by L. T. Ryan
“First, there really wasn’t anything between us. Yeah, I liked her at one time. And she liked me at one time. You know that. But we were ships that passed on either side of a deadly current. We weren’t meant to be.”
He held his glass in front of him, stared into it, said nothing.
“Also, I wouldn’t have expected you to hold back because she and I didn’t work out. I know you’re not gonna take pity on someone because I’m an idiot. You deserve happiness, big man. If Sasha makes you happy, then that’s great, and I am one hundred percent behind you.”
“That’s good, ‘cause we’re getting married.”
I wasn’t expecting to hear that, but I couldn’t let the shock show in my expression.
“Get out of here.” I smiled and leaned forward. “When?”
“Six months. It’ll be a small thing.” He glanced away, his smile faded. He placed his hand on the top of his head, appeared to wince. “And because of that, I have to turn you down. Let’s have a couple beers and catch up. But then you have to leave.”
I drained the remaining stout from my glass and held it up for the waitress. She came over, took both our mugs and disappeared behind the bar again.
“Am I that transparent?” I said.
He nodded.
“Don’t think I’d be tracking you down and coming out here just to check up on a friend?”
“There’s no way you should’ve found me here. I’m using an alias. Mandy goes to school under an alias. There’s no record of us entering the UK. We’re ghosts, man.”
The waitress returned with our beers and a basket of chips.
“So, how’d you do it?” he asked. “Who’s involved in this? Am I gonna have to pick up and move again?”
“Depends,” I said, popping a couple chips into my mouth. I savored the saltiness for a few seconds. “Frank Skinner is how I found you.”
Shaking his head, Bear stared down at the table. “Working for that son of a bitch again?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Well, I got a fresh beer in front of me. I wanna hear all of it.”
I told him about the day I almost killed Frank. How I looked at Mia, and couldn’t pull the trigger. Afterward, I left her with my brother, Sean, then drifted state to state for a while. Days turned into weeks. Weeks into months. Eventually I found my way to a small place named Texline, Texas. All because the Jeep died. I explained the events that happened there. Seeing Reese McSweeney again and making plans to disappear together. Only thing was someone made sure that didn’t happen.
“So Frank’s guys apprehended me,” I said. “Flew me out of Texas and took me to him. We met in the old SIS building.”
“It no longer exists, right?”
“It never did.”
“You know what I mean, man. It’s officially shut down.”
I nodded. “As far as anyone knows, I guess. It wasn’t like the old building was in use, but Frank still had access.”
“Why?” Bear said, pushing the empty chip basket to the edge of the table. “Why you? Why now? What’s this got to do with me?”
“Katrine Ahlberg,” I said.
He searched his memory, shrugged. “Who?”
“The Scandinavian Princess.”
A memory flashed in his eyes. “Married to that oil tycoon’s kid, uh, Khalid Awad, right?”
I nodded, waited for him to continue.
“They were huge terrorist supporters, and some believed they dabbled themselves. We took care of her.”
“We thought we did.”
He held his glass inches from his mouth, leaned forward. His eyes were wide, and his brow rose up, creating a dozen wrinkles across his forehead. “What do you mean?”
“Did you know Katrine had a twin?”
He rolled his eyes up. “I don’t recall that.”
“Yeah, me either. It’s true, though. I don’t know how we didn’t have this information a decade ago.”
“Let me guess,” Bear said. “The sister’s causing problems now and they want us to take care of her.”
“Kinda.”
“I’m out.” He pushed back from the table, and crossed his thick arms over his chest, his beer still in hand.
“Wait a sec, man.”
“I’m not gonna rehash the past, Jack. This isn’t my battle. Hell, it’s not yours either.”
“We screwed up, Bear.”
He straightened up, set his mug down on the table, lining it up with a previous ring of condensation. “How?”
“We got Birgit. Understand? We took out the twin sister. Blame it on bad intelligence, whatever. Fact is we did it. Afterward, Katrine went into hiding, and eventually resurfaced as her sister. They’re saying that she’s resuming operations. Anonymously, for now. At least, she thinks she’s covering her tracks. Which presents a golden opportunity to Frank and all the other higher-ups who have a lot to lose if this gets out.”
“Christ.” Bear looked like someone had taken a bat to his stomach. “We took out an innocent woman, and a monster still lurks just offshore.”
“Pretty much. And someone’s afraid that the wrong person is gonna find out. And if they do, we’re all dead.”
“Who?”
“I can only guess. It’s really not important, though. This needs to be cleaned up. If it’s not, Frank is gonna do everything in his power to lay the blame at our feet. He already found you once, so I don’t think going into hiding is gonna do any good.”
“We executed orders,” he said. “They can’t blame us for this. There had to be a mole. Someone had to have given her a head’s up.”
“I agree. Frank agrees. Doesn’t mean we won’t be fingered for it. This needs to be taken care of and it has to be done quietly.”
“Shit.” He grabbed the basket and ran a fingertip along the lining, collecting up any remaining salt.
“Agreed.”
“Has to be us?”
