Chapter 19 Atticus
ATTICUS
Iwoke with Brenna curled against me, her breath warm on my chest and her hand resting over my heart. After everything we’d been through in the last few days, this simple moment of peace felt like a miracle.
“Morning,” she murmured without opening her eyes.
“Morning, beautiful.” I kissed the top of her head, breathing in the vanilla scent of her shampoo. “Hungry?”
“Starving. We barely ate yesterday.”
“French toast?” I offered. “I promise not to burn down your kitchen. Scout’s honor.”
Her eyes opened, that brilliant blue that still made my chest tight. “You were never a Boy Scout.”
“Academy grad. Close enough. We had badges and everything. I got one for not crying during survival training.”
She laughed, stretching against me. “Liar.”
“You’re right. I totally cried. But so did everyone else when they made us eat grubs. Luke actually threw up. Though he claims it was altitude sickness.”
“Luke threw up from grubs?” She propped herself up on one elbow. “He never told me that story.”
“Might be best if you don’t tell him I told you that.”
Her eyes tightened the same way mine did, knowing the road to Luke’s forgiveness might be a long one.
We made it to her kitchen, moving around each other with easy familiarity. Her apartment was smaller than the Sausalito safe house—no ocean views or a six-million-dollar price tag—but it felt more like home.
While I whisked eggs and milk for the French toast, Brenna made tea for her and coffee for me.
“We have the team debrief in an hour,” she said, checking her phone. “Admiral says he has several things he thinks we should cover.”
“At least it’s good news this time.” I dipped thick slices of brioche into the egg mixture, making sure each piece was thoroughly coated. “No one’s getting arrested who doesn’t deserve it.”
“That’s a low bar.”
“But an important one.”
She moved behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist. “You saved my brother, and eventually, he’ll acknowledge it.”
I prayed so. Until he did, my relationship with Brenna would remain in a holding pattern. We’d be together, but without his forgiveness, I couldn’t take the steps I wanted to, to make it more permanent.
We ate at her small dining table, our feet tangled beneath it.
Then, at ten hundred sharp, we joined the K19 videoconference.
Brenna had set up her laptop on the same table where we’d eaten, adjusting the angle so we were both in frame.
The screen split into multiple windows—Admiral, Alice, and Dragon at headquarters in the Adirondacks.
Behind them, there was a view of the lake.
Kodiak and Tank were still in California, looking exhausted but satisfied.
Tex had patched in from his home office, and Emma joined from here, in DC.
“Good morning, everyone,” said Admiral. “Brenna, do you want to start this off?”
“If you wouldn’t mind, I prefer if you did,” she responded.
“Not at all,” he said with a single nod of his head. “First, outstanding work dismantling this intelligence operation. This was one of the most sophisticated networks we’ve encountered.”
“As you know, Morrison, Liu, and Castellano were taken into custody without incident yesterday morning,” Tank reported, pulling up the arrest records on his screen.
“FBI picked them at their respective residences at zero six hundred. No bail due to flight risk and the international nature of their crimes.”
“And Trevor Collins won’t shut up,” Kodiak added, leaning against his chair and linking his hands behind his head. “By the time he gets done, the bureau will have the goods on everyone who worked with Morrison and his cronies, from IT personnel to project managers to janitors who had master keys.”
Alice raised her head. “We were successful in intercepting the latest classified AI algorithms—the ones for autonomous weapons and targeting systems—right before they could be transmitted to foreign buyers. We were literally minutes away from losing them permanently.”
Dragon pulled up the financial data on her screen, the numbers scrolling past in neat columns.
“Emma and I traced over one hundred million dollars through various cryptocurrency exchanges. The money trail goes through Cyprus, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, and finally to accounts connected to foreign intelligence services. Treasury’s freezing everything they can reach. ”
“Which is about sixty percent,” Emma added, her expression frustrated. “The rest is already in jurisdictions where we have no authority.”
“Sixty percent of a hundred million is still a win,” Admiral commented.
“The letter,” I heard Alice lean closer to her husband and say.
“Right. Atticus, we need to discuss your resignation.”
Brenna’s head shot up. “You already resigned?”
“Monday night,” I admitted, squeezing her hand under the table. “When I thought I’d failed Luke, failed you. Seemed like the honorable thing to do. Very dramatic. I may have used the phrase ‘unworthy of the badge’ unironically.”
