Chapter 28
I was on the way out my front door the next morning, ready to meet the moms at the park where I knew they would be with the kids, when I nearly bumped into a young woman in a pantsuit standing on my doorstep.
My nerves rocketed to high alert so quickly I almost punched her in the face on pure reflex.
“Whoa! Good morning,” she said, and leaned back from my half jab.
I eyed her up and down: sleek low ponytail, pressed shirt, minimal makeup, telltale bulge at her hip beneath her suit. Olena was either getting more direct sending someone to kill me, or I was staring at my new handler.
“Who are you?” I asked, needing to get to the park so I didn’t miss my opportunity to approach the moms before naptime.
The woman tugged on her lapels. “I’m Agent Yang. Do you mind if we step inside to talk?”
An ounce of relief seeped out of me. At least she wasn’t here to kill me, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for another babysitter. She looked about my age. Young. Fresh. Maybe the DSA had assigned a newbie since this case was so low risk, as everyone liked to believe.
“Sure, but it has to be quick. I have to be somewhere.” I turned inside and let her follow.
“Yes, I’ve been briefed on your case. I understand you are Mrs. Browning’s nanny,” she said.
I froze mid-step. Bray must have been keeping the secret in place by not telling anyone my cover was already blown.
The DSA didn’t know it was blown if they were sending in a new handler for the same case.
I slowly turned around and held my face neutral, deciding to test her.
“Right. I am about to head to the park up the street to meet her and the kids. I’ll be busy for the rest of the day. ”
“Noted,” she said with a nod. She’d folded her hands in front of her pants and stood with a rigid posture. She looked like someone used to taking orders, not giving them.
“And tomorrow, I’ll be at the Brownings’ house all day,” I said, not letting on that would only be true if my plan today worked in my favor.
Agent Yang held up her hands. “I understand. I’m not here to get in your way. I only wanted to introduce myself and let you know you’ve been passed to me as your new handler.”
Passed to me. Once again, I was dehumanized into an object.
But at least she didn’t know my cover was blown.
I’d rather be locked in Bray’s parents’ condo, or shipped to the middle of nowhere, but if I had to be anywhere, being in the clutch of neighborhood watch and security cameras in Del Rio while I worked on my plan was the best option.
“Great,” I said with a stiff smile. “If you’re not here to get in my way, then we are already on the same page.”
She nodded, and I got the sense I was right about her taking orders. “I understand the importance of keeping cover. I will check in as needed, but please brief me as frequently as you see fit.”
I couldn’t believe my luck. This newbie was just going to … stay out of my hair?
“Will do,” I said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go.”
“Of course, but one more thing?” she said when I reached for the door.
I thought she might say just kidding and slap an ankle monitor on me, but instead she lifted her phone and wagged it at me. “Let me give you my number.”
“Oh, right.” She recited it, and I punched the numbers into my phone. Staring at my screen made me long for a text from Bray. It had been less than twenty-four hours, but I missed him.
I shoved the pang of longing back into the box I’d built for it. I couldn’t miss him. There was no world where that longing could ever be satisfied, so I had to stop feeling it. I was on my own.
“All set,” Agent Yang said with a small smile. “I look forward to working together.”
I thought about asking her if she had any experience working with CIs, how she got put on my case, if she knew why my old handler had been given the boot, and if she knew anything about the past seventy-two hours, but all that could be saved for later.
Or, if things went well with the moms, we’d never have a chance to have the conversation because I’d be gone. Finally free.
“I look forward to it too,” I lied right to her face. It was nothing personal, of course. She seemed fine in the five minutes we’d known each other, maybe even easy. But I could have had the jolliest person alive as my handler, and they’d still be my handler.
“Great. I’ll let you go,” she said, and moved for the door. I let her leave first and waited for the sound of her car pulling away before I opened the door again and headed out on my mission.
Del Rio Park looked the way it always did: clean, safe, glittering in the morning sun, and full of joyous parents and children frolicking about.
I spotted the moms right away. They sat on the same blanket in the same place as they had on the day I had joined them.
