BY SEVEN the next morning, Garret and Caleb were making their way through security at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. They’d learned a little bit about what was going on through the various phone calls they’d made during the night, but they didn’t know too much more than they had when Kit walked out the door.
What they did know was who was running the show and calling the shots, and that was who they were dropping in on this morning. The plan was to be read in and given the details of where Kit was—and why—and then go find her. Garret had an additional plan, but at the moment, he was keeping it to himself.
Given their level of clearance, they made it through security quickly and were assigned a young soldier to escort them to their destination.
Five minutes later, over the objections of his assistant, they walked into Drew’s office without knocking. Sitting behind his desk looking immaculately put together, he glanced up at them from over the lenses of a pair of reading glasses, then waved off his worried assistant. The door shut behind them.
“Have a seat,” Drew said, returning his focus to his computer.
“You don’t seem surprised to see us,” Caleb commented.
Drew looked back up at them and as his eyes travelled to Garret he let out a little laugh. “No, I’m not surprised to see you.”
“We’re here to see Rina,” Garret said.
“I know, but she’s finishing a meeting. Like I said, have a seat. She’ll be here as soon as she’s done.” Neither Caleb nor Garret sat; after a moment, Drew shrugged and went back to his computer.
Garret gave Caleb a look.
In response, Caleb pulled out his phone and dialed. “Rina?” he said.
“Jesus,” Garret heard her muffled reply, then realized as the door swung open behind them that he hadn’t been hearing her voice through Caleb’s phone. “I told Drew to keep you entertained while I finished my meeting, but you always were an impatient bastard, Forrester,” she said through the now open doorway.
Rina Ahmed strode into the room, took everyone in, then narrowed her eyes. At five foot nothing, the older woman had grown plump with age and her black hair was streaked with gray. Wearing a dark blue dress and blazer, pearls, and sturdy heels, she looked a little like the stereotype of a librarian from the fifties—bun and all. But Garret knew enough about her to know that the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” had probably been created with her in mind.
Rina was one of a handful of people who ran the show at the agency. Not the public parts—no, that was a more politically savvy appointee who was not much more than a figurehead—but the parts that actually got things done, that worked with operatives, analyzed intelligence, and planned operations. That was all her. At least when it came to their foreign operations. Having been one of the best operatives of her time, she was well respected—by those who worked for and with her—and she was also one of the most blunt.
“Sit down, Forrester, Cantona. Drew, do you have anything new coming in?” she asked, closing the door and moving toward the small, round table at one end of Drew’s office.
“Yes, they’re just departing from the military base near Stanwick now. We should have more information in a few hours.”
“Then join us,” she commanded. Picking up a few files from his desk, he did so, and in short order, the four of them were sitting around a table that was way too small. Garret looked at Rina.
“As you know, Jonathon Parker is an MI6 agent who was recently put on leave pending an investigation into the release of certain information that compromised several key MI6 assets,” she began. “No one likes a leak, especially one with those kinds of consequences, and it was even less fortunate that a few of those assets worked with us on occasion as well.” As she spoke, she slid a file in front of each of them.
“We were doing our own investigation, of course, and have known for about ten days that Jonathon wasn’t the problem. But until we knew the extent of the problem within MI6, we decided to hold the information close to our vests.”
“With the exception of what Drew had Kit give him,” Garret interjected, not hiding the bitterness he felt.
Rina carried on without missing a beat. “And I’m glad Drew did so because we concluded our investigation last night, and based on our findings, three people at various levels in MI6 are involved. Jonathon was an easy one to frame, given his travel schedule and contacts, so when someone at MI6 finally started to suspect a leak and they began putting the intel together, including the fact that assets were being killed in a subtle but systematic way, one of those three men involved in the leak, someone higher up on the food chain, had everything lined up to point to Jonathon.”
“So they’re clearing him,” Caleb said.
“And why do we care about this?” Garret interjected. He was getting impatient to get to the parts relevant to Kit.
“Because,” Rina continued with an irritating lack of response to his tone, “two more assets that Jonathon worked with were killed yesterday.” She gestured to the folders with her head. Garret flipped his open and saw the face of a young mother with a toddler in one photo and in the other, a man, also on the young side, hanging off a boat, grinning. He felt sick.
“We know Jonathon isn’t the leak, but when these two were killed yesterday in separate incidents, we didn’t want to take any chances with Kit. She’s not an asset and has never been an asset, but given that she was with him when he was shot at in London, her identity isn’t exactly a secret.”
“And so you’ve taken her into protective custody,” Garret finished. He’d expected as much, had even figured it had to do with Jonathon Parker, but to hear it out loud settled like a rock in his stomach.
“Yes,” Rina confirmed. “We have.”
“Where is she? Stanwick?” Caleb asked, repeating what he’d heard Drew say when Rina had walked in.
Drew shook his head. “No, that’s the team going after one of the three men involved. They are flying out of Stanwick as we speak.”
“So, how many do they have in custody?” And by “custody” he meant dead or alive.
“One for certain, one they are on their way to handling, but the third man is in the wind,” Drew answered.
“Fuck,” Garret said. “So until all three are accounted for one way or another, Kit’s in custody.”
Drew inclined his head. “We don’t think she’s a target, but we’d rather be safe than sorry. And she agreed.”
Garret took in all the information. For as bad as things could get, this wasn’t the worst. Kit was somewhere safe and as soon as MI6 cleaned up their mess, she’d be even safer.
