Edgar brushed a piece of long, greasy hair out of his face. “She said she thought she’d figured out the hierarchy. She knew who was at the top.”
“Did she tell you who?”
“No. But you know how she thought someone in the CIA was involved? She told me she was pretty sure she knew who it was and you were in danger because this guy was close to someone you know.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. She said he was a friend of a friend of yours in Houston. But she didn’t say who or give me his name.”
“What about the hierarchy? What did she say about that?”
“She thought she knew who was at the top. She said we were close before, when we were in Paris. She said we were so much closer than we realized and that’s why things imploded the way they did. She said she thought she could bring them all down now. She just needed a little more time.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know. But I know she had some information. She was going to send it to me, but it never arrived.”
I nodded, wondering if it was possible that what I’d needed was back in Texas after all. I leaned forward and touched Edgar’s arm.
“You did good.”
“Did they really kill her?”
I tilted my head slightly, catching the grief in his voice. “They did. I’m sorry, Ed.”
He ran his hands over his face, dislodging the glasses briefly. “She was such a fucking arrogant woman, always bossing everyone around, telling everyone what to do. I hated her guts the moment I met her. But I can’t imagine my life without her in it.”
“I know. Me neither.”
I slapped his shoulder and started to stand, but he grabbed me and pulled me back down.
“That information you gave her months ago, the stuff you stole from the CIA?”
“Yeah?”
“That makes you a target. She said she thought that they were watching you, and that’s why she couldn’t send the information she’d gathered to you. Otherwise, it would have gone to you before me.”
“Did she have proof? Was someone watching me?”
He shook his head. “But it could be why they set up the kill scene the way they did. I’ve been thinking about it since you described it to me. They were trying to set you up. The call to her sister, that was coincidence. But the stabbing, your name in her phone…she was too careful for that shit. They set it up. They wanted to draw you out.”
“But if I’m being watched—?”
“We might be dealing with two separate groups here, Dom. You’ve got to be careful.”
“I will.”
I slapped his arm again and then grabbed Amy and pulled her out of the crowded bar.
“Who was that?” she demanded the moment we were alone in the silent car.
“A friend.”
“He knew Emily?”
“Yes.”
“He called her bossy.” She smiled. “He knew her well.”
That made me smile, too. Emily was petite, this gorgeous young woman who looked like she’d scream if she saw a spider cross her path. But, in reality, Emily was tougher than half the guys who fought in my squad. It was something I truly admired about her.
We headed back to the motel. She was quiet for a long time, staring out the window as the streets unfolded around us. I let us into the room and flipped on the television, searching through the channels for some news. There was nothing—for a country that once craved twenty-four hours of news, there wasn’t much available anymore. I tossed the remote to Amy and pulled out the throw away phone I’d bought. I found a Dallas news station that posted news on the hour. They were still looking for me, both in connection to Emily’s murder and Amy’s kidnapping. That would make searching Emily’s apartment tricky.
I dialed a number from memory, hoping I’d remembered it correctly, as Amy turned off the television and stared at me.
“Hey, Elizabeth,” I said, as a familiar voice filled my ear.
“Dominic? Oh, god, I was afraid they’d gotten you, too.”
“No, I’m good.”
“Where are you?”
“San Diego. I needed to talk to Edgar.”
“Did he have any idea…?”
Her voice broke. It killed my soul to hear the pain in her voice. No one wants to see or hear their friends suffer.
“I’m sorry, Lizzie. If I’d known, I would have—”
“She wouldn’t have wanted you involved.”
“I know. But I should have been there for her, anyway.”
“Don’t do that to yourself. Emily knew what she was getting herself into. She knew the risks.”
Her voice cracked again. I could picture her, her blond hair down around her face, her face splotchy with her tears.
“Listen,” I said softly, wishing I didn’t have to do this. “I think Emily had something at the apartment that might help me find who did this. Would you be okay with me coming by tomorrow?”
“The police have been in and out of the place, but I think they’re done. Just…be careful.”
“I will.”
I disconnected the call, feeling heavy hearted as I turned and started throwing things back into my duffle.
“I think it’s time you tell me what’s going on.”
I glanced at Amy. “I think you’ll be better off not knowing anything more than you already do.”
She got off the bed and tried to grab my arm, but I moved out of her reach, grabbing the food I’d dropped on the floor earlier. I shoved it against her chest.
“Eat. We need to get on the road.”
She held her hands up, refusing to take it. “Not until you talk to me.”
“Christ, Amy!”
I bent and snatched the fallen food off the floor again, pulling out a bag of crushed powdered donuts and a small bottle of milk. I tossed the rest of the food onto the bed and then threw myself into a chair, tearing open the package and wolfing down the food. Amy came to stand beside me, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Who were you talking to on the phone just then? Elizabeth?”
“Maybe she’s my girlfriend.”