“You want to stand trial for treason? Or worse, disappear into a holding cell buried deep in the middle of farmland, never to be heard from again?”
He blinked hard a couple times. “Doesn’t sound appealing to me.”
“Me either.”
We sat there for a few moments. I homed in on the music, some kind of modern folk rock. Hadn’t heard it before.
“How do I break this to Sasha?” Bear said. “She’s not gonna go along with this.”
“Be as truthful as you can without telling her the truth.”
Bear smiled. “Easy for you. You don’t know how her gaze levels me, man.”
I felt bad taking him from his new life. I could’ve managed the job on my own, but with Bear at my side, we were both safer.
“She understands how this all works,” I said. “And she got into this relationship with you knowing full well that you worked with me in the past. She knows what you’ve done. There was always a chance it could come back to haunt you.”
“What’s to stop her from digging in and figuring this out? Damn, man, if she does that, what’ll Frank do?”
“We’ll both talk to her,” I said. “We can make her understand what’s at stake here. It’s in her best interest to lay low and not mention anything about this.”
“I hope you’re right.” He held up his glass and the waitress returned to our table with another round. “Let’s not talk about this anymore. We’ll get started in the morning.”
And with that, Bear was in.
All in.
And so was I.
CHAPTER 10
We stepped outside mid-afternoon amid the bustle of release from school. Parents ushered the kids down the street, from the bakery to the butcher to the deli. Some argued, others laughed. Life carried on no matter what. The constant opening of the deli and bakery doors left a lingering smell on the cool breeze that reminded me of New York. I glanced up at the watery sun, hiding behind a veil of gray clouds. It offered little in the way of additional warmth.
“That’s odd,” Bear said, h
is eyes loosely fixed on the sidewalk.
I took a quick look around without being too obvious. Noticed it, too.
“Ever seen that car before?” I said.
“Nope,” he said.
“Ever seen those men before?”
“Nope.”
“Things like this always happen whenever I show up someplace new.”
“Yep.”
The men could’ve had a thousand reasons to be parked on the side of the road a half-block away from the tavern. Perhaps it had been coincidence that the driver started the engine after we exited the tavern. Maybe they idled there because they waited on a friend, or one of their wives. But they looked even more out of place than me and Bear.
“You trust Frank?”
“Hell no,” I said. “I told you, I would’ve killed him that day had Mia not been present. The son of a bitch has hung me out to dry on more occasions than I care to recall.”
“What’s your feeling here?” Bear stopped in front of a store window. The car stood out in the reflection. “I mean, you think he arranged this to get us both in the same place? Take us out at the same time?”
“It’s crossed my mind.”
“And?”
“He had me in the old SIS building. Alone. He could have killed me there. And disposed of me there. The only people who knew my identity in Texas were either swept away by witness protection, or are now dead. As I sat there in his old office, there wasn’t a soul alive who knew my whereabouts.”
The car pulled away from the curb. Both men stared at us as they drove past. They didn’t go far. A block or so was all before pulling over again. This time the passenger got out and went inside a store.
“And Frank obviously knew where you’ve been hiding out,” I said. “He’s head of the SOG now. He could’ve had someone sitting on you, waiting to take you out when the right opportunity presented itself. My guess is out here that wouldn’t have been too difficult to do.”
“Maybe those guys over there are SOG,” he said, turning toward the sedan, leaning back against the glass.
“Maybe,” I said, mirroring his movements. “But instead, he put us together. He knows as well as anyone that as a team, we’re damn near indestructible.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t feel so indestructible these days.”
“Neither do I,” I said with a quick laugh. “Pain lingers on a hell of a lot longer than it used to.”
“Right. It’s like, why won’t that bruise go away, or that cut heal? I swear, this getting old shit is for the straights, man.”
“Retirement doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.”
“You’d get bored.”
“Have you?”
He nodded. “Sometimes, at least. Mandy and Sasha keep it interesting, though.”
I forced a cough, covered my mouth. “He’s back.”
The guy exited the store carrying a large paper bag. He turned his head toward us for a quick glance. Wasn’t more than a second, but in this case, that was a second too long.
“Let’s move,” Bear said, not waiting for me. The big man picked up the pace and closed in on the car.
What did the guy have in that bag? He could have retrieved a weapon from inside the store, one meant to kill us. Whether Bear had considered that, I had no idea. And I couldn’t leave him to face the situation alone. I sprinted across the street and caught up with him.
The man opened the passenger door, threw the bag into the backseat and managed to get most of his body in as the driver accelerated away from the curb quickly. The guy’s shoe got caught and was pulled off his foot as the tires fought to gain traction on the road. Their high-pitched scream resulted in a pair of black tracks left behind.
Bear knelt down and tossed the shoe to me.
“Fancy,” I said. “Don’t find many spooks wearing shoes like this. In fact, I don’t think I’ve met one, even among the mob guys. No one wants to spill blood on a thousand dollar pair of shoes. Let alone try to run away in them.”
The car was out of sight. Those who had witnessed the scene moved on.
