Backlash

by Rachel Dylan

  “Who did you tell about the alleged assault?”

  This time she didn’t wait for Piper, and she looked right at Detective Stewart. “It wasn’t an alleged assault, Detective. It was an assault.” Her nails dug into her hands under the table.

  Detective Stewart cocked her head. “Regardless of the terminology, who did you tell about it?”

  “And that’s relevant how?” All of a sudden, any desire she’d had to cooperate had left. Those photos had rocked her to the core.

  Piper leaned toward her ear. “Izzy,” she whispered. “You can answer this. They already know the answer, most likely. Remember everything we talked about.”

  “I assume you’re asking for those people who knew before the murder?” Izzy asked.

  “Yes,” Detective Stewart said.

  “My Navy counselor, plus Jay and Aiden Graves and Bailey Ryan.”

  “Anyone else?”

  She shook her head. “Not before the murder. No.”

  “Were you aware that Jay Graves confronted the sergeant?” Detective Bryant finally spoke up.

  “I didn’t know specifically, but I had my suspicions when I found out the sergeant took early retirement. Jay and I never spoke about it.”

  “You and Jay are close, right? You’re dating his son?” Detective Stewart jumped right back in.

  “We formed a bond while working a case earlier this year. That’s how I met Aiden.”

  “In fact, Jay is like a father to you?”

  “If you’re asking that, then you already know that my father was killed. Shot dead in the line of duty, and yes, Jay is like a father to me. But I’d prefer to cut to your ultimate question. Do I think Jay killed him? No way.”

  “Why?” Detective Bryant asked.

  “Because Jay is a man of honor and integrity. He’s not a murderer, even if someone deserves it.” As those words came out, Izzy realized her mistake.

  “And you believed the sergeant deserved to die, didn’t you?” Detective Stewart asked.

  Piper grabbed Izzy’s elbow. “Don’t answer that. Detective, as I said, we are here as a courtesy. Do you have any evidence tying my client to this murder?”

  “Not at the present time, no,” Detective Stewart said. “And I apologize. We’re just trying to gather all the facts, and the sergeant appears to have had a fixation on Agent Cole. An obsession. When was the last time you saw him?”

  Izzy looked at Piper, who nodded. She couldn’t lie about this, because if she did and they found out, it would make her look guilty. “A couple of weeks ago, the sergeant showed up while I was jogging.”

  Detective Stewart frowned. “What happened?”

  “I told him to leave me alone,” she whispered.

  “Had you seen him recently before that?”

  She nodded. “Yes, at a coffee shop in town. I thought that might have been an awful coincidence, but when he turned up on my jogging route, I realized that it had to be intentional.”

  “And I assume that frightened you?”

  “I didn’t want to have anything to do with that man,” Izzy shot back.

  “Have you ever been to his house?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Are you certain of that?” Detective Stewart asked.

  “Yes. That isn’t something I’d forget.” The thought of being at his house sent another round of chills down her back.

  Piper stood. “I think we’ve done enough for today.”

  “Are we done?” Izzy asked, unsure what to do.

  Detective Stewart’s expression softened. “Yes. I know this is extremely hard for you.”

  She was about to say something, but Piper jumped in. “We’re not trying to be obstructionist here, but my client has already been through enough.”

  “Just one more quick thing. I need to ask where you were four nights ago.”

  “At home,” Izzy answered softly.

  “Alone?” Detective Bryant asked.

  “Yes.”

  “And did you stay at home all night?”

  “Yes. I left the next morning for a jog around five thirty.”

  “All right,” Detective Stewart said. “Agent Cole, we’re not the bad guys here. As much disdain as you may hold toward Sergeant Tybee, his murderer still deserves to be brought to justice.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” Izzy blurted.

  Detective Stewart quirked a brow but didn’t say anything.

  Piper took Izzy by the arm and led her out of the room.

  “Sorry.” Izzy turned to Piper once they were down the hallway. “I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer.”

  Piper patted her on the shoulder. “You did as well as could be expected under the circumstances.”

  “What do you think?”

  “Let’s get outside.”

  A minute later, they were walking to the car. “So?” Izzy wanted Piper’s perspective.

  “They clearly don’t have any actual evidence against you at this point, but the fact that the sergeant was so obsessed with you isn’t great.”

  “Tell me about it.” Izzy considered what had just happened back in the conference room. “Do you think they have anything on Jay?”

  “You sound concerned. If you’re convinced he didn’t do it, then everything should be okay.”

  “I know he didn’t do it, but I’ve seen enough to know that sometimes the facts and the law get all twisted up.” It was yet another reason she was tossing around the idea of law school and ultimately being a prosecutor. “Can I ask you a totally unrelated question?”

  “Sure.” Piper started up her car, and they pulled out of the precinct parking lot.

  “Why criminal defense? You seem like the search-for-justice type.”

