“You love her, don’t you?”
He turned to Talia, already shaking his head. Victoria was safe. They had a way to find Langdon. What was the point in talking about things any further? “I—”
“Don’t bother denying it.”
He closed his mouth. She was really going to do this? Talia was a sweet lady, but people in relationships always thought single people should also be hooked up. Like it was the ultimate end goal.
“Have you told her?”
“She knows how I feel.”
Maybe they hadn’t said it out loud for a while but nothing had changed. And nothing ever would. So what was the point in making their lives more painful than they already were?
What was the point in dragging it out with someone who wouldn’t understand?
He said, “I made Victoria a promise a long time ago, and I’m sticking to it.”
She wasn’t going to disappear forever, but she would always come back. Eventually. He wasn’t going to push her into what he thought they should be.
“And what do you get in return for that promise?”
Chapter 15
Somewhere over the Midwest. Thursday, 11.22p.m.
“Hog tying me was hardly necessary.” Victoria rubbed at her wrists. Not that it had been uncomfortable or left any marks.
The sergeant grinned at her from across the military transport plane. “You ran, we caught you. Doesn’t matter how much you’re gonna complain. What’s done won’t change.”
“Isn’t that the truth.”
“For whatever reason he didn’t feel like explaining to me, the secretary of defense wants you back in Washington state in one piece.”
“Sorry you had to take the detour.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “The team is headed to a training exercise nearby right after, so it wasn’t too far out of our way.”
“The training exercise. It doesn’t happen to be in a place called Last Chance County, does it?”
His eyes flashed in surprise. “How’d you know that?”
“Lucky guess. Which is what I’d have named the town.”
He barked a laugh.
“I grew up there.” She wasn’t sure why she said it. Maybe because she wanted to talk instead of see Genevieve take her last breath all over again every time she shut her eyes. Maybe she wanted the connection after such a loss.
“For real?”
She nodded. “It started as a safe haven for veterans. Right after Vietnam, I guess.” Her grandfather had been one of the first residents of that small mountain town. The place was a lot bigger now. Hundreds of families, schools, and a shopping mall. Churches, two libraries. All the amenities of a big town.
“And now it’s a training center.”
“Started out as a place for washed up grunts to go. Somewhere they could blow off steam, no questions asked.” Her grandfather had been one of them, and her father had grown up under a cloud of alcohol and fists flying, gotten her mother pregnant, and then split. Her mom had died young. Alcohol again. “For decades, it was a rough place to live. Then a new sheriff showed up, sometime in the late eighties. Straightened a lot of things out and allowed the whole town to just…breathe. Mellow out a little.”
He studied her, not saying anything.
“A few years ago, a group of Marines showed up. They revamped an old school that’d been shut down. Set up a whole training facility, which they later added to. Now they contract it out. Private parties. Military units.”
He nodded then.
“Brought some much needed income to the town. Established jobs.”
“You ever go back?”
She shrugged. “My grandfather signed his house over to me when he moved into a retirement home in Florida.” Not exactly the truth, but it was close enough. “I go back from time to time and clean out the place after renters leave.” Also not entirely true. It was used more as a safe house than a regular rental home.
“Small world.”
She shrugged. Small world, given it was the town the sergeant and his team were headed to. But maybe not. Especially considering his line of work and the place she’d lived until the day she moved away to go to college. That was where she’d been recruited into the CIA. Mark had been a senior when she’d been a freshman in college. Enough distance there might have been a universe between them. But still, they’d made time to email each other from two states away. Kept in touch.
As they’d done since.
Part of each other’s lives, but not in the way either of them actually wanted to be. That meant talking about what’d happened, though. How their lives had changed since he’d come home to find her waiting for him.
She bit the inside of her lip and looked away so the sergeant didn’t see something on her face she had no intention of revealing.
One of his guys came over to talk to him. She was tempted to thank God for that small concession.
Mark’s role in her life had been cemented that day. Her protector, but nothing more than that. He had saved her and she would be forever grateful for it. She would grieve the rest of her life for the way it had colored what was between them, causing it to go bad.
Victoria was destined to go through life never having what she actually wanted.
Her father had been the same. Her grandfather.
Maybe it was genetic. Something coded on her DNA meant she would never realize her dreams. Life would always get in the way and prevent her from having what she longed for.
Family. Love.
Dumb things that didn’t mean anything and yet, at the same time, meant everything.
Seeing each of her team members fall for the person they wanted to spend their life with had only made it all worse. Mark had been shot because of her investigation. Sitting with him in the hospital, she realized how much better she needed to be at segmenting parts of her life. Otherwise Langdon would get Mark on his radar. He would be hurt. There would be no stopping it.
The sergeant’s teammate wandered off and he turned his attention back to her again. “Are you going to let me in on why the secretary of defense suddenly has my personal phone number and is calling me directly?”
Victoria shook her head. “You know who Oscar Langdon is?”
“No. Should I?”
