of her life. "I don't. Not yet, anyway, but she's got a gun pointed at my head so when Cipher says jump, I jump."

"How do you know it's Cipher saying it?"

"I'm not willing to take the risk that it isn't."

Why did he even care anyway? She'd give him this much: Hobbs was a good actor. That whole 'if anyone touches you, I'll kill them' line had caught her off guard, but he didn't mean it. Not really. Just like the kiss, the way he'd touched her—it was nothing more than a charade. One she shouldn't have started in hindsight.

She just couldn't ever keep her mouth shut, her head down and her nose clean, could she? It didn't matter that her neck was on the line. No, as long as Cipher held all the cards and had Sam in her possession, Elizabeth's tendency for self sacrifice would bite her in the ass, no thanks to twelve years of Magdalene and her 'we do it for the family' spiel.

"I'm supposed to be the one running that job with Jakob."

The second the words left Luke's mouth, he realized they sounded even dumber aloud than in his head. There'd been nothing to indicate that he wouldn't be on the job with Jakob, only that Elizabeth was now joining them. Luke sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "How about we try this conversation again?"

"How about we just go get dressed and sit in your car?"

"We're going to talk about this eventually."

"Is that some kind of promise?" Shaw looked him up and down like she was ready for a fight, or another round of making out. Luke wasn't quite sure exactly what kind of sizing up she was doing, but it seemed Elizabeth was more than willing to fill him in. "Or are you hinting that you want me to skip the foreplay and put you on your knees? Because if this is going to happen, there's only one rule: we never skip the foreplay. So if that's a problem for you, here's your chance to walk away."

"Take your clothes off, Elizabeth."

This had to be a test. Some cruel joke played on him by God, otherwise why would he end up stuck on a plane with a woman like her who seemed to revel in pushing his buttons? If Luke didn't know better, he would've said she took some sadistic pleasure in doing it. The reality was that all this was just her.

And deep down, he liked it.

Shaw was about as subtle as a wrecking ball. Outside of the mind games, the fight for survival, when she was just herself and nothing more—like on their run that morning—and all the bullshit got stripped away, she wasn't as bad as she seemed at face value.

"You know what? I've changed my mind. Sex is off the menu until further notice."

"Woman, you are the menu."

Oh, who was he kidding? She was a goddamn nightmare. The biggest pain in his ass he'd ever met and if they ever had to work together again on anything, he'd quit the moment she walked in the door. The snark, the pitbull-esque behavior and refusal to ever back down, nagged at him like a kanker sore.

But he liked it...

Or maybe he really just liked that a woman was showing him attention after a several months long dry spell. Hookups were never simply hookups for him. They got messy and complicated due to the fact he had Sam. He couldn't exactly have women coming into her life every so often before leaving a week or two later. Sam didn't need the kind of heartbreak that came with people constantly walking out on her, never being able to form a solid relationship with anyone other than his family.

As much as she deserved better, a stable life and family, his daughter deserved to be protected from any and all bullshit too, and he couldn't give her that stability until Luke was one hundred percent certain that he'd found a woman who wouldn't walk out on either of them.

The right woman who'd have his back through thick and thin no matter what. Both their backs.

"You can't talk like that, you know." Elizabeth looked at him through half-lidded eyes, voice husky, like she was about to lift him up and wrap his legs around her waist. "We're supposed to be fighting."

"We can fight if you want to fight. Pick a wall. I'll put you through it."

"Put me or fuck me?"

"Is there a difference?"

She smiled for the briefest of moments, the barest hint of one forming on her face. He'd struck a chord—or something—and not in a bad way. "Hobbs."

"Turn around."

If he didn't stop now, there was going to be a problem when she decided to take him up on his offer. Luke knew that, but the question of whether it would really be a bad thing lingered in his head. Elizabeth had made it clear she could separate work and play. Could he?

