by Lexi Blake
And they teased him for being dumb. “He didn’t want a big paper trail connecting him to me and Jamie. He’s paranoid. Until he flipped out when he thought Tag was going to murder me, none of his team knew he had a sister. I was just a fellow employee.”
“So we have bigger problems,” Simon mused.
“Yeah, we’ve got another damn mole and one who’s close to a senator.” Hutch reached for a pastry. “So now we need to figure out why that drunk boy knows Ten’s super secret middle name. He really looked more like a George, you know.”
“So you’ll look into Albertson?” She shot Hutch a pointed look. “Like now?”
Hutch grabbed another plate. “Fine. You know other people on this team get time off.” When no one replied, he just shook his head. “Fine. I’ll go wake up Chelsea and she’s going to be irritable.”
“Send her my love,” Simon said with a wave. He looked back at Phoebe and Jesse. “And you two get ready. Phoebe has a session soon and you need to look through the footage.”
“Simon?” Jesse started.
“I’ll go with her. I won’t let her out of my sight,” Simon promised.
“Thank you, brother,” Jesse said with obvious relief.
So Simon was the only one he really trusted. She should have picked someone from her own team, but that didn’t mean anything now. Jesse was her team and he would feel better with Simon watching over her. She wasn’t going to question him.
She turned her head up when Simon left to clean up and Erin and Theo continued bickering over breakfast. She and Jesse were left to themselves. “Are you okay?”
His hand came up, smoothing back her hair. “I’m as good as I can be, thanks to you. Your brother should have fired me.”
“Not if he knows what’s good for him.”
“Phoebe, I screwed up last night. I put us all in harm’s way.”
“You had a bad moment.”
“And that one moment could get us all killed. I don’t want you to go out there today. I want you to come with me and we’ll go to the airport and we won’t even go back to Dallas. We’ll go somewhere no one knows who we are. We can just hide.”
“Jesse,” she started.
His hand came up and he put a finger to her lips. “I said that’s what I want to do. What I’m going to do is tell you to be careful because you’re precious to me.”
How was she supposed to resist him? The universe was cruel and oh so kind. She leaned forward and kissed him. “I promise.”
He wrapped his arms around her and they sat that way until it was time to go.
* * * *
Six hours later, Phoebe stood beside Simon as the session on new ecological laws in First World countries came to a close. It was the third session she’d sat through and the final one of the first day of the conference. Frustration threatened to bubble over. “I didn’t see the al Fareed party at all.”
Simon nodded shortly and leaned over to speak to her in a quiet tone. “I didn’t either. I think we have to believe they might have left. There’s a private meeting this evening, but Kamdar isn’t invited to it. It’s only oil companies.”
She looked around, but found not a single familiar face beyond Theo standing guard in the background.
They were running out of time and their prey was proving to be elusive. The conference itself was only four days. If she couldn’t identify the man by then, she feared they would lose him. He knew what was happening. It would be easy for him to simply disappear into his country and start his work all over again.
Business is always war and war is always a matter of business. The words had played through her head. What else had al Fareed said? She reached up and tugged on Simon’s suit coat, stopping his forward progress. “He was interested in Kamdar.”
Simon turned to her. “That’s not terribly surprising. He’s rather making himself a massive target. I hear he was talking about putting them all out of business last night. He’s an interesting fellow, but I’m afraid these very conservative men are going to find him arrogant and obnoxious.”
“That’s what al Fareed said. Interesting. He said the king was an interesting man with interesting friends.”
“I don’t think anyone would argue with that.” Simon looked at his watch. “Tea’s about to be served. We should walk through before we give up for the evening. We’ll make sure we’ve got surveillance on his suite and that boardroom, but we can’t simply stand around and hope to catch sight of him. It’s more important than ever that we keep our cover.”
He didn’t understand. “I think he was talking about Jesse. It was in the way he said it. I think when he was talking about Kamdar’s interesting friends, he was talking about Jesse and possibly Ten.”
“But Jesse hadn’t blown up when you met al Fareed.”
“That’s my point exactly. ‘Business is always war.’ He said that and that I shouldn’t get caught in the middle. He was specifically talking about the king of Loa Mali at that point. We never figured out who paid Eli Nelson to blow up Kamdar’s first experiments with green energy. That explosion should have set him back years.”
“You think it could have been al Fareed.”
“I think it’s bigger than that.” The lines were starting to be drawn in her head, faint at first, but getting stronger. “I need to think about it for a while.”
She needed to think about al Fareed and The Collective.
How had he known where Jesse’s unit was going? It hadn’t been a random IED that took them out. There had been nothing random about any of it.
That unit was headed back in from a mission. She needed to talk to Jesse. He was the only one left who could tell her anything.
The thought made her sick, but she had to tell Jesse the truth. He needed to know.
“Are you all right?” Simon looked down at her. “You went pale.”
She shook her head. “I’m good. Let’s do a quick turn through the tea and then head up for the night. The al Fareed brothers will be in the oil meeting hatching all sorts of nefarious plots. They won’t be at the dinner for the poor people.”
By poor people she still meant seriously rich, but the men who would be in the private meeting were the world’s wealthiest oilmen.
