A Sense of Danger

by Jennifer Estep

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I understand. I would do the same thing.”

  And I truly would. If our positions were reversed, and I had been through everything he had, then I would have done whatever was necessary to pry the information out of Miriam, even sacrifice another agent, no matter how I might feel about that person. And it wasn’t just my life that was on the line. Desmond could potentially save dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of innocent lives in the future by eliminating Henrika.

  Desmond stared at me a moment longer, then slowly stepped to the side, moving out of the center of the aisle and once again giving Miriam a clear path to the bullpen exit. More hurt flooded my heart, but I kept my face blank. Desmond had made his choice, and I would just have to figure out some way to save myself.

  Behind me, Miriam relaxed. She knew as well as I did that Desmond was the most dangerous person here, and the one real threat to her escaping.

  “Move,” she muttered in my ear again.

  She shoved me forward, and I had no choice but to start walking. Thirty feet, twenty, fifteen…

  We crept down the main bullpen aisle, getting closer to the exit. Gia, the strike team members, Evelyn, Desmond. No one moved or said anything, although I could almost see the tension hanging in the air like a thick gray blanket, spreading throughout the bullpen and leeching the color out of everything else.

  We kept walking. Still using me as a human shield, Miriam turned me around, so I was facing out toward everyone and her back was to the exit. We were almost to the glass doors when Desmond shifted on his feet and stepped back out into the center of the aisle.

  “Before you go, there’s something I need to say to Charlotte,” he called out.

  “What?” Miriam growled.

  Desmond’s gaze locked with mine. A wry smile curved the corners of his lips, and his eyes flashed a bright silver-blue.

  Danger-danger-danger.

  “Fuck the mission,” he snarled.

  Desmond snapped up his gun and fired.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Desmond

  Miriam’s head jerked back, and she dropped like a stone, dead before she even hit the floor.

  Charlotte staggered away. She was clear of the cubicles, and her momentum took her all the way over to the wall at the front of the bullpen. Charlotte caught herself before she slammed into it, then turned around and put her back to the wall, as if she needed something to help support her.

  I knew the feeling.

  Gia started barking out orders, telling the strike team to make sure Miriam was dead, but I ignored the commotion and strode forward. I only had eyes for Charlotte.

  I was by her side in seconds. “Are you okay?” I asked in a low voice.

  She stared at me, her blue eyes wide, and her aura sparking, crackling, and flickering with emotion. Miriam’s blood had spattered all over her bruised face, making Charlotte look like she was the one who’d been hurt. My heart twisted in my chest. I had come so very close to losing her that it took my breath away.

  I wanted to reach up and wipe the blood off her face, but I didn’t dare touch her, not even to do that. Once I started, I didn’t know if I would be able to stop, even though I was painfully aware of Gia, Evelyn, and everyone else watching us. Instead, I settled for bracing my hand on the wall beside her and stepping in just a little closer, so I could better feel her energy, her aura, pulsing all around me, so that the lizard part of my brain would know she was still alive, still here with me, and not lying dead on the floor like Miriam was.

  Charlotte stared back at me. Her shock wore off a bit, and her face creased with confusion. “Why did you do that?” she whispered. “You should have let Miriam drag me out of here. You should have waited until she let her guard down, and then found a way to disarm her, to take her alive. So why did you just shoot her like that?”

  Because I couldn’t risk losing you, I thought.

  But I couldn’t tell her that. Not with everyone watching. Even if they hadn’t been watching, I still don’t know if I could have said the words.

  “We can talk later,” I said. “Right now, I just want to stand here with you. Okay?”

  Charlotte seemed startled by my confession, and her aura flickered again. “Oh,” she whispered. “Okay.”

  And so we stood there, both of us against the wall, staring into each other’s eyes, with so many unspoken words hanging in the air between us, while the rest of the Section agents swarmed through the bullpen.

  * * *

  Two hours later, I was sitting in Gia’s office on the fifth floor. The strike team members were still up on the third floor, cleaning up the mess that had been left behind from the fight.

  I had been sitting here for the last thirty minutes, alternately listening to Gia chew my ass out for disobeying a direct order by killing Miriam and explaining to her why I hadn’t gone to London as planned. Evelyn was perched in the corner of the room, scribbling down notes on a legal pad.

  “You should have told me you thought Charlotte was up to something,” Gia said.

  I shrugged. “I didn’t know exactly what Charlotte was planning, but I wanted to let it play out. I trusted that she knew what she was doing, and it turns out I was right to trust her. Charlotte got you the Grunglass Necklace and exposed two moles. I would say that’s a big win for Section.”

  Gia’s eyes narrowed, and she rocked back in her chair. She was still pissed at me, especially for disobeying her, but she couldn’t deny that Section had come out ahead tonight, thanks to Charlotte’s scheme.

  The door opened, and Charlotte stepped inside the office. She’d showered and changed out of her ruined waitress uniform and was now wearing her usual cardigan, T-shirt, cargo pants, and sneakers. She took the seat next to mine. I stared at her, and she looked right back at me. Together, we both turned to face Gia.

