Sixty-nine

She told church everything.

She didn’t want to. Trusting Church went against everything she knew about Livingston Shaw’s former number-one operative, but she didn’t see where she had much choice.

You’ve got a choice. You’ve got me, darlin’.

“Let me get this straight,” Church said, turning away from the passenger window she’d been staring through while Sabrina explained everything on their way to the station. “Elena, the crime scene tech, is Valerie’s little sister? Who happened to be the childhood bestie of Rachel Meeks, victim number four?”

“Yes,” she said, cutting a quick glance toward the woman next to her.

Church nodded. “Who, in 2000, was kidnapped and raped by your brother and Nulo, his little pet nutjob.”

“Yes,” she said through clenched teeth. “And he’s my half-
brother.”

If Church realized she’d hit a nerve, she didn’t seem to care. “And Stephanie Adams, victim number two, had your DNA under her nails? Elena found it but no one believed her, so they scrubbed the report. Which is why we’re both here? Because Ben got hold of the scrubbed report and decided you needed to get involved.”

She sighed. “Yes.”

“And you think Nulo, the guy who’s running around killing women now, is Mark Alvarez. A cop … who has now, according to you, kidnapped Elena Hernandez.” Church swiped a hand over her face. “Jesus H. Christ, Kitten, I’m dizzy.”

Church dropped her hand and looked at her. “And what, exactly, does this have to do with the priest and his pregnant girlfriend?”

“I’m not sure yet,” she admitted, pulling into the station parking garage. “As soon as Croft locates Graciella Lopez, that’s the first thing he’s going to ask her.”

Cut her loose, darlin’. We don’t need her.

“Look,” Sabrina said, slamming the car into park. “You don’t have to get involved any further. I don’t need you here.”

Church laughed in her face. “You’re not stupid enough to really believe that, are you?” she said, shaking her head. “If the killer is Alvarez then you’re definitely going to need me here. Because he’s a cop. You don’t have the resources to find him. I do.”

I’m all the resource you need. No one knows our boy like I do.

“Yeah, you’ve also got orders to kill anyone who might recognize me, so if it’s all the same to you—”

“He’s not my brother,” Church said. “At least not biologically.” She looked away, aiming her gaze through the windshield to stare at the concrete wall in front of their car. “My mother and father were trained by the Russian government during the Cold War. They were paired together in The Program and she was impregnated with me before being embedded in America.”

“Impregnated? You mean she was forced.” The thought made her sick. She knew what it was like to not have control of your own body. “They made her get pregnant?”

“We were necessary to their cover. No one suspects a family.” Church shrugged but Sabrina could tell that her apparent disgust stung her. “Jared was an orphan when he was taken into The Program. He was five years old and already understood his purpose. Why they’d been sent there.”

Sabrina sat, transfixed by what Church was telling her, remembering what Livingston Shaw had told her about Church. He’d called her Korkiva but mentioned she preferred Courtney. That her parents had been Russian spies, and that they’d been rooted out and killed after being abandoned by their government at the end of the Cold War. “They were killed.”

Church nodded. “After the Cold War ended, we were left behind,” she said, seemingly unsurprised Sabrina already knew a measure of the truth. “Given up to the CIA by another family in exchange for immunity. You asked me why I didn’t kill Valerie and her baby like I’d been ordered to. That’s why.” Church looked at her. Her eyes were dry. “I’ve done things—horrible things that I never lose sleep over—but I won’t kill children and I won’t kill their parents while they watch.” She popped the door open, stepping a foot into the dark, sweltering heat. “That’s why I let Valerie and her baby live. And I won’t kill her little sister either.”

You can’t trust her. She’s been trained to lie from the day she was born.

–––––

She found Santos at his desk, going over the files he and Church had put together while she was gone. A quick glance in its direction told her that Alvarez’s desk was still empty. “Where’s your partner?” she said, not really expecting an answer. No matter what he said to her earlier, Santos was angry she was no longer focused on Paul Vega as their prime suspect. To add insult to injury, she’d opened her suspect list to include local law enforcement. As soon as the rest of the precinct caught wind of it, she and Church could all but kiss their cooperation good-bye.

Santos shot her a glance before redirecting his attention to the file in his lap. “He called in while we were at Saint Rose’s. Said something about following up on a lead.”

“Does he do that a lot?” she said, refusing to slink away with her tail tucked. “Take off on his own?”

“I don’t know. I guess so.” Santos sighed, closing the file in his lap to trade it for another. “We have different investigative styles,” he said, his admission reminiscent of what Alvarez had told her earlier of their partnership. He glanced up at her again, eyes narrowed like he was catching on to her line of questioning. “He’s a good kid, he just likes to take a different approach to stuff sometimes.”

Funny, ain’t that what the padre called Nulo? A good kid …

“Does that include leaving his phone in his desk so that no one can get hold of him?”

Santos sat up a bit straighter, narrowing his eyes even more. “How do you know his phone is in his desk, Agent Vance?”

Her own phone vibrated against her rib cage and she reached for it, hoping it was Croft and that he’d found Graciella Lopez. “Excuse me,” she said, thumbing the touchscreen as she turned her back on a glaring Santos without checking the number. “Hello?”

“Do you know who this is?” Male voice. One she recognized.

“Yes,” she said, fighting the urge to shoot Santos a look over her shoulder.

“Good,” he said quietly, like he was worried about being overheard. “I think we should meet. Alone.”

Church was in the conference room. She could see her through the blinds, honey-blond head bent over a stack of files. She’d be pissed if she took off again without her, but it couldn’t be helped. Elena was out there somewhere. She needed to find her, and reading through files wasn’t going to get the job done.

“I thought you’d never ask.”