by CJ Lyons
“Rose?” EZ asked. “Did that help?”
No. No, no, no. Grigor. Here. Now. No. Couldn’t be.
She blinked the room back into focus, and then dragged in a breath. “Yes. Thanks, EZ, that was a big help.” She stumbled from the kitchen and down the short hallway. “I’d better grab my gear.”
Once in her bedroom, the size of a monk’s cell and furnished just as sparingly, she closed the door firmly behind her and sank onto the bed. Pulled her knees to her chest and curled up in a fetal position, her fist balled into her mouth, as nineteen days of torment shrieked through her mind, swamping her defenses like a tsunami.
Chapter 10
As Billy drove his Audi TTS convertible down the wide and winding roads of the Potomac Country Club, he wondered why anyone would want to live out here, barricaded behind steel gates and armed guards, rattling around in big houses, no neighbors in sight past the mature maples and pine trees surrounding each property. What was the point of working in a vibrant city like DC if you were going to spend most of your time commuting to and from your job, coming home to a golf-course designer’s fantasy?
The folks ensconced behind the brick walls of their mini-mansions had no idea about the reality of life for 99% of Americans. Yet they were the ones with the money and power to dictate that reality.
He shook his head as he passed his father’s empty house. Dad and his stepmother, wife number three, were vacationing in Corfu. They’d be home next week, long enough to exchange suitcases for a trip to Paris.
And Dad wondered why they had nothing to talk about when they did see each other.
He sighed and focused on his strategy for tonight’s dinner with Susan. He didn’t like this sudden shift in their relationship. He was far more comfortable with Susan as an ally protecting the Team rather than a romantic interest.
How to dissuade her without hurting the Team? Or condemning Rose?
Maybe it was a good thing he’d grown up with the pomp and circumstance that came with living out here among the rich Beltway movers and shakers. Combine that with his Delta training and the good senator didn’t stand a chance.
He parked the Audi and walked up the steps to ring the bell. Usually, Susan’s maid answered the door, but tonight the senator opened it herself.
Instead of the designer clothes he was used to seeing her in, tonight, Susan Payne wore faded denim jeans and an oversized sweatshirt, her hair pulled back into a simple ponytail. Instead of the forty-year-old rising political star he knew she was, she could have passed for a college student.
“Come in.” She led him through the foyer to the dining room. Carryout Chinese containers were scattered across the sideboard, contrasting with the silver-rimmed Limoges china stacked there. On top of the dining room table, an elegant Queen Anne mahogany affair that could comfortably seat twelve, were stacks of folders marked Top Secret. Susan’s laptop was open, ready for her.
He paused inside the doorway. He’d expected some kind of intimate dinner—been prepared to fend off her advances even. But she’d surprised him.
“I should apologize for my behavior this afternoon,” she said as she handed him a beer. Yuengling Black & Tan at room temperature, his favorite. “I didn’t mean to—”
He opened the beer and waved her off before she could embarrass them both. “Don’t worry about it. It’s been a difficult day for everyone.”
She smiled, and he realized she wore no makeup. He was seeing her without any artifice, nothing hidden. A welcome change after the political games he’d been forced to play all day.
“I meant what I said about wanting to help you and the Team,” she continued. “But I can only do it on one condition.”
Billy tensed. “What’s that?”
She tilted her chin up to meet his gaze. “You can’t share any of what I tell you with Rose. Not until she’s cleared by the NSD and FBI.”
Which could take forever. “Susan, you can’t put me in that position. Rose is my superior. I answer to her.”
“Maybe not for long.” Her forehead creased in a frown. “I’m risking everything by sharing this information with you. I trust you. I can’t trust Rose.”
He bristled at that. “I trust Rose. Isn’t that good enough?”
She shook her head sadly. “No, Billy. It’s not. I’m sorry, but your feelings for Rose—”
“What feelings? She’s my team leader. Of course we’re close—we have to be to keep the Team functioning at peak efficiency. I’m telling you, you have nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing to worry about? Like a bomb almost killing a dozen kids and one of your own people this morning within sight of the Capitol? Nothing like almost allowing the Preacher to murder thousands of innocents? Either you give me your word that you won’t share anything with Rose or you leave. I’m sorry, Billy. I want to help. I really do. But that’s the way it has to be.”
He stared at her a long moment. She was wrong about Rose. He knew it. But he saw the set of Susan’s jaw, the way her lips thinned together, and realized she meant what she said. “You’re asking me to betray my superior officer.”
“No.” She stepped forward and placed her hand on his arm. Her touch was more than professional. It was an offer of more. Not just the information she had, but herself. She looked up at him again, earnest as she pleaded, “I’m asking you to be loyal to your team and your country.”
Why was it, with this beautiful, available woman in front of him, all he could see was Rose? That first night he met her, cheeks dirty, wearing khakis and a simple blouse, hair tousled, eyes bright with firelight…nothing to compare to the stylish beauty before him, yet everything he desired.
His phone rang, breaking the silence. God bless whomever was on the other end, he thought as he slid it from his pocket. “Sorry.” He glanced at the caller ID. Rose. “Have to get this.”
