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WE WOKE TO A KNOCK on the cabin door. “Excuse me?” a strange man’s voice interrupted my dream. I was reunited with Clark finally, and our bed had expanded to fill the entire world. I couldn’t imagine who might be on the outside looking in. The thought of running across another person out there on the ocean was nearly impossible. Then I remembered Lukas’s man.
“Linc?” I grumbled, blinking my eyes as I resurfaced to reality.
“Hang on,” Clark said, struggling upright. She put her shirt back on and pulled up a pair of pants that I’d never seen before. They were jet black and looked like something a mercenary would wear. Strangely, they didn’t seem to be her size.
She pulled the door open and waved the other man in. I sat up, giving her friend a guilty look. It was no secret what we had been up to for hours. I was surprised that the other man was content to sit on a different boat attached to ours while we went at it with obvious passion.
“Linc, Theo,” Clark said.
“We met last night,” I replied, pulling my shirt on.
“A little bit,” Linc agreed. “Anyway, we’re coming up on the shore. I thought you two might want to...get up.”
“Thanks,” Clark said, pushing her way out the door and back up on deck. I followed swiftly, not wanting to let her out of my sight. In the distance, we could see a thin line of beige on the horizon. Not the same color as the water or the sky, it was proof that this leg of our journey was near its end.
“We need a plan,” Linc said, stating the obvious.
I looked at Clark, asking her nonverbally if we could trust our traveling companion. She shrugged, indicating that she wasn’t sure.
“The original plan was to go back to America,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, so I could find you,” she said.
“Your friends at the Abernathy estate have a lot of toys,” I observed. “Maybe they can help us find Regg.”
“And once we find Regg?” Clark asked.
“Who’s Regg?” Linc asked.
“Reginald Banks,” I clarified. “MI6 operative who’s gone rogue.”
“Why don’t you return to Great Britain?” Linc suggested.
“The problem is that no one except us knows he’s gone rogue,” Clark explained.
“He pinned several deaths on us and put it out through official channels that we’re dead,” I added.
“So you can’t go home?” Linc asked.
“No,” I responded, shaking my head.
I looked at Clark for her take on the subject. She gave me a smile. Linc was an interesting subject, one that I rarely came across anymore. He was young and inexperienced. He seemed to take everything we were saying at face value. If it was an act, it was a very good one. I suspected that he wouldn’t be able to lie even if he wanted to. His boy scout eyes would give him away.
“I can call Jasmine again,” Clark suggested.
“Jasmine?” Linc asked.
“My handler,” Clark explained. It seemed like she too felt increasingly comfortable around the junior agent. In ordinary circumstances, I might have been concerned. But all my instincts were telling me that the kid was okay.
“Jasmine Perez?” Linc pressed.
“Yes,” Clark said, looking surprised.
“She’s Dark Sparrow,” Linc told us.
“No.” Clark shook her head. “She would have told me.”
“As I recall, you were hell bent on killing anyone involved with Dark Sparrow,” I reminded her.
“That was when I thought they killed my fiancé,” Clark defended herself.
“You also thought I killed your fiancé,” I said, just to tease her.
“Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t,” she snapped. “Because I don’t date people I’m trying to kill.”
I sighed. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that fire in your eyes.”
She blushed and turned away. It was true. Early on in our relationship, we’d been at each other’s throats. It was hard to believe that a few short weeks ago, we had been sworn enemies. I never would have imagined that she would become the only true ally I had against a world full of traitors.
“I don’t know what Jasmine did or didn’t tell you,” Linc continued, interjecting in a lull in the conversation, “but she’s Dark Sparrow same as me. Same as Lukas.”
Clark sighed, turning her back on the approaching island. “Do you think we can trust her?”
“Of course,” Linc said as if it wasn’t an issue.
Clark glanced at me, and I shrugged. While it was difficult to tease out Dark Sparrow’s real objective, they were the one organization that didn’t seem to be trying to kill us at the moment. That ought to count for something.
“I guess if you trust Lukas and Linc here, we can trust Jasmine.”
Clark nodded thoughtfully. I could see right through her and knew that whatever trust she was willing to spare was only temporary. She wasn’t going to let down her guard for anyone but me. I approved. It was nice to know that she would remain on her toes. That meant less work on my part if the shit hit the fan.
“Let’s unhook the boats,” I suggested.
“Do you want me to ride in on the other one?” Linc asked.
Both Clark and I turned to him with a pregnant gaze that said he was crazy to even ask the question. He understood and climbed back across the breach before reaching up to release the tether.
Taking control, Linc steered my boat away to a safe distance before falling into line with our craft. I followed Clark to the control room where she switched off the auto control. We coasted into the first dock we came to, one that was remote, without all the technological checks and balances of commercial ports.
A simple wooden deck ran out into the water, and there were already a few fishing rigs tied up. I hopped out, stretching my back momentarily before squatting to secure our ship. We needed to get as far away as we could as fast as possible. The boat Clark had commandeered was full of guns and possibly on some terrorist watchlist. I didn’t want our first night on dry land to be spent in a prison cell.