“Who do you suppose they are?” Bear asked.
“Can’t even begin to speculate,” I said. “Maybe someone was tipped off to my presence, though I can’t imagine how.”
“Yeah, right.” Bear looked over at me. Did he trust me anymore? It was a genuine question considering how long we’d been away from each other, and how much his life had changed.
“Like I said, if Frank wanted me dead, he would’ve been better off doing it in that building and not after we were together.”
We maintained a heightened sense of vigilance on the way back to the estate. I repositioned the 9mm for quick access, and gave Bear the .45. As the house drew near, it became clear we weren’t going to encounter the men again unless they were waiting for us inside.
Bear closed and locked the heavy iron gates behind us. They wouldn’t stop someone determined on getting in, but it sure as hell would slow them down and relegate them to approaching on foot.
We stopped in front of the door. Bear leaned against the one on the left, held the handle, but didn’t open it up.
“I don’t know how this is going to go,” he said.
“Probably not well,” I said.
“And we’re gonna have to tell her to leave here for a while,” he said. “I just don’t trust what we saw in town.”
“Agreed.” I glanced back at the road as a white car passed. “Does she have somewhere she can slip away for a couple days?”
Bear nodded. “Let’s get this over with.”
A few minutes later we were settled at the table, with Bear sitting next to Sasha, holding her clenched hands in his. He told her as much as he could, emphasizing that there was no choice in the matter. We had to leave, and so did she and Mandy.
“Hell no, Riley.” Sasha rose, tipping her chair over. It hit the floor with a loud bang. She grabbed her cell phone and shoved it in her pocket.
“Sasha,” Bear said, moving in front of her to stop her from storming off. “I don’t have a choice. We don’t have a choice. Don’t you think if I did I’d tell Jack to pound sand?”
Her cheeks and ears were maroon. Her voice wavered. “Then tell me what you’re going to be doing.”
“You know how this works,” I said. “We can’t do that.”
“I could find out,” she said. “I’ve got more contacts than both of you combined.”
“You do that,” I said, “and you’ll start a diplomatic nightmare that’ll get us all detained and likely killed.”
Bear reached for her hand. “This is it. This is the last time. After this, we can just disappear. Christ, I’ve got the money to make it happen.”
“I don’t want to disappear,” she said. “I like our life here. And besides, you’ve got…”
He brought a finger up, held it between their mouths. They stared at each other without speaking for several seconds. Sasha appeared resigned to the fact that Bear was leaving, and there was nothing she could do to stop him. Having come up through the ranks of MI6, knowing and seeing men who did what Bear and I did, she understood that we couldn’t turn down an assignment. Sometimes, the option simply didn’t exist.
She wrapped her arms around him, placed her head against his chest. “Keep yourself safe. Jack, too.”
“You, too,” he said. “I want you to leave town for a bit. Maybe go to the States until I contact you.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but instead nodded, clenching her mouth tight. She turned and walked away without another word. Bear remained motionless as he watched her disappear around the corner. He knew the risk involved, as did she. And both were aware that could have been their last interaction with each other.
“You OK?” I said.
He said nothing.
“I’m sorry about this, man. Trust me, if there was a way—”
“Just stop,” he said. “Let’s do what we need to do, and then it’s over.” H
e turned to face me. “That includes us.”
Things had changed for Bear. It had been a process that had spanned the past couple years, starting with Mandy. He’d found a normal life, or at least something that would pass for guys like us. Everything had been leading up to this moment between us. We’d had similar conversations in the past, but now his mind was made up. Mine, too, in some ways. It was best for everyone if we went our separate ways after this.
I’d become toxic.
And no one was safe around me.
CHAPTER 11
The steering wheel felt cool in my hand, chilled by the vents that sent streams of neutral, filtered air into my face. We were twenty miles away from the house without a clue as to where we were supposed to go. I figured there’d be travel involved, so London seemed the most appropriate destination. I also assumed that Frank was tracking the vehicle and would wait to contact us until we were sufficiently distanced from Sasha.
Ten minutes later, my phone rang.
“Frank,” I said.
“Jack,” he said. “How’d things go with Logan?”
I glanced over at the big man. He stared out the window, perhaps thinking of everything he’d left behind. The man loved Sasha and Mandy more than himself. Presumably he questioned why the hell he was sitting next to me driving away from them.
“He’s with me,” I said. “It wasn’t easy, but the gravity of the situation isn’t lost on him.”
“Good to hear. Let him know that I’m going to provide every last bit of support I can for you two. Unfortunately, that can only be intelligence, not men. I can’t get any more involved than I already am. They’re watching me non-stop right now. You don’t know the lengths I have to go through to even get a call out to you. No other US agent can help either.”
“Yeah, I got it. You and them, it’d create clutter anyway. Bear and I work best when it’s the two of us.” I saw him nod, eyes still fixed on the green fields beyond the road. “I have to ask you something.”
“OK?”
“We encountered a couple ghouls in town. Dressed nice. I mean, real nice. I’m talking thousand dollar shoes.”
“And?”