by Julia Bright
The next morning she and Jackson headed to the Denver airport. She’d almost told Jackson she loved him the night before, but she wanted to wait to make sure her mind was right. They were staying in a hotel close to the FBI headquarters. She knew about an awesome Italian place where they ate the most delicate pasta. Jackson looked satisfied. After dinner, they walked over to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Maybe it wasn’t the most romantic place, but she couldn’t wait any longer.
“I know the last few weeks have been difficult.” She stared up into his gaze, her heart speeding up.
“You were abducted, I think it’ll be difficult for a while.”
“Having you around helped.” Her heart sped up as she thought of how wonderful he’d been.
“I like being with you.”
“You said you loved me—”
“I do.”
“I love you too.”
Jackson pulled her close, still gentle with her, and brushed his lips over hers. “I love you very much, Marissa. We’ll take this slow, but I really want you with me at the ranch all the time.”
She nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that. I want it too. I love being out there.”
“Good, because I really like having you close.”
His kisses were sweet, and her heart swelled with love. This was what she’d been searching for. Jackson was everything. After a moment, they wandered back to the hotel, talking about various buildings and DC in general. He made love to her that night, slow and sweet. She craved fast and hard, but her ribs still ached. This man she’d found was amazing. She never wanted anything to come between them.
While she headed to FBI Headquarters, Jackson said he would tour the city. She wanted to go with him, but she had to talk to the FBI, eventually. Stepping into the headquarters made her a little queasy. The activities on the ranch would be highly frowned upon, but Adam and Jackson were making a difference. No question, the people she’d be talking to today didn’t want to know anything about the activities at the Ranch.
“Agent Edwards,” someone said to her left.
She turned and noticed a woman dressed in a black pants suit. “Hello, I don’t think I’ve met you.”
“I’m Janice Smith. I work with Director Black. We were torn up about Agent Michaels and your abduction. I know what happened was terrible.”
“It was.” She’d debated about wearing a wig, but she wanted these people to see exactly what she’d gone through. Her hair was coming in, but the cuts had scarred over, preventing hair from growing in places. She looked terrible. Most of the bruises had faded, but they were still visible.
“This way. We have breakfast set up in the conference room. The director would like to speak with you, and we’ve scheduled a session with a counselor. You’ll be able to talk about what happened.”
“Thank you.” She needed to tell them she really wasn’t coming back. This extended leave of absence would be prolonged. No way could she work again, not for a long while, and even then, she’d never be able to go back to the FBI, not after what she’d been through and what she supported at the ranch.
“Did you enjoy your week in Wyoming?” Janice asked.
Marissa knew enough to say nothing specific about the ranch. “It was nice.” She’d not thought before about how it would look her going to the ranch where the people Hardy was investigating lived. It made a little sense her visiting Jackson since she’d rescued his brother… maybe.
“Here we are. Director Black will be in shortly. Please eat and relax.”
“Thank you.”
She moved to the wall of windows staring out at the city below. The Capitol building sat at one end of the mall. Laws to keep Americans safe were supposed to be made there, but it seemed like more and more the laws were created to protect only one class of people.
After a few minutes, the delicious scent of food was too much. She went over to the long sideboard to see what they’d brought in. She hesitated, wondering if the director would be angry if she had already served herself food. Then again, she didn’t know how long he would be.
She poured herself a cup of coffee first, setting it on the table at what looked would be her spot since her name was on a placard. Usually, she wouldn’t take a pastry, but she took two since most of her clothes were too loose like the pants she wore today were held up with a belt wrapped tight.
When she was almost finished her meal, the door opened. She turned to see Agent Hardy step in. Her stomach twisted her he gave her one of his greasy smiles.
“Agent Edwards imagine my surprise when I heard you were staying with Kelsey Brantley and Adam Whitney.” Hardy stopped at the coffee urn and pour a cup. After he took a sip, he picked up a pastry, taking a bite and moaning. “These are amazing. Do you know they special order these in? They aren’t for just anyone, it’s what Director Black and his friends get.”
“You realize it’s a free country,” Marissa said.
Hardy set the cup of coffee down a little too hard, and liquid splashed out one side. “You realize there are laws. Laws that were made for a reason.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her heart hammered, and her head spun. She wasn’t up to speed and couldn’t deal with the pressure.
“Ha, you do know, and I will take you all down. It will be nice to see your cunty face rubbed in the muck while everyone knows you and your friends are nothing but a bunch of two-bit vigilantes. I’ll make sure that bitch and your friends serve time in jail.”
His threat directed at Kelsey pissed her off. She sure as hell wouldn’t allow this fucker to separate Kelsey from her baby.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but—”
Hardy bent at the waist and his face right in front of hers. “I’ll make you a deal. Don’t go back there, and I’ll drop it. But we have a photo of a guy going into the restaurant where Zaeim was killed. It’s Adam. I’ll press until I have him behind bars, Kelsey too. All you have to do is drop Jackson as your boyfriend and Kelsey stays free. Oh, and I know she’s pregnant. How do you think that baby will feel knowing you could have prevented her from being ripped from her mother’s arms?”
