Backlash

by Rachel Dylan

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. Do you really think we can trust anyone at the DEA or at Langley right now?”

  He turned his attention back to the road. They couldn’t take any chances at this point. “Based on what you’re telling me, the only people we can trust are the four of us. How could the cartel have found out our team’s identity? As long as that’s an open question, we have to keep this circle tight.”

  “I called Mason and told him what happened to me, but he doesn’t know about anything else, I don’t think.”

  Mason Gray was their boss at the DEA. “We should let him know about Layla. If it was just one of us being targeted, we could envision some other explanation, but with both of you attacked within such a short time period, we have to operate under the assumption that it’s all tied together.”

  “But you still don’t trust Mason?”

  “I don’t want to think we can’t, but we have to be cautious. Right now, though, we can’t keep him iced out on the basic facts because we need his help. Did Layla think you were on the right track?”

  “Yes, she was concerned. But it seemed like there was more going on that she didn’t want to talk about.”

  Zane huffed. “Well, that’s typical CIA. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Agency messed this up somehow.”

  Cass was silent for a moment, clearly thinking. “Layla’s not even a field officer—not by design anyway. She’s an analyst who has done some limited fieldwork.”

  “Yeah, but she did well on the op.” Zane glanced at her, wondering where she was going with this. “We had no issues with her performance.”

  “I’m not questioning her skill. I’m thinking that it’s even more disturbing that someone could have found her out, given her lack of fieldwork. You and I are out there all the time. So is Diaz. That isn’t the case with Layla.” She turned and looked over her shoulder.

  “You see anything?” he asked.

  “All clear so far.”

  They rode in silence the rest of the way to Diaz’s house, but even in the quiet, Zane knew the two of them were in work mode. This wasn’t a leisurely weekend afternoon drive.

  Cass looked down at her watch. “Diaz always goes to Sunday service, but it’s almost two. He should be done by now.”

  “I talked to him late last night, and everything was good.”

  “Let’s find out.”

  Zane stopped the car, and the two of them walked up the driveway and onto Diaz’s front porch.

  “Zane.” Cass pointed to the front door, which was slightly open.

  Zane pulled out his Glock, and Cass followed suit. “On me,” Zane said.

  He took the lead as he pushed open the front door all the way. Silence filled the air. He walked inside the foyer, which opened up into the living room. The place was a mess. Tables overturned, sofa cushions taken out, and everything was strewn around. Someone had been on the hunt.

  They cleared the first floor room by room before heading upstairs.

  “I don’t hear anything. I don’t think Diaz is home,” Cass said.

  “We need to check everything.” He wasn’t going to make any snap judgments.

  When they got to the top of the stairs, he turned right and walked down the hallway and into the first room. The smell hit him. A smell he knew all too well. John Diaz lay in the middle of the bedroom floor in a pool of crimson blood. His throat cut. Zane muttered a curse.

  Cass’s eyes widened as she entered the room. “Oh no. We’re too late.”

  They had to get the Feds in there ASAP. Zane pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts. He pushed the button and lifted the phone to his ear.

  “Mason, it’s Zane. We’ve got a major problem.”

  CHAPTER

  FIVE

  Sunday evening, Layla sat at her kitchen table, drinking a cup of tea and trying to stay focused on the task at hand. She had to keep fighting back the emotions that flooded through her from all that she’d gone through in the past forty-eight hours.

  There was a loud knock on her door, and she jumped up from her seat. Picking up her side arm, she walked to the door and looked through the peephole. Zane’s bright blue eyes stared back at her. She opened the door and realized Zane wasn’t alone. He’d brought Cass with him.

  And Hunter.

  “Hunter? What’re you doing here?” The words came out more harshly than she’d intended, but she didn’t know what was happening right now.

  Hunter’s eyes widened. “I didn’t expect to see you either.” He turned to Zane. “Layla’s your CIA team member?”

  “I didn’t know the two of you knew each other,” Zane said.

  “We went to law school together,” Layla said quickly as she exchanged a look with Hunter. She didn’t want to get into their past with Zane and Cass. It wasn’t relevant to the issues in front of them. “Come in and have a seat.” She showed them into the living room and offered them some water and coffee, then tried to steel herself for what was to come. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on and why Hunter is here with the two of you?” Her tone was stern, but she wanted answers. Could it be that Hunter wasn’t a PI anymore?

  Zane and Cass exchanged an uneasy glance. “I’m sorry,” Zane said. “Before we talk about Hunter, there’s something else. We have news. Bad news.”

  Like she really needed more bad news.

  “There’s no easy way to say this.” Cass reached out and grabbed Layla’s hand. “John is dead.”

  “What?” Layla’s stomach clenched. That was more than bad news. It was devastating.

  Zane’s eyes met hers. “We found him at his house with his throat slit. The place had been tossed. Just like what happened to Cass’s place.”

  Layla looked at Hunter, who sat with a deep frown on his face. She still didn’t know how Hunter was involved in this mess and how he had the security clearance to be having this conversation. And until she knew his role, she couldn’t talk about the Mejía cartel. “I can’t speak freely in front of Hunter.”