Compartmentalizing work and his personal life wasn't an issue, but mixing work and sex while also keeping them separate when the situation was nothing short of complicated? It was an all but guaranteed recipe for disaster.

And knowing his luck, he might just wake up one morning to find her atop him, knife to his throat.

"This is not a game you want to play, Luke."

"Then give me a reason not to."

"Sam."

Before he could say a word, Elizabeth pulled the door open and ducked out, taking the duffel bag with her. Her footsteps echoed on the stairs and eventually, that heavy armored door thudded shut, leaving Luke with only his thoughts and the lingering feel of Elizabeth's hand on his neck.

Sam was the reason they were playing Cipher's game to begin with. Now Shaw wanted to say she was a reason not to play their own? As if Elizabeth hadn't been baiting him for at least two days. As if this whole thing wasn't her goddamn idea. Or maybe that was just an excuse because she knew this whole thing had already gone a step too far in the wrong direction and Elizabeth didn't have the guts to admit she was in over her head and needed his help.

Hell, for all he knew, this was some attempt at a cry for help. One she wouldn't admit to out of pride or whatever egotistical bullshit kept a woman like her going despite the odds being heavily stacked against her.

Shit. He was getting dressed and then walking upstairs to confront her, wasn't he? Luke didn't even need to tell himself the answer was yes—he'd subconsciously already made up his mind. Elizabeth had agreed to complete transparency and he'd be damned if Luke dropped something just because a pretty woman made out with him.

Not that he needed to, it turned out. By the time he'd gotten dressed in the armory and ensured he was ready for whatever shitstorm awaited them, there was no reason to bother going upstairs. Elizabeth had beaten him to the punch. She walked in while he was strapping his holster to his thigh, clutching her helmet in her right hand.

"Hey."

"You ready for this?"

Some might call it a redundant question, but there was no harm in asking. Depending on where they were going and what awaited them, this mission would land somewhere on the spectrum between cakewalk and nightmare. Shaw had never experienced either of those things, let alone a firefight.

"No."

He'd told himself to leave yesterday and start hunting Jakob down, but Deckard's condition had worsened for a brief while. Owen had instead spent the night at his brother's side, sleeping on and off in case something else happened. Nothing did, except for...them.

Waking up to find he wasn't alone in the room was unsettling enough. Waking and finding his own mother sitting next to him drinking a cup of tea? That was terrifying.

"Mum," Owen mumbled in greeting, opening his eyes once more to confirm it was her before he closed them. "I take it someone called you."

"My sons get shot while my fucking daughter—the girl I raised—betrays them? Yes, someone called, because apparently you couldn't be bothered picking up a phone and telling me Cipher nearly took the both of you out."

"There was no need. I'm taking care of it."

"Bang up job you've done so far."

"Mum!"

Shit. Owen sat upright, looking over his shoulder to find himself face to face with the only other woman on the planet he didn't want to see: Hattie. She gave a half smile and nothing more, gaze moving from Deckard to him for only a second before her attention went right back to their brother.

"So this Hobbs. He's one of us?" asked Magdalene.

"Cipher kidnapped his daughter," Owen said. "According to him, anyway."

"Do you believe it, Hatts?"

"It's the only possible reason he'd ever work for Cipher. She kidnapped his partner, for God's sake. Hobbs would never betray his team."

If there was one thing they could agree on, it was that. Hobbs was no willing participant in this nightmare. Even Owen knew the only way to ever turn a man like him was to apply pressure on exactly the right point and watch him buckle.

"I used to say the same about your father. I was wrong."

And now their sister had turned out just like him. What a surprise. Selfish, greedy, reckless—throwing them under the bus for a couple billion dollars was something Owen should've seen coming. The signs were so fucking clear from day one it seemed laughable that he hadn't. Her trying to make friends with Letty, working alone and avoiding the rest of the team while seemingly having no issues tolerating Hobbs' presence.

He'd even seen Elizabeth exit the fed's room one morning, neither one of them seeming to care if anyone spotted her. The kind of behaviour that screamed conspiracy or setup, or plan...

