The overcast sky seemed perfectly fitting for the day we were having. The three of us had stolen yet another vehicle in the midst of our escape. This time, it was a red minivan from the motel parking lot.

Dallas had shown off his racecar driver skills once more, easily gliding in between vehicles on the Autobahn until we reached Munich. We weren't running late to meet Dallas's ally, so there hadn't really been a need for speeding. I silently suspected that his stunt driving had been less about getting to Munich quickly, and more about showing off in front of Matt.

I rolled my eyes at the thought. Men and their "my-dick-is-bigger-than-your-dick" competitions...

When we reached the train station, Dallas pulled the vehicle around to a back alley where three dumpsters sat. There was a concrete wall separating the alley from a neighborhood. Trash littered the ground, the wind blowing plastic bags and leaves around, and large, overgrown vines clung to nearly every surface in sight. The train station looked like it hadn't seen a soul in months.

"This is it?" Matt questioned, taking in the unwelcoming scene.

Dallas drummed his fingers on the bottom of the steering wheel and nodded. "This is it."

"This guy must not be here yet," I said from the front passenger seat. "Any idea how long we might be waiting?"

"Oh, he's here. Trust me." Dallas's words sounded a little ominous. "He's just waiting in the shadows."

That was unsettling the way he phrased it, but I understood why the man would want to wait to show himself. He wanted to observe us and make sure he wasn't walking into something he didn't want to be a part of. It was a common approach agents took, including me, on occasion.

Dallas pulled out his phone and typed a quick text to his comrade, verifying that we had arrived and were waiting for him to make the first move.

While he did that, I decided to make good use of our time, and awkwardly climbed into the backseat beside Matt, fishing through my bag for some first aid supplies.

"What are you doing back there, Tali?" Dallas sounded confused and a little irritated.

I pulled a small roll of bandage wrap out and set it in my lap while I slid Matt's shirt sleeve up over his shoulder to get access to his wound.

"Changing the bandage," I said, tearing off the old soiled one. "I meant to do this earlier."

Dallas didn't respond, but I knew it was festering in his mind, bothering him that I was taking care of Matt. I knew he didn't like the sight of me sitting so close to my team leader, much less touching him, but he was just going to have to deal with it. There was nothing wrong with what I was doing.

I cleaned Matt's wound, which appeared to be on the way to healing nicely, and got to work on rewrapping his arm. He winced when I tugged a little too tightly on the bandage, but seemed unaffected otherwise.

I could see Dallas fuming with jealousy, eyeing us in the rearview mirror. It was a little strange to me, considering he'd never been the jealous type before. He'd always been territorial, but never to the point of looking angry at the sight of me being around another man. Although, I doubted he would act this way if I was around any other guy. I was almost one-hundred-percent positive that this was strictly a problem he had with Matt, and I could understand why. I just wished he'd let it go, though.

But maybe that was something the two of them needed to work out on their own. Maybe I just needed to step aside and let them wisecrack at each other until they got over whatever the issue was between them. Or maybe it would get to the point that I'd have to sit them both down and talk to them about it, but I didn't want to have to do that.

I was also well aware of Matt's eyes locked on what I was doing, and the slight shift in his breathing every time my fingertips brushed his skin. I knew he still had feelings for me that went beyond friendship and being part of a team together. He'd never totally gotten passed that one night we'd shared, and I felt somehow responsible for that, even though I was sure I'd made it clear to him that I didn't have those feelings for him. But of course, that didn't mean that his feelings for me would suddenly cease to exist either. Maybe this was something that Matt just needed to work through by himself. Maybe it didn't matter what I said.

"Thank you," Matt mumbled where only I could hear, and his hand touched mine for just a second or two, but it was long enough to feel like more than an innocent gesture.

"Mmhmm," I hummed, avoiding his gaze as I stuffed the first aid supplies back into my bag.

I climbed back up into the front seat without a word, and I could feel the tension thick in the air. None of us spoke, but all of our minds were racing a mile a minute. Finally, I decided that the awkwardness was a little too suffocating for my taste, and I hopped out of the minivan, sucking in a deep breath of fresh air.

Dallas rolled the passenger window down with a concerned look on his face. "Tali, are you alright?"

"I just needed some air."

I leaned my head back against the back door and closed my eyes for a moment, trying to focus on something other than Matt and Dallas and their epic disdain for each other.

Dallas opened his door, about to come talk to me where Matt couldn't hear, but both of us heard a rustle in the nearby bushes that jerked our attention away from our personal issues. We automatically grabbed our side arms and aimed in the direction of the noise. Matt climbed out of the minivan, his gun drawn as well.

Another rustle of leaves sounded, followed by heavy boots. Out of the brush appeared a middle aged blonde man dressed in all black and covered in tactical gear. He had piercing eyes like a cobra, and he stared the three of us down, studying our every breath and blink. He didn't raise his pistol or attempt to defend himself in any way. He looked calm, yet suspicious of us as he stepped forward.

