An alarming thought hits me. “Please tell me you shut the bedroom door and Tellar won’t walk in.”
“I shut it,” he assures me.
I clean myself up and at my first attempt to stand, Liam quickly offers me his hand, and I laugh as I realize that somehow my panties are still around one of my ankles.
Liam glances down and laughs as well, but our amusement quickly fades. Our eyes lock and he strokes a strand of hair behind my ear. “Christmas at home, huh?”
There is a hopeful sadness in him that I know has to be about the family he’s lost, the holidays he’s hidden from, and I know we are both going to visit the ghosts of our past. But I also know that together we’ll defeat them. “Yes,” I say, covering his hand with mine. “Christmas at home. Our home.”
He kisses my temple, lingering there a moment before he moves to a row of shirts, removing a freshly starched selection. “Why are you changing?” I ask. “You have to dress for the party soon.”
“Feeling sharp is being sharp,” he states, and I have my answer. Control. He’s given some to me, but he doesn’t plan to give it to anyone else.
I decide he’s right, and reach for a pair of black dress pants and a light blue long-sleeved silk blouse. I’ve just pulled on a pair of high-heeled ankle boots when my stomach growls again. Liam slides his gray tie through his collar and knots it. “Sounds like I really need to feed you.”
“I’ve been saying that for hours,” I remind him.
The doorbell rings, and his brow furrows.
“Derek?” I suggest. “But why would he be at the door in front of the security gate?”
“He wouldn’t, and I told him to call first.” He shrugs into his jacket, already striding out of the closet.
I hurry behind him, following him down the stairs and past the living area. Tellar is just opening the door as Liam and I reach the Christmas tree, and my heart stops beating.
Tellar draws his gun and I hear, “What the fuck are you doing here, Jared?”
PART NINE
Everything Is Not What It Seems
LIAM STEPS IN FRONT OF ME, shielding me.
“I repeat,” Tellar snarls. “What the f—”
“Look at the badge in my hand, asshole,” Jared says. “I’m CIA. Put the damn gun down.”
I gasp. CIA? No. Despite what Meg has told me, it seems impossible. He was Chad’s college buddy. They’ve known each other for years.
“I’m not putting it down until I confirm it’s true,” Tellar replies. “And keep the badge. A hacker can fake just about anything.”
“My badge is as real as the piece of shit who gave you that scar on your jaw four years ago,” Jared assures him.
“Aren’t you smart?” Tellar says dryly. “Do you want a cookie as a reward for knowing that information? Because if you know about that mission, you know I was the only one who walked out alive.”
“And the other six didn’t,” Jared concurs. “I know. You killed them.”
“Like I’ll kill you, if I have to.”
“You won’t. You’re one of the good guys, like me, whether you like it or not.”
“I am not remotely like you. I don’t gut my friends for an agenda.”
“You just gut your enemies.”
“No. I put a bullet between their eyes,” Tellar warns him.
“Call Coco,” Liam tells me, handing me his phone. “Auto-dial number ten.”
“Coco Reynolds?” Jared asks. “You mean my boss’s ex-wife?”
“Another fact you could have hacked,” Tellar says in a bored tone.
“And do you know what they say about hackers?” Liam asks, stepping to Tellar’s side, forming a full barrier between me and Jared. “They hack because they aren’t good enough to be invited to the party directly.”
My heart races, my mind chasing the possibility that Jared is lying as I punch in the number. He has to be lying, I think, counting the rings. One. Two. Coco answers and I blurt out, “Jared is standing at our door with Tellar holding a gun on him.”
“Holly Mother of Jesus,” she hisses. “Hold on.” The line clicks and I wait, my mind racing with what this means. Jared was Chad’s best friend. Chad trusted him. Jared helped me escape from Meg and Sheridan. But if he’s CIA, it changes every interaction any of us ever had with him.
“Why are you here, Jared?” Liam demands.
“I heard you were asking questions about me,” he replies. “I figured it was time I tore off the blinders.”