Was it also a meeting of The Collective?
She followed Simon out, her thoughts running amok. It was like this when she was considering a puzzle. Chaotic at first. It was hard because there was so much information and she had to sift through, to sort it into something that made sense.
How had the senator’s aide known Ten’s middle initial?
How had al Fareed known about Kamdar’s “friends” before Jesse had outed himself? Now that she thought about it, he’d used words that would have a direct impact on Jesse. He’d talked about dogs and leashes, his voice becoming sharper, as though to highlight what he was saying. As though he’d known Jesse was somewhere listening to him.
And Ace. She couldn’t forget Ace. He was the link. He’d been placed, but by whom? Yes, it seemed to be al Fareed on the surface, and certainly he’d been there to do the Caliph’s bidding, but no Middle Eastern oilman could have that much influence on the Agency.
Not without help from the inside.
She was grateful for Simon because she likely would have gotten lost without him. She didn’t really see where she was going. She saw the puzzle in front of her.
“Have a seat.” Simon held out the chair for her. “I’ll get us some tea. We’ll put in an appearance and then we’ll leave. Don’t move.”
He walked toward the elegant buffet.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the whore from last night,” a low voice said.
She looked up and there was her old friend Albertson. He was dressed in a perfectly cut suit, his hair slicked back, and a ten thousand dollar watch around his wrist. Still, his eyes told the tale. They were bloodshot and tired. She started to stand because there was zero point in arguing over his opinion of her. “I’ll excuse myself since you can’t s
eem to be a gentleman.”
He reached out, catching her elbow. “I might have been a gentleman if you and your friend hadn’t drugged me. Did you think I wouldn’t catch that, bitch?”
“Since I did nothing of the sort, no, I didn’t think you would. Let go of my arm.” She glared back at him. “As drunk as you were last night, I’m surprised you remember me at all.”
His lips curled in a sneer. “You were counting on that, weren’t you? Too bad you were working with a pro. I’ve had far more to drink and still managed to fuck some dumb bitch and maintain my memory of the encounter. I’m not stupid. You tried to roll me last night. Since my wallet was in place, I have to think you’re looking for something else.”
“Hey, take your hands off her. Now.” Theo moved in, his big shoulders encased in a suit. Despite the well-tailored look, there was no way to mistake him for anything but muscle.
Albertson let go of her arm and stared for a moment. “Shit. For a minute I thought you were…” His face went red and he held his hands up as though giving in. “Hey, the lady and I were just talking. No big deal. She needs to understand that when she plays with fire, she’s going to get burned. But then you should know all about that.”
Theo stared at him. “Why would I know about that?”
“You’re old enough to know that a man can lose the things he loves the most, the places he feels most comfortable in if he doesn’t know when to back off or who to be friends with,” Albertson said pointedly.
Theo’s eyes narrowed. “Is that right? You want me to deliver a message to my brother? Because that’s sure what it fucking sounds like.”
“I don’t even know who you’re talking about,” he replied with a smile that belied his words. He was enjoying playing with them.
“It’s okay,” Theo promised, taking her by the elbow and gently bringing her to his side. “You might not know who he is, but I promise you, he knows who you are. Tell the senator hello from a lowly bodyguard. And if you come near her again, I’ll cut your balls off and make a toy out of them for my cat. I don’t actually own a cat, but if I have your balls dangling on a piece of string, I’ll get one just for the pleasure of watching it bat your boys around. Am I understood?”
Albertson took a step back, but he didn’t take his eyes off her. She could feel him watching her as Theo walked toward Simon.
“I suppose I can order us tea for the suite.” Simon sighed and put the cups down before walking toward the elevators.
“You sound a lot like your brother,” Phoebe told Theo as the doors closed.
“I guess the ability to threaten a man runs in the family,” Theo replied. “He was an asshole and he was lying. He thought I was Ian. I talked to Ian last night. He says he doesn’t know who this guy is.”
“I don’t think he’s our problem. I am interested in his boss, though.” The doors opened again and she heard Ten shouting.
She picked up the pace, shoving through the door that led to their rooms.
“Listen to me.” Ten was red in the face, his boots ringing on the marbled floors. “You don’t understand what I’m doing here.” His head turned down and a low growl came out of his mouth. “You can’t…yes. I understand. Yes, sir. By morning. Good-bye.”
“What was that about?” Jesse looked up from his seat next to Hutch.
Ten locked eyes with Phoebe and she could see the beast that was always just under his surface. She watched as he subdued it and shoved it back down. When he spoke he was calm again, though his words were clipped, his annoyance plain. “We’ve been recalled to DC. Hutch, shut her down. We’ve got to be packed and ready to go. They’re sending a plane to pick us up early tomorrow morning.” He turned back to Simon. “Agency only, man. I’m so fucking sorry.”
“What?” Phoebe shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around the words. “Why would they call us in? Who called us in?”
“The executive director. He’s revoked my privileges. All operations under my command now have to be approved. I’ve been demoted and if I don’t show up in DC tomorrow, I’ll be fired.”
It was so much worse than being fired. “They threatened to disavow you?”
He nodded sharply. “You know what that means.”