She said, “Are you personally acquainted with any FBI agents?”
He shook his head.
“Then don’t get in the middle of this.” She didn’t want the blood of another person on her hands.
First Pacer. Now Genevieve. Her grandfather was missing, possibly also dead. Entirely possible. She didn’t figure Langdon was keeping him around as leverage. What would be the point when he was also actively trying to kill her?
Victoria rubbed her breastbone with the heel of her hand and looked away. She might be a former spy, but guys like him—special forces types—were trained to spot changes in body language.
“It’s okay to grieve for your friend.”
Apparently he was good at it. “Crying isn’t something that I do.” As much as she might want to sometimes, that wasn’t a dam she intended to break.
Genevieve was gone. But she’d been gone long before that, although to be fair she had been in prison. Her change in status didn’t make much difference to Victoria though. Keep telling yourself that, maybe you’ll believe it. Death was a different kind of prison. One Genevieve would never come back from.
“Are you going to be safe in Washington?” He tipped his head to the side. “Jakeman’s assistance notwithstanding.”
She made a face. “The old man refuses to take no for an answer.” The committee had been her idea, but the day she’d floated it as something she wanted to do, he’d jumped in. Both feet. And decided he was going to head the whole thing, leaving her free to do the ground work.
The sergeant chuckled. “I can tell. His voicemails?” He winced. “Though I’d imagine he’s a good one to have in your corner when you need it.”
She nodded, thinking more of Ma
rk than Jakeman just then. The secretary of defense was her friend, and a man who had her respect. The person she wanted back-to-back with her, fighting to keep each other safe…was Mark.
No change, then.
She glanced aside, realizing she needed to get over this. Despite wanting Mark in her life, and having him, she just wasn’t satisfied. Not completely. And in a way, she never would be... unless the situation changed.
The airplane began its descent. Victoria shifted in her seat. She had to bite the inside of her lip to hide the wince. Her side hurt. She’d probably torn a couple of stitches loose. A trip to the hospital would likely be expedient, when all she really wanted to do was go see Bear. Curl up on the couch again so she could sleep away the burn behind her eyes.
Would Mark change her bandages again? Normally she tried to space out the times she needed him like that. Though they seemed to have become more frequent lately. Maybe he would decide it was too much. Tell her he couldn’t help her because he had to concentrate on work right now.
She sucked in a choppy breath and shut her eyes. The airplane hit the tarmac. She swayed in her seat as the pilot pulled back the flaps and they began to slow.
Mark’s face filled her vision. Standing close as he had in the doorway of his home the last time she’d left. His fingers on her face.
It had to be enough.
The click of seatbelts echoed throughout the plane. Victoria was among the first to disembark, quickly realizing they were at an Army base in Washington state. Not too far to drive to Seattle from here, though she wasn’t sure how she would get there. Jakeman must have figured out a plan. Unless she was supposed to stay here for the night.
The moment she stepped off the bottom of the stairs and onto the pavement, she realized what the plan was.
“Mark.”
“Alternatively,” he said, moving toward her. “You could pretend to be happy to see me.”
Relieved was what she was. Not that she’d tell him that. His presence overwhelmed her. It washed over her like a sunrise in Hawaii. Jeans. A T-shirt. He had to have gone home, changed, and then driven out here to pick her up. Was Bear in the car?
It was like she’d always imagined coming home should be. A family waiting. Bone tired, but back with the people you love.
She’d never experienced it. Until now.
The sergeant and his team wandered away. She watched them go, shooting her backward glances, and waving to her. Then she turned back to Mark, not really sure what to say. “You’re here.”
With a sardonic shake of his head, he pulled her close and gave her a hug. Loose enough he didn’t hurt her side, but strong enough she rested into it. “Nowhere else I’d rather be.”
He spoke the words close to her ear. For her, and no one else to hear. Victoria squeezed his waist and held on. “Thank you.”
He seemed about to say something, then didn’t. Instead he pulled away and said, “Rough day at the office.”
She was about to fire a quip back. Nothing came out of her mouth. Then, to her consternation, a sob worked its way up her throat.
“Vic—”
She stepped back, lifting her hand. “No.” She cleared her throat. “Let’s just go.”
Disappointment washed over his face. He walked her to his car, neither of them saying anything. When he shut her door, he rounded the hood to the driver’s side and slid in. He inserted the key, then before turning on the engine, he turned to her. “You know what? No.” He tossed the key in the cup holder. “I know your friend died.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to say, “So?” But this was Mark. The one person she didn’t pretend with.
Except you’re pretending with every breath.
They hadn’t been friends. Then again, maybe considering who she was and the kind of woman Genevieve had been, it was possible they’d been the closest thing to friends that each other had back then.
Now she had her team. For all she’d spoken to them the past few weeks.
She had Mark.
“I’m sorry.”
She barely let him finish before she was moving. Victoria touched the sides of his face with shaky hands, leaned in and pressed her lips to his.
