Chapter 2
2
MILA
Lifting my hand to knock on my father’s office door, I immediately paused. I didn’t want to meet with him. The pit in my stomach had been telling me that since we left New Hope, but if I didn’t, I had a feeling he’d make me regret it. I felt a warm hand on the back of my shoulder and glanced at Beth. I’d almost forgotten she stood beside me. She didn’t look my way, and I appreciated that. I’d taught myself how to be strong, and I didn’t want anyone to know how vulnerable I felt in my father’s presence. But somehow, she understood and gave me the support I needed without words.
With one last deep breath, I knocked and waited to hear the voice I once loved to hear. The voice that at one time made me feel safe and loved but now caused me only anxiety and sometimes, when I was being honest with myself, a little fear.
“Come in,” he called out.
Shoving open the door, I stepped through and watched my dad rise from his chair and smile. “Right on time.”
“Would you have accepted anything else?” I asked sarcastically.
He chuckled. “Absolutely not.”
He moved around the desk and came straight to me before wrapping his arm around my back to hug me. I leaned into him as he expected for a moment before pulling back and gesturing toward Beth. “Dad, this is Beth.”
“Beth.” He repeated and held out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
She smiled shyly and slid her hand in his before her soft voice replied, “You too.”
Dropping her hand, he faced me, and I finally saw the irritation he was trying to hide. “I was under the impression we’d be meeting alone.”
“I explained that I’m on assignment, but you insisted we meet today. Bringing Beth was my only option,” I replied. “She’s agreed to use her earbuds while we talk.”
“I guess we don’t have a choice, then.” He moved to sit behind his desk.
I pointed at the couch against the back wall in his office. “Beth, you can sit over there if you’d like.”
She nodded but didn’t respond, only made her way to the couch while I slid into the seat across from my father. I waited until she put in her earbuds to turn back to my father.
He smiled. “How was the trip?”
“Uneventful,” I replied.
He nodded. “And how’s New Hope? Do you like North Carolina?”
I really wanted him to care. I would love to tell him how much I was beginning to appreciate the small town I was settling in. It would be nice to tell him about all the people I was meeting and even the stories of living in a small town when all I’d ever known was city life, but I couldn’t. It wouldn’t matter to him. We were past the point of him caring about anything other than my choices that directly impacted him.
“It’s nice. The weather is definitely better than DC.” I sat back in my seat, forcing my body to relax, and crossed my legs. “How have you been?”
“Good,” he replied automatically.
“And Eileen?” I asked about his girlfriend. I’d only met her once, but she seemed nice. She was quiet that day, and it made me wonder if he was as controlling with her as he’d been with me. I could only assume he was. He wouldn’t tolerate anything less than absolute allegiance.
“She’s good.”
“What does she do again?”
“She’s a teacher.”
I hadn’t known that. I guess I never really asked. “How did you meet a teacher?”
“We have a mutual friend,” he answered simply.
He didn’t want to talk about her, which was the only reason for the short replies, but that only made me want to ask more questions. Knowing that would just prolong the visit, I moved on. “So, Dad, why did you need to see me so quickly?”
He glanced at Beth before putting his elbows on the desk and leaning in. “I called you in to offer you a job.”
I was shocked but attempted to keep my expression neutral. My father was elated when I left the FBI. He hadn’t tried to hide that, so I was having a hard time with his request. “I have a job.”
“Not one like you had before.”
“You’re right. This job doesn’t require me to do things I wouldn’t normally do.” I studied him closely. “Why am I really here? You don’t want me to work under your supervision again. You were very clear about that.” His jaw tightened, and it finally dawned on me that this wasn’t coming from him. I leaned forward. “Who wants me back?”
He paused briefly before replying, “The director feels you had a certain skill set we’re lacking now that you left the team.”
The director. His boss is the only man he has no authority over in his department. I knew the director well, and he wasn’t a man who took no for an answer, so I could only imagine my father’s expression when he was told to get me back.
I could be petty and take this opportunity to gloat that the director appreciated me in a way my father never would, but I decided to take the high road. “I appreciate the offer, but please tell the director I’ve moved on and am happy with my new employment.”
My father's jaw tightened further. “The director was adamant I find a way to convince you to come back.” His gaze hardened. “What’s it going to take?”
“I’m sorry, but I have no interest in coming back.”
“You can name your price, Mila.”
“I don’t have a price—” I began.
“Everyone has a price.” He interrupted.
“That’s not actually true,” I rebuffed. “And there isn’t an amount high enough to make me come back.”
“The director feels?—”
This time, I interrupted him. “The director wants someone they can throw in situations in which they would never put a man. Isn’t that what this is really about?”
“You had the ability to get close to our targets in a way no one else had been able to.”
