Chapter Eight #2
She ran her palm over the fabric of the yurt. Sturdy and thick. Felt waterproof. Did a surprising job of blocking out the wind and cold.
“Appreciate it, Joe.” Jackson shook his hand, and the guy left. He dropped the bag in the corner.
They each rolled out a sleeping bag.
Christina sat cross-legged on hers. “I’ve been thinking about the depots.
If you can pull it off, the seizures of everything, the drugs, weapons and money, at all three sites, it will tighten the proverbial noose around the neck of Team US.
It’ll be hard for the cartel to recover stateside.
But you’ll have to do it simultaneously.
Once one is hit, the others will be alerted.
I think you have twenty-fours before they move everything.
Forty-eight at the most,” she said. “Do you have a plan?”
“I need to bring you in to the FBI regional office in Salt Lake City. I’ll need to answer questions myself and explain the actions I’ve taken.
” Sitting opposite her, he sighed as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders.
“But first, the depots. They’re time-sensitive targets.
Kirk died to make this happen. But I don’t know who I can trust.”
His doubt in her went unspoken this time, but it was clear on his face, making something in her chest pinch.
She leaned forward and put her palm on his knee. “You can trust me.” Deep down, she knew saying it wasn’t enough. She’d have to prove it to him. “I finished.” Moving her hand from his leg, she took out the pages of notes and gave them to him.
He looked it over. “The locations are spread far apart. Different towns. Thousands of kilos of cocaine, smuggled across the Canadian border, and fentanyl from China, received through the mail. Millions in cash. Stockpiles of weapons. This adds up to a major operation. It’ll take days to coordinate it.
The agencies will fight over who’s the lead and who will get the ultimate credit. If I can get them to listen to me.”
“You can’t go through the agencies. You have to cut out the bureaucratic red tape,” she said, and he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Kirk didn’t tell you I was the asset, did he?”
“Hell, no. If he had…” Jackson clenched his hand, released the fist. Clenched it again. “I would’ve had him pull you.”
“Then that’s the reason he didn’t tell you it was me.” Christina didn’t dare think his opposition was because he still cared about her. She doubted he’d once loved her, but not his affection for her. “But why would you have been against it? Because I’m a woman?”
“Yes.” He stared at her, his gaze unflinching.
“And no. I’m not sexist. You were so young and not a trained agent.
” He shook his head. His jaw hardened. “Despite what you think, I did love you. I might’ve been a foolish teenager who didn’t want to cause unnecessary waves with my parents, who were only looking out for me, but you’re wrong to think I wouldn’t have walked away from them and turned my back on their money in a heartbeat for you.
I ended up doing that anyway. Can’t even remember the last time I went back to Laramie. ”
She’d heard. Right after graduation, he’d joined the army. Four years later, he became a US marshal. “I notice you didn’t refer to it as home.”
“It’s not.” He looked like he wanted to say more but lowered his gaze. Cleared his throat. “You were never biker trash to me. Never disposable.” He grimaced. “Everything I said to you back then, I meant. I’m sorry you doubted me.” His tone turned angry.
Almost accusatory.
Was he blaming her? “Don’t you mean you’re sorry for not defending me? For not having the backbone to stand up to your parents?”
He blew out a harsh breath. “You keep doing this.”
“Doing what?”
“Changing the subject. Our relationship, what happened between us as teenagers, is ancient history. There are more pressing issues at hand. I already know there’s a traitor in the task force, but I need to know if I can trust you—and this intel.”
Her cheeks burned, and she wished she didn’t care about him.
Or their past. “Fair enough. I didn’t mean to get us sidetracked.
But for the record, you brought up our ancient history this time.
Not me.” She packed away all the messy emotions centered around him and gathered her thoughts.
“Do you think there’s the slightest chance Kirk put his faith in someone else on the task force? Told them my identity?”
“No.” Jackson shook his head. “After he realized we had a leak, the only person on the task force he trusted at all was me.”
“Well, he told someone else about me. In the tunnel, Kirk said he broke Alice’s first commandment, which is, trust no one.”
“Alice’s commandment?”
“A list of rules to help me survive. We came up with ten. He called them Alice in the Underworld’s commandments. The point is he trusted the wrong person. If it wasn’t you and you’re positive it wasn’t someone else on the task force, then it can only mean one thing.”
“He talked to someone outside the task force,” Jackson said slowly, like he was thinking aloud. “There are two moles.”
She nodded. “Knowing Kirk, I think he would’ve gone to someone higher up in the food chain.”
“Someone he thought it would be safe to turn to. Someone with enough power to facilitate your extraction and authorize a new life for you.”
Her chest tightened. “If he risked telling someone about me, it was to coordinate an extraction. It must’ve been for some other reason.”
“An extraction of a high-value asset would’ve taken more than Kirk Kehoe or the power he had to keep you safe.”
“After a while, whenever Kirk talked about getting me out, I stopped believing him.” She didn’t think he’d ever cared about her.
But in the tunnel, he’d given her a chance to escape.
It was the least he owed her. “There was never going to be a clean extraction for me, Jackson. By the time I realized that, I was already in too deep. The consequences set in stone.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kirk wanted someone who couldn’t be traced back to any agency.
The perfect inside person needed to be a civilian.
With verifiable ties to the criminal world.
The Iron Warriors had a reputation as an outlaw gang, which made my background appear shady by association.
I fit, but that meant the real me. Not an alias.
If I was extracted and disappeared, if the cartel found out I was a traitor, then my family would pay the price.
” A wave of grief washed over, and she lowered her head. “And they did. Dearly.”
“The hit last night. That was the cartel getting revenge.”
She nodded. “He killed them. The Reaper. The same man from earlier.” All those lives snuffed out in one night.
Because of her.
“Alvaro Aguilar murdered them. I’m so sorry.” He reached over and caressed her cheek, drawing her gaze back to him.
Silence ballooned between them, growing heavy and dense.
Sorrow pressed in on her. “I’ve sacrificed everything for this,” she said, her voice a fragile whisper. Tears welled in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. “You can trust me. And the intel.”
His mouth flattened in a grim line.
Still, he doubted her. What would it take for her to convince him?
“Why did Kirk choose you?” he asked. “Why not one of the Iron Warriors?”
She hesitated, and his eyes narrowed.
“I need complete honesty, Christina.”
“Kirk wanted a woman.”
Jackson tensed, his shoulders bunching. “Why?” A bewildered expression crossed his face. “How did he insert you in the cartel?”
“I don’t think he came up with the idea until after he met me.”
His hands clenched, his eyes glittering in the dim light from the lanterns. “What idea?”