And despite all the ways her brain told her not to ever trust anyone again, she couldn’t help believing Reece and his “group” would keep her safe. They’d been too kind. They’d bent over backward to make her feel comfortable, to give Henry something fun to do. To give her the space to make her own choices, such as they were.
Reece had played catch with Henry. Sabrina was currently battling him in some arcade game and they were both laughing. Shay, Elsie and Reece were all looking at her expectantly, but they weren’t demanding immediate answers.
She had no other choice now. She’d thought maybe she could get the protection without the cooperation, and maybe if it had just been Reece, she would have been able to do it. Maybe. But Shay was not going to be swayed by fake tears.
Reece didn’t buy your fake tears, either.
“Todd’s real name,” she croaked, telling them what she’d never told another living soul. “I know it.”
The entire room was silent except for the crackling audio of Sabrina and Henry laughing over a game.
“All right,” Shay said very carefully. “That information will go a long way in helping us sort out our next steps.”
But she didn’t ask, and she didn’t demand. She waited.
Lianna didn’t know why it felt as though that cracked her wide open. She didn’t know why it made her want to confess everything right there. Or maybe grab on to Reece and cry into his very broad shoulders. She wanted, desperately, to fall apart in the way she hadn’t allowed herself to this whole hellish year.
Instead, she swallowed down all those wants, all that pain and all that fear. It took her longer than she would have liked to fight back the tide. But she did it.
Then Reece’s hand slid over her clasped ones in her lap. Big, rough, warm and gentle. There was no pressure here. This was support, because the table between them and Shay hid the action.
Though Lianna wasn’t convinced Shay didn’t see it or sense it or something. The woman was unnervingly perceptive.
Did it matter what she saw? It didn’t mean anything. Nice as Reece was, sort-of kidnapping aside, she was his mission. His assignment.
Which reminded her she had her own mission. Keeping her child safe. She believed these people could help her. She had to believe that.
If they didn’t, if they turned out to be bad, she’d find a way to get Henry out and to safety. She just would. This was a calculated risk, and she could mitigate it, even in telling them, if she never relaxed, never fully believed. If she was always waiting for the other shoe to fall.
Do you want to live that way?
No, of course she didn’t. But Todd hadn’t left her a choice in that matter.
“Charles Jackson. That’s his real name, or the name the FBI think is his real one. Todd Kade was the identity I knew. He may have had more, but... I don’t think he did.”
“Why not?”
There was no way to lie about this and expect help. Not this deep. She had to be completely honest. “I didn’t know Todd’s real name, or that he even had a real name, while we were married. I was fooled, completely. I never suspected...whatever this is. It was only after he died, the way people kept asking about him, that I began to realize something wasn’t right. And the more I was questioned, the more I started to piece together Todd’s lies.”
“So how did you find out his real name if he didn’t tell you while he was alive?”
It was Shay asking the questions, but it was Reece with his hand on hers. He hadn’t pulled it away, and for some reason that settled her, helped her call upon the inner strength she’d had to build since Todd’s death.
So when she spoke, she spoke to Reece. “At first, when the police came and told me Todd had been killed, their questions were... It didn’t make it sound like a burglary. They asked if I knew anyone who might have hurt him or had been threatening him. They thought it was a purposeful, specific-to-him murder in those early hours.”
She didn’t want to relive those awful hours. That spurt of relief, even as the questions had left her more confused than anything. Then telling Henry...
She wanted to remember none of what had happened in San Francisco.
“She gave us the name,” Reece said to Shay. “Isn’t that enough for now? It’s been a long day for her.”
Lianna straightened and shook her head. “No, I want to get it all out. It’s hard to... I’ve never told anyone this. Not anyone. Not Henry, not my parents or grandparents. I kept it all to myself. Always. So it’s hard to...undo that. Keeping it locked down has kept us safe.”
“I understand,” Shay said. “Take your time, Mrs. Kade.”
Lianna winced. “Please stop calling me that. Just Lianna is fine. And I’m fine,” she said to Reece. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Then the FBI got involved. They mentioned that Todd might be involved in something. They asked me questions and I was legitimately in the dark. They seemed to believe me. But day after day, week after week, more men came. At first I thought they were all FBI, but then...” She told herself she’d kept this secret because it had kept her safe, but as an embarrassed flush worked its way up her neck, she realized part of her was trying to save face. Trying to hide how utterly stupid she’d been.
Because it hadn’t just been Todd lying to her. She’d believed every man in a suit who’d come to her door with questions. She’d answered them all, never suspecting anything. Until...
“I moved to Denver, to my parents’ house. My grandparents came to stay with us, too. I thought that would be the end of it. Here I am home. Surrounded by family. Then an FBI agent there wanted to talk to me. Tie up loose ends, he said.” She looked up at Shay. “He wanted me to meet him at a coffee shop, and it took me all that time to realize some of these men—the ones not meeting me at their FBI offices—clearly weren’t FBI. That’s when I knew I couldn’t just say I didn’t know. I had to act as stupid and inept as possible so they’d believe it.”
