Herald the Night

Chapter Nineteen

Abriella found herself in a very uncomfortable position between a very big rock and an extremely hard place. Something about the address Taz had found had gnawed at the back of her mind from the moment he showed her. Like something important lingered just outside her consciousness. The missing information surrounding it felt wrong. The neighborhood tugged at that loose string incessantly. As soon as she had arrived on the scene, it hit her like a ton of bricks.

She”d been there before. She”d been inside that house. The night was burned into her memory for all time. A few streets over was where she”d been a part of Tristan and Rebecca Williams’ arrest as a covert ops team. Inside the mysterious address Taz had uncovered was where she”d suited up in weapons and protective equipment alongside a CIA ghost team. And she had signed paperwork that would keep her silent on the entire ordeal.

As the police and agents dispersed, she lingered in her car, arms hugging the steering wheel as she stared through the windshield at the shoddy little house with the overgrown lawn. Agent Gallagher had found a ride back to HQ with another team. Luke sat silently beside her, wise enough to know something was wrong and street smart enough to know he shouldn”t interrupt her thoughts. She sat there unmoving long after the last car left. She remained that way until the street lights flickered on. And then impulse had her flinging the door open and jumped from the SUV.

“Abs? Bella!” Luke cried after her as she strode across the street toward the gate. She ignored him.

“Abriella, what the hell—” He called out again and his footsteps picked up speed behind her. Still, she ignored him.

“For fuck’s sake, Garcia. Stop!” His hand whipped out to grab her arm just as she went to lift the crime scene tape.

“Cabrón! Let me go!” She whirled around to stare daggers at him. “Now!”

“What the hell are you doing?” His hiss was a harsh sound against the background noise of the street.

“I have to see something.” She shook her arm loose and turned back toward the gate. “You come, or you stay here. Either way, you shut your mouth or I shoot you.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he groaned, stepping in behind her as she dipped low under the fluttering yellow tape. “The scene is sealed, Abs. How exactly are you intending on getting inside?”

“Any way I can.” She bypassed the front porch and slid into the shadows alongside the building. As her eye adjusted to the darkness, she spied her best option for ingress. Without a second thought, she pulled out a pair of gloves from her jacket pocket and snapped them over her hands.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” Luke complained behind her. The sound of a second pair of latex gloves being donned had her smothering a smirk.

With a grunt, she pressed her gloved palms to the pane and gave a shove. The window creaked and groaned and squealed in its casement as it opened. She repositioned her stance and grabbed the sill. More muttering precipitated Luke appearing at her back.

“Here, I”ll fucking boost you. Fucking bullshit. This is absolute bullshit.”

“Gracias, amigo.” Her words were whispered with a hard edge as she turned to the side and set the sole of her foot in Luke’s laced fingers. With a silent nod, he lifted while she bounced up, grunting softly as she wriggled through the narrow opening with little grace and a lot of effort.

A moment later, Luke also grunted as his massive frame appeared in the window, twisting and turning before he tumbled through the opening with a loud “oof.” He muttered even more curses under his breath, sounding more and more like his partner with every passing phrase. She rolled her eyes and pulled a penlight from her pocket. The beam of light cut through shadows and dust motes as she searched the space, recalling her adrenaline-fueled memories from that night so long ago.

The light landed on a lumpy old couch and froze. Glimpses came back to her and stirred her into motion. Three strides had her standing before the couch and another grunt had her shoving it out of the way. The legs sliding over the rough floorboards was entirely too loud in the vacant home. It sounded like warning bells and cautions in her head. She stepped back and aimed the illumination at the newly revealed floor space.

There it was. The trapdoor. Luke’s sharp intake of breath beside her betrayed his surprise. She stooped low and grabbed the latch to haul it open. It creaked and complained before landing open with a heavy thud. Where she remembered bullet proof vests and gloves and weapons with clips, she found emptiness and a scrap of folded paper. Her eyes narrowed at the deliberate placement. Every hair on her body stood on end as she crouched down and reached into the floor.