Coco comes back on the line. “It’s true. He’s CIA. He was deep undercover.”
Shock rolls through me and I end the call. “It’s true. He’s CIA,” I say. I can barely wrap my head around the implications.
“You can put the gun down now, Tellar,” Jared orders.
“I’d rather shoot you, you bastard,” Tellar growls.
“I’d like to watch,” Liam agrees.
“You’d never have time to bury my body,” Jared promises. “Too many people know I’m here.”
Liam doesn’t reply and seconds tick by, as if all three men are in a silent standoff. “Invite me in,” Jared says tightly, “or I can take you in for questioning.”
Another few seconds tick by, and I watch Tellar and Liam exchange a look. Apparently reaching an agreement, they part in unison and I see Jared fully, a man I know but never really knew. Tall, with a light brown ponytail tied at his nape, he’s wearing his typical faded jeans and T-shirt, this one sporting a Batman emblem. And I kind of think it comes with a message. Like the superhero, he’ll do whatever he must to get the job done, even if it includes stabbing friends in the back.
He stops beside the Christmas tree, his brown eyes fixed on me. Tellar shuts the door behind him and Jared closes the space between us, leaving a mere foot between us as he demands, “Is he really dead?”
Adrenaline pumps through me, fear nowhere in sight, my anger front and center. “You bastard,” I hiss, my voice quaking and my body with it, and without a conscious decision to do so, I launch myself forward, wanting to hit him. I’m a hair away from him, my fingers brushing his shirt, when Liam shackles my waist from behind and pulls me back. I fight him but lose, shouting at Jared, “You were supposed to be Chad’s friend! You’re supposed to care! You were supposed to be someone we trusted!” Liam whirls me around and I try to reach for Jared again, only to smack into the wall of Liam’s chest. “Let me by!”
He grips my shoulders, holding me steady. “Amy, stop. You have to stop.”
I inhale on a shaky breath. “He’s a bastard,” I repeat. “I want him out of this house.”
“As do I,” he assures me. “Go to the other room. I’ll handle him.”
“It’s Amy I want to question,” Jared says from behind him. “We can do this here or somewhere else. That’s her choice.”
“Go to the other room,” Liam repeats. “He can’t force you into talking, and my attorney will shove his request down his throat.”
I shake my head, wanting this over with now and for good. “No. He’s the one hiding things, not me.”
He studies me, a mix of resistance and regret in his expression. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I confirm, crossing my arms to hide the way my stupid hands shake every time I get upset. Any calm I’d hoped to claim was gone the instant I saw Jared again.
Liam gives a deep sigh and then moves to stand beside me, where he’s been since the day I met him.
Any calm I’d hoped to claim is gone the instant I see Jared again. “Were you ever Chad’s friend?” I ask.
“Yes,” he replies.
“Yes?” I hiss. “That’s it?”
There’s a slight twitch to his lips, a hardening of his jaw. “You want to know about me and Chad? I’ll tell you. He set me up with a job that paid for my sister’s cancer treatments. It didn’t save my sister, but I fully intended to save his. And believe me, Amy.” His voice tightens. “When I was with you, I was protecting you.”
“Then wh
y betray him?” Liam asks.
“That job he gave me to save my sister got me busted. I was either going to jail or joining the CIA.”
“You mean going to jail or betraying Chad,” I bite out, my arms dropping to my sides, my fingers digging into my palms and around the phone I am still somehow holding.
He gives an incidental shake of his head. “No. The CIA wasn’t after Chad when they recruited me. It was someone inside the Treasure Hunter group he worked for. And it was a matter of national security. I knew Chad would never willingly dip his hands in something as dirty as this was.”
I reject everything this man claims. “I don’t believe you.”
“You’re shocked, and that’s understandable,” he replies coolly. “But know this. When Chad needed help making you disappear, I did it blindly, out of friendship. I didn’t figure out that Sheridan, a man already on the CIA watch list, was involved until much later.” His jaw sets and he levels me with a stare, refocusing on his original question. “I need to know if Chad’s really dead.”