  “Well, you two have made quite a mess of things,” Gia said. “Ms. Locke, do you care to explain yourself?”

  Charlotte sucked in a breath and told Gia almost everything that had happened over the past few weeks. How we had been attacked by cleaners twice, how she had figured out that Trevor and Miriam were working together, and how she had come up with a plan to get them to expose themselves and clear her name. Charlotte left out a few pertinent details, though, such as the fact that Gabriel had stolen the necklace from the hotel and that he had drained Trevor’s and Miriam’s secret bank accounts.

  When she finished, we all fell silent, absorbing her words.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about Trevor?” I asked.

  “I didn’t know if you would believe me,” Charlotte replied in a soft voice. “Especially since I didn’t have any real proof. I also knew how close you were to Trevor, and I couldn’t take a risk on you confronting him.”

  She was right. If she had told me, I would have gone straight to the bastard’s office and started hitting him until he had told me what I wanted to know. And then we probably never would have killed Anatoly or exposed Miriam.

  I nodded, telling her I understood, and some of the tension eased out of Charlotte’s face.

  She looked at Gia again. “As for people taking matters into their own hands, I think we should ask Evelyn about that. After all, she’s the one who set me up with Desmond in the first place. Then again, I suppose such things are part of her job.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean? What does Evelyn have to do with anything?”

  Charlotte shrugged. “Evelyn is Maestro.”

  Shock jolted through me. “What?”

  She gestured at Evelyn. “She’s Maestro, the puppet master who pulls our strings. Yours, mine, Gia’s, and everyone else’s here at the D.C. station.”

  I thought that Evelyn might deny it, but instead she quit scribbling notes and leaned back in her seat, and Gia went very still behind her desk. Evelyn gave Charlotte a cool, assessing look, and I realized it was true.

  “You’re the head of the D.C. office?” I asked.

  Evelyn nodded. �
��I am. And I would like you to keep that fact to yourself. Not even your father knows who I really am, and I would prefer it remain that way.”

  My mind spun, trying to make sense of everything.

  Evelyn looked at Charlotte, a wry smile creeping across her face. “How did you figure it out?”

  Charlotte shrugged again. “Everyone knows about my father and his history with Section, but people forget that my grandmother worked here too. Grandma Jane was an analyst, like me, and she told me all sorts of things about Section. But she tended to say one thing more than others.”

  “What was that?” Evelyn asked.

  Charlotte grinned. “Always be nice to secretaries and janitors, especially Evelyn.”

  The older woman snorted. “I always thought Jane knew my secret, although I could never really tell for certain.”

  “My grandmother never revealed your secret to me. As for how I figured it out? Well, it was a lot of little things,” Charlotte replied. “You knew Desmond’s name the first day I asked about him after he came up to me in the cafeteria. Nobody at Section even realized he was in town yet, but you already knew exactly who he was. Then there was the fact that my keycard wouldn’t work when I tried to leave Section the next day. At least, it didn’t work until after Desmond showed up in the lobby. You delayed me so he could follow me home. You’ve been subtly pushing us together this whole time. You knew there was a mole inside Section, and you wanted us to work together to figure out who it was.”

  Evelyn let out a small, pleased laugh. “Guilty as charged. Your grandmother always told me you were even smarter than she was. Seems like she was right about that.”

  Gia scowled. “A little too smart for her own good, for Section’s own good. You almost got yourself killed tonight, Charlotte.”

  “It was an acceptable risk to clear my name and expose the moles,” she replied. “I just wish we could have pried more information out of Miriam about Henrika Hyde and the Syndicate.”

  Charlotte shot me a regretful look.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “You were right when you told Trevor there was no place he could hide where I wouldn’t find him. The same will be true for Henrika and whoever else works for the Syndicate.”

  “And everyone else at Section will make sure of that,” Gia said in a grim voice. “We will hunt those bastards down and put them in the ground for killing our agents and staging that attack at the hotel.”

  The harsh promise in her voice rang through the office.

  “So what happens now?” Charlotte asked.

  Gia glanced at Evelyn, who nodded.

  “First, we clean up the mess that Trevor and Miriam left behind, see how deeply their betrayals went, and figure out how many more moles there are, along with how badly our operations have been compromised,” Gia said. “In the meantime, the two of you will be extensively debriefed over the next few days. But for right now, we’re done. Go home, and get a few hours’ sleep. I expect you both back in the building at nine a.m. sharp.”

  Charlotte and I both nodded and stood up. We left the office and walked through the empty bullpen. I jerked my head, and Charlotte followed me over to the dead-spot alcove.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I’m fine, thanks to you.” She smiled, although the expression quickly faded away. “Thank you for saving my life.”

  “You saved your own life. You’re the one who exposed the moles.”

  “But you kept your promise. You were my bodyguard, all the way to the end.” She hesitated. “I know how hard it must have been for you to kill Miriam. Henrika was just as involved in the Blacksea mission as Anatoly was. I know how much you want to make her pay for what happened to you and Graham and everyone else.”

  “Henrika won’t be able to hide for long. I’ll get her eventually.”

