Final Stand

by Lisa Phillips

  The guard handed him a badge. “Know where you’re going?”

  He nodded. “They’re expecting me.” Mark didn’t need any help. If he ran into the assistant director here, he’d have to do all that posturing. The part where he had to try and prove he was still a good FBI agent, while the man gave him kudos for sticking with it. Then they’d commiserate with each other on how on earth it could have happened, and how long it would take to clean up. It would be even longer before the FBI got its good standing back.

  Kind of like how the DEA had to keep their nose clean and their agency out of the news, after stories broke of what agents had been getting up to in South America.

  The FBI had a serious PR problem to work through. Agents turning up to crime scenes would have to fight through the distrust. Judges would think twice before trusting their investigations. Cops would hesitate before calling them in.

  Mark sighed as he stepped off the elevator.

  “Wow, that’s a long face if ever I’ve seen one.” Talia shot him a smile as she wandered over on her heels.

  He smiled and opened his arms. She walked into his hug long enough for a quick squeeze and then stepped back. “Mason know you’re working late?”

  “He has a big assignment right now, so he had to cancel dinner.” She shrugged. “So we ordered take out and I decided to wait for you. I’m assuming you need…” She waved at her computer. The skills she had were legendary, even outside of the federal world. She’d been an NSA analyst and now…

  “You guys really work for Homeland now?” There was no one else in here. The office looked dark and dreary, the only windows showed the office building next door. No view. Not like the last office they’d had, which gave them a sweet panorama of downtown.

  This was a step down if ever he’d seen one.

  “We have our own cases.” She motioned him to a chair and then sat in her own. “They know where our skills lie and Dakota is Homeland, so we had an in.” Talia shrugged one shoulder. “We’re good.”

  He studied her for a second, to make sure that was true, and then said, “Any idea where Victoria is?”

  “Florida, last I heard.” She glanced at the papers on her desk, and closed a file. Then she turned a quizzical expression his way. “Why do you ask?”

  He opened his mouth, halfway sure of what he wanted to say. Before he could get out a word, the elevator doors opened. Josh and Dakota strode out, laughing and carrying take-out bags.

  “You’re here.” Josh set his bags down and stuck his hand out. “How are things?”

  “Busy.”

  “And the…” he motioned to Mark’s abdomen.

  “Recovering. Good time to be doing desk work and weeks of interviews.”

  Josh nodded. Beyond him, Dakota was mouthing something to Talia. The NSA analyst said, “Mark was about to explain why he’s so interested in where Victoria is.” She actually folded her arms. “Has she called you back yet?”

  She really wanted to get in the middle of that? Also there was the question of why she’d have a problem with it. Though, the fact she seemed intent on protecting her friend was something he could definitely get behind.

  “Let’s eat. Then Mark can talk.” Josh opened all the cartons.

  Dakota uncovered paper plates and plastic forks, and Talia grudgingly handed him bottled water.

  “Thank you.”

  He knew she didn’t necessarily like where the team was at now. He didn’t blame her, since it was pretty much like the band had broken up. Niall worked at the naval base. Haley wasn’t their office manager anymore and had gone to work at a bank. Josh and Dakota couldn’t even bring their dog into work now.

  They all sat, and Josh prayed. After Mark said, “Amen,” he asked, “When’s the wedding?”

  “Two weeks.” Josh grinned. Dakota shot him a smile.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Talia shoved a piece of chicken in her mouth. After she’d swallowed, she said, “Mark still needs to tell us why he’s so interested in Victoria.”

  He ate a couple of bites, realizing he was hungrier than he’d thought. When it had abated a little, he said, “You aren’t worried about her?”

  “I didn’t say that. But the fact is, she can take care of herself.”

  “Maybe.”

  Dakota said, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He didn’t like the idea that he was going to have to justify himself to them, but since that seemed to be the theme of this month, he swallowed it. “Victoria and I have, in some way or another, always been in each other’s lives. We probably always will be.”

  “I thought you were dancing around a relationship.” Talia eyed him. “You’re just friends?”

  “It’s…more complicated than that. But I care about her, and I do what I can to help her be safe. But she’s Victoria. I don’t always get the whole story.” Something they had experienced themselves.

  Josh said, “She has her own agenda.”

  Mark shrugged. “She’s always done what she thought was right.”

  “Like lying to us that the task force was about terrorism when we were actually investigating the FBI the whole time?”

  Mark studied Dakota. He guessed Victoria had been uninvited from the wedding at this point. “It wasn’t about terrorism? You didn’t stop any attacks or arrest anyone that wasn’t FBI?”

  “Ask Sal.” She shrugged. “Victoria left Ally out to dry.”

  Mark shook his head. This was a serious change of tune if Dakota had switched sides from Team Victoria to Team Allyson. He blew out a breath. “I’m not going to defend her. She wouldn’t want me to.”

  Talia said, “You’ve known each other for years?”

  Dakota waved her fork at him. “I thought you were just someone she knew from the FBI. You guys were working this corruption case from the beginning?”