Dallas re-holstered his gun. "Rick. Good to see you."

His voice held a hint of apprehension, likely because he hadn't seen this man in so long, but he extended his hand to the mysterious man in black.

"Ace." The man nodded to him and shook his hand before looking to Matt and me with uncertainty. "Friends of yours?"

Dallas motioned for us to lower our weapons and we did so, slowly. Matt waited a second or two longer than I did to put his pistol away.

"Rick, this is Agent Natalia Dobreva and Agent Matthew Carver from Alpha Reconnaissance Taskforce in Washington, D.C.," Dallas introduced us. "Tali, Matt, this is Rick Voigt, an old buddy of mine."

I shrugged off my discomfort and shook Rick's hand as well. "Nice to meet you, Rick."

Matt shook his hand next, but didn't say anything. The two men simply nodded to each other.

"Enough formalities," Rick said sharply, setting the black bag he was carrying on the hood of the minivan. "I've got what you came for. Let's make this quick before somebody sees us."

He handed each of us new passports and identification which stated that we were all high ranking Italian government officials. So high ranking, in fact, that we didn't have to go through any type of security screening. We could slip through the airports like we owned the place.

Dallas's new identity was Antonio Lombardi. Matt's was Stefano De Luca. And mine was Aurora Moretti, which I thought sounded pretty. Whomever had come up with our new identities had had good taste in fake names – if that was a thing.

"What do I owe ya?" Dallas asked Rick as he slid his new I.D.s into his back pocket.

The man shook his head, slinging his bag back over his shoulder, preparing to leave us. "Don't worry about it, Ace. You did me enough favors in the past. It was time I found a way to repay you, brother."

Dallas smiled softly and shook his hand again, but this time Rick pulled him into a friendly embrace and patted his back. He mumbled something about being brothers for life.

The two men parted and Rick wished us all safe travels. With that, our secretive ally was gone just as quickly as he'd come.

"He doesn't happen to have any safe houses in Spain, does he?" I raised a brow to Dallas.

He snorted a laugh and jerked his thumb toward the van.

The three of us piled inside and Dallas slowly, carefully backed out of the alley and headed in the direction of the Munich airport, a good twenty minutes away.

"What's the plan?" Matt leaned forward and asked, his forearms resting on the console in between the front seats. "Are we just going to stroll through Munich International like Gigi Hadid working it down a runway?"

I'd chosen the wrong moment to take a sip of water, spitting it all over the dashboard, laughing.

"Matthew!" I hollered, trying to stop the sudden fit of laughter. "Good God!"

Even Dallas cracked a small grin at that. Maybe he didn't hate Matt as much as he let on, I thought to myself.

"Maybe not with that much flare, but yes, we're going to walk right passed security like we don't have a care in the world," Dallas explained as he changed lanes to follow the signs for the airport. "All we've got to do is flash a few badges, act like we're important, and hopefully, everyone will stay out of our way."

I thought back to the special clearance I'd had when I flew into London. I didn't have any trouble getting passed security, boarding the plane, or gliding through customs. I'd just flashed a badge here and there and walked right on by. I crossed my fingers that the three of us would have the same luck here.

Dallas turned into the departures lane and diverted to a parking lot to the left. There was no parking attendant in sight, so we grabbed our bags, left the stolen minivan, and headed toward the airport entrance. Before entering, we each put on black official-looking ball caps in attempts to conceal our faces from the multitude of cameras inside.

My nerves were alive with angst as we made our way through the airport, each step bringing us closer to the security checkpoint. I could see the security guards up ahead and they'd definitely taken note of us – I hoped not because they recognized us.

"Let me do the talking," I bravely volunteered once we were about fifty feet away.

Matt and Dallas didn't object, so I put on my best fake-Italian-official act and prayed I could pull it off without a hitch.

"Wir sind von der italienischen Regierung. Wir haben die Freigabe, ohne Inspektion zu bestehen."

I rattled off in my best Italian accent that we were from the Italian government and that we had clearance to pass through security without inspection. The two security guards eyed us carefully and then took our I.D.s to study for a moment. My heart felt like it was going to leap into my throat while we waited.

I tried to sound important, like Dallas had said, and told them we were due in Spain immediately. "Wir sind sofort in Spanien fällig."

The guards finally returned our identifications to us and gestured for us to pass by the security checkpoint.

We kept our "important" personas on until we'd turned a corner out of their line of sight, and then we all released the breaths we'd been painfully holding in the entire time.

"Damn, Tali, that was impressive," Matt complimented, patting my back and slinging his arm over my shoulders as we continued toward the plane.

I could feel Dallas glaring at him over my head while I walked along between them, but he decided against making any snarky comments, to my relief.

"Don't get too confident just yet," I said, still using my Italian accent. "Let's focus on getting to Barcelona, and then you can call it impressive."