by Tara Brown
“Four seasons?” He sounded beaten by the idea.
“Four seasons.”
“All right.” He squeezed my hand once and got up, letting go and walking to the door. He paused and turned his head back around. “But I’m playing dirty. Tight jeans and tee shirts every day. And I’m not giving up my visitation of the kids.” He cracked that grin and stalked out of the room, leaving me laughing. It was the one thing I had to give him—he left me laughing where Servario almost always left me crying.
I wasn't sure what that said about me, that I would have chosen the man who made me cry.
But I knew it meant one thing for sure. I needed fucking help.
27
Season One
October 2013
“And done! I am officially finished with my paperwork and never want to see the words ‘Burrow’ or ‘Organization’ ever again.” Luce slapped the last of the paperwork on the desk and flopped into the chair next to me. It had been brutal, debriefing or naming and explaining everything that had gone on, without actually telling the truth on the whole matter.
“I feel you.” I lifted my knuckles for her to pound but didn't move my gaze away from the computer in front of me. I’d been put on a relief security detail for an informant we had in the field who was under constant surveillance. Oddly enough, he was one I’d already met, apparently not coincidentally.
Luce pounded my knuckles and moved in closer. “What’s hottie Orson up to?” She handed me a Twizzler.”
“He made a Bundt cake ‘cause his mom’s coming over for tea.” I took a bite and wondered what it was like to be him. His life was so simple.
“How’s his English accent coming in?”
“Better.” I nodded. “This week he said ‘lovely’ when someone confirmed a date for a delivery. And he’s done the whole ‘all right’ thing a bunch of times. You know, where they use it for sentences and in instances it doesn't make sense to say all right?”
“Yeah. You walk into a restaurant and the server greets you with ‘all right.’ Like what? Just say hello. You don't care if I’m all right. You don't want to hear that I’m not.” Luce scoffed, making me laugh.
“Exactly. So he’s been saying that. He’s going to be British in like six months, maybe less, and then he will be an unstoppable hottie.” I chewed the licorice and watched him icing the cake. “Fuck, how is he so handsome and still single?”
“He’s on our team, bro.” She turned, giving me her what-the-fuck face. “You never noticed that before? Seriously? Look how well dressed he is. He looks like what’s-his-name, Edris Alba, and is single? I don't think so. He’s gay. All about the sexy British dudes. He’s probably not single but isn’t ready for his coworkers or his mom to know. And it isn’t as if he’s unaware he’s under surveillance, genius. He knows he’s an informant and someone is watching.”
“No. He hit on me. Gave me his card and was like if you’re in town.” I was slowly cluing in. “Oh my God. He only gave me options for reach outs in London. The hitting on me was an act.” My lower lip protruded.
“Not everyone is in love with you, Evie.” She nudged me jokingly but still managed to zing me a good one.
“Do a head count. No one is in love with me.” I lifted an eyebrow at her. “Not even Orson.” I sighed and stared at him.
“Thanks, Evie.” Coop came into the room at the wrong moment. “Upstairs has Orson in their sights again. You can go.”
“Is his name even Orson?” Luce asked with a big bite of candy in her mouth.
“No,” Coop answered flatly. “You guys both leaving now?"
“Yeah, we have dinner at my place, remember? Sissy is coming home.” I got up, peeking back once more at Orson living his best life. Lucky bastard.
“I know. I’ll be a bit later than you though, so start dinner without me.” He wrinkled his nose. “We have news.”
“News?” I gulped and Luce sat up straighter.
“Reassignment. A whole other ball of wax I didn't see coming, but we’ll discuss it at the house. Jack’s coming too, right?”
“Yeah,” Luce answered.
“All right, see you in a couple of hours.” He waved and vanished into the dark hallway he’d come from.
“I hate it when he does that,” Luce snarled and got up.
“Me too. I wonder what it is.”
