by Rachel Dylan
“This makes no sense. How could that be possible?” she asked.
A thought occurred to him. “I checked the inside of my vehicle for surveillance equipment, but I didn’t check externally for a GPS tracker.”
“That has to be it. Which means we’re like a homing beacon. We’ve got to get to a Metro station, dump the car, and move.”
Once again her quick thinking was coming in handy. He’d have come up with something, but her plan was better. “If they get too close, fire a warning shot. If they’re just surveillance, they’ll back off.”
“Roger that.”
“We’re in between Clarendon and the Virginia Square-GMU Station. We either circle back to Clarendon or go forward to GMU. Any preference?”
“Clarendon gives us more options. Circle back.” She rolled down her window, readying for anything. “ETA is probably ten minutes.” She looked behind them. “They’re gaining.”
“Take the shot if you need to, but wait until the last minute. We need to preserve ammunition.”
“I’ve got an extra clip.”
Of course she did.
“And, Hunter, my gut is that these guys are not from Langley. This has to be the cartel.”
“Got it.” Deep down he’d felt the same way, but hearing her say it was chilling. The Agency would only go so far at this point, given the early stage of the investigation against Layla. But the cartel was a completely different story. The men they hired didn’t care about human life. They had zero moral compass and thought nothing about killing in cold blood. And right now they were barreling down on them.
“They’re getting closer. Can you go any faster?”
“Yes.” He pushed his foot down on the accelerator. “Once we get off the highway, though, it’s going to be tough to keep up this speed. We need to shake them.”
“I’m a really good shot. I can probably take out a tire.”
“Okay, you just tell me when. I’ll slow down when you’re ready to get you closer.”
“Let’s go a little farther.” She turned to face the rear of the car, getting ready to lean out the window.
His pulse thumped loudly as adrenaline soared through him. He had to focus. Their lives depended on it. He still couldn’t believe that Layla had turned into an expert markswoman, but it was just one of the many changes about her. As he looked over at her, she closed her eyes for a second. This had to be even worse than he thought.
When her eyes opened, she looked at him. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Okay, get ready, because I’m going to slam on the brakes.”
“Understood.” She braced her knee against the seat.
He took a deep breath and then punched down hard on the brake pedal. The car trailing them was now right up on them. He heard gunshots, but they weren’t just from Layla. The car behind them had opened fire, and Layla was exposed.
“Get back in the car!”
“One more shot.” She was true to her word. She took the shot and slid back inside.
He punched the gas and watched in the rearview mirror as the pursuing car skidded to a stop.
“You got them. Front right tire.”
“I told you.” She sighed loudly. “Now, let’s get to the Metro before anyone else pays us a visit. We need to get out of this alive.”
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
Layla was putting on a tough exterior for Hunter, but deep down she was afraid. The coordinated attack on them tonight screamed professionals, and that pointed to the cartel still being intent on taking her out. But she had wanted Hunter to remain in control, since he was driving, and she knew that if she showed her anxiety and fear, it would have negatively impacted him. So she’d put on a brave face and relied on her training to get her through it.
They still weren’t in the clear, but at least they were out of Hunter’s car and on the Metro. “I don’t spot anything,” she said.
“Me neither.”
“We should get off in two stops and change lines, just to be on the safe side.” There was another alternative, but she hated to bring it up.
“Sounds like a plan.”
Hunter had become very quiet, and she thought he was probably freaked out by all of this. Especially her hanging out the window of his SUV to take shots at the enemy. It surprised her, too, but she had been trained, and thank God, because it was coming in handy right now. When she’d been on the Honduras op, Zane had shown her some additional tips and tricks that he learned in the Marines. Growing up, she’d never been around guns of any kind. Her dad had seen and heard about enough violence as a child in Lebanon that he insisted they take a different path.
But here she was, many years later, literally fighting for her life.
“This isn’t my first choice, but I could call this in to the Agency,” she said. “They’ll probably wonder why I don’t return to the safe house anyway.”
His crystal-blue eyes locked on to hers as the Metro doors opened and they got off. “I understand your hesitation, and I’m right there with you, but I think they need to know. It also bolsters your version of the story.”
“It bolsters the truth,” she said flatly.
“Who would you call?”
“Two options. My boss or one of the IG guys.”
“You should call Frank Gibson. He’s the senior investigator, and it was clear to me that he was running the show. Tell him what’s happened. I can be your witness.”
She held back a laugh. “Hunter, I don’t think they’d take either of our words for anything right now. They have me in compromising photos with a known terrorist, and you’re acting as my attorney—and I’m sure those men know exactly who you are my from personnel file. Hopefully they’ll be able to provide some additional protection. If they bug out, we’ll call Mason to see if he can do anything.”
Hunter nodded. “Regardless, we need to let Mason know what happened. For all we know, the others could be impacted as well.”
Good point. The last thing she wanted was for something to happen to Cass and Zane. Diaz had already lost his life. Her heart hurt, thinking about his untimely death. She’d connected with him instantly on their trip to Honduras. To think that the cartel had killed him still shook her to the core.
