Chapter Eleven

 

Robert stared across the plaza at the restaurant where Ariel and Rebecca were sitting down with the target. He probably shouldn’t think of her as the target. He should call her the witness or something, but he was in a nasty place and even the words in his head seemed to have sharp edges.

He knew Ari needed time to process what had happened earlier today. Hell, he knew he needed time, but he didn’t want to take it. He wanted to get her in bed and reassure them both that they belonged together.

He wasn’t Russell Seeger. He wasn’t going to let himself be treated like his body belonged to someone. His soul was completely different and it belonged to Ariel. She had to see that.

“If I were a murderer I could kill you now,” Sasha said. “You need to get your head in the game. Not that I expect any excitement. Do we really need four of us out here in a public place? I think Tucker is only here because he wants to buy clothes. I pray he finds socks that can handle his stink.”

“You know why we’re here.” Though he would admit that there was some truth to what Sasha had said. It felt good to be outside, to breathe fresh air and remind himself there was a sun in the sky.

“Yes, we’re here because Damon and Big Tag told us to be here.”

He didn’t want to have this fight again. “If you want to go back, feel free. You can catch a cab at the entrance.”

“You must truly be off your game if you’re not going to give me one of those rah-rah speeches of yours.” Sasha leaned against the white wall of St. Michael’s church, watching the tourists go in and out of the massive wooden doors.

It was a gorgeous day and he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen a sky that same color of blue. The plaza was packed with shoppers and tourists. This part of the city center was pedestrian only, all the streets blocked off to traffic. It was where the city held its festivals and Christmas markets.

Had he come here with Emily?

Why did the thought of him walking through the Marienplatz holding Emily’s hand make him vaguely nauseous? Who had that man been? Obviously he’d been a soldier, but why had he gone into the Army? Had it been because he loved his country or because he hadn’t had any other prospects?

“Hey, stop thinking about it or you’ll be sick right here,” Sasha said. “Do I need to punch you? I don’t know how they will take it here. If we were in Russia no one would care, but Germans tend to follow the rules of society.”

He shook it off. Sasha was right. He’d been about to dive down that deep hole. “I’m fine. I’ll concentrate on the job.”

“Have you thought at all about what Dante and I said the other day?” Sasha stared out, his eyes on the café across the way.

“I have, but I think we need to wait until we get back to London so we can all be together to discuss it.” He turned and looked up at the statue that stood between the two big doors. It was a bronze work depicting St. Michael defeating Satan. The saint held his long spear to the devil’s throat.

Sasha’s voice went to a whisper. “You haven’t thought at all about the fact that we’re more closely watched in London? If we want to do anything at all about it we should do it while we’re here.”

Robert turned to face him. “What the hell are you talking about doing?”

“Has it occurred to anyone that we were trained for this?”

“Trained for what?”

Sasha’s eyes rolled. “Dr. McDonald trained us. She taught us how to rob a bank. Why don’t we simply go into the place and take what we need? You might not want your memory back, but I do.”

“We don’t even know where it is or if it’s there,” Robert shot back. “We have no idea if there’s a cure at all.”

“But that data could give me my name,” Sasha argued. “It could…never mind. You think getting your memories back means losing Ariel. Jax doesn’t care. Tucker really doesn’t want to remember who he was.”

He hadn’t realized how isolated Dante and Sasha must feel. When they’d first come out of McDonald’s lab, they’d been matched pairs. Dante and Sasha had been close and Jax and Tucker had stuck together. Over time Jax and Tucker had integrated with the rest of The Garden, but Dante and Sasha had held themselves apart. “I promise I will do everything I can to reunite you with whoever is out there. I promise. I won’t let you down.”

Sasha’s jaw went tight. “I know you will. You are a good man. And I know Damon is, too, but there are higher powers in play and being good doesn’t always work out. We should know that more than any others. You’re being naïve. You want to be one of them, but you are not. We are not. We’re still merely a job for McKay-Taggart.”

His cell phone buzzed in his pocket. “Give me a second.”

Sasha said nothing, simply took out the camera they’d given him and started taking pictures. He moved around the front of the church, blending in with the rest of the tourists chronicling their adventures.

Robert pulled out the phone and swiped the screen to get to the text that had just been sent.