"What if someone flipped him?"

"Hobbs?" Hattie shook her head in disbelief. "I don't see that happening."

"If they lived in close quarters? Give it a couple weeks of seeing each other, working together. Could someone turn Hobbs?"

"Anything's possible, I guess, but it's unlikely. Look, we haven't exactly spent much time around each other, Owen. I hardly know him."

He gave Hattie a look that said she knew him well enough to kiss the guy. Whether their mother understood the message was a question he'd rather not ask, but the glare Hattie gave him confirmed she sure did.

"Then his kid wasn't taken. Beth flipped him."

It was the only answer that made any sense given the facts. Given everything that'd happened in the last month, everything that'd happened in the last two days and before that when Hobbs boarded Cipher's plane—the Fed betraying them was the only logical answer.

"Owen, you can't be serious."

"She had more than enough time to wrap him around her finger. Beth's young, fit, and she's more than qualified." There wasn't really any other way to say it that wouldn't result in Magdalene biting his head off, was there? "She's spent more than enough time in Moscow to have learned a thing or two."

"Why would Hobbs lie about a thing like Sam being taken?"

"I don't know. Maybe Beth offered him a couple billion if he helped her steal the money. Maybe she found Hobbs' weakness and exploited it."

"Hobbs wouldn't betray the team." At first, the words didn't register in his head. Not until Deckard groaned, trying to lift his upper body off the bed and failing. "He's not the type."

"You really think that? Beth's always been jealous of Hatts," Owen argued. "If she turned Hobbs, it would be a way to prove to Cipher she's still useful, maybe get another notch in her belt."

"Shut up, Owen." Deckard pulled himself upright, teeth grit as pain surged through his chest. "Cipher has his kid. Hobbs wouldn't lie about that, so we need to find Sam. All of us. And once we do, I'm going to kill that bastard, and then I'll kill the both of them, too."

"She's your sister, Decks. She's our family," Magdalene said, glaring at him, "and we don't kill family."

"Beth hasn't been family in seventeen years. Now I'm not sure if she ever really was it to begin with."

No one said anything, least of all Hattie. Instead, she grabbed her styrofoam cup and walked out of the hospital room. If they were going to survive the rest of the day, Hattie needed more coffee before anyone else came up with ridiculous ideas about who was what and why. Or before she found herself starting to agree with Deckard in some capacity.

"Hey. You good?"

Hattie looked up from the floor, coming face to face with Dom. She'd only seen him once this morning when Magdalene decided to check on him and his wife, and dragged her along. Since then, Hattie only glimpsed him out of the corner of her eye. He was giving them some much needed space, it seemed, while ensuring their mother didn't go without anything. "Yeah, I'm alright. How's Letty?"

Dom chuckled like they'd known each other since the second grade and leaned back. She'd known him for all of a few hours now but he already had her respect, and a small shred of admiration for going up against both of her brothers and somehow walking away alive. "She wants to kick Cipher's ass."

"Now why doesn't that surprise me?"

"So did they tell you about Hobbs?"

She grabbed a coffee before sitting down and stretching her legs out. Jetlag was already kicking in, but the worst part was trying to sit comfortably on a cargo plane for ten hours. Turned out seats made from netting weren't exactly easy on your glutes or thighs. "Cipher has his daughter. I heard. Owen thinks he's betrayed the team, but I can't see him doing that without someone having leverage on him. He wouldn't flip so easily."

"No, he wouldn't."

If there was anything he and Deckard Shaw could agree on, it was that Luke Hobbs didn't have a traitorous bone in his body. The man was as straitlaced as they came. But when a certain line was crossed, absolutely anything became possible, and just like when Cipher had kidnapped Elena and his son, Hobbs was now staring down a crossroads deciding exactly which way to go.

