Observation Room 8C, CIA Headquarters
Langley, Virginia
Chris Leroux peered through the glass of the interrogation room at Nadja Katz, the woman who had killed so many a little over a year ago, and nearly killed his girlfriend, Sherrie White. The cold-blooded assassin sat calmly, staring back at him, despite there no way she could know he was there. A glass of water remained untouched, and the handcuffs she had been placed in, sat neatly, unlocked, to her left.
He had smiled when he saw the ostentatious display, and instructed the guards to leave her be. If she could defeat the handcuffs that easily, the restraints that would be necessary would probably kill any chance they had of getting her to cooperate. She had turned herself in, asked for Kane, then refused to say anything else beyond her name, and the fact she was the one who had shot Sherrie a year ago.
That fact alone made him want to raid the armory and shoot the bitch a dozen times in every part of the body except the chest and head, allowing her to feel every single shot before she died a horrible, painful, slow death.
Though judging from her leather and latex outfit, skin-tight with a set of ta-tas that could float the Titanic, she might get off on the pain. Her emotionless, sculpted face, certainly suggested she was cold-hearted, and if he didn’t know Sherrie and Kane so well, he would have thought all people trained to kill would be like this.
Yet they weren’t.
She was a special breed, someone he hoped to never run into outside of the safety of this building, though with what she had done at the police station in Annapolis, perhaps he wasn’t as safe as he presumed.
The door opened and his heart skipped a beat before seeing who it was. “Dylan!”
“Hey, buddy.” His friend, who had been on his way to Philly to continue looking for Fang, whistled at the sight on the other side of the glass. “Man, she’s built.”
“Sonya was in here earlier and had to leave. I think she was getting jealous.”
“That girl has a thing for you.”
“Yeah, when it rains it pours. A few years ago, I couldn’t get a woman to look at me. Now I live with one, and work with another that’s having trouble concentrating at times.”
Kane slapped him on the back. “You’re a lucky man.” He held up a finger. “Just don’t act on it, or you lose it all.”
Leroux grunted. “No worries there. I can barely handle one woman, let alone two.” He motioned toward Katz. “She insisted on talking to you and you alone.”
Kane nodded. “Okay, let’s see if I can charm those leather pants off her.”
“Hey, remember, you’ve got a significant other too.”
Kane’s face clouded, as if guilty about something, his eyes growing distant, the joy of a moment before wiped clear. “Yeah. Balancing that with this job is sometimes difficult.”
Leroux turned, staring at his friend. “You mean…” He couldn’t finish the sentence, though the shame on Kane’s face told him everything he needed to know. His friend had strayed, but not willingly.
Kane looked away.
“Was it the job?”
“Of course it was the job. You know how I feel about her.”
“Then she’d understand.”
Kane huffed. “I don’t think any woman would understand. Hell, I don’t even know if I’d understand.”
Leroux stepped closer. “You love her?”
“You know it.”
“And she loves you. The fact you feel so guilty about it proves that. Your job is important. That means you do what’s necessary, and then you don’t talk about it with your friends and family, because it’s classified. She knows the job, she was in the business. She knows if you have to do something, you’re not betraying her, you’re just following orders. She’d forgive you if she ever found out.”
Kane frowned at his friend. “Look who’s giving relationship advice now.”
Leroux flushed. “Yeah, I guess I’m not the best guy to be advising you.”
Kane grabbed him by the shoulder. “Bullshit. You’re the best man I know. You’re like a brother to me, and I respect you.” He nodded toward Katz. “Now, let’s see what this woman wants, so we can get back to finding our far better halves.”
Leroux smiled, not trusting himself to respond without his voice cracking.
A brother.
He turned away and Kane headed out of the room, the door to the interrogation room opening. Katz looked up at him, her face remaining expressionless as Kane sat across from her. “Nadja Katz. Why shouldn’t I just shoot you right now?”