Susan’s lips pursed in a frown, but she nodded her permission. He turned away, trying to mask his relief. She’d offered him a choice he did not want to make. “Price here.”
“Wanted to let you know that KC and I are going out for the night,” Rose said, her voice sounding different than usual. Something was definitely off. “Did you see my email?”
“No, I was in the car, driving out to Senator Payne’s house. What’s wrong? Where are you going?”
“I explained it in the email. EZ found a bio lab outside of Savannah. KC and I are going to do a recon, see if it’s anything to worry about or if we can pass it off to the FBI.”
Sounded reasonable. Except the timing couldn’t be worse. “You do remember that the oversight committee is expecting you to testify tomorrow. And you need to sit down with the FBI and Homeland Security.”
“That’s Rose?” Susan asked. “Remind her that the NSD also needs to speak with her. Unless she wants them to get a warrant and shut down your operations.”
Her voice was pitched plenty loud enough that he didn’t need to relay the message. “I know,” Rose said, her tone bone-weary and distracted. “We’ll be in and out, back in no time. But don’t tell the senator or anyone else where we’re going. I’ve had enough surprises for one day.”
An edge to her voice rang alarm bells throughout his body. He straightened, focused only on the woman on the other end of the line.
“Fill me in.” It was the closest he could come to demanding an explanation with Susan listening.
“I’ll tell you when I get back. Don’t want to interrupt your evening.” She hung up.
Billy stared at the phone for a long moment.
“I guess you made your choice.” Susan turned away, then reached for her laptop and closed it. “I’m sorry, Billy. I can’t help you.”
Billy barely heard her; he was busy redialing. He spun away, holding the phone to his ear as it rang, walking toward the door, his steps anxious against the marble floor of the foyer. As he opened the door, he glanced back at Susan watching him from the dining room archway.
“Billy,” she called across
the space separating them, “be careful. Please. You can’t trust Rose.”
He shook away her warning and sped through the door. Susan meant well, but she didn’t know Rose like he did. No one did.
<><><>
“So explain to me again what all the rush is about?” Chase groused to KC as he tried to get comfortable in the passenger seat of their Jeep Cherokee. Bad enough Jay was suddenly bunking with them in the two-bedroom ranch KC had set up as their safe house, way the hell out near Laurel, but now KC was ditching him on his first night home from the hospital? Rose Prospero better have one hell of an explanation.
“I don’t know, but if Rose says it’s important, then it’s important.”
“You’re just trying to get on her good side because you’re the new kid on the Team.”
“No. I’m trying to be a professional and do my job without whining.” She cut a glare at Chase, jerking her chin to Jay sitting in the backseat, head bobbing as he played a game on his cell phone. “There’s a lot at risk here. More than just saving our jobs.”
He blew his breath out in frustration. Wished he could've been there with Rose this morning on the Mall. Not that KC couldn’t handle herself—she was as good as any Marine on his Recon squad—but he hated being so damned helpless. If there was a traitor on the Team, Chase wanted to be the one to find him, bring him out into the open, wrap his hands around his throat and squeeze the life out of the murdering bastard.
His fantasy was interrupted by the trill of KC’s cell. She hated talking on the phone while driving unless it was an emergency, so he grabbed it from the dashboard charger. Price. Great. What now?
“Palamino’s Pizzeria,” he answered in a fake Italian accent. “We aim to pleez ya with our pizz-a.”
“Right. Because delivering pizza is about the only thing a jarhead like you is good for,” Billy responded, but his heart wasn’t in the quip.
“Still can kick your Delta ass, even with one leg out of service, old man.”
Billy didn’t laugh—definite warning sign. “Rose with you?”
“No, but we just cleared the gate at Andrews. She’ll be waiting—there she is now.” He pointed to Rose standing beside an unfamiliar car, and KC pulled in beside her. “Why are you calling KC’s phone if you want Rose?”
“Two guesses.”
If Rose was ducking Billy’s calls, there was definitely something brewing. “What’s up with this rush-rush op?” Chase asked. “I don’t like it. Maybe we should—”
KC grabbed the phone from him and jumped out of the driver’s-side door. Not fair. It would take him forever to get his damn crutches in place and climb down. He opened his door to start the maneuver, but she was already there, waiting for him.
“No need to get out of the car,” she told him, running her fingers up and down his arm. “Just a sec, Billy.” She pivoted, called to Rose, and tossed her the phone.
“What’s put a bug up Price’s butt?” Chase asked.
“For him and Rose to work out. Ours is not to reason why…” But she couldn’t hide the worried glance she shot Rose.
He settled his palms on her shoulders. “Seriously. I don’t like this. I think you should stay. Let Price go, he’s so worried.”
“He has to deal with the oversight committee and those idiots at the NSD who want to shut us down.”
“Then reschedule the op after we have more intel and more boots on the ground that we can trust. I don’t like you out there with no one to watch your back.”
“Rose has my back, and I have hers.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Or is it the idea of two women alone in the field that you have a problem with?”