  Hunter and Zane shared a look. A look that let her know she was in even more trouble than she had thought.

  “That’s what we need to talk about,” Zane said. “Hunter is a contractor for the DEA. He has TS/SCI clearance and has specific permission to be read into our op.”

  Layla clenched her fists. “I’m sorry, what?” Hunter had top secret security clearance? She didn’t even know where to start her questions.

  “Basically, I’ve been doing freelance work for the DEA for over two years,” Hunter said. “Before I started working with them, I had to go through the whole security clearance process.”

  “How does your work fit into what is going on now?” Layla asked as she tried to put the pieces together as quickly as possible.

  “Our team is obviously being targeted,” Zane said. “How did the cartel figure out it was us? We’ve been compromised, and Hunter will be working on figuring out who sold us out. We needed someone from outside our agencies who could step in and be objective.”

  She frowned. “Does he know all the details of the op?”

  “Not yet,” Cass responded. “We figured we’d brief him here to make sure we were all on the same page.”

  Layla nodded but didn’t really know what she was agreeing to. How had her world changed so suddenly in just a few moments?

  Zane looked at Hunter. “The DEA got intel about a Mejía safe house that was full of drugs and cash. The safe house was going to be the storage area for a large shipment headed north to our border. We had a narrow window to act to secure the safe house, neutralize any cartel activity there, and seize the drugs and money.”

  Hunter cleared his throat. “This is all about Mejía?”

  “Yes,” Layla responded.

  Hunter turned back to Zane. “You must have had some help in the field. The four of you couldn’t have done that alone—no offense.”

  Zane nodded. “None taken. We had some DEA muscle with us, but the four of us did
all the strategic planning, and we were at the safe house with our guys, watching and monitoring every step of the way.”

  Hunter leaned forward. “I’ll need a list of everyone involved, no matter how tangentially, so I can run deep background on all of them.”

  Zane started typing on his cell. “Won’t be an issue. You’ll have it in your inbox within the hour.”

  “The actual op went off without a hitch,” Cass said. “We were patting ourselves on the back, but I guess we celebrated too early.”

  “So you got the cash and the drugs?” Hunter asked.

  “Yes. Everything completely secured,” Cass answered.

  “Casualties?” Hunter asked.

  “None on our side, but the cartel suffered some,” Zane said. “But everything was by the book. We didn’t take any chances, and our plan was executed to a T.”

  Layla spoke up. “One of the casualties was Roberto Mejía, the younger brother of Diego.”

  Hunter let out a low whistle. “If Diego thinks one of you is responsible for his little brother’s death, then the threat matrix just went up infinitely.” He paused. “There is a possibility that it’s not a mole and that you got caught on the cartel’s surveillance cameras.”

  “No, that’s not possible. We cut all the feeds,” Cass said.

  “Maybe you thought you did but there was another system or a backup,” Hunter said. “And now the top cartel brass know who you are and are seeking revenge. That would explain the serious nature of the attacks.”

  Layla had additional worries. “And they’re looking for something. Maybe for any of their cash or drugs.”

  “Why would they think we’re dirty?” Zane asked.

  “I don’t know.” It was one of the questions Layla had been debating. She was trying to block out the fact that Hunter was sitting in her living room and instead think about the details in front of her.

  “I assume the Agency sanctioned your involvement in this work?” Hunter asked.

  “Of course. I would never go rogue. I don’t break my word, and they have my unfettered loyalty.” She didn’t even try to hide her frustration.

  Hunter let her accusation go. “The way I see it, you’re most likely either dealing with someone on the inside who gave you all up because they cut a deal with the cartel, or you were caught on a surveillance system you didn’t know about, and they’ve tracked you down.”

  It was as good a time as any to tell them her other unfortunate news, and if Hunter was being read into all of this, then Layla couldn’t exclude him. “There’s something else I need to tell you all. I have no way of knowing if there’s any relation to the situation we find ourselves in, but you need to know that while I was in the hospital, my boss stopped by to tell me that I’m on administrative leave.”

  “What?” Zane asked loudly. “For what?”

  A deep frown pulled at Hunter’s lips, but he didn’t say anything.

  “The IG’s office has opened an investigation in which I’m the subject. My boss had zero details, so I’m clueless as to whether it has any connection to this or whether it’s just bad timing and one more problem for me to handle.”

  “Once Mason tells the Agency about the security threat, I bet they’ll reinstate you,” Cass said.

  She doubted that. “Or it will just give them another reason to keep me on the sidelines.”

  Zane ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t like it. What if the cartel is somehow setting you up? Making you take some sort of fall. Or worse.”

  “Then why bother with the bombing if they cooked up this IG investigation?” Layla asked.

  Zane shrugged. “Maybe they’re taking this on from multiple angles to cover all their bases.”

  Layla looked at Hunter, who locked eyes with her. She could tell he wanted to say something but was keeping quiet. “Where do we go from here?” she asked.

  Zane stood. “Cass and I are going to stick close to each other. There’s strength in numbers. You and Hunter should pair up. We’ll work this thing as a team. No solo action. You’ve already been the target of a bombing, John is dead, and Cass’s place was ransacked. We should all be on high alert.”