“Abs, what the hell is going on?” Luke’s repeated question was one she couldn”t answer. Not yet. Not here. She popped the end of the flashlight between her teeth and carefully unfolded the paper in her hands. Luke’s presence drew closer as he peered over her. The fact that she was holding her light in her mouth was the only reason she couldn”t swear a maelstrom of expletives upon revealing the message.

A photo was printed on the cheap copy paper in black and white, the ink smudged in places. It was a picture of Lily, Theo, and Taz walking into the pottery shop. Although it was similar to the original photo of them inside, seated around the table, this one was more chilling. This one was taken before they”d arrived there. This one made it evident that whoever was following them knew where they were going before they got there. They were already waiting to snap the picture, long before the other image was taken. Underneath the photo, in nearly illegible handwriting, was another phrase in line with all the ones that had been texted to Connor and Luke.

“Cat got your tongue?”

Abriella plucked the light from between her teeth and muttered a swear under her breath. Luke stepped back as she rose from her crouched position, and the murderous glare in his eye was exacerbated by the harsh shadows thrown by the beam. She clicked it off and stuffed it back in her pocket alongside the paper, if only to soften the edges of his scrutiny.

“Abriella, what—”

“—the hell is going on? I heard you the first twenty five times you said. Vamos. I will explain when we are away from here.” She stepped around the hole in the floor and grabbed the door. He moved to help her with a begrudging sigh. Afterward, they both lifted the couch and moved it back into position in a much quieter fashion than her initial shoving.

They exchanged no words as they left the house through the window and closed it behind them. They didn”t speak as they climbed back into the car. Silence followed them as she started it and drove the short distance to the former Williams household. The quietude lingered as she parked across the street and killed the engine. The ticks and metallic tings as it cooled again were the only sound that interrupted the oppressive hush that blanketed them. After a long scrutiny of the empty home across the street, she finally found her voice.

“Late last autumn, I arrested Elias’ cousin and his wife here. Technically, it was an illegal arrest. We were part of a CIA team sanctioned by the President. It was off the record.” Abriella clenched the steering wheel tighter, pushing herself back against the seat.

“Well, shit.” Luke turned his gaze toward the house in question.

“That same night, Connor was part of a similar team. They were going to arrest the former Director. He got away, but one of the operatives slashed all four of his tires and the vehicle crashed.” Abriella tracked Luke’s expression as she spoke. She saw the second he made the connection between her story and what had happened to his car earlier in the day. It was betrayed by the tensing of his jaw and the twitching of a muscle in his cheek. After a moment, she continued.

“Taz and Theo were part of this operation. They were part of the communications team. Afterward, we were debriefed at Langley and sent home. We later learned from the President that Tristan was in prison, Rebecca was in a mental institution, and Director Fields was dead.”

“So the story we were fed about early retirement for Fields and a reassignment for Williams?” Luke turned his attention back toward her. The streetlights outside the car threw the hard lines of his face into stark contrast.

“Bullshit. All of it.” Abriella dropped her head back against the headrest with a sigh. “Everything we do is bullshit.”

“Bell… how did you know about the trapdoor back there?” An essence of mistrust tinged the words Luke spoke. It gutted her so deeply, she had to close her eyes to avoid seeing that betrayal in his eyes.

“That was where the CIA took me. We geared up there and advanced on foot.” Abriella sagged with a long exhalation. “I am sorry. We couldn”t tell anyone. We signed papers. Luke, you know I never would keep this from you intentionally…”

“Stop. Just stop. I get it.” He lifted his hands and scrubbed his face, hard. “So what the hell do we do now?”

“Yo no sais. I don”t know. I wish I did.”

“What about Marissa? She’s got to know more. If not, she needs to.” Again, Luke swept a palm over his face.

“Maybe? But what if it is a mistake to tell her?” Abriella swept her gaze over the street out of habit. It was empty. Isolated. Far too quiet for her liking.