Hello, Rob. I’m happy you’re back to fighting shape after our last round. Sorry for shooting you, but I had to slow Ariel down. I’m sitting in the back pew on the right side if you would like to discuss the situation. Don’t forget we’re not alone.

Fucking Levi Green.

He looked over at Sasha. Peter was across the plaza. He couldn’t even see Tucker.

He could text Ariel and let her know. Another ping let him know Levi was still texting.

Don’t keep me waiting, man. Come on. I’m not here to fight. How about I give you a gift?

He knew he should ignore it, but he’d had a day. He quickly texted back.

How about you fuck off?

How many men did Levi have hanging around? He’d selected a very public place so the likelihood of a firefight wasn’t high. It didn’t mean Levi couldn’t drag him into the shadows, but he was ready for that. If he were going to arrest them all, wouldn’t he simply do it?

The screen flickered and then a picture filled it. Robert stopped, staring down in disbelief.

It was a picture of Ariel. She wore the same clothes she wore right now, the dress she’d put on this morning when she’d gotten ready for her meeting with Emily. He would have known since he’d been the one to zip her up. She had the same white Prada bag over her shoulder and her hair was in a halo around her head. She was sitting on a stone bench and she wasn’t alone.

Kimberly Solomon sat next to her.

She’d met with Solo today?

She hadn’t mentioned that piece of news to him. The Agency was here and she was meeting with them. Had she met with Levi, too?

Every little whisper he’d heard lately rained down on him.

What if he was wrong?

“Damn it, Robert. I’m not cleaning up after…” Sasha set the camera against his chest again. “What’s going on?”

“Levi Green is in the church.”

Sasha’s brow rose. “Is he planning on killing us here?”

“He wants to talk to me.” He should shut down everything right now, but that picture…

“I’ll back you up.” Sasha looked behind him, staring at the table where Ariel and Rebecca sat gathering information. “They’re fine. Peter and Tucker are still watching. No one will notice if we slip away. I’ll have your back if you want to talk to him.”

Ariel was talking to Solo. Why shouldn’t he do the same?

Because Solo never shot you, moron.

He wasn’t listening to reason.

Come on, Rob. I’m offering you knowledge they won’t give you. Ten minutes. It’s all I ask and I’ll tell you exactly who your girlfriend is.

Robert turned and walked in the door.

He went from the bright light of day to the shadow of the vestibule, from the vibrant sounds of the Marienplatz to the hushed murmurs of a working church that also functioned as a tourist site.

What the fuck was he doing?

“I’m going to keep my eyes on you,” Sasha promised. “I won’t be far away. You’re doing the right thing. You’re being our leader.”

He wasn’t sure about that, but he knew he had to face the man. He had to ask him about that picture. He had to know what Levi knew about Ariel.

He walked into the church, his sneakers thudding along the white marble of the floor. The high altar was the focal point of the building and there were hundreds of tourists walking around the sanctuary, taking pictures of the stained-glass windows and the reliquaries, but he had one focus.

The sanctuary was in three sections. He moved past the candles toward the far side of the church. The middle section of pews ran all the way back, but the sides were shorter. He had to make his way around and through the crowds.

A dark-haired man sat in the last pew, his arm casually around the back. He looked like he was simply studying the great altar, perhaps contemplating the nature of God.

Or thinking about his sins.

“I’m here.”

Levi looked up. He was wearing slacks, a white dress shirt, and a black vest. His hair was still done in that manner that looked like he’d just rolled out of bed but had likely taken the man an hour to perfect. He should have been in a café somewhere complaining about how the eggs weren’t organic and how music was better on vinyl. “I always knew you were the reasonable one. Have a seat.”

“I think I’ll stand.”

“Then you’ll attract attention and we shouldn’t talk because I know Solo’s around and I can’t be sure she isn’t here right now.”

Fucker was right. He slid onto the wooden bench beside him, keeping as much space as he could between them. “I want to know about Ariel.”

“Do you? Some things are better left behind us,” Levi mused. “I’m sure you wish your past hadn’t come back to bite you in the ass.”

He already knew about Emily. “I suppose I can thank you for that gift. You should know I’m not stupid. I don’t believe she’s my wife simply because you sent her in.”