It meant that Tennessee Smith would cease to exist. He would have no name, no passport, no home or bank accounts in the United States. He would be a ghost.
Ten turned to Jesse. “I swear to you, I’m going to figure out what’s going on and we’ll handle the Caliph. If I have to have the fucker assassinated, I will. But I have to find out what’s going on first.”
“I think it’s the senator,” Phoebe said. “I think somehow he’s working with al Fareed.”
“Proof?” Ten asked.
She shook her head. “I have a whole lot of conjecture, but I need to know who recommended Ace. I was right about that. He couldn’t have made it on an Agency black ops team without some serious recommendations. Who was it?”
Hutch turned to his keyboard and his hands flew across it. He sat back and then tried again. “What the fuck? Boss, I don’t have access to those records. What the hell? I’ve got the security clearance. Why am I blocked?”
She exchanged worried glances with Ten. They weren’t just being called back. Ten’s job was on the line and he was about to have his life picked apart by bureaucrats because he’d stepped into something none of them understood yet. Phoebe made her own command decision. “Simon, get your wife on the phone or better yet, get Adam. They could be watching Chelsea. Her job is on the line, too.”
Simon snorted, an oddly elegant sound. “She doesn’t particularly care one way or another. If the Agency fires her, she’ll just go to work for Tag. I’ll call Adam as well. We’ll have an answer soon.”
Jesse stood up. “I’ll start looking for flights for me and Si and Erin.”
There was something about the way he said it that made her wary. Already, they were splitting up. Hutch and Theo were moving toward each other, talking in low tones. Simon walked out of the room. Erin and Jesse exchanged a glance.
“You’re not going to leave, are you?” Phoebe asked.
Jesse’s jaw went stubborn. “I don’t have to answer to the Agency. I answer to Ian Taggart. We’ll see what he says. I suppose you’ll be on that plane.”
What did he expect her to do? “I would think you of all people would understand the chain of command, Jesse. I was ordered by my superior officer to return to base.”
He stared for a moment as though he could imprint his will on her. “You can choose. You don’t have to work for them. This isn’t Ten telling you what to do. This is someone with an obvious agenda. They are working against our mission.”
“Those people you’re talking about run the CIA.”
“Oh, and there’s never been corruption there. Now who’s being naïve, Phoebe? You want to be on that plane, I don’t think I can stop you. Erin, go talk to Kamdar. Explain what’s going on. We still need his cooperation in order to continue.”
Erin nodded and like the good little soldier she was, trotted off to do his bidding.
“They can’t stay,” Theo said, his eyes widening when he realized what was going on. “They don’t have any backup. They don’t have anyone who can help them out if they get into trouble. If they get arrested, the government won’t do a damn thing about it. She can’t stay here.”
Phoebe kept her eyes on Jesse. “He has a point.”
Jesse shrugged. “I never expected the government to help me out anyway. What I do have is Ian Taggart, and I assure you he won’t leave my ass in a prison for months and months. We’re not the Agency. We don’t take our time or wait for the right political situation. We don’t leave our men behind.”
His words hit her squarely in the gut.
He’d been left behind. In essence, she’d left them both there, Jamie to die and Jesse to be tortured.
“We looked. Do you think we didn’t look for you?” The question came out on a shaky breath as every
one of her insecurities bubbled to the surface. All the guilt she’d started to toss out settled over her again.
Jesse took a step toward her. “I’m talking about the present, Phoebe. Not the past. You are so damn caught up in the past, I should have known what you would think.”
She turned and walked away. She couldn’t have this argument with him. Not when she was leaving and he seemed determined to destroy himself. It struck her quite forcibly that she could lose another man she loved to that animal because Jesse couldn’t think straight about this. He couldn’t control himself. Last night had proven it. He needed to step back and let Ten handle it.
Did she just think that word? Did she put that word into her head? Love? She couldn’t love him. She couldn’t save him. Hell, she hadn’t saved Jamie. She didn’t even deserve a chance with Jesse. She just didn’t.
“Hey, Phoebe. Stop.” Jesse followed her into the hallway.
She couldn’t face him. Her carefully constructed walls were rotting at her feet. She was the reason Jesse was here now. If she’d been better at her job, he would likely be back in Dallas, going on with his life.
She killed the men she loved.
Her chest was far too tight as she opened and closed the door to the bedroom. She needed time. The lock clicked into place and she looked down at the way her hands were shaking. She was caught. Trapped, just like when she’d been a kid and she knew something was wrong but she couldn’t do anything. No one wanted to hear her cry. It made things worse. She needed to cry, but it was stuck inside. Everything was ending. She was losing Jesse and maybe her job, and she might cost Ten his. She wanted to wail and punch and fight and all she could do was try to drag a breath in.
“Phoebe?”
She couldn’t right now. She stayed silent. He would get the hint. Maybe in an hour or so she would be able to face him with some hint of dignity.
How could she walk away from him? How could she fucking not?
“Baby, I need you to step back,” Jesse said. “Do it. Now.”
The door came crashing open and there he was, rebalancing himself after kicking the damn door in. His shoulders were squared and his jaw formed a hard line as he stepped inside.