Sensing her pain, Hunter took her hand as they walked down the Metro platform. Feeling his strong grip on her hand gave her some reassurance. At least she wasn’t alone.
She pulled out her phone and the business card from Frank Gibson to dial his cell.
“This is Gibson,” he answered.
“Frank, it’s Layla Karam.”
“I just got a report from our team that you haven’t been to the safe house since early this morning.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Things got heated.”
“How so?” Frank asked.
“We had three different cars come at us in a planned tactical assault. Finally we dumped Hunter’s SUV and got on the Metro. We believe his vehicle has a GPS tracking device on it, because there’s no way they could have located us so quickly each time we shook one of their vehicles.”
“And who, exactly, do you think is after you?”
She had to bite her tongue not to lash out. “Well, honestly, my first thought was that there was some Agency surveillance on me, but as the aggressive nature of the pursuit continued, it became clear that it probably wasn’t from Langley.”
“It’s still your contention that this is all related to the cartel?”
“Yes, sir, it is. They fired at us. I returned fire, taking out one of their tires, but we could use some help at least getting coverage back to the safe house.”
“Where are you now?”
She rattled off their exact location and prayed that he would act.
“We’ll send someone. Standard extraction protocol. Stay alert.”
She sighed. “Thank you.”
“Just for the record, I don’t think this means you’re innocent. In my mind, there could be a threat against you fr
om the cartel, and you could be in with Al-Nidal. But if I’m wrong, the consequences for an operative of your caliber are far too high, and I’m not the reckless type.”
She wanted to correct him and say that she wasn’t technically an operative, but she let that one go. If he was going to help, then that was the biggest thing she needed, and there was no point in picking a stupid fight. “We’ll be standing by.”
The call ended, and she turned to Hunter, who was continually looking around.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t I be the one telling you that?”
She smiled. Even in the midst of this danger, they complemented each other. “We’re a team, remember?”
“You’ve been the team leader today, Layla. MVP all the way.”
It was nice to hear that he had confidence in her, because sometimes she didn’t in herself. Everything today had been about training and pure instinct and, most importantly, God’s strong hand guiding her when she wasn’t sure what to do.
Hunter squeezed her hand. “How long do you think it’ll take them to get here?”
“If he puts in a priority call, we can have a team here in ten to fifteen minutes. There are a lot of internal Agency assets in this area. That plays in our favor. Stay alert, though.”
“Understood. How did Frank seem?”
“He doesn’t believe this means I’m innocent. He thinks I could be guilty and still have the cartel threat. I can’t really blame him. If I were in his shoes, evaluating the file, I’d probably think I was guilty too—or at least I’d have a strong suspicion that I’d want to run down completely before any exoneration could occur. Those pictures are unsettling.”
For the next fifteen minutes, they walked briskly but not so fast as to call attention to themselves.
Hunter nodded his head forward. “Those two guys at twelve o’clock. Do you think they’re yours?”
She looked to where he had indicated and saw two men dressed casually but walking with purpose. When one of them made eye contact with her, she knew it was their way out. “Yeah. That’s them. Let’s cross the street.”
“But why? Shouldn’t they come to us?”
“No. Now that we’ve made contact, we’ll meet up about two blocks from here. Just follow me.”
Hunter did as she instructed, and they walked in silence until they reached the rendezvous point, where a gray SUV with tinted windows was waiting.
“Get in,” one of the men told her.
She must have gotten through to Frank for him to send a three-man team to extract them. She jumped in the back seat and slid over for Hunter to get in. The last man, the one who had spoken to her, got in and hopped over their seats into the third row of the Durango.
“I’m Sawyer,” he said. “And that’s Ace and Dax up front. Do you think you were followed here?”
She shook her head. “No. I think we were able to shake them on the Metro.”
The tall blond nodded and then turned to Hunter. “You dumped your car?”
“Yeah, near the Clarendon stop. I think it has a GPS device on it somewhere.”
Sawyer looked over his shoulder and then back at them. “We’ll have it picked up and cleaned and taken to the new safe house. We can’t take a chance that the cartel knows the original location, since Hunter’s vehicle was there.”
“I don’t know when they put on the device,” Hunter said.
“Another reason we have to be cautious.” Sawyer’s light brown eyes focused on her. “I read your file—or at least what they were willing to give me.”
She could only imagine what that contained. “Did they tell you about the investigation?”
“Yeah,” Sawyer said. “Seems like you’ve gotten yourself into a bit of trouble.” He smiled.
His reaction let her know that he didn’t really think she was guilty, and she wanted to reiterate that. “I haven’t done anything wrong. Someone is trying to set me up.”
Sawyer chuckled. “For an analyst, you sure do have a lot of problems.”
“Tell me about it,” she muttered.
Sawyer leaned forward. “But that’s the thing, right? Your personnel file has you working in the DA, but that doesn’t line up.”