  Charlotte grinned. “Truth.”

  I grinned back at her, and we stood there, staring into each other’s eyes. Charlotte stepped closer to me. I reached out with my power, once again drinking in the beautiful blue of her aura.

  “Desmond, I—”

  “What are you two still doing here?” Gia barked out.

  Charlotte and I both turned. The cleaner supervisor was standing in the hallway, her hands on her hips.

  Gia stabbed her finger toward the elevators. “Go home, and get some sleep. I need you both back here fresh in a few hours. That’s an order. One you shouldn’t disobey if you know what’s good for you.”

  Charlotte gave me a regretful look and headed toward the elevators. After a moment of wondering what might have been, what she might have been about to say, I followed her.

  Our mission was over.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Charlotte

  Three days later, everything had more or less returned to normal. My normal, at least. I was back at my old desk on the third floor, catching up on the work I’d missed during the past few weeks.

  Word had quickly spread through the building that Trevor and Miriam had been the moles, and the dry-erase board had been removed from my desk. The other charmers and analysts actually nodded and smiled at me again, and everyone treated me with an air of respect. I was the current shining star of Section 47, although I knew it wouldn’t last for long.

  I had spent the past three days being debriefed by Gia and Evelyn, as well as writing report after report, detailing all the information I had uncovered about Trevor, Miriam, and Henrika. For once, I was certain that people were actually going to read my work, take it seriously, and give me credit for it, which pleased me more than I would have thought possible. Sometime during all of this craziness, I had realized something important about myself—I actually liked working for Section 47.

  Oh, I still had no desire to be a cleaner like my father, but Jack Locke had been right when he had said Section did important work. The organization and the people who toiled for it might have their flaws, but they did far more good than harm, and I wanted to keep being a part of it.

  So I answered questions and went to meetings and wrote reports. All while trying not to think about Desmond.

  He was in many of the meetings, especially the ones regarding Henrika. Sometimes, he would even sit next to me, but we never had more than a minute alone together. Certainly not enough time to talk about us, or if there even was an us.

  Desmond had his own questions to answer, meetings to attend, and reports to write. We were like two proverbial ships passing in the night, but perhaps that was for the best. It wouldn’t be long before Desmond was sent on another mission, while I would stay here in D.C., and it was foolish to start something that had an expiration date, no matter how much I might want to.

  I also kept my crappy job at the Moondust Diner. I might have paid off my debt to Gabriel in full, but I still needed money to replace everything I’d hocked. Not to mention the new waitress uniforms I needed to buy, since I’d gotten so many covered with blood over the past few weeks.

  I was two hours into my usual shift when the diner’s front door opened. My head lifted, and my heart leaped up into my throat, hoping it was Desmond, but Gabriel strolled through the door and took a seat in his usual corner booth.

  My heart deflated like a popped balloon. Of course, Desmond wouldn’t come here. He probably never wanted to see this place again.

  I sighed, but I grabbed Gabriel’s usual piece of pie—apple, tonight—along with one of the coffeepots. I placed the pie plate on the tabletop and filled his cup before sitting down in the booth across from him.

  Gabriel took a couple of bites of pie and a few sips of coffee before getting down to business. He scanned my body, then leaned to the side, looking at my legs. “No white tights tonight? Isn’t that against the strict dress code?”

  “I ruined all the ones I had, and I haven’t had a chance to buy any new pairs yet.”

  He grinned. “I bet Zeeta loves that.”

  I glanced over at the owner, who was sitting behind the cash register and scowling at me as usua
l. “Yeah. Zeeta has threatened to fire me multiple times, especially since I didn’t show up for work while Section was interrogating me. But we’ve been too busy the past few days for her to actually go through with it. Well, that, and I think she actually likes glaring at me.”

  Gabriel chuckled. “Well, despite the missing tights, you’re looking good, Charlotte. Much better than the last time I saw you. A lot less stressed.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, you might say that. Then again, after being attacked multiple times and interrogated by Section, ignoring Zeeta’s nasty looks is a whole lot easier than it used to be. Besides, I finally settled my debt to you. That has been a huge weight off my shoulders.”

  “Speaking of that, this is for you.” Gabriel reached into his pocket and slid a small flash drive across the table to me.

  “What is it?”

  “A bank account in your grandmother’s name that you can access. When I checked it this morning, there was one million, three hundred thousand, thirteen dollars, and eighty-four cents in there.” Gabriel grinned. “I know how you like to be precise about such things.”

  I rolled my eyes at his teasing, but I didn’t have to ask where he’d gotten the money. It had obviously come from what he had drained out of Miriam’s and Trevor’s accounts. Still, the longer I looked at the flash drive, the more shock bubbled up inside me, along with a sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time—hope.

  I shook my head. “I gave that money to you. To settle my debt and for the risks you took stealing the necklace.”

  “You’re the one who found the money, so I’m giving you what you earned.”

  I frowned. “Why?”

  He shrugged. “You like to be precise, and I never take more than I’m owed. Besides, you’re the one who did all the hard work of planning the heist and dealing with the aftermath, so you should reap most of the rewards.”