  “Not as such. My getting shot threw a wrench in that, but I’d filled in the director. And her friends in Washington did the rest. The whole thing broke open when I was barely out of the hospital and continued throughout the time I was at home recuperating. I managed to spearhead an investigation from there. Making sure everyone was on the same page and we had what we needed before she took everything to the US Attorney’s office.”

  “And she never thought we’d want to know?” Dakota looked hurt for the first time ever.

  Mark said, “She wouldn’t have even thought to read you in. It was her investigation, her deal. Your judgment would have been clouded, which would have led to things that could have tarnished your credibility within the federal community.”

  The truth was, having been a spy meant Victoria was much more inclined to cross lines these agents—or he—would never even consider. She operated under a different set of rules.

  Dakota didn’t say anything, because he was right. She was all about justice. Victoria had, in effect, saved Dakota from herself by not allowing her to know there was massive corruption in the FBI. She would have gone on a one-woman crusade to root out the problem. And it probably would have destroyed her career. It might have even cost her life. Or her upcoming marriage.

  Victoria knew where her team members were; engaged and happy. All of them.

  “She would never have allowed you to carry this,” he said softly. “She wanted you to be happy.”

  Talia set her drink down. “What about her? She doesn’t get to be happy?”

  Mark was never going to tell them about all the reasons why Victoria thought she didn’t deserve to have happiness for herself. He gave them an answer that might satisfy them. “She was engaged once.” He even shrugged his shoulder, so they’d think it wasn’t a big deal. “It didn’t work out.”

  “First I’m hearing of it.” Dakota didn’t believe him. She looked suspicious.

  “Was it you?”

  Josh’s question surprised him. Mark shook his head. “Another spy.”

  Mark’s feelings about that were his own, belonging to no one but him. Not even Victoria was privy to that. S
till, he figured she knew. After all, they’d been in each other’s lives through so much, and there was no sign that would abate.

  “Sometimes she’ll go…under the radar.” Mark tried to figure out how to explain it. “But this time, I have reason to believe she might be in danger. The agents I’m interviewing have been pointing fingers, and her name keeps coming up.”

  Dakota shot him a look. “Is that any wonder? She does what she wants.”

  “She’s your friend.”

  “Maybe. She was my boss. But you know what? Friends trust each other. They share.”

  He nearly smiled, but didn’t think that would be a good idea. “So you shared with her?”

  “I told her everything. Because she demanded full disclosure. Did she return that favor? No.”

  “She has reasons.” Victoria didn’t trust easily, but Dakota wouldn’t accept that. “She does what she can.”

  “Why do you defend her?”

  Mark closed his mouth. Then he turned to Talia. “Have you heard from her?” He wanted to warn her that Victoria was being dragged into the fallout. That was why he’d come, not so he could get grilled about Victoria and give away his feelings for her.

  “Why?”

  “You said she was in Florida. When was that?”

  Talia’s eyebrow rose. “Why?”

  “Her grandfather went missing. I’d like to know if she was there for that, or if she even knows it happened.”

  Dakota said, “Bypassing the fact she has family she also never told us about, how do you know her grandfather went missing?”

  “I’m the emergency contact at the assisted living home where he lives.”

  Dakota closed her mouth. Talia opened hers, hesitated and then said, “You are?”

  “I told you, we’ve known each other for years. She needed someone who could be called at any time. Especially while she was on assignment. Sometimes they last weeks, sometimes months. In her late twenties, she went undercover for two years.”

  “She called me at lunchtime.”

  Mark waited for Talia to say more.

  After a full minute, she said, “Fine...she didn’t sound all right but called because she needed a flight from Boise to Seattle. She should have touched down an hour ago.”

  The muscles around his wound tensed, sparking pain. “What do you mean, she didn’t sound right?”

  Talia shrugged. “She said she was driving. Maybe that’s true.”

  He said, “Anything else?”

  Dakota shifted in her chair. “I thought she could take care of herself.”

  He shot her a look. Josh just seemed uncomfortable, torn between his wife’s hurt and the safety of a woman he respected.

  “She can.” He glanced at the other woman. “Talia?”

  She shrugged. “I asked her if she was okay. She muttered something about needing a bear, whatever that means, and then she hung up.”

  Mark tossed his plate in the closest trash can and strode to the elevator. He jabbed the button and tapped his foot while he waited for the car to come.

  “Is she okay?”

  He turned back. Dakota was hurt, but she hadn’t stopped caring. “There are threats. But then, there always are. She knows that and she’s careful. But that won’t stop me from looking out for her.”

  “And making sure she’s safe?”

  He nodded. “And making sure she’s safe.”

  Talia said, “You know where she is?”

  The elevator doors opened. He stepped inside. “Yes.”

  Chapter 5

  Seattle, WA. Wednesday, 03.22a.m.

  It began the same way every time. Victoria walked down the hallway, the long skirt of that evening gown swishing around her legs.

  At the end of the hall was a brown door. Ornate, heavy wood. She pushed it open and stepped into the office, then quietly closed the door behind her. The diamonds on her bracelet glinted in the light.