Levi held his hands up, an innocent look on his face. “Oh, I didn’t send you that particular gift. I believe you can thank the Taggarts for that one. They’ve been scouring the globe for any scrap of information they can find. I believe they were interviewing Nurse Emily because of her connections to the McDonalds. I don’t think they understood who they were dealing with, but the Taggarts are deep ones. If they thought sending in your wife would give you a shock that might end in them getting much-needed information, they would do it.”

“Or you sent her in and she’s lying. You’re once again putting us all in a position where we’ll get the intel you need and you’ll run off with the prize.” It seemed to be how Levi liked to work. “This Emily person is nothing but chaos to throw us off.”

Something like sympathy hit Levi’s eyes. “I wish that were true. If only for your and Ari’s sake. What? I like true love. You think I’m some kind of monster, but I really was pulling for the two of you. Ariel deserves someone like you. Which is precisely why I gave you that distinctly nonfatal gunshot wound. You’re welcome.”

“I’m walking back out of here in ten seconds if you don’t tell me what you know about Ariel. Why the hell would she meet with Solo?”

One of Levi’s shoulders moved in a casual shrug. “They’ve been friends for years. Ever since Ariel worked for MI6.”

The man was supposed to be some kind of ace operative and he didn’t have his facts straight. “Ariel didn’t work for MI6. She worked for Scotland Yard.”

“Yes, that was her cover, but I assure you she absolutely was MI6, and she was good at her particular job which wasn’t sitting in a therapy room getting men like Damon Knight to talk about their feelings. She was an assassin.”

Robert laughed. Did everyone in the world underestimate his intelligence? “You must be getting desperate.”

He pulled a tiny drive out of his vest pocket. “This is a thumb drive with Agency intelligence files on her. Have Jax verify them for you. Hell, let Jax off the leash a little. Have him hack MI6 and what you’ll find is that Ariel and Damon are still in bed with them. They’re feeding the Agency a bit, too. Not enough to get me off your ass, but enough I’m not allowed to simply arrest you all.”

Almost as if it moved of its own volition, his hand opened and Levi dropped the drive on it. He should shove it back at the asshole. “Damon would have told us.”

“And yet he did not.” Levi relaxed against the pew, looking perfectly comfortable. “I will tell you everything, Robert. You’re afraid that I’m going to turn mad professor on you all and vivisect you or something. That’s not the case, man. I want to help you, and not in the sit-on-my-hands way Big Tag is working. Have you thought about the fact that the Agency could use your team for something beyond medical experiments?”

“No.” He knew damn well he should shove that thumb drive up Levi’s ass, but he found himself placing it in the pocket of his jeans.

“Well widen your horizons, Rob. Tag and Damon want to keep you hidden. I wouldn’t do that. Come in with me. You’ll do a couple of interviews, figure out what you do and don’t know, and then we’ll get you on the payroll. All of you. We’ll clear your names. I can do that but you have to trust me. Imagine it, being free and clear of every warrant out there. You could come back to the States.”

Ah, now he saw what the man was doing. “I could come home and settle in with the little wife?”

“I would actually suggest you don’t do that,” Levi said with a mysterious smile. “You’re in love with Ariel. I hope you still are after you read those files on her. She was only doing her job. If she didn’t tell you it’s because Damon asked her not to. She’s used to obeying orders. It’s kind of a necessary thing in our line of business.”

Ariel would have told him. She was his lover. She’d been pretty much his everything since the moment he’d laid eyes on her.

So why hadn’t she told him she was meeting with Solo? It wasn’t like they hadn’t talked about the woman.

“All I’m saying is maybe you should put the blame where it belongs, and that’s on the big guys.” Levi sat forward. “I’m going to admit something to you that I haven’t before. I’ve been in this game for longer than anyone knows. I was working to find out what McDonald was doing long before Ezra or Big Tag got involved. This is my case. I know more about it than anyone. I didn’t get involved because my brother got taken. I got involved to help my country.”

“Yes, you’ve made it clear that you think McDonald was doing good work.”

Levi shook his head. “No. That is not true. She took good soldiers and messed them up. Now I’m a realist. I know bad things happen when we put our soldiers in the field, and sometimes you have to sacrifice a few to save the many. But what she did was monstrous. However, there is nothing gained by throwing the knowledge away. The pain has already been had. There’s no way to give that time back to you, but I can make it worthwhile. Your pain could mean something.”

“Yes, it could mean other people have to endure it,” he shot back.