“Sounds bad.” She pushed in her chair and folded her arms. “He just likes being the only one who has the scoop.”
“Yup.” My right eye twitched as I contemplated how bad it might be. I was just getting used to being home and schedules. Though I had to admit, life was easier with Mom and Fitz around. They chauffeured the kids constantly and helped out more than I deserved. I hadn’t made dinner in weeks. No one wanted to eat my food. Not when Grandma and Fitz were gourmets.
“See you at the house.” Luce walked to the hallway Coop had gone down.
“Okay.” I hurried to the underground parking for the office building we’d been in for six weeks. Or since we’d arrived back on American soil with a list of dead a mile long and a loss of assets so heavy we might never be forgiven. In an odd bit of irony, the stings on human trafficking had been the only deed that saved us after losing the Burrow and nearly causing an international incident.
Japan had agreed to claim a terrorist attack had destroyed their temple and there were no suspects. They stepped up security countrywide and a few debts were paid by the United Nations and NATO for their losses.
The temples would be rebuilt every two decades as they were before.
And the weapons of mass destruction, along with their makers, were long gone. No longer a threat to the safety of the world.
Decades had been spent searching for a peaceful solution to the Burrow and we had ended it all with a massacre. A choice I had yet to regret.
My father had tied up the loose ends, allowing the scientists he hand-picked to survive the mass culling to create a new identity and a new life. They were given a home, passport, money, and a past that was created in Dorset. They had to stay in England. They had to check in. They would be monitored. They were never allowed to work in their chosen fields again, unless they chose to stay in the commune in Dorset, which some had.
And by the time they were settled, the world had forgotten about them for the most part.
It was a tidy ending but had possibilities for an untidy result at some point.
As far as our government knew, the Burrow had suffered an insider attack, the result of us finding a way to get to the Burrow. They had self-destructed to keep the weapons and tech out of our hands, detonating at the same moment we killed the Organization off. Which, to the CIA and CI, meant we had a mole. But no one was suspected. We’d sacrificed so much and suffered so brutally. And not to mention—though we did frequently when the commander got spicy—we had saved thousands of trafficking victims.
There was no one to blame for the tragedy of losing the Burrow.
Servario was dead.
The Organization was gone.
James had been taken care of.
All in all, it was clean closure, but it didn't feel closed to me.
I wondered if it ever would.
When I got home, the house smelled like roast chicken and Jules attacked me at the front door with her savage dog who barked nonstop. Jules was now missing a second front tooth and fairly excited for the song at Christmas. She was trying to teach Hedgie to bark the tune along with her.
“Mom”—she hugged hard—“Aunty Sissy is here but she looks weird.” She pulled me to the kitchen. I stopped in the hallway, my hands lifting to my lips as the view of my sister, only not someone I would’ve known as my sister, stepped forward. Her eyes were the same, but not much else was. She’d had a nose job, her lips done, and her hair was so different, straight, dark, and short. She rushed me, hugging tightly and crying.
“Evie!”
“Sissy. What the fu-heck?” I quickly recovered but earned a scowl from Mom. “Your fac
e.”
“I know. I had some nips and tucks,” she joked, though we both knew why. “I wanted a change.” She shrugged.
“And a change you got. You look stunning.” And she did, sort of like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction.
“How are you?” she asked, her gaze prying more than her words.
“Good. Things are good. The house is settled. Kids are in school and sports and back with friends. Horse is in the stables. I’m still somehow the most hated mom on the block. Can’t seem to wiggle my way into those ladies. Back at hot yoga, which is nice. I missed it. You’ll have to come for a class or two.”
“Yeah.” She said it like it would never happen. “I’m not here long, I’m afraid. I’ve taken a job offer in London.” She beamed and I knew that meant a guy. She’d met someone at the Burrow, hence her never complaining about being there, and was going back to him.
“I’m happy for you.” I smiled wide, excited to hear that story later.