I saw a flash of pain cross her face and—I almost hated to admit it—it filled me with a little pleasure. I wanted her to be jealous. I wanted to believe that she lay in bed late at night and wondered whom I was with at that moment…just as I had done for years, wondering whom she was with.
“You were talking about Emily. And you said something about going to their apartment. Was she Emily’s roommate?”
I chuckled a little. “How could you be twins with someone, share every second of your childhoods together, and know so little about her?”
“What do you mean?”
I just shook my head, draining the bottle of milk. “Get your stuff. We’re leaving.”
“You’ve had less than three hours of sleep in the last twenty-four hours. Do you really think it’s a good idea to drive twenty hours now? Shouldn’t we wait until morning?”
“We don’t have time.”
“Why not?”
“Because the people who killed Emily are looking for both of us. If we don’t find them before they find us, we could very well end up right where Emily is right now.”
She paled a little, but refused to back down.
“Then why don’t you go to the police?”
“Because these people…the police can’t do anything.”
“Why not?”
“Because half of them work for the CIA. And the other half are terrorists who operate outside of the law.”
I regretted saying it the moment it slipped from my lips. I watched the shock wash over her face, the disbelief and then the fear. She shook her head as though she could shake the idea from her mind.
“I don’t understand. Why would the CIA want to kill my sister?”
“I don’t think the CIA did. But they didn’t do much to protect her, either.”
“You’re talking in riddles, Dominic.”
&nb
sp; I got up and grabbed my duffle. I started for the door, but she stepped in my way.
“Amy, for Christ’s sake!”
“Tell me what’s going on! I’m tired of playing these games with you. I’m not some fragile little girl who can’t handle the truth!”
“I never said you were.”
“Then tell me and quit treating me like I’m too stupid to understand.”
I studied her face for a long moment, saw the determination that lived there. I knew I had no choice. If I was going to get her out of this motel room and back on the road, I needed to tell her something. It crossed my mind that I could get away with a few half-truths, but I knew Amy. I knew her better than I knew myself. I wasn’t getting away with anything other than the whole truth.
“Emily was CIA.”
Chapter 6
Amy
I sat on the edge of the bed, and he pulled up a chair, leaning forward, staring at his hands as he began to tell me a story that felt more like fiction than the truth.
“She was recruited out of college. When she dropped out and told your family that she was going to Paris to study art, she was really in Afghanistan gathering intelligence on ISIS. She and I crossed paths when my unit worked as security for an op she and her partner were running there. Things got a little harry and I jumped in, pretended to be her boyfriend in order to extract her from a bad situation. Her handlers were so impressed with the way we worked together that they arranged for me to travel with her to Paris in order to try to infiltrate a group of students there that were involved in a plot to blow up some important Parisian monuments.”
“Emily went to Afghanistan?”
“She was there for nearly eight months.”
I shook my head, struggling to wrap my head around what he was saying.
“And she just happened to run into you?”
“My squad was tasked with aiding the CIA in gathering intelligence. That was my role there.”
“And she was with the CIA.”
“She was.”
“This is something that happens? People go around pretending to be something they aren’t to trick people into telling them their secrets? Just like that?”
“It’s more complicated than it sounds, but yeah.”
“But what about all her letters? All the pictures she sent home? There were pictures of her on the streets of Paris.”
“Those were real. She did part of her training in Paris, and those pictures she took there. The letters…she gave them to her handlers, and they arranged for the postmarks. It was important that no one knew where she was. It would have placed her in danger if people had figured it out.”
“But we are her family.”
“Anything she told you could have put you in danger. Don’t you see that, Amy? She was trying to protect you as much as she was thinking about herself.”
I dragged my fingers through my hair, trying to get all this straight in my head. I could see those pictures in my mind, see her standing in front of the Eifel Tower, see her outside her apartment building. She’d sent pictures of herself all over Paris, with people she said were her classmates. She looked so happy, so tan and relaxed. Was it all a lie?
And then that afternoon at the outdoor café. I could still so clearly see him lean into her, steal her lips, as she was laughing at something someone else said. And then the horror in her eyes when she saw me watching, speechless, from across the street. That horror disappeared seconds later when she focused on her companions again, leaning into Dominic and whispering something in his ear as she smiled broadly at the woman across from her.
“We had an address. We had phone calls.”
“Think about it, Amy,” Dominic said, laying a hand on my knee. “She never stayed on the phone for longer than ten minutes. She never came home for holidays, even when the Sorbonne’s holidays corresponded with yours. She always claimed not to have the money, but then she paid off your student loans for your twenty-fifth birthday gift.”
“How did you know about that?”
“She told me.”
“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have let her do it.”
“I know. So did she.”
“I always thought she did it out of guilt.”
“Not really. She’d wanted to do it sooner, but things were crazy over there. She never knew where she was going to be from day to day.”