“Or it could lead to someone like Rebecca Walsh finding a cure for Alzheimer’s and dementia.” Levi sounded altogether too reasonable. “The time dilation portion could mean a prisoner could serve his time and not lose a whole life, a young man dying of a cancer we can’t cure might live a life in his head. You see the bad, but I see a wealth of possibilities.”

He was being far too optimistic. “And it could be used for bad.”

Levi leaned forward. “Everything can. It doesn’t mean we don’t try. Look, my time is running out. The truth is Solo’s getting the upper hand and I’ve got one last shot at making this thing work. I’m offering you and anyone who wants to come with me knowledge. I know who you are, Robert. I know why you were placed in the program. And I know a few things about Tucker, too. If I can’t get your cooperation, I’ll have to play my final card and I would rather not do that.”

“I suppose your final card would be a fatal gunshot wound.”

“Not at all. I don’t plan on killing any of you. You’re important to me. Think about it. Talk to the guys about my plan. I can open up the world for you in a way your current keepers can’t. Look through the material I sent you.” Levi stood up and straightened his vest. “Text me back if you want to talk further. Obviously I can’t come to your place, and you might have trouble getting out. They watch you pretty closely. I find it interesting Ariel doesn’t have the same restrictions. By the way, she knows I’m in town. Solo knows so I’m sure she talked to her bestie about it. You have to wonder, if Ariel was so scared of me why she would take a walk through a park without any backup. Either she’s not scared or she knows she can handle anything I throw at her because she’s a badass. I wouldn’t mess with her. You’ve got a couple of days before I have to make a decision.”

His decision was already made. “I’m not going to willingly come with you.”

“Read those files. Talk to the others. I suspect they might be getting tired of being shut away. After all, they haven’t been shut away with a woman like Ariel. Tell Tucker I have an even bigger hooker fund than Tag,” Levi said with a smirk on his face that faded as he glanced around the church. “You know there are a bunch of people buried down in the crypt.”

“If I want a history lesson, I’ll talk to Peter.”

“But this one is important,” Levi insisted. “One of the men buried here was King Ludwig. He was one of the last kings of Bavaria. He was…inconvenient. The people loved him but the government at the time found him troublesome. They had him declared mad and took him off the throne. When he agreed to live quietly, they still had him killed. Oh, history questions it, but I know a coverup when I see it. If Solo gets her way, if the people she’s working for cover up everything McDonald did and hide her work, you and your men are the only pieces of evidence left that prove she existed.”

The church suddenly seemed colder than it had been before. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means the factions I work with want to use her research. You’re important to that. You can take what happened to you and turn it around. You can be the hero. If Solo gets what she wants, you’re nothing but evidence of something they want to cover up. Something a lot of people will want covered up. Think about that. The people she’s working for, well, I don’t even think Big Tag can protect you from them. Know that I’m somewhere in the city, eagerly awaiting your text. You’re their leader, Robert. It’s time for you to make the decisions and stop letting McKay-Taggart lead you around by the nose.”

He moved to the end of the pew and Robert had the strongest instinct to go after him. He could beat the fucker until he got the truth out of him.

Or was the truth in his pocket?

“Don’t attack him here.” Sasha was suddenly standing in the aisle, his eyes watching the retreating Levi Green. “There’s a lot of security and many cameras. We need to be careful leaving. I wouldn’t like our faces to show up on the evening news. We should go. You can tell us what he said when we get back.”

“He said the same bullshit he always says.” Except it had been different. “We’ll have a meeting this evening.”

Sasha nodded and they carefully made their way out the doors they’d entered through.

Robert blinked in the bright light of day. He glanced over to see if he could catch a glimpse of Levi in the crowd, but he was already gone.

He went back to his job and wondered if the thumb drive in his pocket would change everything.

 

* * * *

 

Ariel knew that something was wrong. Very wrong. It was there in the harsh set of Rob’s jaw, in the way he wouldn’t quite meet her eyes. During the trip back to the club, he’d said all of three words to her, and she was almost certain he’d lied. He’d told her he thought he’d seen someone suspicious go into the church.

Peter closed the door behind them. “I’ll go and get the recording transcribed. I think you got a lot of information out of that. And I noticed Robert and Sasha took a quick tour of the church. You should have waited. I could have taken you through the whole thing. Michaelskirche is a stunning example of a Renaissance church. Did you take note of the organ?”