I wondered if the park worked like high school cafeteria seating.
All the cliques had their designated seats, and no one dared cross a social status line.
As I approached, my nerves were anything but at peace.
Not only was I on constant lookout for any ghosts or even Olena herself, but I was also walking into a lion’s den.
I thought back to that day in Melanie’s kitchen and the look of terror on her face when I’d mentioned Montrose, but also the way she looked like she wanted to kill me.
My hope hinged on the fact that I knew they were in deep, and I had a way for them to get out of trouble.
And—this glimmer was fainter—but I hoped I hadn’t misread that fleeting connection I’d sensed in Melanie’s kitchen when she seemed to understand, and maybe even sympathize with, the fact I was also trapped in a position I didn’t choose.
The three women sat on their blanket, Melanie cross-legged with her back to me, Jana with her baby daughter in her lap, and Sandra with her legs stretched out in front of her and a hand on her belly. The older kids were off on the play structure.
“Well well well,” Jana said when she saw me. “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face around here.” She snapped Melanie’s knee with the spit rag she held and nodded up at me.
Melanie slowly turned around, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand. I saw frown lines immediately fold her brow.
I held up my hands. “I come in peace.”
Sandra snorted. “Yeah, right. You’ve been lying about who you are this whole time.”
The sun suddenly felt very hot on the back of my neck. “I’m sorry about that, but I didn’t have a choice.”
“And you have one now?” Jana said and arched a finely manicured brow.
“Yes. And I’m choosing to help you.”
All three of them shifted, suddenly on edge. Clearly, I knew truths about them too.
Melanie continued staring up at me with her hand shielding her eyes. “How could you possibly help us?”
I kneeled onto their blanket so we were all on the same level.
I lowered my voice. “I know about Montrose; I know about the seized shipment. I know you are in enough debt to have put a lien on your house.” I nodded at Melanie and watched all three of them stiffen once more.
“I also know of a job that could fix your problems and mine.”
They continued to stare at me, giving nothing away, until Melanie eventually swept her eyes to the other two.
They held a silent conversation, Sandra and Jana clearly looking to Melanie for direction.
Tension strained between them like a bowstring, but in it, I could also feel the desperation. Something was about to snap.
Finally, Melanie turned her head to me and softly cleared her throat, still with her guard up but letting a hint of vulnerability seep through the cracks. “What kind of job?”
I held her gaze, ignoring the daggers the other two were staring at me. “Stealing a five-million-dollar diamond.”
The three of them stared at me, ears perked like a pack of hungry dogs who’d just heard the word treat.
As it turned out, all it took to get into Melanie’s locked office was offering the chance to commit felony larceny. They’d let me follow them home from the park, and once the kids were down for nap time, we congregated in Melanie’s home office.
The space matched the rest of the house in terms of being professionally designed with an imposing and elegant eye.
Where I might have expected a dark, high-security surveillance cave, the room was light and bright.
The pale jade walls framed a view of the backyard and white, gold-accented furniture sat atop the cream carpet: sofa, armchair, desk, office chair.
The wall behind Melanie’s queen-sized desk was made up of built-in bookshelves holding neatly placed potted plants, books, and several thick binders.
A drink cart sat under the window with a small cityscape of tea boxes and an electric kettle.
The setup looked entirely innocent, much like the three women staring at me from various points in the room.
Melanie sat at her desk, Jana perched on the armchair, and Sandra had sat opposite me on the sofa with one leg stretched out between us.
“So, let me get this straight,” Jana said, brow still arched.
It hadn’t lowered since the park. “Your dad was a con man who used you as bait, and the night he got arrested, you ended up working for some secret government agency in exchange for protection and not going to prison too, and the people from that night are after you.”
“Correct.” I figured I had to tell them everything, to come fully clean, if I had any shot of getting their help.
“I’ve been working with that agency—the DSA—for the past decade.
I got assigned to Del Rio, to your case, because my handler was trying to protect me.
This area is so safe, and your case is considered low risk. ”
Sandra snorted. “I think I might be offended by that.”