A little after nine, I place my large duffel bag on top of my dresser. We don’t leave for almost thirty hours, but no one has ever accused me of being unprepared. Yet, I can’t muster the energy to start digging through my drawers.
Not when my thoughts constantly return to Trevor.
He’s the last person I want coming with me. I didn’t lie. I don’t blame him for Gil’s death. If Trevor hadn’t killed my brother, Gil would be lost to a place where no one could ever find him, his life a nightmare. Or, he would have done something even worse than torturing Austin within an inch of his life. Like killing him. Or many others.
My phone rings, and Austin’s name flashes on the screen. “Did you get to Prague all right?” I ask.
“If by ‘all right’ you mean ‘at 2:00 a.m. after the bumpiest flight ever recorded,’ then yes.”
He sounds tired, and I sink down onto my bed and pull a blanket up over my legs. “How long do you have to stay?”
“Four days. Then on to Berlin. I need to crash soon, squirt. But did you get in touch with Trevor?”
“I hopped a quick flight to Boston this morning. He’ll go with me. But Austin, I couldn’t admit who Luis Rojas…is to me. Please don’t tell him, okay?”
“Shit, Dani. Why not? He can’t protect you if he doesn’t know everything.”
The judgement in my brother’s voice shouldn’t frustrate me, but it does. He should be going with me. Not Trevor. But his job helps make the world a safer place, and it’s selfish to ask him to put me ahead of his work.
“Because I don’t want anyone to know. Hell, I didn’t want to tell you either, but Dad didn’t give me a choice,” I snap. “If anyone in the Farías government finds out…it’ll put both Luis and me in a lot more danger.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” A growl rumbles over the long distance connection. “You shouldn’t even be attempting this.”
“I have to!” A deeper sense of anger replaces my frustration. Anger at Gil. At the one person who should have always been there for me. Who should have put his sister above some misplaced loyalty to a father he’d only just met. A father who hated me, who hated everything America stands for.
“Why? Mom and Dad love you. I love you. Why isn’t our family enough for you now?”
My eyes start to burn, but I squeeze them shut to stop the mere possibility of tears. “That’s a shitty thing to say, Austin. Our family means everything to me. I’m not going to meet Luis because I want a new family. I’m going because…he’s part of who I am. And he’s making a difference in a country that needs it. Desperately. Maybe if I tell his story, I can make a difference too.”
Austin’s voice softens. “You make a difference every damn day, squirt. Just by being you. All the stories you’ve covered? Corruption in Darfur? Embezzlement by private contractors in Afghanistan? The water crisis in Cambodia? People are talking about those issues because of you.”
“It’s not enough. It’s never enough,” I whisper.
Neither of us speaks for several seconds, long enough I fear the call has dropped. But then Austin sighs. “Dani? Talk to me. There’s more to this than needing to find your roots. Than making a difference. What is it?”
He always could see right through my bullshit.
“Guess all that spy training did you some good.” I curl onto my side with the phone tucked against my ear so I can stare out my bedroom window. I live on the top floor of a six-story building, and so I reap the benefits of cathedral ceilings and tall windows. From my bed, I can see almost to the Potomac.
“Good? I’m stuck in Prague on a publicity tour no one believes is actually going to make a fucking difference. Being a bad spy would be a lot more convenient right now.” The hint of laughter in his voice is tinged with exhaustion, and I snuggle deeper under the blanket.
“Yeah, but you’re there because you’re the best. Because the President trusts you. I’m proud of you.”
“You’re evading the question.”
If Austin were in front of me right now, I’d throw a pillow at him. Those are my words. The ones I use time and time again when I’m working a story. But I learned them from Austin. When Gil started pulling away from me after we were adopted, Austin was there. Teaching me how to trust. How to be the woman I am now. The one who never gives up.
“Why did Gil send me that flash drive? Why couldn’t he just tell me in person? I emailed him every month, begging him to call me, to come visit, to just reach out. He never did. Why cut me out of his life completely only to contact me right before he died? Shit, Austin. He mailed it after he’d started in on you.”