Shock coursed through her. Her voice hung in her throat. Hardy spun around and headed to the door as it opened, and Director Black stepped in.
“Agent Hardy, I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“Oh, I was just checking on Agent Edwards. We were at the Academy together.”
“Ah, well, she’s a tough cookie.” Black patted Hardy on his back as he left the room. “Agent Edwards, I’m so glad you escaped. We’re devastated that Agent Michaels didn’t make it.”
She drew in a deep breath, trying to steady herself. The coffee and food she’d consumed earlier sat heavy in her stomach. With the threat from Hardy, it all threatened to come up.
“So, Agent Edwards, did you get some food?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“We want to discuss what happened in Morocco. How you got free. How you knew where to go.”
The way Black was talking, made her think he was suspicious of her story. “I’m not sure exactly what happened before the door to the room I was being held in opened. The Spanish woman, Lisa, set me free.”
“So can we go back, when you were taken, did they know who you were?”
“Yes.”
“So the abduction, it was planned, is that your understanding?” Black seemed to be interrogating her. She hated how it felt. Like she’d done something wrong by being abducted.
Remaining calm was her best strategy. If she allowed her emotions to flow, she’d mess up. She pushed away the anger and focused on keeping her story clean.
“From what I gathered, yes, it was planned.”
Black nodded and wrote something down. “Were your locations broadcast by anyone.”
“No.” She had to remain strong. If anyone found out Adam and Jackson had entered Morocco to rescue her, Hardy would have ammunition to take them down.
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“So the house you were in, how did you get there?”
“I have no clue, sir. They knocked out me, and I woke up in the room.”
“So you didn’t know where you were?”
“No, sir. I had no clue where I was.”
“When you left the house, how did you all know where to go?”
“I mentioned Rabat and the young man from Morocco directed us. He knew the roads that would take us there.”
“How did he know the roads?” Black asked.
“Have you looked at a map of Morocco?”
Black shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand your question.”
She turned to Janice and tried to smile. “Could you pull up a map of Morocco?”
“Sure. We’ll display it on the monitor at the front of the conference room.”
Marissa stood and ambled over to the map, trying to emphasize her injuries. She pointed to Rabat and followed along one of the routes she was sure they’d taken.
“I was in the back seat, but I know we drove along here. We were in the van for hours. I don’t know exactly how long, but we dove and drove and drove some more. This country isn’t as large as the United States. There aren’t a bunch of roads. We worked our way from somewhere out here, to Rabat. That is how we got there.”
“So you don’t know the location where they held you.”
“Sir, I don’t understand why you are asking these questions. I was abducted and held against my will. I’m glad Lisa killed the guy who held us. I have no clue where we were, how long I was there, or how we found our way to Rabat, I’m just glad we did.”
“Okay. So you didn’t have help from anyone else?”
She moved back to her seat, feeling like she was under investigation. “Who would have helped us? They were planning to sell me to the highest bidder.” She slipped into her seat, grunting before adjusting to make herself more comfortable. “The plan was—”
Black leaned forward, his eyes getting wider. She hated that he thought she would reveal some plan she’d come up with. She lost a little respect for the man.
“The guy holding me told me the plan was to use me as a sexual slave for whoever bought me. They wanted to draw it out, make me regret being an FBI agent by humiliating me for years. They would have used me as a whore, my body would have been beaten. My life taken away so I could be some jerks plaything. With all due respect, sir, I don’t really give a shit how we got from point A to point B. All I cared about was getting out of there.”
Janice’s mouth hung open, and Director Black sat back, his fingertips touching as he stared at her.
“We’re just worried about you. It seems like Agent Hardy got a bug in his ear that the people you are staying with have been doing illegal activity.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Sir, I’ve been staying with Reginald Jackson, his brother, Randy, was abducted and held in Italy. I met Reg in Denver and was with him when I found out someone had abducted his brother.”
“How did you meet him?”
“I was on vacation, spending the week with friends.”
Black sat forward, his brows knit together. “It’s a little odd that you, an FBI agent out of Spain, would run into a guy whose brother was abducted in Barcelona.”
She didn’t say anything. It was odd, but her life had been made up of strange things, like driving through Morocco and being abducted.
“So his brother being abducted, how did that play out? Any chance this Reginald Jackson character had anything to do with his brother being taken?”
The shock of his words almost made her gasp. She narrowed her gaze at the man, wondering how far Hardy was willing to push his vendetta against her.
“It was a very weird coincidence me being with Jackson the night he found out someone had abducted his brother, but I don’t know where you’re going with your line of questioning. You do realize how many people are abducted across the world on a daily basis. The FBI has Human Trafficking Task Force and an awareness month. We believe almost a million people are trafficked each year. That’s over two thousand a day on average. I’m actually surprised I haven’t been in the room at the same time as someone found out someone took their loved ones. Do you have any idea how many abduction cases I work each year?”