It was easy to forget that Peter used to work intelligence. Which was probably why he’d been good at his job. He was handsome but not in a showy way. He was the guy next door, the one who would check on your pets if you needed him to. He was also incredibly observant.

“I thought I saw someone suspicious,” Robert said.

Robert wasn’t a good liar.

But then she’d always known he wasn’t an operative. She’d always thought it would turn out that he’d been a soldier, the kind who did heroic things and didn’t sneak around in shadows to do his job.

Why would he lie to her?

“We are very paranoid.” Sasha was much smoother. He stepped in beside Robert. “And have terrible memories. Robert thought he saw someone from our days with McDonald. I followed him in. It was nothing but a tourist. Sorry. You know how paranoid he can get when he thinks you’re in danger.”

Sasha, on the other hand, was an excellent liar.

What had happened in that church?

“Are we going to debrief?” Robert asked.

“Yes, give me some time to bring Ezra up to speed. He texted me to say he’s here.” She nodded toward the rest of the team. “Why don’t we meet in the conference room in an hour?”

They broke up and she found herself alone with Robert.

“We should go upstairs.” Robert gestured for her to go first. “It’s been a long day.”

It felt like an endless day. Had it really only been this morning that she’d woken up happy and warm in his arms? It had been mere hours before that she’d known he was the one man in the world for her.

But she wasn’t the one woman for him. Once, he’d made vows to another and they hadn’t broken up. There hadn’t been a divorce. There had been a tragedy, and she worried she was going to add to that.

Robert stopped at the top of the stairs. “Is Ezra here to talk to her?”

“Yes,” she replied. It was hard to look at him when all she wanted to do was wrap her arms around him. She couldn’t be a coward. They still had to work together. She joined him on the landing. “I’m too close to the situation to be professional about it. I can’t be the one who figures out if Emily is telling the truth.”

His eyes seemed darker than normal. “Funny, it felt like you weren’t close to the situation at all.”

She moved away from the stairs since this was a very personal conversation. “How can you say that?”

He followed her, stalking like a hungry predator. “You dropped me pretty damn quick the minute she showed up. It was almost like you were waiting for a reason to drop me.”

Was he insane? “She’s your wife, Robert. What am I supposed to do? You have to figure out who she is to you, and don’t tell me she’s nothing. You can’t know yet. You need time, and the fact that I want nothing more than to get into bed with you and pretend none of this ever happened won’t change the fact that it would be wrong.”

He moved into her space. “I don’t love her. I don’t know her.”

She reached up and put her hands on his arms to steady him. “But she apparently knows you. Think about it. What am I supposed to do? Should I pretend none of this matters? What happens when you start to get your memories back? What if being around her would be the key to opening up your whole life?”

His hand wound around the back of her neck, forcing her to look up at him. “Then fuck my memories. Ariel, run away with me. Go to your room, get your things, and let’s just leave. All that will matter is the future we can have together.”

It was so tempting. They could leave and not look back. She had plenty of money she could access. They could find a place on the beach and hole up and hide away from the world. They could be their own world.

But it would always be waiting for them—the world he could have had, the one that might be real.

“You need time. Running won’t solve anything.”

He took a step back and all that heat she’d felt coming from him had gone to ice. “I suppose you’re right.”

Why couldn’t she make him understand? She was so articulate at expressing herself, at helping people through their feelings, but she was failing when it was most important. “I am not rejecting you. I’m in agony over this.”

“Then I should step back and leave you in peace.”

She couldn’t stand the tension between them. “Have you thought about calling Kai?”

“Of course. I should do that.” His face was a polite blank. “I’ll try to get him on the phone.”

He wouldn’t. He was placating her. This was the way Robert worked. When he was done with a conversation, he wouldn’t argue. He would say anything he needed to say to extricate himself from the situation. She reached out to touch his arm. She couldn’t let him walk away. He had to understand that she still cared about him. “Rob, please don’t leave like this.”

He stood there, not breaking her hold, but he didn’t look back at her. “There’s no other way to leave it. I have to wonder if it was ever real. If you were ever real.”

She let him go. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He turned and his eyes were stark as he assessed her. “Is there anything you want to tell me about your past?”

Fuck Levi Green. “So Levi was the one in the church.”

“Why should I tell you anything, Agent Adisa? Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn’t. Answer the question.”