  Piper laughed. “I am, and that’s exactly why I do criminal defense. As you just said, not everything is always so clear-cut. Of course, not every client I have is innocent, but they all deserve their opportunity to be heard—or not heard, as the case may be. The right to take the Fifth, to have qualified counsel. Those things are important to me, because I believe in the integrity of the justice system as a whole.”

  “I guess I never thought of it like that.”

  “Then maybe something good can come out of this bad experience.”

  “Maybe so.” Izzy had a lot to think about. “Do you think we did the right thing by not volunteering the information about the text messages?”

  Piper frowned. “I wanted to see how it went in there before offering up additional information. Let’s sleep on it, and depending on how things proceed, we can make a decision about the texts.”

  Izzy had to trust Piper on this. She was the expert. “I’m just relieved she didn’t make me relive the attack blow by blow.” She’d stayed up all night worrying about that.

  “I am too, but this was just the first interview. I don’t want you to think you’re in the clear, as far as that is concerned. It could quite possibly come up again, and she might be much more aggressive with you.”

  Izzy groaned.

  “Are you going in to work?” Piper asked.

  “Yeah. I can’t just sit around and mope all day. I also have to talk to Marco and let him know what’s going on.”

  “Your boss?”

  “Yes. I’ve been dreading having this conversation, but now I have no choice. For all I know, they’re going to want to question him, too, and I need to be the one to tell him about all of this.”

  “The less you tell him about the history, the better. Got it?” Piper asked.

  “Understood.” Although right now, she didn’t feel like she understood anything.

  CHAPTER

  THIRTEEN

  Layla walked into the living room of her condo. “They want me at Langley tomorrow.” She sat down beside Hunter on the couch. She’d just gotten off the call.

  He frowned. “For what?”

  “The IG’s office said they had questions for me. I guess they’re finally ready for my interrogation.”


  He turned toward her. “What if you get there and they decide to take you to a black site, and we never hear from you again?”

  She blew out a breath. “Don’t you think you’re being a bit melodramatic?”

  He placed a hand on his chest. “Me? C’mon, Layla. These aren’t games you want to play. I know you believe in the Agency and all the good they do, but do you really have any doubt in your mind that they would turn on you if they thought you were dirty? I think you’ve been set up, and we have to assume they will do everything in their power to get answers from you that match their expectations.”

  As much as she hated to admit it, Hunter had a point. If none of the other stuff had happened and this investigation was in isolation, that would be one thing. But she couldn’t close her eyes and pretend like everything was going to be okay. “All right. What do you suggest?”

  “Bring your lawyer.”

  “But I don’t have a lawyer.”

  He stood up. “You do now.”

  She couldn’t hold back her laughter. “You’re not a lawyer, Hunter.”

  “Hey, I am an active member of the Virginia and DC bar. Just because I don’t have a law practice doesn’t mean I’m not legit. And if they deny you legal counsel, then we just say thanks, but no thanks and hightail it out of there.”

  She considered his offer. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She’d been at Langley long enough to know that if she had been set up, there could be disastrous consequences. Scarlett’s words of advice echoed through her brain. This was far from a routine legal inquiry. “Scarlett told me I absolutely couldn’t go in there without an attorney and that it would be foolish to represent myself.”

  “Sounds like great advice to me. I hope you’ll take it.”

  “You realize that if you’re right and there’s danger involved, then you could be put right in the middle of it.”

  He nodded. “I’m not going to let you down this time.”

  And there it was. The opening for the conversation that the girls had encouraged her to have. Was it now or never? Would there ever be the exact right time? “About that.”

  “Yeah.” He sat back down.

  “Can we talk?” she asked.

  Hunter looked away for a moment before making eye contact. “I wondered how long it would be before we had this conversation.”

  “You look like you’re dreading it.” Probably not as much as she was, but this seemed like a necessary evil if she was ever going to move on with her life. And that was something she desperately needed to do. Living in the past with his memory always floating around was not healthy.

  “I knew this day might eventually come, but honestly, I never thought it would be under circumstances remotely like this.” He paused. “I’ve been having internal debates about whether I should reach out to you for a long time, but I didn’t want to invade your life. I felt like the last thing you deserved was any more heartache from me, so I decided it was best to try to keep the past in the past.”

  “Why did you think reaching out would cause me more heartache? What could possibly be worse than what you did?” She couldn’t stop talking now, as her emotions simmered dangerously close to the surface. “We had plans to build a life together. To get married, have a family, the whole nine yards, and you just threw it all away on a one-night drunken hookup? That wasn’t the man I fell in love with, and I’ve questioned over and over in my mind how we could’ve ended up there. What did I do to push you away? I thought we had promised each other that we would build our relationship on trust, love, and our common faith.” Finally, she took a second to regroup and see how he would respond to her allegations.

  “I deserve all of that and more. And I think you finally deserve the truth.” He took her hand and squeezed it.

  Her pulse quickened. “What do you mean? I know the truth. I may not know every sordid detail, but you can spare me that.”

  He hung his head.

  “Hunter, is there something else you’re not telling me?”

