11. The Shipment #2
“With tactical agents.”
“Yes.”
“Guns.”
“Walker.”
“She wakes up with twenty federal agents storming her fucking house?”
“If that’s what operational security requires.”Chris turned away.Ran a hand over his mouth.“Jesus Christ.”Mercer watched him.“This is what we’ve been working toward.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”Chris spun around.“Don’t.”
“You spent months getting close to Vargas. You wanted this.”
“I still want it.”
“Then what’s the problem?”Chris laughed once.There was no humor in it.“You know what the problem is.”Mercer stepped closer.“You were told not to get involved with her.”
“I know.”
“You were specifically told—”
“I fucking know.”Silence.Chris looked through the glass wall at the enormous case board.
Mateo Vargas’s photograph sat in the center.Lines stretched outward.Businesses.
Properties.Associates.Vehicles.Diego.And tucked along one edge—Camila.Not a target.Just a person connected to one.Chris stared at her photograph.“What happens after Mateo gets arrested?”Mercer’s voice softened slightly.“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On her.”Chris looked at him.“If she genuinely isn’t involved, she’s free to walk away.”
“And Diego?”
“We take him too.”
“If you don’t?”
“We will.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No.”That answer landed harder than Chris wanted it to.Mercer studied him.“You’re worried Vargas’s enemies come after her once he’s in custody.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re worried Diego could use her.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re worried she’ll discover who you are.”Chris didn’t answer.Mercer nodded.
“There it is.”Chris’s jaw tightened.“She trusts me.”
“She trusts Chris Roman.”The words cut.Mercer continued.“And Chris Roman is about to disappear.”Chris looked at him.For the first time that night, he didn’t have an answer.
Mercer stepped closer.“You need to understand something. When this operation ends, you don’t get to decide which pieces of the cover survive.”Chris said nothing.“Roman’s apartment disappears. Roman’s history disappears. Roman’s connections disappear.”
Mercer paused.“Roman disappears.”Chris looked toward Camila’s photograph again.
“And what am I supposed to tell her?”
“The truth.”Chris laughed bitterly.“Which part?”
“All of it.”
“That should go well.”
“She deserves to know.”
“I know.”
“Then tell her when this is over.”Chris looked down.When this was over.He’d imagined those words for months.A shower without checking the bathroom window.Sleeping without a gun under his pillow.Driving somewhere without checking the rearview mirror every thirty seconds.Being Christopher Walker again.He’d wanted his life back.Until his life started including Camila.Now ending the operation meant losing the only version of himself she’d ever known.Mercer picked up a folder.
“Go home.”Chris didn’t move.“You need sleep.”
“I need to go back.”Mercer’s eyes narrowed.“To the mansion?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”Chris looked at him.Because she asked me to come back.He didn’t say it.“Maintaining cover.”Mercer stared at him for several seconds.“You’re compromised.”
Chris’s expression hardened.“No.”
“Walker.”
“I gave you the biggest break this investigation has had.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re not compromised.”
“I can do my job.”
“I know you can.”Mercer’s voice dropped.“I’m wondering whether you can survive what happens when it’s finished.”That silenced him.Chris picked up his keys.Mercer spoke before he reached the door.“Thursday changes everything.”Chris stopped.“I know.”
“When those trucks move, we move.”Chris nodded.“And Walker?”He looked back.
Mercer held his gaze.“You cannot save everybody.”Chris opened the door.“No.”
He thought of Camila standing barefoot in the kitchen.Come back?
His hand tightened around the keys.“But I’m saving her.
”It was after one in the morning when the Range Rover rolled through the Vargas gates.Chris parked quietly.The mansion was dark.He let himself inside.No guards questioned him anymore.That should have felt like success.Tonight it felt like betrayal.He walked through the silent house.Past the ballroom.Past Mateo’s study.
Past the staircase where Camila had once descended in black and destroyed every coherent thought in his head.Then he reached the kitchen.The lights were off.Chris almost smiled.She’d listened.She’d gone to bed.He turned—And stopped.Camila was asleep on the sofa in the adjoining sitting room.Waiting for him.A blanket covered her legs.Her phone rested beside her.Chris stood there for a long time.The FBI had what it needed.Mateo Vargas was going down.The operation was finally nearing its end.This was supposed to be the moment Christopher Walker had spent months waiting for.Instead, he crossed the room and crouched beside the woman who was about to discover that almost everything he’d told her was a lie.Camila stirred.Her eyes opened slowly. “Chris?”
“Yeah.”
“You came back.”His throat tightened.He brushed a strand of hair away from her face.
“Told you I’d try.”Sleepily, she reached for him.Chris let her.Her fingers curled around his hand.
“Stay.”He looked toward the darkened hallway.Toward Mateo’s study.Toward the empire he’d just handed to the FBI.Then back at her.
“Okay.”Camila closed her eyes.Chris remained beside her.And for the first time since the operation began, bringing down Mateo Vargas didn’t feel like winning.Because Christopher Walker had finally given the FBI everything it needed to destroy the cartel.He just didn’t know yet how much of Camila’s world would be destroyed with it.