Taking

Then he held out his hand. She shook it and turned to leave.

As Riley Sweeney, brand new FBI agent, stepped down from the stage, she saw that not all the graduates looked happy for her. In fact, there was a palpable resentment in some of their faces. She could hardly blame them. When she’d gotten back from working on the murder case, she’d been designated team leader over and over again for Academy activities. It was no secret that some students felt that Riley’s recent fieldwork had given her an unfair advantage over them. She was sure that some who came from law-enforcement backgrounds must be especially annoyed.

Riley went back to her seat, feeling flushed with emotion at having been chosen for the award. She couldn’t remember anything like that ever happening to her before.

Meanwhile, the rest of the recruits filed one by one onto the stage, swearing the oath and accepting their badges. When John went up, Riley smiled and waved at him, and he shyly waved back at her.

After the last students took their oaths, Director Cormack again congratulated the recruits on their achievement and brought the ceremony to an end. The students got up from their seats and eagerly sought out their friends.

Riley quickly located John and Frankie, who were glowing with pride as they clutched their new badges.

“We did it!” John said, hugging Riley.

“We’re FBI agents for real!” Frankie said, hugging Riley in turn.

“We sure are,” Riley said.

Frankie added, “And best of all, we’ll all be working at the DC Headquarters. We can stick together!”

“Won’t that be great!” Riley agreed.

She took a deep breath. After that rough summer, everything was working out just fine. Better even than she had imagined.

She glanced around for Ryan and saw him moving through the crowd toward her.

He’d made it here after all, and he had a pleasant smile on his face.

“Congratulations, sweetie,” he said, kissing her on the cheek.

“Thanks,” Riley said, kissing him back.

Taking Riley’s hand, Ryan said, “And now we can go home.”

Riley smiled and nodded. Yes, that was one really great thing about today. During all her weeks in the Academy, she’d had to live in the dorm while Ryan had stayed in their DC apartment. They hadn’t spent nearly as much time together as either of them had wanted.

Her assignment to the DC FBI Headquarters meant that she’d be working just a short subway ride from their apartment. They could settle down to life together, and maybe decide soon just when they planned to get married.

But before Ryan and Riley could walk away, John called out to her.

“Wait a minute, Riley. We’ve got one more bit of business to take care of.”

Riley’s eyes widened as she remembered …

Yes, there’s one more thing to do.

She and her friends went outside into the cold winter air, where the new agents were all lining up and heading across the quad toward the FBI gun vault. Riley and her two friends hurried to join the line, while Ryan followed along with them.

Riley noticed that Ryan looked rather perplexed.

He doesn’t realize what’s going on here, she thought.

There was no time to discuss this right now. Riley and her friends were approaching the quartermaster.

As they reached him, the man handed each of them a service weapon—a 22-caliber Glock pistol.

Ryan’s mouth gaped with surprise—and also some alarm, Riley felt pretty sure.

He’ll just have to get used to my having a firearm, she thought.

Riley smiled at him and said, “OK, we can go home now.”

She was relieved that he made no comment about the lethal weapon she was carrying as they said goodbye to her friends and headed back across the quad.

Everything is going to be all right, she thought.

That was when a young man approached her holding an envelope.

“Are you Riley Sweeney?” the young man asked.

“Yes,” Riley said.

The young man handed her the envelope and said, “I’m supposed to give you this. You’ve got to sign for it.”

Riley signed for the envelope, then hastily pulled it open.

She staggered back a few steps at what she read.

“What is it?” Ryan asked.

She gulped hard and told him, “It’s a change of assignment.”

“What does that mean?” he demanded.

“I won’t be working at DC Bureau Headquarters after all. I’m assigned to the Behavioral Analysis Unit right here in Quantico.”

Ryan stammered, “But—but you said … we’re supposed to be living together.”

“We will be,” Riley hastened to assure him. “After all, it’s not that long a commute.”

Even so, she knew that the change was definitely going to complicate their lives. This wasn’t going to make it impossible for them to be together, but it wasn’t going to be easy.

Ryan snapped, “Well, you can’t do that. They’ll have to change it.”

“I can’t make them change anything,” Riley replied. “I’m just an underling here, like you are in the law office.”

Ryan was silent for a long moment, then he grumbled, “Whose idea was this, anyway?”

Riley thought about that. She’d had hadn’t even listed Quantico among her three assignment choices. Who would have intervened to place her here?