This was the fight she’d been trying to avoid. “If I’ve kept anything from you it was because it wasn’t important. Whatever I did before I met you doesn’t matter.”

“Ah, but my past is everything, isn’t it?” Robert asked, the words thick in his mouth. “My past is something you want to crack open and force on me. Yours gets to be a secret.”

“I don’t know what he told you, but he did it to turn you against me. Can’t you see he wants you alone and vulnerable? He shot you. He nearly gave Owen over to the Chinese. Do I have to go through the litany of his crimes against us? You can’t trust him.” It didn’t matter that he hadn’t acknowledged that Levi had been the one he’d met. Only one person in the world could have turned everything upside down. Levi could have easily gotten her records. It would be unethical to use them, but no one ever accused Levi of having ethics.

“Maybe he’s not the only one I can’t trust.” He gritted his teeth and took a step back. He seemed to take a steadying breath. “I’m sorry. I’m angry and too emotional right now to do my damn job. I got a text while I was doing the surveillance at the meeting with the assistant. Obviously it was Levi and yes, he’s trying to create chaos. I’ll write up a report.”

She managed to catch a breath. He was being reasonable. She could work with that. “Why would you lie about it? Sasha did, too.”

“Because I don’t know who to trust anymore,” Robert admitted. “I thought I knew everything about you. Why would you lie about MI6? Were you or were you not an assassin?”

“I can’t talk about my work in the past. It’s classified.” Her gut was in knots. He knew and he was definitely angry about it. “You have to understand.”

“I understand that I’m an open book and you haven’t bothered to tell me the basic truths about yourself. We wasted a lot of time. I pushed you away because I thought you were far too delicate for me. If I’d known you were some kind of super assassin, I would have hopped into bed with you the first day. Tell me something—all this time have you used my attraction to you to control me? I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I’m the leader. The men tend to do what I tell them to do. It wouldn’t be a bad play to keep me on your leash.”

Anger rose. He was the one manipulating things now. “No. I didn’t sleep with you so I could control you. I was an assassin not a whore.”

He paled and his next words weren’t as solid as the accusations from before. “I didn’t call you that. I didn’t…god, I didn’t mean to do any of this. I’m so angry with you and yet I meant what I said. I would run away with you right now. I would do it without taking anything with us. I want you.”

“And I want you, but, baby, you have to remember what happened with Theo and Erin.” Her anger had fled in an instant and she was all tears and heartache again. “He didn’t want her and then he remembered how much he loved her. What if he’d found a woman and she came between them? That wouldn’t have been fair. Not to anyone concerned. I’ve seen this happen before.”

He shook his head. “No, you haven’t. You might have heard about it, but I watched it up close. It is not the same. Theo was attracted to Erin the minute he saw her. No matter what McDonald did to him, he still dreamed about Erin. He might not have remembered her name, but he remembered how he felt about her. He saw her in a bar and wanted her immediately. I do not want that woman. I’m not attracted to her. God, I’m vaguely repulsed by her and I can’t figure out why.”

“Robert!”

She gasped and turned because that had been Ezra’s voice biting out the command. Robert’s face had fallen and he stepped back. Ariel turned and it was worse than just Ezra standing there. Emily was at his side, a hand over her mouth.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Seeger, you shouldn’t have had to hear that,” Robert said.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have said it,” Ezra shot back.

Robert shook his head. “No. I’m not a piece of meat to get tossed around. Look, I understand that everyone wants me to take one look at a complete stranger and get my life back. I was supposed to run to her and have my soul magically healed, but that’s the thing. The healing already happened. I’m in love with Ariel. I’m not going to fall out of love with Ariel. Although I might walk away because she’s been lying to me, and that means you have too, Ezra. So maybe I should think about this for a while. Or maybe I’ll just go drink. Enjoy the debrief. I don’t think I’m needed there.”

He turned and walked down the hallway.

“I think I need a moment. Please thank Peter for the lovely room. It’s very comfortable. And Dante was quite the gentleman.” Emily turned and moved toward her room at the end of the hall.

Ariel’s stomach churned. She’d hoped Emily wouldn’t find out about her connection to Robert. Maybe it was cowardly of her, but if Robert eventually went back to Emily, Ariel wanted to have a spot of dignity left. That plan hadn’t worked, but then none of her plans seemed to work out lately.