“Yep, that’s what you all said.” I held up my finger. “Except Nick actually got a lot closer than I ever did. Taking my clothes off for those men didn’t give me any information that helped Nick, but it did put me in situations where at any moment I could’ve been raped.”
His eyes narrowed. “That seems a little dramatic, Mila, considering it didn’t happen.”
“Please don’t pretend you have no idea what happened to me. I called you. I asked you to call me back, and you didn’t.”
“At that moment, I couldn't. You had a handler, and I trusted that he would take care of the situation. I couldn’t show you any favoritism.”
I huffed. “It's not favoritism, Dad. It’s concern for an employee.”
“And it was handled. I made sure of that.”
“As my boss or my father?”
“Both. I never wanted anything bad to happen to you while you were undercover. My job is to make sure all my employees are safe while they’re doing their job. You had the best handler in the FBI. He wasn’t going to let anything happen.”
“Except it did happen.”
“If you recall, Mila, when I knew it was safe for you ,” he stressed, “I did return your call.”
“And told me that it was a part of the job and if I couldn’t handle it, I could turn in my resignation.”
“My hands were tied. You were on an assignment. Your only way out was to resign.”
I shook my head and stood. We weren’t getting anywhere with this conversation. He would never admit that at some point, he stopped being my father, stopped having my back, and we had nowhere to go from here. My best choice was to leave the FBI and start a new life. “Was there anything else you needed?”
He sat back in his chair and studied me. “The director is not going to be happy.”
“That’s not my problem anymore.” I glanced at Beth, whose eyes remained on her tablet. “I don’t answer to him, and I don’t answer to you. I’m happy with my new life and my new career.”
“Career?” He scoffed. “That business could go belly up in a year. Then where will you be? This offer won’t be on the table when you need to come crawling back with your tail between your legs.”
I tilted my head. “Do you really want me back? Can you honestly say you want me on your team again? Under your supervision?”
“You would be directly under the director’s supervision.”
“That’s interesting.” I paused. “Why is that exactly?”
“I have no idea,” he replied, but he was lying. His left eye twitched very slightly when he was lying. I picked up on it years ago but never told him. Everyone has a “tell,” and I discovered early on that I should learn the “tells” with every one of my coworkers to protect myself. It occurred to me that I hadn’t done that at Elite, which told me I was finally working with a group who didn’t make me feel as if they would stab me in the back the first chance they got.
“That’s okay, I have my theories.” I waved my hand. “It doesn’t change my decision.”
He stood slowly. “You do realize the reach he has, right? And what that means for the company you work for?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Is that a threat?”
“Absolutely not.” He raised an eyebrow. “It’s just some information I think you need to have.”
“Come at us,” I taunted. “But here’s some information you need to have. The Dimarcos won’t be pushed around and won’t appreciate being threatened. They don’t fear you like the men working for you.”
When he didn’t respond, I got Beth’s attention, and she stood. “It was nice seeing you.”
Once again, he didn’t respond, and Beth followed me to the door. We both stopped when my father said, “Don’t be a stranger, Mila.”
I shook my head and pulled the door open, casually closing it behind me. We walked in silence until we turned in our visitors' badges and exited the building.
Pausing at the bottom of the stairs, I faced Beth when her soft voice rang out. “I liked what you said at the end.”
“You heard?”
“I silenced my video when your father stood. I hope that’s okay. I just wanted to make sure I could call for help if you needed me to.”
Beth’s history was terrible. The abuse she suffered at the hands of her own family was astounding, and it made sense that my father’s stance would bring that fear back. She was protecting me as much as I was protecting her, and for the first time since I walked into the FBI headquarters, I felt like I could breathe easy.
I laid my hand on her arm. “It’s more than okay. Thank you for having my back.”
She smiled softly and nodded. “Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah.”
“Can they do anything to Elite?”
“They can try,” I acknowledged. “But I doubt they’d get too far. I think my father underestimates Elite and the reach they have.”
She chuckled. “I would never underestimate them.”
“Are you hungry?” When she nodded, I pointed down the street. “I know a great little place to eat. Let’s do that and then go shopping. What do you think?”
“I’d like that.”
“Good because I’m starving.” We started walking, and I decided to share something I wouldn’t normally, suspecting I could be vulnerable with Beth. “I’m glad you’re here with me. I haven’t made a lot of friends since college, and it feels good to know I’m finally in a place where I’m finding that again.”
“I’ve never really had friends,” she answered. “Just Sydney.” She paused, and when I glanced at her, she smiled. “And now you.”
Friendship.
It seemed like such an easy thing when it was just the opposite. Friendship required trust, and that wasn’t something I gave easily.
But maybe that was all changing.