“There’s my little sis.” His voice softens, and I hate that I brought up those terrible days he spent in Venezuela. “Hang on a sec, Dani.” Muttered words carry over the line. After a moment, a door shuts, and when he speaks again, regret tinges his tone. “I don’t know why he did any of it. But I do know Gil was in pain. Those final days, he never left me alone for more than an hour or so. I spent a lot of time with him.” He huffs what might be a laugh. “Not by choice, obviously.”
“Austin, you don’t have to—“
“I do. Because you should know all of it.” Rustling sounds overwhelm the connection, and then he clears his throat. “Two months before he died, he’d made a mistake—one call on an unencrypted line, and that was enough for us to confirm he was working for the Loma Collectivo.
“If he’d stepped foot back on U.S. soil, he never would have seen the sun again. And he knew it. So he sent me an email. Only a handful of people in the entire world could have traced that message, but we had one on our team. Gil was counting on it. He wanted to lead us into a trap.”
“He planned on torturing you?” I choke back my sob as the true horrors of my brother’s actions sink in.
“I think so.” Austin swallows hard enough I can hear it, then continues. “The three guys he was working with all kept their faces covered. But not Gil. He wanted me to know he was in charge. That he was going to kill me. But he was going to make me suffer first.”
A single tear hovers at the corner of my right eye, and I refuse to let it fall as my brother’s voice drops to a hoarse whisper.
“That note he sent you? He only told you part of the story, squirt. Everything he did? Turning on the CIA, torturing me, almost killing Trevor? It was all because of what happened between his father and your birth mother.”
I don’t know that I can handle any more revelations tonight, but Austin’s never been this open with me about his days in Venezuela, despite how many times I asked him why Gil did what he did.
“What about her? All Gil ever said was that she left Venezuela when she was pregnant with me. I always knew we had different birth fathers, but he never told me why.”
“Are you sure you want to hear this, Dani? It’s not a good story.”
The hesitation in my brother’s tone just makes me more determined to find out the truth. “Yes.”
“Gil’s father, Jorge Sosa, kidnapped Kate Martinez from a beach resort in Aruba where she was celebrating spring break with friends. She was twenty-one. A creative writing major at Loyola. She wasn’t his lover, Dani. She was his prisoner. For six years. Luis Rojas was one of the asshole’s muscle men, and he and your mother fell in love. When she got pregnant with you, Luis helped her escape back to the United States.”
“Oh, God. So Gil’s father blamed me. It was my fault...”
“No! Dani, don’t go there. You can’t be at fault when you weren’t even born yet. Jorge Sosa is the one you should blame. A month before that unencrypted phone call, a Special Forces team dispatched to Venezuela to help ensure fair and democratic elections killed him. I think that’s what set Gil off.”
I can’t respond, but I’m pretty sure Austin can hear me lose the battle to keep my breathing steady.
“Gil wasn’t stable, sis. Not by a long shot. There’s no way he could have held anything but hatred for Luis Rojas. From the little I was able to get out of him w
hile he was…working on me, Rojas stayed with Sosa for another fifteen years after he helped Kate flee, then turned on him and joined the Democrática Resistencia. My guess? Gil sent you that flash drive just to fuck with your head. Don’t let him.”
“Too late,” I manage. “Are you sure? What if you’re wrong?”
Pull yourself together, Dani. Now. You have a job to do.
“I’m not.” Austin sounds so sure, I believe him, which only makes me more determined to see this through.
“Then I have to do this. I have to meet Luis and tell his story.”
A sigh carries over the line. “I know. I wish you weren’t going. Or that you’d decided to expose corruption in a slightly safer country. Iraq maybe. Somalia. Afghanistan. Anywhere besides Venezuela. But if you had, you wouldn’t be...you. You’re the best damn investigative journalist I’ve ever known.”
“Hardly,” I snort.