“Me too.” She turned to Mom. “And Dad should be here soon. He’s just closing up the shop he’s been working at. So that’s cool too.”
Mom’s eyes narrowed. “Yes.” She did the lying thing again but Sissy missed it. Where she had been a momma's girl and I had been a daddy's girl when we were little, our roles had clearly reversed.
“Anyway, I’m super pumped to see you guys again. Are Coop and Luce and Jack coming for dinner?”
She asked and as if on cue, Luce called out, “Hello?”
“They’re here now.” I turned as Jules went running for the front door to show Luce her toothless grin while Hedgie begged for love.
Mom rushed to them, hugging Jack and Luce as Fitz came strolling into the front room. “Hey.” He gave us all hugs, smelling exactly the same as always. Mitch was on his heels, still smelling like hockey practice and looking sweaty.
"Mitch!" my sister shrieked and rushed him. "You're huge!"
“Hi.” He scowled and stepped back.
“It’s Aunty Sissy. She got some work done.” I smiled and tried not to laugh at his shocked face.
"Hi, Aunty." He gave a half-assed hug and pointed upstairs, "I need to get a shower in."
"You do." She wrinkled her nose. "You smell like a man."
"Yeah." Mitch was red-faced as he slipped away to get clean.
I giggled as Sissy went on and on about how big the kids were.
The reunion was sweet, a prize for the pain.
And the evening played out this way. Laughing, eating, drinking, joking, and teasing as we all caught up on each other’s lives.
By the time Coop arrived, we were glowing with warm hearts and a little wine.
Mitch came to life, hugging Coop and giving him the rundown of how the team was looking this week. Coop had been going to as many practices as he could. My whole heart tugged watching my kid love him. A realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I loved his love for my children, particularly my son who so desperately needed a male role model. But as I swooned, I reminded myself that it didn’t necessarily mean we were meant to be. And if we were meant to be, the fact he loved my kids wouldn't be the reason I loved him in the end. I needed to be sure about how I felt about him before I changed our situation. It was just easy to swoon when he was irresistible in every way.
As if reading my thoughts, Coop saw me notice Jules yawning and got up. He lifted her into his arms and carried her up to bed.
"I'm gonna hit the hay too." Sissy got up. Clearly, she had drunk too much wine for her jet lag.
"Jack, wanna see my new game?" Mitch stood and nodded his head at the games room down the hall.
"Been waiting for an invitation all night." Jack jumped up and hurried after him.
I stayed on the couch in front of the fire with Luce, glass of wine in hand and aching cheeks from laughing so much. “So, I am meeting the family,” she whispered when we were alone. “Jack’s family.”
“Oh snap.” I lifted my glass to hers and acted as though I didn’t know this already.
“I know.” She clinked her glass against mine. “Big step for us. But a good one I think. It means a lot to me, considering how weird he is about them.”
“Right. Obviously.” I laughed. Jack was secretive about them. “When?” I asked, even though I knew.
“Christmas, actually. I’m going to France for Christmas and staying at the family house and spending it with them.” Her cheeks flushed with color. “We’re going to say we met at the gala.”
“Romantic.” I was impressed. Jack had done well. His engagement ring and proposal would also work out perfectly. He was ready. I’d made certain of it. Even if it broke my heart, knowing they would be leaving us. He wouldn't be allowed to work in the US once the spotlight hit him, the main reason Jack had been so secretive. Getting married meant a huge media target would be put on him. It meant a lot of PR and interviews and the end of the career he so loved. He and Luce would enter the European spotlight and they would never leave. It was the one drawback of that type of life. The press would never leave them alone. Even Fergie continued to show up in headlines.
Which meant our team would end around the time they were to marry. Maybe a couple of months before. When I’d asked Jack if he was sure he wanted to give up his career, considering he was so brilliant at it, he said the last year had taught him many things, but the most important one was that Luce was everything. And she was worth everything. I just hoped she felt the same about him, that it was worth giving up her career to be married to him and his world.