He took a deep breath and let it out. “Fine, where is she? We’ll be taking over protective duties.”
Rina and Drew shared a look.
“What?” Caleb demanded.
“She said you’d come to me for this reason,” Drew responded.
“Yeah, so?” Garret pressed.
“And she made me promise not to tell you anything about where she is,” Rina answered. “You may think it’s best for you to stand guard. But she feels otherwise.”
At that, Caleb shot out of his seat and paced away a few steps. “She has no idea what she’s talking about,” he snapped, turning back to the group.
Rina’s eyebrow arched. “On the contrary, I think she knows exactly what she’s talking about,” she countered. “In fact, I think her exact words were ‘They got what they came for, now they can go back to doing whatever it is they do.’”
Caleb paled, looking like someone had just delivered a blow to his solar plexus.
Garret, on the other hand, felt the impact a bit higher in his chest; for a moment, it was hard for him to breathe. Then he cleared his throat, “Rina, is there somewhere we can talk?” he asked. “Privately,” he added when she cast a pointed look at the closed door.
She eyed him for a moment, then let out a sigh as she stood. Without a word, he followed her out the door. He had expected to be taken to her office, but was surprised when she stepped into a coffee room. He was not surprised, however, when the single other occupant took one look at Rina and discreetly exited.
“So talk,” she said, reaching for a coffee mug.
“Look,” he started, not sure exactly where to start. “Kit, well, she has every right to think and feel the way she does. I’m not sure how much you know about her father, but he traveled a lot, never bothered to tell her anything about where he was going or why, and then when she was seventeen, she found out all sorts of things about his ‘business’ and just what he was doing on those trips—”
“I’m well aware of the ‘work’ Edward Forrester did before he died,” she cut him off.
Garret crossed his arms and leaned against the counter as Rina took a sip of coffee. “And then there’s her brother,” he continued. “Caleb took off when she was fifteen without any reason, left her in a, well, to call it a terrible situation would be an understatement. And though I think he regrets it now, he hasn’t spent much time with her at all. He’s come and gone as he’s pleased.”
“And you? What have you done to her?” she asked.
Garret flinched, then forced himself to meet her eyes. “I left her too. The first time I met her we spent three days just talking.” And maybe a little more, but not much. “No one knew. It was like we were living in a world of our own.”
“And then?”
“And then I left. With Caleb. She was comforting a friend of hers who had just come through a sticky situation when Caleb and I got a call about a man we’d been trying to track for years.”
“And so you left.”
He nodded.
“Without a word.”
Again, he nodded.
For a long moment, Rina held his gaze. Finally, she let out a sigh and moved to the other side of the room. “From what I’ve heard, Kit knows her mind very well and has every reason not to want you and her brother involved,” she said.
“I’m not going to argue with that. But she doesn’t have all the information right now,” he said.
Rina turned around and arched a single brow at him.
He took a deep breath. “She’s had a lot of people come and go from her life. But, well, here,” he said, handing Rina a letter.
She eyed it for a moment, then set her coffee down, took it from his hand, and read. A minute later, she looked up at him.
“You’re terminating your arrangement with the Agency?” she asked. Under normal circumstances, Garret would have been pleased to have managed to surprise Rina. But as it was, he simply nodded.
“And what about your other engagements?” she asked.
“Between last night and now, I’ve contacted everyone,” he responded. It was drastic and a little scary, but he knew it was what he wanted to do.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, folding the letter back up.
“A former colleague of mine runs the organization that handles all the security for, among many entities, the United Nations. The role of Director of Security Operations for the UN has opened up and he’s offered it to me. It’s based out of the city, but would let me work from anywhere as long as I’m close enough to come in for meetings.”
Rina blinked. “So you’re quitting your job to be with Kit?”
He nodded.
“And because of that, you want me to go against my word to her and let you and your brother handle her security?”
“You know how good we are. And we’ll be free,” he added in an attempt to bring some levity to the conversation. It didn’t work.
“Kit is a woman I have a great deal of respect for, Cantona,” Rina said.
“You and me both,” he responded.
Rina pursed her lips and Garret stayed silent. He didn’t even bat an eye, worried that any move he made might sway her in the direction he didn’t want her to go. He knew Rina had the power to say no and mean it. He was just hoping she didn’t.
Finally, she let out another long breath. And nodded.
Garret felt the tension leave his body.
“I’ll let you go. But I want to get one thing straight, Cantona,” she said, walking up to him. He looked down and met her piercing eyes. “If you mess this up, if you so much as even think about bailing on Kit before this thing is long over, it will become my personal mission to make sure that you regret every moment of every day for the rest of your life.”
He blinked at her vehemence. Not that it surprised him, the loyalty Kit inspired in others, but well, it actually did kind of surprise him.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“And do you understand that this new job you mentioned goes away if you mess this up?”
He nodded.
“And those contracts you just terminated? None of them would be open to you again.”
“I get the point, Rina.”
She fixed him with a long stare. Then a hint of a smile appeared on her lips. “I’ll give you the location and details when we get back to Drew’s office.”
“Thank you, Rina.” They started making their way back.
“She’s on Cape Cod. If you fly yourselves up, you can be there by this afternoon.”
He said nothing as he opened the door and Rina preceded him inside.
“And I really wish I could be a fly on the wall when you tell Kit you quit your job for her,” she added under her breath with a small laugh.