“No problem at all with that. As long as my woman comes home safe and sound.” He planted a kiss on her lips as she opened her mouth to protest. “Besides,” he continued, whispering in her ear, “you promised me some mind-blowing welcome-home sex to make up for the wedding night sex we missed. Never did get to use those handcuffs Lucky got us as a wedding present.”
She tousled his hair like he was a little boy but gave him a wink. “Only if you behave yourself while I’m gone.”
He slid his hands down to wrap around her waist and snugged her close. Another kiss, this one threatening to undo him as it resonated to his very core. “You make that awfully hard.”
She laughed at the pun and pulled away to grab her go-bag from the rear of the SUV. Jay jerked up at the sound of the hatch slamming shut, looking around as if surprised that they’d arrived. He hopped out and came around to take the driver’s seat.
“You know how to get back?” he asked Chase as he adjusted the seat. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
Chase sighed. Kid had a genius IQ and the situational awareness of a blind chipmunk crossing a four-lane highway at rush hour. “We get back, we’re having a long talk about security.”
“C’mon, Chase. You and KC, you act like overprotective parents. I’m nineteen, not a baby.”
Why couldn’t the kid understand the danger he might be in? KC had explained to him about the traitor—a traitor who would know all about Jay since his involvement with the Preacher’s arms deal back at Christmas.
“So start acting like nineteen isn’t your IQ,” Chase snapped. KC joined Rose, looking back to give him a quick wave good-bye. Guess the op was still on. He had a bad feeling about it. Rose avoiding Price? There had to be something going on. He tapped his fingers on the armrest, half tempted to “accidentally” fall out of the Jeep and re-injure his leg, anything for an excuse to keep her home safe with him.
But then KC and Rose walked away toward the tarmac with its waiting C-130, and it was too late.
Chapter 11
“I’m a little busy here, Price,” Rose said as she took KC’s phone.
“I looked at the intel you emailed me—it’s about as scanty as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model’s bikini.”
“Hence the need for recon.” Her words were clipped, her mind distracted as she watched KC and Chase kiss. How could she let KC go anywhere near Grigor? She should just go alone. But how could she risk not having a lifeline out if Grigor really was there?
Rose shook her head, overwhelmed. She had so much more to live for than five years ago when Grigor had captured her in Razgravia…and so very much more to lose.
“What?” She’d missed what Billy said. That’d been happening a lot this week. Ever since she realized there might be a traitor inside the Team, she and Billy had been unable to maintain their usual balance, effortlessly filling in the blanks for each other as they juggled the demands of the Team. Now they seemed hopelessly out of step with each other.
“I said, why not let the FBI go in? Lab like that, we can drum up some waste disposal violations or the like.”
Good idea. Logical idea. If it wasn’t Grigor there with whatever bioweapon the Preacher’s people had cooked up for him.
“With the leaks at Justice, we can’t trust any of the federal agencies. And don’t ask me to send some underpaid local sheriff’s department in—they aren’t equipped for this kind of thing and you know it,” she argued.
It was Razgravia all over again. Why hadn’t she seen it before? Because she didn’t want to. She couldn’t go back there. Couldn’t think about that time in her life, and that…monster.
She blew out a deep breath, trying to get past the fear and anxiousness clawing their way through her. With Grigor, everything was planned and organized down to the smallest detail. Including how to bait a trap Rose would never be able to resist.
“Then wait,” he continued. “Until we verify EZ’s intel—you said yourself he couldn’t be ruled out as the mole.”
Right. She hadn’t had a chance to tell him what happened at the parking garage. Just showed how their relationship had been totally disrupted. Any other time, and they would've been online, with Teresa on comms, and he would have heard immediately.
Trust no one, assume nothing had been her mantra while working for the CIA. It had kept her alive.
But it was a hell of a way to run a team.
“I think we can trust EZ.” She filled him in on the shoot-out at the parking garage.
“Shit. Rose, why didn’t you call for backup?”
“No time. And you were at Justice keeping the suits off our backs.”
“Even if the intel is good, I still think this is a trap. Cancel the mission.” He couldn’t help himself that the last came out an order. She knew that. Still, it rankled.
“First, I’m your superior, and you don’t give me orders.”
“And second?” he snapped.
Silence as she closed her eyes to marshal her emotions. If she told him about Grigor, he’d insist on aborting or, worse, going himself. Not going to happen.
“Rose.” His tone was gentle. Not the tone of a second-in-command who thought his leader was making a mistake. The tone of a man who cared. “Why are you lying to me?”
“What makes you think I’d lie to you?” The subtle rephrasing of his question was meant to deflect him.
“I’ll bet you’re standing there right now, a faint smile for KC, a reassuring nod, your posture wide open, no signs of any strain or deception. And you’re acting your sweet ass off.” He didn’t give her a chance to respond. “You can’t fool me. When you lie, when you’re under stress, your voice fades from Technicolor to black-and-white.”
What the hell did that mean? She frowned, turning away from KC and Chase. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Then just tell me what’s really down in Savannah. The truth.”
“A bio lab. Set up by the Preacher’s people. Just like EZ’s intel says.” Silence as he waited her out. He deserved to know that there was a good chance she might not be coming back from this. He had to be prepared to protect the Team. “Grigor. He’s supposed to be there. Today. Now.”