Chapter Five #2
But this could be the best way to handle things. “I can play nice. Look, you’re all right. I overreacted. She’s reached out several times, so I know she wants to talk. Maybe if we talk, we can work things out. Between our teams. You know they sometimes hold out on us.”
“And we hold out on them when I think we should.” Joe seemed determined to make his case. “This case is not one where our country can get ahead if I hold back some intel. This case is one where the world bleeds if I do it.”
“But you know the Americans won’t see it that way,” Ben argued. “I can go down and talk to Kenzie and get on the inside. She’s always eager to work with me. If she’s upset with how we left things in Nepal, she’ll want to please me.”
Tim’s eyes rolled. “I hope that somewhere in that brain of yours this is all justification because you can’t handle the idea of not seeing her again.
Because if it’s not and you’re seriously thinking about playing a woman who loves you, you’re not the man I think you are.
I watched that tape. She wasn’t faking. She didn’t try to run.
She didn’t fight for her life. She only wanted you.
I can’t tell you what I would do if I could get a woman to look at me the way she looks at you.
I would be willing to put up with a slightly deranged twin and all the professional lies she would tell me.
But that’s me. I guess we don’t have the same values. ”
The words hit him hard.
And then that voice started whispering.
What if she knew all along that Huisman was alive?
What if the whole thing was a setup to distract him while Huisman got away?
A flash of the look in her eyes when he reached for her hit him.
She’d softened, those eyes going wide like it was everything she’d hoped for and all that mattered was being with him. He’d felt more connected to her in that moment than he’d felt to anyone for years.
His parents had gone into witness protection when they realized Manny had hired someone to kill them. He hadn’t seen them in years. All he had was this team.
Tim walked out without a backward glance.
Was she that great an actress? Now that he looked back he could easily tell which twin he’d been with every time they’d met.
Even when he’d saved her, when he’d walked into Manny’s old house in Toronto and found her lifeless on a medical table, it had felt off.
Like he was touching something that wasn’t his.
Perhaps it was mere fancy, but when he’d made love to Kenzie he’d known she was his.
Joe looked grim. “Ben, I need to ask you a question. Do you honestly think she was playing you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do, but your past is a wall between you and the truth. Huisman fucked you over. He’s the boogeyman, and I am not making light of what he’s done to you. It might be time to try to find a way to move on.”
“I don’t fucking want to move on from her.” He realized what he’d said. “Damn it. You were talking about Manny.”
There was an amused expression on Joe’s face. “So Tim is right and you’re fighting something that could be good for you personally. Terrible for your career, though.”
“It is not. We just need to have a wall up when we’re not working together.” Why had he said that? He’d thought it through a thousand times, but he hadn’t meant for Joe to know.
“Allowances could be made, especially if we’re working on mutual goals,” Joe offered.
“The truth of the matter is we’ve found some property lists and other information that could use your subject-matter expertise.
You know the doctor in a way no one else does.
What would you say if I offered to let you manage the data?
I’ll assign you your own team and you can work this from a desk.
I will make sure that when we get boots on the ground, you’ll be there. ”
“I quit.” He hadn’t meant to do that either. “I’m going to Dallas one way or another.”
“To screw with Taggart’s team?” Joe asked tightly.
“To figure out why I can’t get her out of my head.
To find some fucking peace when it comes to her.
Maybe you’re right. Maybe Tim’s right. Maybe I’m letting what Manny has done to me affect my relationship with Kenzie.
I won’t know until I see her again.” He thought about the invitation he’d received in the mail three days before.
The crisp cream stationary had contained a request to attend the wedding of Natasha Taggart to Darren Nash in Dallas, Texas.
This weekend. Five days from now the whole Taggart family was gathering, and if he walked into that wedding he would know everything.
All their personal secrets. He would be on the inside.
He could be one of them. Like Dare. He could have a family.
He shoved that idea aside.
There had been a handwritten note slid in.
Hope you can be there. Kenzie misses you, and honestly, so do I. Dare
What had been his first thought? That Dare was in on it, too.
He was fucked up. He needed a damn therapist.
He needed her.