  A safe, behind the painting above the fireplace. The whole hearth was huge with jagged stones worn down over centuries. A castle, in Vienna. She’d had to go on tiptoes to crack the safe, but she’d gotten in. She’d scooped out everything inside. Money, papers, and envelopes. A flash drive. That was what she’d been after.

  Then he came.

  It must have been a noise, because she turned. He stood right there. Victoria couldn’t make out his face, though. Either she’d forgotten it, or her mind didn’t allow her to remember. The image was blocked for some reason.

  The scene changed, as it had each time before.

  Victoria came awake, head pounding, remembering what came next in her reoccurring dream and how she wished it had only been a fabrication of her mind. She’d been knocked out and dumped in a South African prison. It had taken six months for Mark to find her, just a few days before she’d planned to escape. His way had been less painful. The only clue she had as to what had happened—or why—was the red mark that she discovered on her arm after she’d first come to. The only sign she’d been given a tattoo was the angry skin. UV light revealed what it was.

  Langdon’s mark.

  Victoria sucked in a breath and opened her eyes. The warm body against hers shifted, and hot dog breath wafted over her face. “Bear, that’s just gross.” Her voice was a whisper in the living room. His living room.

  Her shirt had been lifted up, exposing the skin on her side. She hadn’t fallen asleep with her back to the room. She’d been moved into this position.

  Victoria touched the bandage taped over it. He’d cleaned and redressed the wound.

  She twisted on the couch and glanced around. The TV was still on, a 24-hour news show muted with the subtitles scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Not that the words being typed made any sense. But that was one problem she would never be able to solve, so she’d learned to let it go.

  Victoria shoved at Bear so she could sit. He lifted up to standing on the couch and then hopped over her. He stretched out, then shook. Tags jangling against each other, hanging off his collar.

  “Bear?” Mark sat up. Gun in one hand. He rubbed his face with the other.

  Victoria shoved her shirt down and sat up. “Hey.”

  He stared at her without saying anything for a full minute. “That’s it? Hey?”

  “I’ll make the coffee.” She started to move and couldn’t fight back the wince.

  “You’ll do no such thing.” He scooted forward on his chair and flipped the switch on the lamp, but didn’t stand. “Not with that wound.”

  “I didn’t know she had a…spork, or whatever it was.” She also hadn’t known getting stabbed in the side would hurt so much. The doctor had even put a couple of stitches on the inside.

  “It’s only by the grace of God you don’t have internal bleeding. Or something punctured.”

  Victoria wasn’t awake enough to argue about God’s grace that seemed to be available to everyone else except her. Not something she wanted to get into right now. “I’m here.” She lifted both hands, then let them fall back to her sides. “I’m fine.”

  Mark shot her a look.

  Victoria rubbed the skin of her forearm. Branded. Dumped in a South African prison. They should have just killed her rather than get rid of her like that. Now she wasn’t going to quit trying to figure out who that faceless man was who haunted her dreams.

  Who Oscar Langdon was.

  When that was done, Mark could stop rescuing her. And she would stop letting him.

  “Your grandfather is missing.”

  She nodded.

  “I wasn’t sure how much you knew. They think he was loaded into a black van, and they’ve looped local FBI agents into the search for him since it's becoming clear this is a kidnapping.”

  She would have to get their names and have the committee verify them. If they’d ever worked in Austria, she’d have them off the case.

  “Did the police get anything from the suspect in the shed?”

  One of his eyebrows rose. “He claimed no knowledge
of it. They held him on breaking and entering until he made bail.”

  “Who was he?”

  “An accountant from Virginia.”

  “And they believe that?”

  Mark said, “Talia found something in his emails. She thinks he was paid to make your grandfather disappear and then wait for you. Leverage. I guess he’s part of a crew, and they do this stuff in the Caribbean mostly.”

  “Kidnappers for hire?”

  “I guess they do whatever someone will pay them for.”

  Victoria glanced around more, now that the lamp was on. “The place looks good.”

  “Couple more things, and I’ll be done with this one. I’m thinking a gazebo. Though, it might be too late in the year to get one put together in good weather.” Mark shrugged. “I have the house I’m going to flip next. I’ll show you before you leave.”

  Victoria smiled. He liked giving her the full tour before he sold a house. The man hadn’t lived in a place more than a year since she’d known him, constantly renovating houses. Selling them. Moving onto the next one.

  He worked in the evenings and on weekends. As a result, she didn’t think he’d worked out in a gym in his entire life. Because construction obviously built plenty of muscles, now outlined by his T-shirt. He even said he’d figured out sticky cases while patching drywall or putting tile in bathrooms, occupying his hands and giving his mind the space to work on a problematic investigation.

  A good man. A man of faith, and honor. One whose family she had destroyed, and apparently, still wanted in his life.

  It made no sense.

  She stood, suddenly aware she was only in a skirt, blouse, and pantyhose. He’d taken her shoes off, or had she? She could barely remember stumbling in and falling asleep. “I’m going to fill a cup, and then get out of your hair.”

  “I’ll make the coffee.” He took her hand and walked into the kitchen, not quite dragging her with him. But it was close. “Sit. I’ll tell you the latest on the search for your grandfather.” He made a face on that last word, then turned and let Bear out the back door.