Things were just getting interesting when his phone rang. He shifted, enough she was left just breathing. Feeling more bereft than she was comfortable with.
He looked at his watch. “It’s Talia.”
She shifted, moving away. He had to have seen what she couldn’t hide from him on her face, because he said, “Hold that thought for a second, okay?”
She didn’t answer.
His smile said all she needed to know.
Chapter 16
Joint base Lewis-McChord, Washington. Friday 01.30a.m.
There wasn’t time to explain to Victoria that he’d pulled back figuring it was Jakeman on the phone. The secretary had been calling every half hour since he’d told Mark to drive here and pick up Victoria. As in, ordered him to do it. Mark had refused to give the man access to the GPS on his phone, despite him asking for it over and over again.
Mark slid to answer the phone. “Welvern.”
“It’s Talia.”
“Pulling an all-nighter?”
She blew out a breath, audible over the phone connection. “I hadn’t planned to, but I guess.”
“And Mason?”
“He’s here. Asleep on one of the chairs so he can drive me home when I’m done.”
“Good.” That was exactly where Mark would be in the same situation, had it been him and Victoria. When it was the right person, you pulled out all the stops.
Like allowing Victoria to kiss him even though it went against all his resolve. All that determination to keep her in his life, but partitioned, so it didn’t affect everything else. Thereby making him worthless at work and everywhere else. Probably it had been a bad idea, but he was way too tired to figure that out right now. Later he would unpack it and draw his own conclusions.
She hated when he did that, preferring to make her mind up on the fly as she’d been trained to do. But it wasn’t his way.
Mark had to think things through. He needed to figure out how this changed things.
“Anyway, Josh and Dakota checked in a few hours ago,” Talia continued. “I tried to call you, but it didn’t go through.”
“No signal for a while.”
Mark would much rather be still kissing Victoria than having this conversation. He should have ignored the potentially important phone call and just stayed right where he was, even though it would be testing his resolve to stay honorable. Maybe getting interrupted was God’s mercy. A way to remind Mark of what he’d promised.
They both had things that held them back. And not ones that could be solved by a single kiss—even if it had been a very nice one.
“That’s what I figured.” She was quiet for a moment, and he could hear her typing. “They reported Langdon not present at the biker compound. Apparently, the club members are all away at a rally in Oregon. All that was left were one guy and a couple of girls they’d met before. Josh reported they were excited to see Dakota. I guess she saved one of their lives.”
Victoria shifted in her seat. He saw amusement and a twinge of pain on her face in the low light of the car interior. “You think that’s where he is? At this rally?”
“Maybe,” Talia said. “Also, uh…hey.”
Victoria’s face softened. “Hey, Talia.”
“You okay?”
She was quiet long enough Mark wasn’t sure she would reply. Then at the last minute before he could break the silence she said, “I lost an old friend today.”
Mark wanted to kiss her for that. Since they were doing that kind of thing now.
Instead, he reached over and squeezed her hand. She turned hers over and grasped his fingers, not letting go. She looked at the window. “That seems to be happening a lot lately.”
Mark wanted to cry for her.
She was scared. He was realizing it more each time
he was with her. More and more of what she did was characterized by stark fear.
She wanted to bring Langdon down. Herself, without the fallout. Was she likely to keep the intel to herself, shut them all out, and then take off to find Langdon alone? Absolutely.
Mark was beginning to better understand Jakeman’s methodology of keeping her close but still allowing her to do what she thought she needed to do.
“Tell us what else you have, Talia.” He figured she hadn’t only called them because she wanted to make sure they got an update from Josh and Dakota. That could have been sent in an email.
Mostly he figured she was still awake and working because she’d wanted to know the minute Victoria set foot back on American soil, safe and sound.
Mark started the car and began the drive back to Seattle. He figured Victoria would fall asleep on the way. Then he might pull a Jakeman—who’d told a Delta Force team to bring Victoria home by any means necessary—and just drive Victoria to where he thought she should be. It could work.
“Well, instead of following the man, I decided to follow the stuff. It’s different than following the money, but it works sometimes.”
Victoria was the one who said, “And?”
“The explosion at the research facility, there was a microchip stolen. It’s pretty benign tech. Unless…” She went quiet for a second. “You have the know-how to reconfigure its primary functions. In which case it can be made into a weapons guidance chip. GPS to the target. Explosion. Catastrophe.”
“Uranium.”
“No, just a chip.”
Victoria shook her head, even though Talia couldn’t see her. “Genevieve. Before she died, she told me Langdon has uranium.”
Mark nearly pulled the car over. From sixty to a dead stop, in mere seconds. It took all his determination to stay on the road. “He’s making a nuke?”
“Calm down.”
Seriously? “You can’t tell me to calm down.” He glanced at her in the passenger seat. “He could kill thousands, and we have no idea where he’s going to use it. Unless you know.”
Final Stand Page 10