With a choice between saving himself and his daughter or doing the right thing, it wasn't hard to see which path Hobbs would choose. Dom had seen it during their rooftop barbeque—only one thing mattered more to him than the law and that was a sweet little girl with curly brown hair and one hell of a mouth on her.

"So...any ideas on where to start?" asked Hattie.

"Sam was staying with his sister. We'll start there. Look for the exact day she was taken and follow her. It can't have happened more than a week or two ago. Ramsey still has access to God's Eye so she can pull up old surveillance footage."

It was smart, but not the answer Hattie was really looking for. "I was thinking more along the lines of finding him. I need to look Hobbs in the eyes and see that he hasn't turned. That what my brother says isn't true."

"I think we can manage that. I'll ask Tej to run Hobbs through facial recognition. See if we can't get his location."

"You know, when you said I was going to be going on a mission with the two of you, this isn't exactly what I had in mind." Elizabeth tapped her feet against the SUV's floor, head resting on her hand, eyes half closed. They'd been stuck in traffic for nearly five fucking minutes and had only traveled all of two blocks. "God, this is worse than driving in Moscow."

"I told you to take the alley," Luke said, glancing at Jakob. "It would've been that much faster."

"Will you stop backseat driving? Jesus, you're just like my mom."

"Hey, show me the map again." She thrust her hand out expectantly. "I need to look at something."

"You've looked at it three times."

"Entertain me."

Luke grabbed it off the dash and held it out behind him, allowing Elizabeth to take it. He could hear her muttering to herself before the pen in his pocket was pulled out for the third time as well. The next thing Luke knew, she was leaning up beside him and holding the map out in front of him. He glanced at it, following the new line she'd drawn, then looked out the window.

Shit. Maybe that might work.

"Park up ahead." Luke pointed to an empty spot. "We're walking from here. I've got an idea."

"You or her?"

"It's a team effort."

Once they were parked, they grabbed their helmets, two duffel bags, and stepped out. Apparently there was some kind of costume thing at the city's conference center so they wouldn't stand out so much today. That was how Jakob had explained it, anyway. Elizabeth had never heard of cosplay or whatever the other thing was—comic something or other.

"Take the alley up ahead." Hobbs glanced down at the map once more to make sure they were going the right way. The last thing he needed was to get lost and waste any more time. "There's a hotel we can cut through."

"A hotel," Jakob said. "The three of us. Dressed like this."

"Two basement-dwelling virgins and a beautiful woman. Who wouldn't believe it?"

Jakob looked at her like he couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth. Truthfully, he didn't. "Did you get that from him?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Don't ever say that to a man unless you're looking for a fight. Jesus, you're supposed to be teaching her how to use a gun, not helping her get her ass kicked. You're a bad influence, you know that, Hobbs?"

The smirk on Luke's face said he did. And that he'd very possibly never been considered a bad influence on anyone in his life before which came as no surprise. "Me? You should hear the mouth on her."

"Believe me, I have. Saw it when you two were sticking your tongues down each other's throats this morning too."

It wasn't her finest moment, but she'd gone for the easiest way out of a potentially bad situation. At least that's what she kept telling herself. Maybe it was really the fact she'd been working her way up to charming him, hoping Hobbs might let her off the base unsupervised, and more or less preparing herself to seduce the guy that made kissing Luke all the more easier.

Or maybe she just wanted to feel something—anything—after four years of isolation. Eighteen months in a prison cell, seeing sunlight for one hour a day, would make anyone desperate for the slightest physical contact, least of all intimacy.

God, was she really that pathetic? What kind of a weak shell of a woman had she become after a measly year and a half in prison? And why? It wasn't like she couldn't handle herself. Anything Hobbs, Cipher or Mr. Nobody could throw at her, Elizabeth was ready for.

Until they invoked her family...then she turned into a doormat that read 'tread on me'.

"Wouldn't be anything to see if you didn't open the door, pretty boy."

"Or if you kept your hands to yourself."