“I am an analyst. I want to be an analyst.” Maybe if she said it enough, someone would finally listen.
“But the Agency has other thoughts on her career,” Hunter piped up.
“They have a way of finding people’s talents and putting them in the right place,” Sawyer said. “Maybe you should just go with it and see what happens.”
She threw up her hands. “This happens. I’ve got the cartel breathing down my neck, one team member dead, and a warrantless IG investigation.”
Sawyer settled back in his seat. “I’ll give you that.”
“So what’s the Agency’s plan to keep Layla safe from Mejía’s people?” Hunter asked.
Sawyer arched an eyebrow. “We’re working on it, along with the DEA.” Then he looked at her. “And what exactly is Hunter’s role here?”
She held back a laugh.
“What?” Hunter asked. “I don’t have my own file?”
Sawyer’s jaw twitched. “You’re not one of ours.” Then he paused. “Are you?”
“Most definitely not,” Hunter said.
“Hunter has multiple roles. He’s serving as my legal counsel, but he’s also a PI, and we’ve known each other for years.”
“That’s how he knows what you do?” Sawyer asked.
“Exactly.” These questions let Layla know an important fact—the file that Sawyer had on her omitted all information about her past with Hunter. “Let’s get back to the topic of the cartel.”
“We’ve got the new safe house set up. Ace and Dax will be leading your primary security detail, so you should be safe from the cartel threats for now. We’ve been briefed by the DEA and understand the threat matrix.”
Layla realized she hadn’t checked in on Zane and Cass yet. “Who have you spoken to at the DEA?”
“Mason,” Sawyer answered.
“Do you know if the rest of the team is okay?”
“They’re all right. Cass is accounted for at the DEA safe house.”
“What about Zane?”
“I think he’s staying with her.”
Layla still thought it odd that Zane was somehow in the clear in all this, but there had to be a reasonable explanation.
They rode the rest of the way to the safe house in silence. This house was closer to Langley, and she figured that was by design. The CIA wanted to keep her nearby. They might have their suspicions about her, but this ordeal had also shown her that the Agency saw her as a vital asset, and she planned to use that to her strategic advantage.
They pulled up to the two-story Cape Cod–style home and parked. “Wait here while we do a sweep,” Sawyer said.
The three men exited, leaving her with Hunter.
“Do you trust them?” he asked.
“Not exactly, but I do think they’ve been tasked with keeping me safe. Think about it, Hunter. The CIA needs me. Look at the great lengths they’ve gone to over the past few years to get me into the field. To groom me to take on big assignments. They can’t turn a blind eye to those photos, but I think they’re banking on me being clean and then pushing me as hard as they can to get into the field. Knowing them, it might even be a condition of an exoneration.”
He groaned. “That’s not what you want.”
“I’ll cross that bridge if and when we get to it, but I do have some confidence in their plan to protect me. It’s like an insurance policy. If I’m innocent and they do nothing, they could lose someone they’ve put a lot of time and energy into. And, of course, as you described, I’m unique. There aren’t many people with my skill set.”
Hunter smiled.
“What?”
“You’re more than unique, Layla.” He grabbed her hand. “You’re very special. Especially to me.”
/> Her breath caught as she looked into his ocean-blue eyes, and she wanted to block out the rest of the world and focus only on him. She remembered what it was like to kiss him, and she wondered if it would be different the second time around. She wanted nothing more than to lean into him and press her lips to his.
But the downside was too great. She didn’t want to be interrupted by Sawyer and the others. It was a nice moment, but it would just have to wait. She squeezed Hunter’s hand and hoped that he could still read her as well as he used to.
A knock on the window confirmed that she’d made the right move. The question was, What would her next move be?
CHAPTER
TWENTY
Izzy dreaded having this conversation, but it was one she had to have.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Aiden put the car in park.
“I think it’s important to talk to my former colleagues. We can’t talk to the detectives working the case at Arlington PD, but this is a concrete step we can take to look further into the sergeant’s history. Alicia Thatcher used to work there. So she knew the sergeant pretty well. When I called her, she seemed open to talking to me, but I have no idea whether her relationship with him was good, bad, or indifferent.”
Aiden nodded. “Do you know why she left Arlington PD?”
“No. But that’s one of the things I want to find out. It looks like her condo is up there on the right.” She pointed toward one of the buildings in the Alexandria neighborhood.
“Do you want me to come in with you?” Aiden asked.
“No. I don’t want to scare her off. She might think it’s weird if you’re there too.”
“I completely understand. Just take your time. I’m in no rush. I brought plenty of work with me, so stay as long as you need to.”
Izzy squeezed his arm. “Thank you again for everything.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek and hopped out of the car. Then she made her way to the second floor of Alicia’s building and rang the doorbell.
It was only a moment before Alicia answered. She was a tall, pretty blonde with green eyes, and she gave Izzy a big smile. “Izzy, it’s so great to see you. Come on in.”