Black sat up straighter, his lips turned down in a frown. Maybe she’d angered him, she didn’t care anymore. Hardy was going after the people she cared about, and he was feeding dangerous information to Black. If she didn’t stop Hardy now, she might not be able to later.
“I think you should stick around here for a while. Take a desk job,” Black said.
She wanted to tell him, no, but one thing she’d learned about life in the FBI was to keep her friends close, but her enemies even closer. She’d taken the desk job, but in the time she was here, she’d figure out what Hardy had on them and find a way to stop him.
She knew Jackson too well. If she didn’t get him out of town, he’d try to defend her. There was no way she could allow Hardy to meet with Jackson again.
Dread filled her after leaving the FBI office. Once back in the hotel room, she checked her things for a bug, sure enough finding one on her jacket, and one in her purse. She wasn’t sure when they’d been deployed, but she wasn’t surprised.
Jackson entered the hotel room, and she had her bags by the door. Pain filled her, and she hated herself for what she was about to do.
“Hey darling, how did your interview at the FBI go.”
“I’m starting work tomorrow at headquarters.”
Jackson froze. “Wait, what?”
She fought the tears threatening. “I’m staying here. I’ll send someone to pick up my things from the ranch. We’re over.”
Shock passed over Jackson’s face. “Why? This doesn’t make any sense.”
“My life is the FBI. End of story.”
“Is this because—”
Panic surged, and she cut him off. “It isn’t about anything other than my love for the FBI. Goodbye.” She turned to open the door, but he was on her, his body pressing her against the solid wood.
“I don’t understand. Stay, and we can work this out.”
A sob threatened, but she forced it down. “I can’t. Goodbye.”
She shoved back, and Jackson let go, allowing her to walk out the door. Pain took over, and she barely made it to the elevator. Her body shook with sobs as she made her way outside to find a cab waiting. She wasn’t sure where she would go, but she couldn’t stay here.
“Where to?”
“Take me to the Watergate.” It was the only place she could think of on such short notice. While she was in the cab, she searched the FBI housing site for temporary housing in DC. Jackson was blowing up her phone, and every text made her that much angrier at Hardy. Her heart hurt because she couldn’t talk to Jackson. There wasn’t any chance her phone wasn’t being traced, Jackson’s too for that matter.
Hardy had convinced Black they were doing illegal shit, and they were. But Hardy was an asswipe, and she wanted to shut him down. Marissa found a location to stay outside of DC. She put in her request just before the taxi dropped her at the Watergate. The bellhop wanted to help her with her bags, but she refused and moved to the lobby to arrange for a car to her new location.
A phone rang in the lobby next to a couch. No one picked up the line, and the phone stopped ringing. An idea formed. Marissa had the burner phone numbers they’d used before. No one in the FBI knew about their burners. She’d dropped the FBI’s bugs on the street before getting in the cab. She laughed that they weren’t able to listen in on her conversations. She moved to the phone and dialed the burner, waiting for it to be picked up. On the eighth ring, she was about to give up when she heard it click.
“Hello?” It was Adam.
“Something happened. Don’t say my name. Tell him I’m sorry. I’ll be in contact when I can.”
“You can’t lead with that. I have too many questions.”
; “I’m okay. We’re all bugged. Make sure everything is in order, and nothing is out of place.”
“Shit,” Adam said.
“Clean up everything. I mean everything.”
Marissa hung up, worried she might have already been too late in notifying Adam. She had a bad feeling that something was going to go down. Her heart ached for Adam and Marissa. They were doing a few illegal things, but the work they were doing was good. Hell, it might be the best thing this country had going for it.
She arranged a car, hating herself for destroying Jackson. Her actions may have ruined any chance she had with the guy, but she couldn’t risk Kelsey and Adam being convicted. If Hardy went after them hard, he may find evidence of their attack on the pedophile in Colorado or the other guy they’d just taken down. What if there were more? No, she had to stay strong and defeat Hardy for all their sakes.
22
Jackson had no clue what had happened. He tried calling Marissa and texting her, but she wouldn’t answer. She hadn’t blocked his number yet, but she might soon. God, what the fuck had happened.
He packed his shit, tossing everything together. Doubt and worry filled him. They’d had a great evening. She’d told him she loved him, and now this. It made little sense.
What if she really didn’t want to be with him? He had to find her, but he had no clue where to start. DC was huge. Hell, where would he stay? This room was on the FBI’s dime. He couldn’t stay here.
Horror washed over him. They hadn’t checked the room for bugs. God, had they said anything at all about their illegal activity? Could she be doing this to protect them?
His phone buzzed as he stepped into the hall. He checked the caller ID, disappointed to see it wasn’t Marissa. “Hey, Adam.”
“Get a burner.” Adam hung up without saying anything more.
Fuck, now he knew something had gone wrong at FBI headquarters. The first place he’d stop would be a store that sold untraceable phones.
His anger had turned to worry. Marissa had taken this on by herself instead of asking for help. That pissed him off. Didn’t she know him well enough? But how could she know him? They hadn’t been in a relationship for that long. They were strangers even though he felt like they should be together forever.