“You and your people are the ones who told me he was dead,” I remind him.
“Did he tell you why you had to hide?” he blasts back, never missing a beat.
“He didn’t tell me anything, to protect me. If he didn’t tell you, I’m betting that deep down, he didn’t trust you.”
His eyes narrow, the seconds passing like hours. “Meg visited you today.”
I blanch but recover quickly. “You were there,” I say, kicking myself for dismissing the prickling sensation on my neck when I entered the store.
“Surveillance requires a search warrant,” Liam says. “I’m betting you didn’t have one.”
Jared flicks Liam a look. “I just happened to be Christmas shopping, like the rest of the world.”
“You hacked the store cameras,” Tellar says, stepping forward.
Jared ignores him, his attention fixed on me. “What did she want?”
“The same thing you want,” I say. “To be convinced Chad is dead. It seems like everyone wants him to rise from the grave and suddenly produce some secret you think he had.”
“We know he had a secret,” Jared assures me. “The question is, do we know everything about that secret? That’s where Meg comes in. She lived with him, and we think she knows the answer to that question. We want her, and we need you to help us get her.”
“We couldn’t help you even if we wanted to,” Liam says, clearly not wanting me to share everything about Meg with Jared. “Amy reacted to her showing up about as well as she did to you ringing our doorbell. She got angry, and Meg took off.”
“And don’t tell us you didn’t see her abrupt departure on the camera feed,” Tellar adds.
But Jared ignores Liam and Tellar, his entire focus on me. “Meg is a valuable resource who helps ensure that Sheridan and clan rot in the highest containment-level facility.”
“Are you saying there’s a risk they might be moved?” Liam asks.
“The lawyers are asking,” Jared says, flicking him a look. “We need to be armed and ready to shut them down if they get any traction.”
“Will they get traction?” Tellar asks. “Have they?”
“Not so far,” Jared admits. “But I have no intention of making years of chasing these people mean nothing. I want to be prepared for anything.” He tunes in on me again. “We need her. I need your help to find her again.” He reaches into his pocket and removes a card, offering it to me.
Liam reaches for it. “If she shows up, we’ll call the agency.”
“Right.” He turns away and saunters toward the door, then pauses, facing the tree. “Nice decorations.” He cuts me a hard look. “Must be hard to celebrate with Chad gone.”
I feel the accusation of a lie like a physical slap. “Chad’s been gone to me for six years,” I say, hugging myself again to hide my trembling hands.
“Right,” he repeats. “Well then, happy holidays. And if you need anything, I’ll be nearby.”
He exits the house and Tellar shuts the door. We all stand there in silence, as if we’re stuck in some vortex and can’t get a grip on what just happened. All I can think is that he knows Chad is alive, which means Chad can’t be anywhere near me, ever, and I feel as if a part of my soul is bleeding.
I inhale deeply, finding the zone I’ve used to survive too many times to count, as I march down the hallway toward the kitchen. There I head for the giant stainless steel refrigerator and pull out a pasta salad. Liam and Tellar join me as I set it on the counter, one on either side of the island.
“How do we have food, when we just arrived?” I ask.
“I had a service clean the house and stock the fridge,” Liam replies.
“I’m glad you did,” I say, reaching for a drawer to grab a fork.
Liam blocks it from opening with a hip, his hand settling on my shoulder. “Jared doesn’t know Chad’s alive,” he promises. “He just wants to get into your head.”
“And it worked,” Tellar adds. “Don’t let him win.”
“I know he’s going to keep watching and waiting. He’ll stalk us like he’s done these past six years.” I press fingers to my temple, hating the reality I have to face. “Chad is dead to me now. He can’t even call us. Jared will trace the call.”
“That’s what disposable phones are for,” Liam reminds me. “He’s not dead to you, but he does need to lie low. And he will, to protect you.” He squeezes my shoulder. “And we have Josh in place. He’ll block and reroute Jared’s attempts to track us.”
