55. GRAYSON
55
GRAYSON
In the heart of a discreet CIA corporate building in downtown Chicago, the room was hauntingly silent, like the gray walls were holding their breath, waiting to see the outcome of this discussion.
The stakes could not be higher for this meeting.
I was grateful that both Barry and Seth flanked me at the massive mahogany table; facing the leader of the CIA about Daniel’s treason was a daunting enough task without having to do it alone.
Because make no mistake, there was still a chance that I would walk out of here in handcuffs myself. I had no idea what misinformation Daniel might have spread about me to the CIA—especially if he caught wind of this meeting.
Hell, it wouldn’t shock me if that door opened and Daniel was the one to walk through, and if he took me down, Ivy would be vulnerable to criminal charges.
Or worse…be killed.
I looked at my watch again, my throat running dry.
“Maybe something’s wrong,” I said. “This is taking too long.”
What if this was a ploy to separate us?
“The evidence is rock solid,” Barry assured.
“Yeah, well…” I had no idea how the CIA would handle?—
The door swung open, and three men entered. The first, a tall, lanky man with thinning hair—Cleveland Trace, the head of the CIA—along with two of his associates. All three wore business suits and had mastered the art of absolutely no emotion in their body language or facial expressions.
Unless you count authority as emotion. They commanded the room, seemingly sucking the air right out of it, as if to hold it hostage until they got the answers they’d come here for.
“Mr. Lockwood,” Cleveland said.
“Grayson,” I corrected.
Cleveland’s eyebrows shot up in recognition as he said, “Barry Mansfield. Didn’t realize you were going to be here today. You’re quite the legend.”
Cleveland set a black folder on the table in front of him as he and his associates pulled out the leather chairs and held their ties as they sat down.
“I enjoyed my career at the CIA,” Barry said humbly.
Cleveland’s gaze swept to Seth. “How is the Nightshade mission coming along?”
His tone was hard to read. Somewhere between don’t you have better things to be doing right now and why isn’t Vosch dead already .
“Slower than we’d prefer,” Seth said. “But moving in the right direction.”
“Yes.” Cleveland snapped his eyes to me. “Much slower, I’d say.”
Great. Either he hadn’t read all the information we provided—which outlined Daniel’s role in why Vosch’s elimination failed—or he didn’t believe it.
I prayed it was the former.
“So,” Cleveland sighed, “it seems we have quite the mess on our hands.”
“I would say so,” I agreed.
“These are some pretty serious allegations you’re making. Daniel Murphy has worked for the CIA for more than two decades. He’s never had a single complaint against him in all that time,” Cleveland argued. “He’s taken out more criminals than any CIA operative in history. Yet we’re to believe he’s corrupt?”
“I wish it wasn’t true,” I said. “As you know, he was more than just my handler to me. He was my mentor and someone I considered a personal friend.”
“Don’t you think it would’ve been appropriate to invite him here to face his accusers?”
“I think the CIA deserves time to study the evidence before they confront him with the facts. Because that’s what these are, sir— facts . It’s all outlined there.” I nodded to his folder, which I assumed had everything we submitted to them. Prompting this emergency meeting.
Over the next hour, we went over every piece of information we had about Daniel and his crimes. Including the unsanctioned assassination of Ivy’s father, luring her to that parking garage in an attempt to silence her, ambushing Ivy and my brothers at his mansion, kidnapping Ivy, among everything else. We went through all of our documentation, piece by piece, including our proof that every fragment of the supposed evidence against Ivy was manufactured.
When we were finally done, Cleveland’s poker face finally crumbled.
“Respectfully, Grayson, I hope you’re wrong. Because if this is true, this will be one of the biggest breaches the CIA has ever faced, and it will have happened on my watch.”
“Sir, Daniel needs to be picked up while your team verifies the evidence we provided. Right now, my family, Ivy, and Ivy’s mother are all in danger. Even if he knows the evidence has already been turned over to the CIA, we will all become witnesses at his trial.”
Cleveland’s lips pursed.
Eventually, he took a big breath, looked at his watch, and said, “Give me twenty-four hours to validate this. I’ll be in touch.”
“Is there any way to validate the evidence faster?”
Cleveland rose to his feet, buttoning his blazer. “As I said, if proven true, this is one of the biggest breaches in CIA history. I will not rush this. If you and your family feel you are in danger, I can provide accommodations to keep you all safe.”
My stomach dropped.
“The problem is, sir, I’m unsure if Daniel may have others working with him—even unintentionally. If intel gets leaked back to him where my family’s location is, they would be in grave danger.”
Offense washed over Cleveland’s face. “Are you accusing more agents of being corrupt?”
“If anyone was helping him,” I hedged, trying to soften the blow, “they’d likely be doing it unwittingly.” In theory. “I’m the prime example of this, sir. I unknowingly carried out what turned out to be an unsanctioned termination of a civilian. If he’s capable of pulling that off, he is more than capable of getting intelligence from others within the organization.”
“We’ll flag your case as confidential,” Cleveland said. “But the choice of CIA protection is yours.”
My heart raced, calculating their best shot at survival.
I trusted Cleveland—I did. But Daniel was like a leaky hole in a boat. How many other leaks might be in it?
What if CIA’s protection inadvertently dispatched their location straight to Daniel? While Hunter’s team had been breached in that ambush, they were expecting it now, and there were far more of them. Out of the two groups, I trusted Hunter’s team over the CIA right now.
“I think my family will be okay without CIA protection, but I have a request that will help to guarantee their safety.”
Cleveland put his hands into his pockets.
Chances were, they were already going to do what I was about to say, but their confirmation would help me sleep tonight.
“Can we please put a CIA team on Daniel to ensure he doesn’t flee?” And doesn’t come after my family …
Cleveland looked at his two silent associates. As he chewed his cheek, a dread settled into my bones.
“Unfortunately, all efforts to contact and locate Daniel have been unsuccessful.”
It felt like the air had been knocked out of my lungs.
“He’s already fled,” I spat.
What was the purpose of this entire dog-and-pony show of going through all this evidence if they already knew Daniel had fled? After all, only a guilty man flees.
What a waste of time! All of us could have been hunting him rather than sitting here, proving he was dirty.
I wanted to call him out on it, career suicide be damned. But even in my fog of anger, I suspected why Cleveland had proceeded with this meeting. He, undoubtedly, had a team out there, actively looking for Daniel, while he met with us in parallel, needing to go through this evidence in careful detail.
The question was, what would Daniel’s next move be?