Shaw scoffed and gestured at Luke. "He started it."

"Oh now we both know that ain't true, woman. You started it when you climbed on my lap and asked if I wanted to get my dick wet."

"Alright." Jakob stopped mid-step when they were halfway down the alley, rounding on them both. His hand rested on his concealed and holstered sidearm, body tense like he was about to bite their heads off. Instead, he reached down, flicked off his radio, and waited for the two of them to do the same. They did. "Cut the crap, Elizabeth. What is this? Are you trying to push Cipher's buttons and piss her off or do you two just need to fuck it out and deal with all the pent up hormones you're carrying around? Because I'll book a hotel room if it means I don't see you two make out again."

Elizabeth looked him up and down, like she was trying to figure something out. "It's been a while for you, hasn't it?"

"We're not talking about me."

"Then we aren't talking about us either," she said, "so let's just get this over with."

"Elle."

The two said her name at the exact same time, almost like their mouths were synced. She shook her head, muttering under her breath, and walked past Jakob. The hotel wasn't too far away, and once they passed through it, their real target was only half a mile east. An unassuming office building that housed what was apparently an intel op for the Agency on the third floor.

"So what is this, Hobbs?"

"She told me to seduce her." It wasn't a stretch to say Jakob was a competent soldier, and due to that fact, Luke was willing to be a little more tolerable of him. To a certain extent, that was. "So that's what I'm doing."

"She tell you to give her your balls on a necklace too?"

They talked and walked at the same time, keeping Elizabeth in their sights up until she disappeared around the next corner, then they came to a halt.

"No, Momma took those years ago."

Jakob chuckled and shook his head like he couldn't believe any of this. Truthfully, Luke didn't believe it himself. "Whatever plan Elle thinks will work in her favor? It isn't going to. None of it will. Cipher has her on a leash and sooner or later, she'll choke Shaw with it."

Despite how true Jakob's words were, Luke couldn't bring himself to shit all over Shaw's plans. Not when Elizabeth was refusing to back down from the fight. Every time she picked up that gun, pushed through the fear and who knew what else that messed her up, Luke found another tiny shred of respect for her had begun to grow inside him.

Why she couldn't have stepped up to the plate like that initially when all of this was first unfolding, he didn't understand.

"Cipher—"

"Holds all the cards." Jakob cut him off before Luke could get any further. "Beth is a dancing puppet. She thinks she can play the game because she got lucky once. The truth is, she doesn't have what it takes and odds are she never will...and that's fine, not everyone does. But as long as she goes around acting like top dog, people are going to try and put her in her place. One day, they're going to succeed and no one will be there to save her. Only this time it won't be a knife they use but a bullet to the head."

He wanted so desperately to say that Jakob was wrong. He wasn't, and the words hit Luke like a ton of bricks. Deep unease settled in the pit of his stomach for reasons he couldn't quite pinpoint. It wasn't as if he hadn't justified killing her himself a hundred different times these past few days. Finding all of the different reasons why Elizabeth could die if only it meant he saved Sam.

"Jakob—"

"I've seen this play out a thousand times. Been the one who delivered the bullet for most of them. Either she backs off or she ends up in a grave."

"Are you two done talking? Or would you like to speculate a little more? Because I don't know about you but I'd rather get this job over and done with before your old boss finds us."

"He already has."

Elizabeth's blood ran cold. Jakob had to be joking, right? Cipher was supposed to be running interference, yet if Mr. Nobody and his friends were in town, this mission had become infinitely more complicated.

"You noticed that?" asked Luke.

"Hard not to," Jakob said. "Amateurs."

"Alright," Luke gestured. "Let's get inside. Beth, take point. I'll cover our six."

For a few seconds, Elizabeth's eyebrows furrowed as she struggled to remember just what that meant. Finally, the damn lightbulb in her head switched on as she pivoted and made a beeline for the hotel's rear service entrance.

Two seconds later, all hell broke loose.