“Are you sure Josh is better than Jared?”
“One hundred percent,” he confirms. “He and Dante will be a steel fence between us and trouble. Unfortunately, now that I know Jared’s watching us I can’t go to that party tonight and risk being seen with Dante. We may need to contact him through Josh for a while to keep attention off our arrangement. And we do need to hire Dante immediately. Especially since I don’t plan to hand Meg over to Jared.”
“Why not?” I ask. “Maybe that would get him to leave us alone.”
“He thinks she knows something,” Liam states. “And like he said, she lived with Chad. None of us, not even Chad, can be sure exactly how much she knows.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Tellar interjects. “She’s a bigger problem than Jared.”
“Then she’s a ticking time bomb,” I observe. “That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“We’re going to have Dante help her disappear.” Liam glances at his watch. “I need to call Josh before he’s tied up with the party. And I need to call Chad and make sure he dumps the phone number he’s using now for a new one.”
A bad thought comes to my mind. “Can’t Jared trace the calls we make to Josh and Chad?”
Liam reaches in his pocket and sets an identical phone down next to the one he’d given me earlier. “I’m not using my cell phone to make any call that isn’t safe.”
“How do you tell them apart?” I ask.
He shows me a tiny silver dot on the answer button. It seems we’re prepared for anything, and yet we weren’t prepared for Meg or Jared.
AN HOUR LATER, Liam, Tellar, and I are sitting at the kitchen table eating pizza. We’ve left a message for Chad, and Josh has promised to do whatever it takes to get Dante on board. From there we get lost in replaying every moment we’ve ever spent with Jared, looking for times he’s lied, proof he might have outside interests beyond the CIA.
“All I know,” Tellar concludes, finishing off a bite, “is he’s after the cylinder. They’re all after that damn cylinder, and getting Dante in place is going to be a relief.”
Liam agrees, and I reach for the phone next to him to try Chad again. He covers it and my hand with his. “We’ve called twice, baby. Stop fretting. He probably got the message and changed phones.”
I swallow the knot in my throat. “I know. I just want to hear his voice.” And I wonder if there will ever be a day I won’t fear he is dead.
“And you wi
ll. But right now his silence is best for everyone involved.”
The buzzer to our front gate goes off and Tellar pulls out his phone to look at the security camera feed. “Simple black sedan.” He stands and walks to the small intercom on the wall and flips it open. “Can I help you?”
“It’s Josh. I come bearing gifts.”
My brow furrows. “Should he be here? Doesn’t that bring attention to our relationship with him?”
“We have our interactions with Josh covered with business,” Liam says, lifting his chin at Tellar. “Let him in.”
“I’ll go greet him,” Tellar says, punching the button to open the gate and moving toward the door.
Liam glances at his watch. “I didn’t expect to see Josh an hour before his party.”
A thought hits me and I reach for the phone again. “We didn’t tell Chad about Jared. We should leave him another message.”
“So he can charge over here to defend you?” Liam asks. “That could be exactly what Jared was after.”
“He wants Chad, or any of you, to make a mistake.”
At Josh’s voice, I look up to find him standing at the edge of the island with a tall, fit man in his early forties, sporting silvery hair, standing next to him. Both men look devastatingly handsome in tuxes.
Liam stands and I join him. “Coming here with Dante is a mistake,” he says.
“The windows are tinted and the car and plates can’t be traced,” Dante assures him. “I don’t make mistakes.”
Respect slides over Liam’s face. “Good to know,” he says, stepping around the table to greet him. “Pleased to finally meet you.”
“Mr. Liam Stone,” he says, his voice slightly sharp, his features sharper. “Prodigy, protégé, billionaire. I expected arrogance.”
I laugh and everyone looks at me. “Well, he is arrogant,” I say. “But he’s a good person.”
“I’ll confirm that,” Josh comments. “Arrogant prick, but a good man.”
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