Sitting next to her, blissfully unaware that her future held such a choice, I believed she would choose that. She would want to be part of the world she had secretly coveted her whole life. Something she had kept from everyone, watching the royals in secret and daydreaming about a magical fairytale sort of love.
My thoughts were interrupted by Coop as he came down the stairs and sat across from us. “Jules said the tooth fairy didn't come the first night she put her tooth under her pillow.” He arched an eyebrow at me.
“Yeah, the tooth fairy has been a little overwhelmed this year, and she might have left Jules a small note saying she was sorry but because the tooth fell out so late in the day, she got moved to the next day’s list of kids.” My cheeks burned with embarrassment.
“Wow.” Coop sat across from us, folding his arms and giving me the look. Luce and I giggled at his judgmental brow. “That is lame.” He finally broke and laughed too.
“Whatever.” I waved him off. “I have done far lamer. Anyway, what was the news?”
“Do we have to wait for Jack?” Luce asked.
“No, he knows.” Coop leaned forward a bit, his expression hesitant. “We have been moved, which we all knew was coming, to a special task force. CI hasn't used us in a year in actual counter intelligence, thanks to James and his actions. So they don't have a spot for us right now. The CIA doesn't want us, they don't believe our story at all. They think we’re lying and we were somehow involved in the loss of the Burrow, and they don't care about human trafficking victims. They wanted the Burrow, likely to sell the tech and make money. We all know they’re corrupt as shit.”
“We don't want to work for the CIA anyway.” I scowled.
“Right. But a unit has been created, sort of from the ashes of our last takedown. It's outside of the law, so to speak."
“Those sound like our kind of people.” Luce snorted.
“What does that mean exactly? Assassins?” I was a little lost, which could’ve been the wine, but it felt more like the result of Coop talking in circles and not getting to the point.
“I think some elimination is expected. Some life ruining. Some blackmailing maybe.” Coop continued to dance around the words “hired killer.”
“Okay.” I wasn't above hired killing or blackmail. “But we say who. I’m not going to play puppet on a string. If they want us, we decide what we accept and what we don't.”
“That won’t be an issue.” Coop licked his lips nervously, making me nerv
ous too.
“Spit it out, dammit!” Luce snapped.
“We’ve been given a new list. We report directly to the commander. We are no longer members of CI, but the commander has been asked by the president himself to oversee certain aspects of the ring we brought down. The commander reports directly to the president on this matter.”
“Ohhhhhhhhhh.” It all clicked into place for me. “So basically Saransk’s computers and the raids led to the discovery of high-powered officials who enjoyed the sex slave business and other aspects of the debauchery?”
“Yeah.” Coop nodded. “And not everyone is a stranger to us or the president.” He shuddered. "In fact, we think we may have pinpointed who some of CI's and the CIA's moles are."
“Fuck. How high ranking are we talking?”
Coop’s eyes flashed on Luce, answering with the stare.
“Oh.” Luce pressed her lips together. “Oh wow.”
“I’m in.” I didn't need to hear anything else.
I could well imagine who was on the list, and I had zero issue in taking them out.
28
Season Two
December 2013
“Girl, it’s been months since you got laid, maybe you should let me shoot,” Luce whispered from below me in the tree where we sat. We were waiting for the man, who had been seated next to Servario at the gala in Monaco, to get home. I’d become so overwhelmed by everything, that I’d forgotten about this man, Heinrich Boehlert. But he had turned up on our list. So it worked out. He would die and I would feel some small measure of satisfaction.
“That’s not exactly true. I have sex,” I whispered back but didn't take my eyes off the prize. With my night vision I could see everything, including one of the neighbors moving back and forth in his bedroom, pacing.
“Yeah, by yourself. Vibrators don't count, not even if you name them.”
“Fine, it’s been months, but I don't see how that would affect my shooting,” I argued.