“Let me guess,” Elsie muttered. “The men fell for it hook, line and sinker.”
Lianna chuckled, though it felt bitter in her throat. “Yeah, the stupider I acted, the less they bothered me. But I thought... I thought the FBI should know that other men were questioning me. I knew Todd was... Well, that he wasn’t involved in good things. I thought maybe the FBI would be able to figure it out and what I told them might help. But I’d been playing stupid for so long, they didn’t really believe me. Oh, they took the meeting, asked a few perfunctory questions, but that was it. Except they had gotten out Todd’s file.”
“Like a paper file?” Shay asked.
Lianna nodded. “It was sitting there between us. Labeled ‘Charles Jackson.’ And I didn’t have a clue who Charles Jackson was at that point. I just figured he grabbed the wrong file because he was that bored. Then he opens it, and there’s Todd’s picture. That’s when it dawned on me.”
“Did you say anything?” Reece asked.
Lianna shook her head. “I kept waiting for him to...say something about it. Or act weird. Or anything. But he was bored. Flipped through a few pages. I didn’t react. I tried not to look once I figured it out. I didn’t want to know. Or knew I shouldn’t know, but I saw some things.”
“Like?”
“His real birth date, three years before he’d told me his was. That he was born in Michigan, not Wyoming.”
Elsie was already tapping away on her computer. “That’s a lot to go on, Mrs.—er, Lianna. A lot.”
Shay nodded, clearly surprised that Lianna had been able to give them so much. Lianna knew she could leave it at that. With a name and a birth date they could maybe figure some things out.
But she knew more. More that might point them in the right direction. She’d decided to be honest. No point in holding back now. “I’m not...finished.”
“You know more?” Shay asked, the unflappable woman seeming a
little bit...flapped.
“There was a list of groups they’d connected Todd to. I didn’t see the full list, but I saw two of the names. And I remember them.”
* * *
REECE PULLED HIS hand away. Clearly Lianna didn’t need his support. Hell, she’d have been better off if he’d never crashed into her life.
She knew all this. But had never told a soul.
Reece slid a look at Shay. Flabbergasted was the only word he could use to describe it. Then her eyes narrowed and met his.
Still, her voice was mild when she spoke. “What were the groups’ names?”
“One was Ripe for Execution.”
“Oh, brother,” Elsie muttered under her breath.
“The other was a series of letters and numbers. I can’t be sure I remembered them in the right order, but the letters were definitely T and K, and the numbers were 29. I only remember because it was his initials and his birthday—at least the ones he told me. Not his real ones.”
“That’s excellent,” Shay said, leaning back in her chair. “Much more than I expected. Thank you. Is there anything else?”
Lianna shook her head. “No. Not that I can think of.”
“We’ll likely have some questions for you once we investigate on our end, but for now, why don’t you go get some rest?”
“Oh. Well. I... Henry’s probably starving. We usually have a snack after the bus, and dinner by—”
“We’ll get that all sorted out.” Shay stood and walked over to the door, opening it to reveal Betty. “Can you show Mrs.—Lianna to the kitchen? Give her a tour, see if she has any special requests?”
“Sure,” Betty said, giving Lianna a friendly smile.
Reece stood. No need to push all that off onto Betty just because there weren’t any medical concerns right now. “We’ve got a whole gym set up in the basement if Henry gets restless. Why don’t I—”
“Sit, Montgomery. We have a lot of things to discuss,” Shay said sharply.
Lianna looked back at him, eyes wide. So, despite his sense of impending doom, he smiled. “A few formalities. I’ll catch up with you and Henry soon.”
Lianna looked at Shay, then back to him, then Betty. She sighed, clearly understanding there was nothing she could do here. She followed Betty into the hallway.
Shay closed the door behind them. Reece didn’t sit. Maybe it was petty, but he wouldn’t sit for the dressing-down he was about to get.
“What I’d like to know is why this woman has a good chunk of the answers we’re looking for and you spent a week with her and didn’t have a clue.” Shay crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the door behind her.
Reece stood, posture rigid, feeling a bit like he was back in the military, without the salute. “She told you. She didn’t share that with anyone.”
“Yeah, your job is to be better than anyone. That’s why we sent you to her inn, Reece. I don’t like knowing you kept things from us.”
“I didn’t...” No point lying. He’d done what he’d done because he thought it was the right way to handle things. “Look, I had a little slipup. I was fixing things.”
“Hardly.” Shay pushed off the door. “You’re off this one.”
“What?” Reece demanded, stepping forward without fully realizing he was doing it. “You can’t do that.”
Shay opened the door and was already stepping out of the room. “I can and I will. Sabrina and Holden will handle her from here on out. You stay out of it. I’ll get you a new assignment.” She started to leave, muttering about how she’d like to send him to Alaska.
Reece had been a member of North Star for over six years now. He had never once ignored or argued with an order. He’d certainly never outright refused one. “No,” he said firmly, and perhaps with a little too much volume.