  His blue eyes met hers. “I lied to you, Layla.”

  She pulled her hand back. “Was it more than just a onetime thing? Is that it?” She tried to move farther away from him, but he grabbed both her hands and held on tightly. “What?” It came out as a whisper, because the look in his eyes told her that something was really wrong.

  “Layla, there was no blond undergrad. No drunken night at the bar.”

  Her voice shook. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

  He looked away again, and she feared that what he was going to tell her would be even worse than the lie she had believed all these years.

  “Hunter?” This time she tightened her grip on him.

  “That entire story was fabricated.”

  “But why?” Her thoughts were jumbled, because none of what Hunter was saying made any sense at all.

  “Do you remember what was going on in your life during all of that?”

  How could she forget? It was one of the most defining moments of her life. “Of course. I was in the final stages of my interviews with the Agency.” She looked him in the eyes, and then a sick feeling formed deep within the pit of her stomach.

  “I was interviewed about you for the background check, and that was all standard operating procedure.”

  “I remember you telling me everything went fine.” That conversation about the background check visit was vivid in her mind.

  Hunter took a breath. “And it was, but then I got a visit from a completely different man.”

  She felt her heart cracking into tiny pieces all over again, because deep in her gut, she knew where this might end. “What did this man say to you?”

  “A lot of things, but the bottom line was that if I really loved you, I would break it off. That the country needed you more than I did, and that ultimately our relationship would be a liability not only to your career but to the Agency.”

  She felt her mouth drop open. Had the CIA really tanked her relationship? “But why? Most recruits have relationships of some sort. I admit the success rates of CIA marriages aren’t the best, but still, it’s completely normal for CIA employees to get married.”

  “You were what he described to me as an HVR.”

  “HVR?”

  “A high-value recruit. Only one percent of recruits fall into that category. You speak Arabic fluently, you know the Middle East like the back of your hand, and you have a first-rate academic pedigree. They literally saw you as a once-in-a-lifetime hire and were willing to do whatever it took to make sure you could succeed there unencumbered.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice cracked.

  “He told me if I spoke a word of any of it to you, they’d cancel your conditional offer of employment, and he didn’t seem like the kind of guy to make idle threats.”

  She sat in silence, holding tightly to his hands, because she didn’t know what else to do. Her entire world had been turned upside down. But the feeling that hit her the hardest was anger. Not at Hunter. No—it was at the CIA.

  “They took everything from me.” Fresh tears started to flow down her cheeks.

  Hunter pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her while she cried. She knew she’d never be the same.

  Layla had stopped crying, but that didn’t make Hunter feel any better. He had wanted to hold her since the moment they’d parted years ago, but this wasn’t how he’d wanted it to unfold. Although he had to admit that it felt like five thousand pounds had been lifted from his shoulders. He’d never told a soul about any of this. Not even Elijah, who heard about everything else in Hunter’s life. This had been his dark secret to bear alone.

  “You let everyone believe you were a cheater to try to protect me?” Layla looked up into his eyes.

  “I loved you. I felt like it was my only option. You were so high on the Agency gig. That’s all you talked about. How you wanted to become a top-rated analyst and save lives. Thwart the next 9/11. Be the one who
could see things that others couldn’t see. Connect all the dots. There was no way I was going to take that away from you. It meant far too much.”

  “I don’t even know how to begin to process all of this,” she whispered.

  “Do you want a few minutes alone?” He was willing to give her all the time she needed.

  “No,” she responded quickly. “I have questions.”

  “Whatever I can answer, I will.” That was the least he could do.

  “This man who came to you. What was his name?”

  “Riley Brown.”

  Her eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

  “Well, I can’t be sure he was telling the truth, but that’s what he said his name was.”

  “What did he look like? Do you remember?”

  How could he forget? “Yeah. White guy, I’d say in his late fifties, with dark hair graying at the temples. Probably about five ten, light eyes. Do you know him?”

  She nodded. “He’s high up at Langley, but not in the DA.”

  “DA?”

  “Directorate of Analysis—my division. Riley’s from the Directorate of Operations, aka the clandestine service.” She shook her head. “If the DO’s involved, they had this planned all along.”

  “What planned?”

  “That I’d come in as an analyst, and they’d make me a field officer even though I told them I wanted a desk job. If Riley Brown came to you, they were working me from day one, and I never saw it coming. I’ve played right into their little web of tricks.”

  He put the pieces together quickly. “But why not just recruit you for the clandestine service from the beginning?”

  “Because I made it clear from my first interview that I wanted to be an analyst.”

  “And they didn’t want to take no for an answer.” He had to ask. “Do you think any of that history and their plan for you has anything to do with the IG investigation?”

  “I doubt it, but at this point, everything is on the table. Honestly, Hunter, my mind is blown right now.”

  He knew he might be pushing his luck, but he took her hand again. “I’m so sorry about all of this.”

  “Me too,” she said softly. “This is all the more reason to take you up on your offer to go with me tomorrow as my attorney.”