Ezra stepped up, his blue eyes staring down at her with sympathy. “Are you all right?”

She had to force down her pain, focus on the job. “Levi apparently paid a visit to Robert. He knows about my work with MI6. I’m sure Levi sent him whatever files he has on me, so Rob is probably finding out exactly how bloody my hands are right now.”

Ezra looked down the hallway the direction Robert had gone. “I can stop that.”

She put a hand on his arm. “Taking those files away would only make things worse at this point. Who knows. Perhaps him knowing who I used to be will change his opinions of me. Maybe he’ll be more open to giving his wife a chance.”

“Or maybe he knows what he wants,” Ezra replied, his voice softer. “I only heard the end of it, but I think I got the gist. The two of you finally took the plunge and then his wife shows up and you stepped back. Are you sure you want to do that? You love him. Everyone knows that.”

She loved him so much it hurt, and now it felt so wrong that she hadn’t told him, that she might go to her grave never having said the words to him. “It doesn’t matter now. He’s not in a position to make this decision. Unless you found out her story is complete rubbish.”

“I wish I could tell you that, but she checks out. Once we knew where to look it was easy to find her pictures of him. Now according to all records, Russell Seeger doesn’t exist, but we know McDonald always did a hell of a job getting rid of a person. They were particularly thorough with Robert.”

“Why? Why not report him as killed in action and let it be?”

“I think by then she realized what could happen if he showed up on a camera somewhere,” Ezra explained. “She talks in her diary about being more careful with her subjects, especially the ones she thought she would be able to put out on the streets. You know she had several teams she used to rob banks to fund her after she fled from Kronberg.”

Which was precisely why several of them still had warrants out for their arrests. “Yes, I suppose she was an excellent tactician. What did you think of her? Emily, I mean.”

Ezra sighed as though he didn’t want to leave the personal talk, but he seemed to accept the inevitable. He turned and walked to the kitchen. “I think she’s upset and off balance, but I would expect that from a woman whose husband came back from the dead.”

She followed him, more than willing to get out of the hallway. “Yes, I imagine it was quite a shock, and then he wasn’t happy to see her.”

Ezra strode to the fridge and pulled out two beers, offering her one. “He wasn’t happy because he knew how you would react. I think you both need to take a deep breath. We know she is who she says she is. We don’t know that their marriage was happy. We don’t know that Robert will ever get his memory back and want to fly away with her. We need more time. We need to get boots on the ground and ask some questions.”

She took the beer and twisted the cap off. She didn’t even think about refusing it. She settled into the chair across the table from Ezra. What would she do if she wasn’t involved with Robert? If this was Tucker or Dante’s wife, how would she handle it? “We should talk to people who might have known them, get a feel for what Russell Seeger was like.”

“Was being the most important part of that sentence.” Ezra sat back. “He is not the same person. None of them are the people they used to be. I think you two need to cool off and then sit down and talk. Now tell me why you’re okay with him reading whatever bullshit Levi gave to him. Also, why I don’t ship his ass back for meeting with Levi and not bothering to mention it until later. He should have immediately reported in and given us a chance to take the man down.”

“I think shipping him back like a naughty toddler would do a lot of damage.”

“He deviated from protocol and we’re looking for a traitor.”

“The group is in a very tenuous state.” She had a lot to tell him, and he wouldn’t react well to most of it. “I think if we push them too hard right now, they’ll break. I told you they would only be able to stay in this state for so long.”

“Who’s having trouble?” Ezra asked. “Because Jax seems perfectly happy. Owen got emotional after he went to Scotland with Rebecca that weekend, but I thought that was a good thing.”

Owen had taken his girlfriend to his old home and finally faced his past. “It was healing for him. Jax and Owen are balanced by their partners. Robert was balanced by his position in the group. Leading the men has given him grounding, a grounding I’m worried he’s going to lose if the group splits.”

“I think he’ll lose it if you walk away from him.”

She couldn’t let this get back to her screwed up personal life. “I’m going nowhere. Ezra, this is serious. Tucker hasn’t been stable since Rebecca positively identified him as Steven Reasor. And Dante and Sasha have started to question whether or not we’re taking the best course of action.”

Ezra’s brows rose. “Well if Dante and Sasha want to leave, the door is open. It might solve a whole lot of our problems.”

