Chapter Twenty-Eight
Cole
Lori and I enter the lobby of the Walker offices to be greeted by Royce Walker. “What the hell is going on, Royce?” I demand. “Where is Ashley? I’m her attorney. She has rights.”
“Not under the Espionage Act, and that’s what they stated when I said the same thing,” he says, his hands settling on his hips. “I have a few good men who are ex-CIA. I have them working on answers.”
“What will they do with her?” Lori asks. “Where will they take her?”
“If we’re lucky, they’ll question her and let her go.”
Smith walks into the room and joins us. “Or they use her for bait for her ex,” he adds grimly.
“Or that,” Royce agrees.
“Did you get her to tell you anything?” Lori asks, focused on Smith.
“Just that she was a fool,” he says. “Per her, not me. And that ‘fool’ comment seemed to cut deep. It could be about a broken heart, but my gut tells me there’s more.”
“I need a number to contact,” I say. “Did they leave a card?”
“They flashed badges and I called them in before I let them take her. I can give you the main number, but it’s not going to get you anywhere.”
“I need that number,” I say, and he reaches in this pocket and hands me the card, flipping it over, to show me the handwritten number on the back. “I knew you’d insist.” He motions to the reception desk. “Use it or take my office. Whatever suits you.”
“We won’t be staying,” I say, pulling my phone out of my pocket and walking toward the reception desk while Royce glances at Lori. “Coffee?”
“No, thanks,” she says. “I’m a little too on edge. We just came from the DA’s office and he already called Reid. The settlement is done, verbally at least. Once we have the signed paperwork, we’re going to do a press conference with him.”
Meanwhile, I have a machine I’m dealing with, and a million options that promise a human on the other line. I try the one I think will work and end up on hold.
“Is he convinced you’ve backed off?” Royce asks Lori of the DA.
“Yes,” we both say at once, and she glances over her shoulder, giving me one of her perfect smiles. “And Cole was the perfect, angry husband who gave in for the love of his wife,” she adds.
“I suspect that wasn’t a hard job for him,” Smith comments. “Even I know that and I haven’t been around you two that much.”
“Is there a way to get to a real human, Royce?” I ask.
“I got there because one of the agents punched in a code,” he says. “I’ll get answers for you through my men. They’re unfortunately on high-risk jobs, and can’t call until they have a safe moment, but we have other men with connections. We’re working every angle. Go home. I’ll call you when we know something.”
“Make it soon,” I say, guiding Lori toward the door.
“I can’t believe this is really happening,” Lori says. “They just took her.”
“And I’m not sure we can save her.”
“Save her from what?” she asks. “What is this?”
I open the door to the car we have waiting for us. “I don’t know.”
Lori slides into the car and I join her, giving the driver the office address before dialing Reese. “Where are you?”
“At the office. Why?
“I need you. We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
Two hours later, Lori, Cat, Reese and I are all in a conference room with phones in hand trying to get answers. We get nowhere. It’s nearly ten when Royce calls and I put him on speaker. “Tell us something good.”
“It’s not good,” Royce says. “One of my men talked to an insider. She’s not even in the city any longer. He wouldn’t say what her status is, be it witness or suspect.”
“What if I hold a press conference?” I ask. “Will it pressure them to tell us where she’s at?”
“If you do that,” he says, “you tell the world her story that might be one she doesn’t want told. There’s more going on here than we know. Give us some time.”
Cat quickly chimes in with, “The media is brutal. This might be over in twenty-four hours, but this may haunt her much longer if you take it public.”
I share a look with Reese, who nods, before my gaze shifts to Lori, who nods, too. “Bluff, Royce. Tell them if I don’t hear from her in twenty-four hours, we’re going to the press. Tell them I only held off because you convinced me to.”
“The CIA doesn’t intimidate,” Royce warns.
Lori speaks up, “But they might not know what we know. And they might not want everything they think we know public.”
And there’s the reason she was made for a courtroom. She knows how to find an angle.
“I’m on it,” Royce says, hanging up.
“And now we wait,” I say.
“No,” Lori says. “Let’s go to her apartment. She came back from Paris, where she was with this man, who was her fiancé. Maybe there’s something there that tells us what’s really going on.”
Another good idea that has me standing up. “I’ll have Royce’s team get us in.”
“We’ll sit this one out,” Reese says. “But I’m still waiting for that friend of mine that has a CIA contact. I’ll let you know if he calls.”
It turns out that Smith has a key to Ashley’s place because of his part as her security detail. He meets us at her apartment and Lori and I wait impatiently while he unlocks the door. Lori squeezes my hand as he opens it as if she expects some kind of shock. Smith enters first and curses. “Holy fucking hell.”
I enter behind him and curse right along with him as Lori whispers, “Oh my God.”
The apartment is empty. As in completely empty.
Smith pulls his phone from his pocket and I hear, “Royce. Her apartment is wiped.” He listens a few beats and then disconnects. “Either she’s been put in witness protection or they really think she knows something or has something they need. They weren’t taking any chances they’d miss it.”
There is a dark spot forming in my chest, a heaviness on my shoulders. Ashley has no one in this world. I was supposed to protect her. Lori wraps her arms around me and looks up at me. “This isn’t your fault.”
I stare down at her, this woman who is my life, afraid that one day I will fail her as I have Ashley and I know this is a dangerous place for my mind to go. These demons are halfway back in their box. They need to go back in and stay in.
“It’s the CIA, man,” Smith says softly, and when my eyes meet his he says, “You didn’t do this. You didn’t cause this. And she’s alive. I will make the promise to you now that I’ll keep her that way. I’ll find her.”
There is something raw and emotional in his words, a sense of personal with Ashley that I’ve seen hints of before, that I am now certain runs deeper than a mere flirtation. They’ve bonded. He cares. He’s in her corner right along with us. “I’ll hold you to that. Let us know if you hear anything. Right now, I need to take my wife home.” I wrap my arm around Lori’s shoulders and walk toward the door, wasting no time walking us into the hallway.
We are already walking toward the elevator when Lori asks, “Does he have your direct cellphone number?”
I stop walking. “Good question.” I kiss her. “Let me run back and make sure.” Eager to get my wife alone, and be home, I hurry back to the door, and open it to find Smith leaning on the window, his hands pressed to the glass, head low, torment rolling off of him. It hits me then that he must feel responsible. He was protecting her.
He shoves off the glass and turns to look at me. “They walked in and took her. You didn’t do this.” I tell him.
“I should have taken her underground. I felt it in my bones. I ignored it.”
“She wouldn’t have let you,” I say.
“If I decided to take her underground, I wouldn’t have given her an option any more than they did, only now it’s them, not me.”
I don’t say more. I can’t say more. I get it. I know what he feels. It’s a small piece of what I have felt with Lori’s attacks. “You have my number?”
“Yes. I have your number.”
We stand there several beats, staring at each other and I turn and exit. Lori is waiting for me at the door, and I grab her, pull her to me and say, “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispers, and then I don’t care where we are. My mouth slants over hers, and I’m kissing her, hard and deep, possessiveness in every lick, stroke, and taste. I need to feel my wife. I need to know she’s alive and well. And I need out of my head, to lose myself in every part of her. I tear my mouth from hers and lace my fingers with hers. “Let’s go home.”