“And what if it”s a mistake not telling her?” Luke scoffed and shook his head. “We’re damned if we do, damned if we don”t. Connor trusts no one. Taz hasn”t trusted anyone since he was a fucking child. Theo’s a hot mess on a good day. You saw Lily the other day. We’re fucking drowning here, Bell.”

“I know! I know, I know, I know!” Abriella struck the steering wheel with her palms. She struck it again and again to punctuate the words that fell from her lips. “Mierda!!”

With a strained utterance of pure frustration, she slouched forward and pressed her forehead to the wheel between her hands. Luke’s palm appeared at the center of her back and began moving in slow, soothing circles. They fell silent again for a long time. When faced with the magnitude of everything in front of them, the only answer was silence and contemplation. A very big rock and an extremely hard place.

Half an hour and one exceptionally harrowing phone call later, Abriella found herself doing the one thing she never expected to see herself doing. She lifted her hand and pressed the button on the Ring doorbell of Director Marissa Robins’ private home. Luke was beside her, head held high and hands clasped behind his back in parade rest style. He was the reason she was here in the first place. She kind of hated him for it.

A minute that felt like a lifetime passed before the door swung open to reveal a decidedly dressed down version of her boss. The silk robe threw Abriella for a loop. So did the glasses and pissed off expression.

“This better be good, agents.” She stepped aside in a silent invitation for them to enter.

“Unfortunately, it”s not. We’re sorry to disturb you.” Luke gestured for Bella to enter first and followed close behind.

They didn”t make it past the entrance to Marissa’s home. She was all business with crossed arms and an expectant expression. Abriella took a deep breath and started from the very beginning. Once the dam broke, it all came flooding out. Every single horrific thing since the day President Adelaide Montgomery placed her hand on the Bible and took the oath of office. The inaugural riots. The hostage situation with Theo. The death of James Locke. The protests, rallies, threats, attacks, arrests, and everything in between. She even shared every nitty gritty detail about the black ops mission that didn”t exist on paper, plus every single meeting of the oversight committee and their subsequent removal from it.

By the time she was done speaking, she was wrung out and exhausted. She wanted to curl up in the backseat of her car in Marissa’s driveway and sleep through the night and day. The sordid tale of horrors that they had all suffered through was overwhelming in its entirety. Marissa had taken the full brunt of it in stride, her expression still revealing nothing as she stood there before them. It was the most harrowing silence she”d ever been a victim of.

“Director—”

Marissa held up her hand and cut Abriella off with a soft tch sound. The silence stretched even longer, thickening into an ominous cloud that left Abriella feeling like she was drowning. Luke caught her eye and flattened his lips. She pursed hers in response. All they could do was wait out their Director and hope for the best. There was no taking it back now that it was all out in the open. Finally, mercifully, Marissa finally spoke.

“Thank you for telling me. I understand how sensitive most of this information is.” She unfolded her arms and let them fall to her sides with a soft exhale. “I need time to absorb this… but please believe me when I say I”m taking this very seriously.”

Abriella and Luke nodded and muttered quiet thank yous. Unsure of what to do with herself, Bella moved toward the front door.

“Agent Garcia,” Marissa called, stepping forward. “I mean it. You were right to come to me. We have to tread carefully, but we will get through this. I”m not going to ask you to trust me. That’s trite and offensive. I will ask you to give me time to formulate our next steps, though.”

They eyed one another in silence for a moment before Abriella nodded. There wasn”t much else she could do except to take Marissa’s words at face value. Maybe it would lead to answers. At the very least, she hoped it would help them find a solution to their current predicament. If anything, it felt good to have someone else in the know. She hadn”t realized how heavy the burden of knowledge was until she shared that knowledge with someone else. If only for that reason, she was grateful for Luke’s insistence and Marissa’s willingness to listen. With a silent prayer and a quiet goodnight, Abriella left with fewer answers than she arrived. Hopefully, the phrase darkest before dawn was true, because things were starting to look impossibly dark.