“You broke the story of the German Ambassador spying for the Russians. You were the only one who saw the connection between Jessup, Parr, and Caroline Phillips. If you hadn’t, Trev wouldn’t have been able to find out they were after Ripper. Hell, if it weren’t for you, JSOC would have had so much egg on our faces, we’d never have been able to see the frying pan we were in, let alone make an omelet.”
“I only broke that story because you gave it to me.” I let my gaze soften, the city lights twinkling like little stars.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re the one who helped me figure out what the fuck those two were doing in the first place. You’ve always been brilliant, Dani. If you’d listened to me years ago, had come with me to the CIA, you’d be in charge of this place now instead of me.”
An uneasy laugh escapes. “Like anyone would have trusted me again after what Gil did.” As soon as I say the words, I regret them. “Austin, I’m—“
“Don’t. I fought my way back from that shit, and you would have too.” His voice takes on a resigned tone. “I’ve got to go. My wakeup call is at seven. You check in while you’re in Venezuela. Every single day. And listen to Trevor. He knows his shit. Do you understand?”
“I understand. Thanks, Austin. Love you.”
“Love you too, sis.”
After we end the call, I still can’t muster the energy to get up. Instead, I lie in bed, turning the flash drive over and over in my fingers until my eyelids are too heavy to keep open. I can pack in the morning.
Trevor
First thing the next morning, I knock on Ford’s office door. Dani booked us two tickets on a flight out of Dulles at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow, and I’m headed down there tonight and staying at the airport hotel.
Assuming Ford doesn’t try to stop me from going. Not that I’d listen. I should have talked to him yesterday, but this conversation? It’s not going to go well.
“Come on in, Trev,” he says with an easy smile. Second Sight isn’t officially accepting new clients again until next week, so everyone’s relaxed. We shut down the whole office over the holidays, other than a couple of low-level cases that Clive and Ronan handled while the rest of us took some much needed R&R.
“Heard from Dax and Evianna?” I sink into his visitor’s chair with my mug of coffee, figuring small talk, despite my lack of experience with it, is the best way to ease myself into the serious stuff.
“Yeah. They got back to Seattle last night, but they’re staying there another two days so he and Ry can work out some of the details of the new teams they’re putting together.” Ford runs a hand through his hair. Bits of gray dot his temples, but the man’s never looked so young...and happy.
“How come you’re not out there too, then?”
“Didn’t want to be. This is their deal. Now that I have Joey back, I don’t want a single fucking reason to leave the country ever again—unless she and I want to take a vacation or her research sends her somewhere.”
“You’re not going to be involved at all?”
“Dax and I are still going to run Second Sight. Nothing about this firm changes. Except we’ll have additional resources if any of our cases involve K&R. The newly expanded Hidden Agenda is supposed to let Ryker spend more time in Seattle with Wren.”
I snort. “You mean he’s not going to go on every mission? I’ll believe that when it happens.”
Ford nearly spits out his coffee. “It’s not going to go well. What’s up with you? I haven’t seen you since yesterday morning. You disappeared right after lunch.”
I stare down at the mug cupped in my hands. “Remember when I told you about Gil? What I did on my last mission for the CIA?”
Ford doesn’t say anything. Only nods, then sits back and waits for me to continue.
“Gil’s sister came to see me yesterday. She’s an investigative journalist for the Washington Post, and she needs a bodyguard to accompany her to Venezuela.”
With a nod, Ford sets his cup down. “Makes sense. Venezuela’s not exactly known as a safe place for tourists.” He taps his keyboard a couple of times to bring up the company calendar. “Your schedule’s clear. I’m assuming you’re going?”
“Yeah. But, Ford, there’s something you don’t know.”
Arching a brow, he chuckles. “You’re CIA. I have a feeling there’s a fuckton I don’t know.”
“Former CIA. That’s not my life anymore.” Jerking up, I start to pace the room. “Dani and Gil were orphans, Ford. Like me. They were raised in the system. Hell, that’s where I first met Gil. We were put in the same foster home for a few weeks when I was seven. He watched out for me.”
