Ten hours later
What in the world had she gotten herself into now? Selena glanced in the rearview mirror.
He wasn’t following her.
Yet.
One by one she picked the pins out of her hair, letting them fall at gravity’s will. He would never want her back now. Yet a part of her knew he’d never let her go either.
Especially when she had withheld something he’d been waiting for a long time. Hadn’t he told her from the beginning he would collect? If she had been smart enough, she would’ve run like hell.
The last pin tumbled in between the seats, and dark soft curls drifted to her shoulders. She massaged the areas where pins had held her hair captive for the past ten hours and sighed. She’d left a mission unfinished.
And now she needed back in.
“Damn it, Theresa!” Selena pushed the car to ninety.
Larry had better come through for her or she would definitely bring his wife into the picture. She had never blackmailed anyone, but this wasn’t a time to be angelic.
Not with her nephew’s life at stake.
• • •
“You wouldn’t dare!” White bellowed at the top of his lungs.
With his white hair and red face, he reminded her more of the Mad Hatter than a man who had ten grandchildren and about to become great-grandpa soon.
“Larry, I need to connect. What’s a little trade here and there?”
“A little? Are you out of your ever-lovin’ fu — freaking mind,” Larry started to swear then toned it down. “What’s in it for me? You had to fight your way out of here. You left us with nothing. Do you know how close you were in getting the information needed to put the Donovan family away?” Larry paced the length of his office, his posture as rigid as the expression on his face.
“Remember your — ”
Larry glared at her. “And don’t even open your pretty little mouth about my blood pressure. That knockout smile of yours won’t budge this old coot a second time around. Nor will your little piece of blackmail.”
“I prefer to think of it as a bargaining chip. Wasn’t that the first thing you had taught me?” Selena smiled, knowing the effect it would have on him.
“If I could only — Wait a minute. Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere today? Like on your …”
“It’s finished.”
“Did you ever tell him about your past?”
Selena glared back, forgetting she was supposed to draw him on her side. “No. All he knows is what he’s seen.”
“Which is nothing?”
She hated when Larry smiled at her like that. As if he knew her better than she knew herself. “What was there to tell? If I told him anything of my past, I wouldn’t be standing here.” It was a fact she’d known a long time ago she would have to face.
“How much do you know about his past?”
“What does this have to do with my request?”
“Just answer my question.”
She unclenched her hand and faced him. “I know he has secrets. Who doesn’t? He was into search and rescue.”
“You’re a cold one, Malone.” Larry shook his head and tapped her heart gently with his index finger. “Still cold enough to handle the proposition I’m about to give you, though.”
Selena drew straight and waited. If she interrupted him now, he might change his mind.
“If I provide a single lead, nothing more, it’s in your court to work this. I don’t know why you want this particular lead, nor do I want you to tell me. Something tells me that in this situation, ignorance is bliss.” Larry walked to his desk, pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the bottom file cabinet labeled “touch and die.”
Larry always had a way of words.
Still silent, she watched as he pulled the drawer open and pulled out a single manila envelope. He held it for a moment. Watching. Looking for some answer to an unasked question. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
“This lead comes with a warning. So listen carefully, Malone.”
She held back a shiver. Whenever he called her Malone, it was his way of telling her it was serious and she’d better pay attention.
“When you do with whatever it is you’re about to do with this lead,” he waited until he held eye contact before continuing. “You’re in until the end. Should you need to get out for any reason, no one will help you. No one knows of your entrance back into this organization. The only thing people will know is that you are connected with the family and will be seen as the enemy and will have no problems taking you out. Take special care. When this is over, the truth will come out to your fellow agents. Until then …”
She grasped the envelope offered to her. “I understand.”
He stared into her eyes. “Do you? I wonder …”
“Do you know anything about an envelope I received at my wedding?”
“When did it arrive?”
“Right before I walked down the aisle,” she said, watching his reaction.
“Damn,” he muttered. Then he said, “You should’ve told him.”
Selena stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Tell him what? That I no longer exist? I think he’s already gotten the picture on that one.”
• • •
Two hours and two cups of Starbuck’s mocha cappuccino later, she still hadn’t opened the envelope Larry had given her. Thankfully the air conditioning was off. It was freezing. Selena rubbed her bare arms. Larry’s last words still resonated within her. You should’ve told him.
Something didn’t smell right.
She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Larry’s number. She counted the rings. One ring … two rings …
“Come on, White, I know you’re there. You’re expecting this call.”
“Yes?”
“Spill.”
Silence. He was intentionally drawing out the tension until she was ready to go through the line and bring him back face to face. “White …” she warned.
“What do you want me to spill?”
“Buying time won’t help your case. You want me to know something? Then tell me. Don’t play with words. Where have you and Drake met?”
“I wish you had gone on your honeymoon,” Larry said. “I better not find your body on some riverbank or stuffed in the trunk of an abandoned car.”
“Well, the travel agency booked me on this trip instead.”
“Never blink an eye do you?”
Selena wished she could go back ten years and do this all over again.
“Selena, are you there?”
“Thinking,” she said, looking down at the whipped cream drizzling out of the lid.
A special man came along once in a lifetime. Drake wouldn’t forgive what she’d done to him.
After a moment she said, “Just doing some preplanning before meeting up with the past. Is there anyone in that part of the organization that might recognize me?”
“No one within the family.” He hesitated.
“Okay. And before you say it, I remember the rules loud and clear. Don’t tell Drake you talked to me.”
“How did you figure it out?”
“Woman’s intuition, my dear White.” Selena smiled into the phone, her fingers traced the edge of the envelope. A very thin envelope. If she didn’t know Larry as well as she did, she’d think it was empty.