“I have to see her. Even if it means stepping away from the only thing I have.” His job. His mission. There was a sense of shame that ran through him. He was picking a woman who had lied to him over justice for Deanna. Over the peace and safety of the world.
And yet he wasn’t going to take the threat back because this was the first time in weeks that he felt better. The decision to go to Dallas and…confront her? Accuse her?
Try with her?
He would know when he saw her. He would know when he got close to her again. He wouldn’t let Manny’s cruelty force his hand. He would figure her out and only then would he let her truly in.
But they would have a chance.
Joe stared at him for a moment. “I think this is a mistake.”
There it was. He was in a corner, and he didn’t even hesitate. “You’ll have my resignation before I leave.”
He wasn’t going to sit behind a desk. He’d had his childish tantrum, and he was going to see her. He would find out the truth no matter what.
And he would have her again. But this time, there would be no time limit, and they would do things her way. Which meant taking control. It also meant he had to be prepared.
“Ben,” Joe called out.
He stopped, his hand on the door. He should walk on, but he owed Joe and he needed to stop letting his confusion and anger turn him into a massive asshole. “I’m sorry, Joe. I have to know.”
“I understand.” Joe stood. “If this is about her and not some kind of revenge, then I refuse your resignation and I’ll need to fully brief you on what we’ve found. We can call Tim back in.”
Well, at least he wasn’t fired. He wanted both. He wanted to know the truth about her and wanted to take down Manny for every evil deed he’d done. He also wanted his friend back. His friends. He wanted Tim back and he wanted Dare. He wanted to be in that damn circle.
He hated that he wanted it so badly.
“Can we call out for Thai?” It was time to get to work. “Tim can be bribed with food. If we get some root beer, he’ll forget we ever fought.”
“I can get you a new tech,” Joe offered.
Ben shook his head, walking back to the table.
“No. He’s the best, and he’s been good to me over the years.
I’ve been a dick since we got back from Nepal.
They left us, and it would have been easy to give us a lift back down.
She chose not to, and I’ve been trying to figure out why. My head goes to dark places.”
“I believe you’ll find that Shannon Reed is missing again,” Joe said quietly. “She was supposed to be handed over when they reached the States, but she got away.”
“The bombmaker is out there? They let the bombmaker go?”
Joe passed a file to him. “This is a picture from a CCTV cam of Shannon Reed coming into Canada. She came in under a false passport and was escorted by a woman she called her niece. They flew into Winnipeg, and I believe there was a vehicle waiting for them. Likely driven by this woman’s father or mother. ”
He stared down at the grainy photo taken from CCTV.
Lucy Brooke Flanders. Oh, most people wouldn’t recognize her because she knew how to hide, but he’d spent time with the woman.
She was an Agency operative with ties to Kenzie and the Taggarts.
Her father was quite scary. Not as scary as Ian Taggart, but right up there since that old man had taken both him and Tim down.
“So they were involved in letting a dangerous criminal go?”
“I believe she’s in a town called Bliss. Have you read her file? What she went through?”
“She built bombs,” Ben replied.
“It’s not always so simple, and I believe Taggart settled her in a place where she can find something beyond mere survival in her last years.
” Joe’s voice was calm, like he approved of what Taggart had done.
“I suspect if she’d been placed in the hands of the Agency, she would be pressured to build bombs for the US, and I don’t think she wanted to do that.
I suspect she wanted to spend time with her son and his new girlfriend.
With the son she lost and his new wife.”
Cooper McKay. He was talking about Cooper and Kala. Had Kala asked her sister to leave so she could save the woman who gave birth to her husband? He knew Cooper considered Alex and Eve McKay his parents, but did the man feel something for the woman who gave him away to try to save him?
It was more complicated than he was making it.
The door came open again and Tim was there. He gave Ben a suspicious look before turning to Joseph. “You texted?”
“Ben is going to Dallas and would like you to accompany him. He’s going to spend the next couple of days going over the data so he’s ready to brief the American team next Monday,” Joe said.
“I do believe he intends to have serious talks with Kenzie Taggart about how to make things work between them.”