“Shit, man. I didn’t know you were adopted.” There’s an edge to Ford’s voice. Hurt that I never shared this part of me with him.
“I wasn’t.” Pinning him with a hard stare, I admit part of my truth. “I aged out of the system. The day I turned eighteen, I left my foster home and joined the army. But Gil and Dani...they were adopted by Austin Pritchard’s parents.”
I don’t have to wait long for the realization to sink in. “Commander Pritchard. From JSOC.”
“Yes.”
“Fucking hell.” Ford whistles. “So that’s why you and Pritchard seemed so...casual with one another at Ripper’s thing.”
“Part of it.” Over the course of the next hour, I tell him everything. How Gil found his birth father in Venezuela and spent weeks down there with the leader of the Loma Collectivo, being brainwashed into becoming a double agent. How Austin tried to bring him home, but didn’t know how dramatically Jorge Sosa’s death had affected Gil. The night I found Austin tortured and then killed my best friend rather than send him to a CIA black site.
Stone-faced, Ford leans back in his chair. “And after all that, Dani’s willing to go to Venezuela with you? Does she know that you’re the one who killed her brother?”
“She does. Austin—Pritchard—told her a couple of years after it happened.” I stare out Ford’s window. Snow falls steadily onto the Boston streets, making everything seem fresh and new. Maybe it is. Ford and Dax got married. We have a new junior investigator, a big guy named Tank, Vasquez and Ronan are transitioning to days, and Ford just put out feelers for a couple of replacement overnight guys. Everything’s changing. Except me.
Ford’s saying something, but I can’t look away from the window. When he grabs my forearm, I whirl around and practically knock him to the floor before I realize what I’m doing.
“Trevor! Look at me.” He comes back at me, hard, pinning me up against the window with my arms over my head. He’s at least six inches taller than I am, and though I’m strong, Ford uses my distraction to his advantage. “What the hell was that?” he growls. “I barely touched you.”
“Sorry, man.” I relax in his grip once my brain processes the absence of an actual threat. “I haven’t slept much the past few nights. The anniversary of Gil’s death was Monday.”
“Fuck. Really?”
I nod.
“I seem to remember you saying something to me about lack of sleep being dangerous on a mission.” Fo
rd releases me and steps back with a small shake of his head. “Bottom line this for me, Trev. When are you going, how bad is it going to be, and what do you need?”
“Tomorrow morning. How bad? No fucking clue. I never wanted to step foot on Venezuelan soil again. But I don’t have a choice. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Dani.”
Ford stares at me like he knows I’m still holding back. I’m not going just because I owe Dani for what I did to her brother, but because I’d do anything to make up for the hurt I caused her years before that terrible day.
“And what do you need from Second Sight?”
“Nothing. Just back-up should things go sideways. I’ll take a couple of Wren’s toys. Two of the GPS trackers Royce designed, an encrypted tablet. It’s a simple in-and-out with a one-night stay. Recon of the area the first night, then she’ll interview Luis Rojas and take a tour of The Crypt the next day, and we’re back on the plane to the States.”
Ford sinks down into his chair. “Back-up comes standard with the job, Trev. You know that. Just watch your six and be safe. Because when you get back, I think you, me, and Dax need to have a serious talk about keeping secrets from your family.”
Chapter Five
Dani
My kitchen table is full of checklists and supplies. Bug spray, water purification tablets, and antibiotics for travelers’ sickness. I once spent an entire week in the hospital in Malaysia after accepting tea from a contact and not asking if it had been made with purified water.
One of my little black notebooks has pages and pages of my research on Luis Rojas and his history fighting the Farías government. Marcos Farías took the country in a coup seven years ago, and for a while, the world thought his leadership would bring an end to the Loma Collectivo’s atrocities against the Venezuelan people.
But the world was wrong.
As I set my electric kettle to boil, there’s a knock at my apartment door. Shit. My neighbor wasn’t supposed to come by for another couple of hours. Where did I put that damn spare key?
Call Sign: Redemption Page 4