  “Wait a minute,” Layla blurted before she could help herself. “I don’t need to buddy up with Hunter. I can take care of myself. I’m trained for this stuff.”

  Hunter stood. “Maybe Layla and I should talk about this privately to make sure we’re both comfortable with the situation.”

  Zane arched an eyebrow but didn’t argue. “Cass and I will leave you to it, then.”

  Once it was just Layla and Hunter, he turned to her. “We really need to talk.”

  Layla didn’t know how she was going to handle all these threats—most of all, the one to her heart.

  Izzy looked into her boyfriend’s warm brown eyes. They’d just finished eating takeout and were now sitting on the couch in her apartment, watching cable news. She’d found out early on that they both shared a love for it, and it was an inside joke that they would do their own running commentary.

  But she wasn’t in a joking mood tonight.

  “Are you finally going to tell me what’s been bugging you?” Aiden asked. Aiden was a great guy. He was Jay Graves’s son—the Army CID agent she’d become close to while investigating a huge case earlier in the year. “There’s absolutely nothing you could’ve done to stop that bombing. You can’t take that on your shoulders.”

  “It’s not that.”

  “Well, I don’t have to use my cop skills to know that something is up.”

  She’d promised herself she’d never date a cop after what had happened to her. One violent attack by her superior at Arlington PD had changed her forever. But Aiden couldn’t be more different from the monster who had hurt her.

  “You’re right about something bothering me, but it’s not the bombing.” She took a breath. “You know how much my friendship with the ladies means to me. The three of them have welcomed me and Lexi into their friend group. When Lexi got sent abroad on assignment a few months ago, it became just me and the three of them. I don’t know what I’d do without them now that I’ve experienced friendship like that.”

  “I’m sensing a but is about to come out of your mouth. Whatever it is, I’m here to listen.”

  Just one of the many things she loved about Aiden. In fact, she felt like she’d fallen in love with Aiden the first time she ever met him. But she needed time—a lot of it—to build a healthy relationship. Thankfully, Aiden was patient and loving. “You’re going to think I’m being petty.”

  He took her hand. “The last thing I’d ever call you is petty. No-judgment zone here. Just tell me what you’re feeling.”

  “I feel like an outsider. I know I have no right to feel that way. These women let me into their lives. They were doing fine without me. But now that I’m in the group, I can’t help but feel like there are secrets that I’m not a part of, and that hurts my feelings.”

  “Oh, Izzy, that’s a completely normal reaction. It’s hard when you feel like you’re the one on the outside looking in.”

  She nodded. “The weird thing is that I’ve never felt this way before. They’ve always gone out of their way to make me feel included. Even though they all went to law school together and have that tight bond, I didn’t feel excluded. Then the bombing happened, and everything has gotten weird.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Layla isn’t being forthcoming about something, but I have no idea what it is. The others know it too. I can read it in their expressions. So I’m like the idiot in the dark. And it’s clear that they have no intention of bringing me in.”

  Aiden was quiet for a moment. “Can I ask you something personal?”

  “I think we established that a long time ago.”

  “Do the three of them know what happened to you?”

  She sucked in a breath. “No. Only Bailey knows, actually.”

  “Well, maybe Layla has something in her past that she only wants cert
ain people to know. It’s a matter of respecting her feelings. It isn’t a reflection on you at all.”

  “Wow. I guess I hadn’t thought about it that way. Now I feel like a jerk for pouting.” Izzy hated that self-centered feeling, because it was more out of a lack of confidence than anything else.

  “I wouldn’t read too much into it. Give her the time and space she needs. She and Viv just went through a crazy traumatic event.”

  She looked up at him. “You’re right, as usual.”

  He laughed. “Wait a minute. You’re the one who usually has a lockdown on that category. Not me.”

  She smiled. Being with Aiden made her happy, but more than that, she felt completely safe for the first time in a long time. They were building something together, and that meant everything to her. “We can share in being right.”

  He put his arm around her. “Sounds good to me. How is your work going?”

  “I’m still uncertain about whether I should start looking for other jobs.”

  “NCIS still doesn’t feel like your career path?”

  She shrugged. “I wish I had more certainty, but I don’t. I just can’t help but feel like there’s something else I should be doing.”

  “You don’t have to decide right away. All the experience you’re getting at NCIS will help you wherever you decide to go.”

  “That’s the thing. I’m not sure I want to be in law enforcement. I became a cop because of my dad, and I don’t regret that. But I’m wondering if I need to start figuring out my own path.”

  “Any ideas?”

  “You’ll laugh at me if I tell you.”

  “I will not.”

  She hadn’t told anyone this. Not a soul. But Aiden was her safe space. “I haven’t made any decisions yet, but I signed up to take the LSAT.”

  “The LSAT? As in law school?” His dark eyes widened.

  “See? You think it’s an awful idea.”

  He shook his head. “No. I don’t. I actually think it’s a great idea. But I have to ask—are you sure this isn’t just you wanting to have more in common with your friends?”

  “No, because only one of them even practices law at this point. This is truly about me.”