Because like Ian, he thought one of them was the traitor. “I think any of the lads leaving would harm the group.”

“And if one of them is talking to Levi Green?”

“I think that could be devastating to them all.” She hated to even think about what morale would be like if one of the Lost Boys turned out to have betrayed the group. “They know we’ve kept things from them.”

“Things they didn’t need to know,” Ezra argued. “You know why I asked you to keep your prior work from them. You weren’t burned by your group. You’re still friendly with them, and Robert and the others have a whole lot of reasons to be wary of any intelligence agency. It’s why I agree with Damon about not telling them we’ve cooperated with several agencies. It’s the only thing that’s kept us all safe. Levi hasn’t raided The Garden because we’ve kept certain parts of the Agency fed.”

“I think they’ll understand our reasoning. Keeping it from them is far worse.” There was more to the story. “And you should know I met with Kim earlier today.”

Just like that all of Ezra’s casualness was gone. His every muscle seemed to tense and his eyes focused in. “I knew she was in town. She called you again?”

This was the bad part of Ezra being here. He couldn’t be reasonable about his ex-wife. “No, I called her. I wanted her input on Emily Seeger. You know she’s got better contacts than anyone else. She can get us information not even Big Tag can.”

“If she’s telling us the truth and she’s not simply trying to beat out her boyfriend to get to the prize. She always was competitive that way.”

“I’m not Damon, Ezra. I know he puts up with your prejudice against her. And I’m not in a good mood. I know Kim. You can’t get away with that shite with me. If you don’t want to work with her, maybe you should go back to England and send Damon down. Believe me, I’m considering benching myself after today’s revelations. I’m wondering how fast we can get Kai here. Or Eve McKay. I don’t need your jealousy further endangering these men.”

For a second she thought she’d pushed him too far. His jaw tightened and she could see the way his hands fisted. But then he relaxed, sitting back and taking a deep breath. “I’m not good when it comes to Solo. I’m still…how can it be so raw after all these years?”

“Because you still love her. It doesn’t do you any good to fool yourself because you’re literally the only one who believes it.”

He was quiet for a moment. “You don’t think she’s working with Levi?”

It took everything she had not to roll her eyes, but at least he was asking the question. “I think she hates the man. I believe her when she says she made a mistake. I believe her when she says she was drunk and depressed over the divorce. She’s not dating him.”

“He always wanted her.”

“And he took advantage of her. Ezra, have you ever considered that? She was vulnerable and he moved in on her.”

“She shouldn’t have been drinking. I’m sorry. I don’t mean that. I hate myself for even thinking that. God, I don’t like who I am around her.” He took a deep breath and schooled his expression to something like professionalism. “I know what the boss thinks. Do you believe she’s working for the president?”

“I do. I think she’s on our side. If we can get the right data, the president can clean up the Agency. If you want to take down Levi Green, Kim is your best shot.”

He took a long swig of beer. “How is she doing?”

He’d never asked the question before. Not once. Even after she’d been shot, he’d ignored her. “She’s good. She’s…she’s Kim. She offered to handle Emily for me.”

Ezra snorted. “I can imagine. Do I need to get the woman a bulletproof vest?”

“You should know she told me she’s planning on taking out Levi.”

A grave look came over his face. “We’ll see about that. Does she want to come in?”

“I think so, but she’s worried if she hasn’t got solid proof of what she’s looking for, you’ll throw her out.”

Ezra growled, a sound of deep frustration. “She can come in, but she can’t stay here. She can talk to the men if she wants to, but she can’t sleep here.”

And why was that? Did the great and mighty Ezra Fain think he couldn’t control himself if his luscious ex-wife was underfoot? “I think she’ll be fine with that. If I know her, she’s probably in a much nicer place than this. I’ll give her a call.”

He nodded. “Do it tonight and we’ll bring her in tomorrow morning. We need to figure out what our play is. We’ll hold the debrief then. I don’t think I can face her until I’ve had some sleep.” He stood and finished off his beer, dropping the bottle in the recycling bin. “And I don’t think you should give up on Robert. I think you distancing is more about your fear than wanting to save his marriage.”

She didn’t want to save his marriage at all. She wished his marriage didn’t exist. “I’ll think about it.”

It would be all she would be able to think about.

She reached for her mobile and dialed Kim’s number. At least she could make one person happy today.