“All that time…” I looked down at my own hands, not seeing them—but only empty space filled with distance. I saw wasted time. “I saw her twice in the six years she was over there. And Daddy—she called them every week, like clockwork, telling them how she was working for this artist who was teaching her more than she ever would have learned in the university. He never doubted a word of it.”
“She came back here eighteen months ago, Amy. The CIA reassigned her to an analyst job in Washington after that mess in Paris. But she hated it and resigned. She was working in an insurance office there in Arlington.”
“Why didn’t she tell anyone?”
Dominic squeezed my knee, then straightened up. “Because no one ever really leaves the CIA. She knew that her past would follow her, and she didn’t want it to blow back on you.” He studied me a long second. “And she was following up on the Paris thing. She felt like we missed something, and she wanted to finish it.”
“The Paris thing?”
“There was a group of us working on this terrorist cell that we believed was working in Paris. I’m sure you’re aware of the attacks that happened there back at the end of the year? What we were working on threatened to be much bigger than that. Emily believed that what we uncovered was only the tip of the iceberg. She thought with a little time and some intel, she could figure out just how big it really was.”
I nodded, aware that my sister was one of those people who, once she had a bone, refused to let it go until every bit of it was gnawed and gone. But there was something that bothered me.
“You said ‘mess in Paris.’ What did you mean?”
Dominic looked uncomfortable. He studied my face for a long second, his eyes filled with grief and pain and a million other things I couldn’t quite describe. He touched my leg again for a long second, then pulled away as though he didn’t think it was his right anymore.
“You stumbled on us at a very bad time, Amy. Emily managed to keep the people we were meeting with from understanding what was happening, but then she followed you down the street to that little alley and you started in on her, calling her by her real name, calling me by my real name. You blew her cover.”
I shook my head, the memory of that confrontation filling my mind.
“Amy, wait!”
“How could you do that to me, Emily? How could you kiss him like that? How long has it been going on? Were you sleeping with him back in Texas?”
“Of course not!”
“Dominic is supposed to be in Afghanistan! Do you know how frightened I’ve been for his safety? The two of you, running off at the same time. Is this why? Was it all just a lie?”
Emily took my arm, tried to direct me further from the street where people were looking in at us, but I jerked away.
“Is Dominic really in the Army? Are you really going to the Sorbonne? Or was this all just some sort of joke? Have you been laughing at me all this time?”
“Amy, I love you. Dominic loves you. There’s a simple explanation for all this.”
“Then tell me.”
She stared blankly at me, her mouth opening several times, but nothing coming out.
I shook my head. “Stay away from me. I don’t want to ever see you again. As far as I’m concerned, you’re dead. I no longer have a sister.”
“Amy!”
I walked away, never looking back. I could hear her crying; I could hear the sobs wracking her body. I told myself I didn’t care, but I heard them for a long time in my dreams. Still do sometimes.
“One of the guys we were with…he followed her and heard what you said. If not for Emily�
��s handler—he was across the street and was able to call for backup—they would have gotten word to their superiors that we were CIA. They arrested him and his friends, called it a success despite the fact that even Emily’s bosses suspected there were was more than what they were able to get out of them during interrogation. All in all, fifty people were arrested out of that operation. But Emily felt like she could have gotten more, could have stopped the attacks that happened this year, if she hadn’t allowed you to blow our cover.”
“So she’s dead because of me.”
“No,” Dominic said, reaching for my hand. “She’s dead because she found more than she’d expected to. Because she made the choice to go rogue. Because she didn’t allow me or Edgar or anyone else help her.”
I shook my head, thinking of those sobs, of my sister’s heart breaking behind me. I pulled away from Dominic and stood, needing to move. I went into the bathroom and began gathering my things, shoving them into bags. Dominic didn’t try to talk to me. In fact, he left the room, giving me a few minutes to process.
“Let me drive.”
He hesitated, but he handed me the keys. We were on the road not ten minutes later. He watched me in the darkness of the car, but exhaustion finally overcame him, and he stretched out in the small space of the passenger seat and was asleep before we hit the city limits. I couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d told me. I was glad to have the activity of driving because I was pretty sure I would have gone insane if I’d had nothing but my thoughts to keep me busy.
My sister was a CIA agent.
I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. One day we were all college students, all three hanging out together on campus, working at pretending to be adults. Then Dominic failed his economics class for the second time and decided that school just wasn’t his thing. I was scared and frustrated when he told me he’d joined the Army, but proud, too. Emily was with me when I watched him get on that bus that took him to basic training, holding my hand and telling me it was going to be okay.
And then she left two months later.
It was an honor to study at the Sorbonne—even if it wasn’t technically the Sorbonne anymore. We were happy for her. Once again, I stood and watched someone I loved go away, standing in the airport with my parents. Then I returned home and finished the last of my junior year and my entire senior year of college all by myself. To begin my life without the two most important people in my life.
DRAGON SECURITY: The Complete 6 Books Series Page 36