He could feel Elsie’s eyes on him rather than on the computer like they were supposed to be.
Shay stood stock-still, her back to him. She took a very slow, deep breath before she stepped back in the room and calmly closed the door and turned to face him. Her expression was not calm, but her voice was controlled, if icy. “You took an oath when you signed on to North Star, and part of that oath was following orders.”
“To Granger Macmillan.”
She blinked, the only clue that the statement had hit its mark. “Two years, Reece. Don’t try to play this off as some sort of misplaced loyalty to Macmillan. I’ve been in charge for two years, and you haven’t disobeyed an order the entire time.”
“I haven’t felt the need.”
“You shouldn’t feel the need now. Your loyalty is to North Star, not a woman you just met. If this is some sort of...”
“Let’s not pretend you, of all people, can lecture me on following orders to the letter regardless of personal feelings.”
Shay cocked her head, and this time her surprise was written all over her face. That he’d dare mention the fact she’d gone her own way, against Granger’s clear orders, and more than once.
“You’re right. When I was in your position, I stayed true to what I knew was right when Granger had lost track of it. What was right, Montgomery. Not my own personal feelings.”
“Yeah, well, this is my right.” But he wasn’t handling it very well, and that grated. He’d never...not handled things. He’d never been out of control or made decisions because of emotion. He wished he could back down having realized that. But he couldn’t.
“Lianna and Henry are my responsibility. You won’t take me off this mission.”
Shay’s eyebrows drew together as she studied him. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“No.”
She sighed and then rubbed her hand over her face. Exhaustion seemed to line her expression and Reece felt...guilty. He’d always believed in the party line. In following orders. In letting the leaders lead.
But he didn’t know how to sit back and let Sabrina and Holden handle this when he...when he... “I just care, okay? About them specifically.”
“After a few days?” Shay asked skeptically.
Warranted skepticism. Understandable skepticism. A skepticism he wished he could access. But all he had were these feelings inside of him he couldn’t reason away. “Yeah, after a few days.”
“Caring about someone can be a dangerous liability on an assignment. Trust me.”
“Dangerous liability or not, would you ever let someone else handle something that involved people you cared about?”
Shay didn’t answer that question, but the twisted expression on her face was all the answer Reece needed.
“Fine,” Shay said at last. “You’re still lead. But you have to keep us in the loop. Slipups or no. Anything she tells you, you have to tell us. It’s the only way it works. It’s the only way we end this for them.”
“Even if this group who’s hired us turns out to want to hurt them?”
“Especially then. North Star won’t be used to hurt people,” she said vehemently. “Not as long as I’m in charge.”
“All right. I’m going to go help them with dinner.” He turned to Elsie. “I want whatever you find, whenever you find it. Everything on him, on those groups, no matter how inconsequential.”
Elsie’s lips twitched. “Sure thing, boss.”
“I’m not the boss,” he muttered, stalking away from her and past Shay.
“Remember that, huh?” Shay called after him, but she smiled at him, making it clear she was sort of joking.
Which was a nice way to end things that had been tense there for a minute. But he’d said things he maybe shouldn’t have, or at least shouldn’t have used as weapons. He didn’t want to let that sit on his conscience. “For what it’s worth, you’ve done a hell of a job since Granger. I haven’t doubted you once, and I doubted him a time or two.”
Shay stood completely
still, as if shocked by his words. Hell, she probably was. He wasn’t one for compliments or any sort of heart-to-hearts. Admitting he cared about Lianna and Henry and then telling her she was a good leader were two very un-Reece-like things to do in a short period of time.
But eventually she nodded. “Thanks. Now let’s wrap this up so your friends can go home.”
It was Reece’s turn to nod and walk away, and try not to think too deeply about this being over, with Lianna and Henry back home and Reece...
Here. Alone.
Just like you were meant to be.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The kitchen was overwhelming. About three times the size of her kitchen at the inn, and twice as stocked.
Betty was a kind, quiet soul. Lianna couldn’t figure out how she fit in around here, but she was grateful for her calming presence as she showed them their options for food.
“Why is everything so healthy?” Henry whined.
Betty chuckled even as Lianna was embarrassed Henry would complain about free food and free safety.
“We do keep it pretty healthy around here, but I have the makings for a PB and J or a grilled cheese.”
“You really don’t have to. I can make food for us. It doesn’t feel right having you fuss over us when...” Lianna trailed off, not sure how to put to words what this whole situation was.
“I know it must feel awkward, especially since you’ve been pulled into something against your will, but the whole purpose of this place is to help. That’s why we’re here. Whether that means out in the field or making a grilled cheese.”
Reece appeared in the kitchen, so quietly Lianna nearly jumped. Her heart thumped against her chest and she told herself it was nerves. Now he knew everything. Now what would happen?
But there was a flutter in her chest, underneath all that thumping, which spoke of a completely different feeling than nerves and worry.
“I can take it from here, Bet.”
Betty nodded at Reece. “I’m around for the next few days. Let me know if you need anything.”
Harlequin Intrigue May 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Page 28