Chapter Five #3
“Oh,” Clara said, “Martinez said he had an agent at the gala watching Ortega’s every move and he learned that Ortega had sent all his foot soldiers back to guard the warehouse.
Martinez thought that something big was going down there, but he didn’t know what, so he sent me to investigate.
I couldn’t be seen driving up to the warehouse because it would have blown my cover with Ortega, so I went through the forest. I planned to get as close as I could to the warehouse and listen from the cover of trees, but then I stumbled upon all that fighting.
Then I caught your scent and the stronger it got, the more I felt the need to find the source. ”
Seb nodded, recalling his own reaction to happening across his mate’s scent. Clara rolled her eyes as she continued.
“Then of course my wolf recognized its mate and forced me to shift to help to protect you against those two wolves.”
Truth! Seb’s bear said happily.
Seb could feel the animal puffing out his chest and he wasn’t sure if that was because it had never been in doubt about Clara’s innocence or because she had just admitted to liking the way he smelled.
They were both quiet for a little while, and Clara stared at the wall as if deep in thought. Then she turned to Seb and frowned.
“So, you knew about the meeting with Ortega and the planned diversion for me to steal the ledger,” she said, stating the obvious.
Seb nodded, wondering where she was going with this train of thought. “Yes.”
“Who did you tell?”
Seb sighed. “I told my friends, but…”
“All six of them?”
“Yes, but I assure you, Clara, they can be trusted. In fact, I trust them with my life, and more importantly, I’d trust them with your life.”
For a shifter, there was no greater mark of trust than that.
“So, if neither you nor your friends are the mole who has been tipping Ortega off that just leaves two people,” Clara said.
Seb scrunched his brow together trying to work out who she could mean.
“Miller and Lopez,” she confirmed. “I’d thought to include Rory as a potential suspect at first too, because he knew about the mission to infiltrate Ortega’s warehouse, but he didn’t know about my mission to steal the ledger.
Only Lopez and Miller knew—they were both at my debriefing—other than you and your friends, of course.
You don’t think they could have told anyone else? ”
“Absolutely not,” Seb said. “They promised they would leave the decision of what to do up to me and I trust that they would honor that.”
“Then it has to be one of those two,” Clara said.
“Martinez works for CN-6 and he wanted that ledger. If he had tipped off Ortega, he wouldn’t have gotten his hands on it.
Plus, he didn’t know what was going on at the warehouse that night, that’s why he sent me to investigate so that rules him out. ”
“I’ve worked with Senior Officer Miller for nearly a year now,” Seb said. “If I had to guess, I’d say he wasn’t a traitor, but I don’t know him well enough to stake my life on it.”
“I’ve worked with Lopez for about the same amount of time, but like you, I don’t really know him all that well.”
“So, let’s find out for certain which one it is,” Seb said.
Clara nodded. “So, I guess we have three objectives now.” She ticked them off on her fingers as she said them. “Catch the CIA mole, put Ortega behind bars, and dismantle CN-6.”
“Piece of cake,” Seb said with a grin.
Clara giggled. “And at least if we unmask the mole, it will prove to everyone that it’s not me.”
“You do know that I believe you, right?”
“Yes, and I appreciate your support. More than I can put into words. But I’m sure your friends still have their doubts about me, and I’d like the CIA to trust me, too.
I want to prove to them once and for all that I have no loyalty to CN-6.
More importantly,” Clara added, “I want to make up for any harm I caused during the time that I worked for them.”
“And you will,” Seb said, “Not that I think you need to. You were duped, you can’t be blamed for that. You know, there’s one thing that’s been bugging me about what happened earlier and that’s why did Ortega just let you walk away. Why the need to catch you in the act?”
“I was wondering that myself,” Clara said.
“When he came back into the room, he made a point of going to the safe behind the matador and looking inside. I think he wanted to check that the ledger was still there. When he saw that it was, he looked annoyed. At the time, I thought that was because I hadn’t stolen it, but perhaps that wasn’t the reason.
Do you think maybe he doesn’t fully trust the person who’s been feeding him information? ”
“Possibly,” Seb agreed. “Perhaps he wanted to be certain that his intel about you is correct. I mean we have no idea what he knows. Does he know you work for CN-6, or the CIA, or both? Just how much has he been told, and how much does he actually believe?”
Clara nodded thoughtfully. “We’ve got a lot to figure out.”
“We’d better get started then,” Seb said resolutely, getting to his feet. “This case isn’t going to solve itself.”