I thought we had come in unannounced, but there was a woman waiting for us on the pier. Clark recognized her immediately, hopping off the boat and into the stranger’s arms. The two women shared a brief hug before Clark pulled away.
I grinned. As long as I had known her, Clark had never been the hugging type. I wondered if I could claim responsibility for that particular mood change. Had I warmed her heart to the point where she was finally able to let others in?
But the reaction of the second woman left that consideration out of the question. She didn’t seem surprised to receive the hug. In fact, they looked like two sorority sisters reunited after a long absence.
Just as I was beginning to relax, Clark pulled away and punched the other woman in the arm.
“Ow!” the stranger cried.
“That’s for not telling me that you were Dark Sparrow,” Clark chastised.
“Because I knew you would want to kill me,” the other woman pointed out, wincing.
“Theo, Jasmine,” Clark made the introduction.
“Pleasure to meet you,” I said, offering Jasmine my hand.
A moment later, the second boat came in, and I reached for the tether to tie it down. Jasmine gave Clark a suspicious look, but Clark just shook her head. Taking her lead from Clark, as we all did, the CIA handler waited patiently.
The moment Linc appeared at the bow and climbed out onto the deck, Jasmine gasped. She looked from Linc to Clark and back again, doing the math in her head. Finally, she rolled her eyes, putting both hands on her hips.
“Way to out a girl, Linc,” Jasmine snarled.
“We’ve been through something together,” Linc defended himself.
“Welcome to the job,” Jasmine snapped.
“Give him a break,” Clark said. “I tortured it out of him.”
“Is that true?” Jasmine demanded.
“No,” Linc responded.
“She was trying to kill me too,” I offered. “If that helps.”
“It doesn’t,” Jasmine countered.
“What are you doing here?” Clark asked. “I thought we were waiting for an extraction.”
“I had a hard time securing an extraction team, considering that the two of you are wanted for treason and presumed dead,” Jasmine quipped.
“Thanks for coming to get us,” Linc replied, showing the first evidence of polite conversation the four of us had engaged in since we landed.
“It’s good to see you,” Jasmine allowed.
“Likewise,” Clark admitted.
“Can we move this party to an airplane?” I asked.
“You have an airplane?” Clark asked suspiciously.
Before Jasmine could answer, another ship crested the shoreline, on a direct intercept course. From that distance, I couldn’t tell if it was a commercial vessel or a private yacht, but whatever it was, it was headed right for us.
Clark and I exchanged glances. The decision was clear. Should we run or hold our ground? Was the newcomer a friend or a foe, or simply another traveler who happened upon the dock at that particular moment? Clark hopped back up onto the boat, giving me a pointed look. I knew exactly where she was going: to get the guns.
I exhaled slowly, easing my way back to put my own boat between me and the stranger. Jasmine did the same, attempting to look casual. Linc followed our gaze and leapt back onto his own boat, disappearing below deck.
I felt that familiar thrill as I waited for the newcomer to either approach or pass us by. The sound of the motor increased, and the slap of the waves against the hulls of all three ships compounded what I knew was happening. The other boat was docking.
There were any number of reasons a strange boat might have for choosing that dock. But I wasn’t a big believer in coincidence. Jasmine had found us somehow on this lonely pier; it stood to reason that someone else might be equally as knowledgeable about our movements.
I’d tracked Linc over thousands of miles of ocean through the use of a transmitter. If Jasmine used the same technology to identify our location, what was to stop a third party from homing in on the signal?
As the craft eased its way up the channel to our side, I stiffened. To heck with pretending to be innocent. I reached for my gun and ducked behind the hull of Clark’s boat. Knowing that she was secured went a long way toward calming my nerves. If this was a slaughter, she could easily push away and return to sea.
Jasmine either had a death wish, or she saw something I missed. Instead of hiding like any self-respecting spy, she stood out in the open, watching the boat as it glided up to the deck. I watched her don a completely different persona. She went from the somewhat bitchy long-time friend of my undercover paramour to a flamboyantly rich American tourist.
“Hello!” she shouted, waving her hand.
“Get down!” I suggested, using the fraction of a second before the passengers of the new boat were within hearing distance.
Jasmine ignored me, walking toward the problem. “Do you need help?”
“Thank you, sweetheart,” a familiar voice replied.
Jasmine reached out her hands to accept the tether from the new boat, acting as if there was nothing wrong. Against my ear, my pistol quivered slightly. It had been a long time since I’d heard that voice, but there was no mistaking its high-level British authority. It sounded for all the world like...but that was impossible. There was no way she could be here. Why would she? It didn’t make sense.
Jasmine walked along the pier, drawing everyone’s attention. “Beautiful night.”
“Absolutely,” the new arrival agreed.
That’s when I knew. I stepped out of the shadows, the weapon going limp beside my leg. What kind of upside-down world had I stepped into when my nana interrupted me on the job? I had to see for myself whether it was really her, damn the consequences.
“Grandma?” I asked, coming around the boat to investigate.
Gretchen Aldora accepted Jasmine’s hand while climbing down off her yacht. “Hello, Theo,” she rumbled.
My jaw dropped.