Admiral snorted. “I tossed it in the trash bin, where it belongs. You’re not resigning. However, I understand you’re relocating to DC?”
“Yes, sir. Brenna’s life is here, her work—”
“I’ve been thinking about your suggestion,” he interrupted, leaning forward.
“About hiring Luke Austen. The more I consider it, the more sense it makes. We need a presence in the capital, close to the DOJ, FBI, and the other alphabet agencies. You can run it, and Luke will be your second, assuming he accepts.”
I blinked, stunned that Admiral had made a decision so quickly. “You’re serious?”
“I called him this morning. He seemed interested but wanted to think it over. My guess is he’ll be in contact with you sometime in the next twenty-four hours.”
“Thanks, Admiral,” I managed.
“Don’t thank me yet. You have testimonies to give, paperwork to file, and a DC office to establish from scratch. I’m thinking we start with a small space—maybe something in one of those shared office buildings—until we know what we need.”
“I can help with that,” Emma offered. “Treasury has connections with several federal-approved facilities.”
“Appreciated,” Admiral said, then turned his attention to those on the West Coast. “Kodiak, Tank, when are you flying back?”
“Tomorrow morning,” Tank responded. “We’re doing the final evidence collection today with the FBI.”
“Red-eye tonight,” Kodiak said, then glanced at Emma on his screen. “Unless Treasury needs me back sooner.”
Emma rolled her eyes, but I caught the slight upturn of her lips. “We’ll manage.”
Admiral went through a few more points, nothing urgent, then asked Brenna if she had anything else to add.
“I don’t, other than to say thank you, both from the DOJ and me personally. I’ll be eternally grateful.”
“Just doing our job,” said Admiral. “But you’re welcome.”
After the conference ended and we’d closed the laptop, Brenna stood, plopped down on my lap, and wrapped her arms around my neck, then kissed me, long and deep.
It was the kind that made the rest of the world disappear.
Eventually, we made it into the bedroom, where we spent the rest of the day and night.
A week later, I stood in the Austen family’s living room in Annapolis with my grandmother’s ring burning a hole in my pocket. The drive from DC had taken just over an hour, but it felt like days with the weight of what I was about to do.
The house was exactly as I remembered from visits over the years—comfortable furniture that had seen three decades of family life, photos covering every surface, and the smell of something amazing always coming from the kitchen.
The walls held a gallery of Brenna and Luke growing up—gap-toothed school photos, academy graduation, Brenna’s law school commencement.
“You’re pacing,” her father observed from his armchair, setting down the book he was reading. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, son. She’s loved you for years.”
“And I loved her. Even though I was too afraid of your son to admit it at the time.”
The sound of him chuckling was warm and familiar.
I thought back to two days ago, when I’d told Brenna I had a few errands to run and came down here to ask his permission to propose.
Luke had met me here, and I’d asked him too.
He and Andy had both responded positively—with enthusiasm.
“You’re already part of the family,” Brenna’s mother, Cathy, had said when her husband told her why I was there.
Now, I could hear her warm laughter mixing with Brenna’s protests about being perfectly capable of chopping vegetables without supervision.
“Mom, I’m a federal prosecutor. I think I can handle a knife.”
“You’re my daughter, and in my kitchen, you’re sous chef at best.”
The front door opened, and Luke came inside. He glanced at me, then toward the kitchen. “Are we late? Did we miss anything?” he asked in a low tone of voice.
“Not yet, but he better get at it before he wears a hole in our carpet,” Andy responded.
“Where’s Emma?” I asked.
“Still in the car, wrapping up a phone call. Hey, Bug,” Luke said when she came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel.
“Mom and I just finished prepping dinner, no thanks to you.”
“Traffic was brutal,” he said with a wink.
Brenna looked at her watch. “It’ll be ready in about half an hour. I need some air. Take a walk with me?” she asked, sliding her arm through mine.
My pulse kicked up three notches. This was my opening to ask the question that would change both our lives forever.
We stepped out the back door to where Brenna had attempted to kiss me all those years ago. The evening was perfect—warm but not humid. Cathy’s roses were in full bloom, their scent heavy in the air.
“This place,” she said softly, leaning against the porch railing. “Lots of memories here.”
“Best worst decision I ever made.” I moved beside her, close enough to feel her warmth. “Neither of us was ready then.”
Her eyes were bright in the fading light when she faced me. “And now?”