I should have been honored to have been part of the best pickpocket incident of the century, but instead I was just mad.

I let out a helpless, frustrated noise that sounded like a combination of a cry and a growl. It took everything in me not to shout a stream of curse words. Seriously -- out of all the things that could happen to me, I’d been the victim of a pickpocket? That wasn’t supposed to happen -- not to a spy. Not to me!

Something that happens once is nothing. Something that repeats itself, or happens twice, is a coincidence. Something that happens three times, or more......then there’s a reason behind it; whether it’s dangerous or harmless, there’s always a reason.

I love you, Tess,” he told me, tightening his arms around me as if he would never let go. He’d better not. We’d never let go of each other -- not Jayden and me, and not the rest of us. We would always be together; we would always be a team. No matter what happened. No matter what we went through. No matter where our lives took us. We would always be a family.

But one thing was for certain: something would happen next. Something always did. Especially when you live the life of a spy.

I tried to blink back the tears that just kept coming. Eventually, I gave up and let my sight be obscured.

You underestimate us, Josephine,” Taylor smiled. “A few guards, chains, and a locked door can’t keep a family apart.

They might as well have been trying to fit a squirrel through the eye of a needle.

I was going to die. I was going to die, right now, right here, before I even had a chance to thoroughly apologize to anyone for what I’d done...before I had a chance to forgive myself. I wasn’t even going to leave with a bang, one final act of dignity or at least the thought that I still belonged somewhere; I would die without even the simple acceptance that I’d done everything I could. Tears welled in my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall. I didn’t want to die crying.

I can’t tell you the things I know,” I repeated. “Why not?” “They aren’t my secrets to tell.