Chapter Fifteen
Sarah fought the urge to glance over her shoulder.
She couldn’t.
Doing that would only confirm what her gut told her, that Wei was right behind her.
The fuzzy hat was too warm, the wool made her ears itch. She couldn’t take it off. She counted the seconds, ticking the minutes off on her fingers.
Irene had better be right.
What if she was the mole? Despite her story, despite Sarah’s gut instinct, what if Irene was the one who’d sold her out all along? It would make this…this game they were playing that much more dangerous.
She could be walking into a trap.
Sarah ducked left, into a parking garage, and sucked down a deep breath. She could run. Right now. Or she could stick to the plan.
Her hands shook, the keys clenched between her fingers jangling. She cupped them in her palms to mute the sound and began looking for a dark-colored sedan with the coexist sticker on the front bumper.
Footsteps behind her echoed through the garage. Sarah nearly whimpered. Wei was behind her. She knew it. And yet, she couldn’t run.
There. The car.
Sarah quickstepped to the driver’s side, pressed the fob, and slid in, jamming her finger on the lock button.
A woman in heels pushed a stroller by, but otherwise the garage was empty.
She yanked the hat off and shrugged out of Irene’s coat.
Okay, so maybe Wei wasn’t behind her, but if he wasn’t following her, that meant Irene was in mortal danger. Sarah had no doubt in her mind that Wei was responsible for Charlie’s death, she wouldn’t let him take Irene from her, too.
Sarah started the car, shifted into drive, and gassed it. She maneuvered the car out of the garage, sliding out between two vehicles.
Irene had said she would take a left, then a right, and another left, which would put her on the northbound side of the street at the same time as Sarah. If they timed it all right.
Sarah had lost count of the minutes, but a rough estimation put her…behind.
The light ahead of her flipped to yellow. She pressed the accelerator. The light went red. She coasted through to a chorus of horns.
“Irene, where are you? Come on, come on, come on…”
Sarah searched the pedestrians, but didn’t see her blue track jacket.
She slowed to a crawl and eased over into the parking lane, nearly clipping other cars with her mirror.
Irene should be there. Where was she?
A bit of movement in the rearview mirror caught her attention. She jerked her head up. A hand slapped against the passenger window.
Sarah jumped, gasping, and punched the wheel. The horn blared. Irene jerked at the passenger door. Sarah jabbed the unlock button.
She wasn’t wearing the coat.
Or the hat.
Irene spilled in, barely managing to get the door shut. “Go,” she wheezed.
Sarah jammed her foot on the gas and shot forward, nearly hitting pedestrians.
“What happened?” Sarah glanced at Irene.
Is that…?
“Walter Reed. Now.” Irene pulled her hand from her abdomen, covered in blood.
…
Rand rushed into the ER waiting room, Hector at his back. He turned in a circle, searching the faces of the people.
“Rand. Here.”
He jerked his head toward the voice. Sarah leaned out of a door, only part of her face visible, her hand outstretched.
Rand jogged down the hall and barreled into her, wrapping his arms around her, backing her into what appeared to be a small waiting room. A hospital security guard stood just inside, one hand on his hip.
“In,” Hector barked. He flashed his badge at the security guard. “Leave. Please.”
“Are you hurt? What happened?” Rand held Sarah at arm’s length. Blood stained one side of her shirt. Dried flakes were on her arm.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what happened. How he found us. Oh, God.” Sarah wiped her face, hands trembling.
“How’s Irene?” Hector asked.
“They took her back a few minutes ago. She—she walked in on her own.”
“Sarah. Look at me.” Rand ducked his head, staring deep into her eyes. She seemed to latch onto him, lifting her chin a bit and staring right back. “Good. Take a deep breath with me.”
He sucked in a breath, and she followed suit.
“There. Breathe. Sit.” He nudged her toward a chair and crouched at her knee.
Hector paced back and forth.
“What happened? How’d Irene find you? Start at the beginning.” The last Rand had spoken to Sarah, she was going to wait out his meet at a coffee shop.
“I…I called Irene.” Sarah closed her eyes.
“Shit,” Hector mumbled.
“I know—I know what you said, but—she’s not the bad guy here.” Sarah glanced at Hector, her mouth working silently.
If Irene wasn’t the source of the leak, the person who burned Sarah, then things were a lot worse than they appeared. Rand wasn’t sold, though. A superficial knife wound wasn’t much to sell a story.
“She came to see me at the coffee shop. We talked. I briefed her. Then I…I don’t know. I just got this…feeling. You know? I glanced up and there was this white car, newer model. The driver’s side window was rolled down and someone was staring directly at us with binoculars. Really big ones.”
Rand could name a few models he’d use to get a visual like that. The shop he’d left her in would force someone to reveal themselves to get an eye on her.
“Irene had us go out the back door. We walked down the side street and the car was there again. So we ducked into this shop and watched. After a couple of minutes, she buys two hats, has us change coats. She gave me her keys, said to walk to where she’d left her car while she’d go out the back. Oh my God, Rand, I was so scared. I just knew I was making a mistake, that he was going to be behind me.”
“It’s okay. Breathe, Sarah. Breathe.”
“By the time I got to where I was supposed to pick Irene up, she wasn’t there. I guess, from what she said, he caught up to her right before she got to the street, saw it wasn’t her, and stabbed her. Why?”
“You two need to go,” Hector said.
“Where? Where can we possibly go?” Tears streamed down Sarah’s cheeks.
Rand hated the fear, hated what he had to ask her to do, but he had to. To protect her, they had to go into hiding. Just for a few days. Until they could get the case back and cut off the head of the snake.
“We’ll get our things from the house, tell your friend we’re headed out of town, then we’ll find a place.” Rand would think of something, and in a pinch he could call on Andy or Noah for help. The problem now was that their presence put not only themselves at risk, but anyone who came into contact with them. They had to go back and leave a trail to protect Julie, Sarah’s coworker and friend.
“Take my car.” Hector pressed his keys into Rand’s hand.
“Thanks, man.”
“I’ll report it stolen in two hours. That gives you time to dump it. I’m going to check on Irene. When I get back, you better not be here.” Hector pushed out of the door, leaving them alone.
Rand stared into her eyes, and he hurt for her.
Sarah was at the end of her rope, as far as she thought she could go. And now he’d have to ask her to push on.
“Hey? Deep breath. We’ve got to walk out of here, and if you’re crying that’s going to draw attention. We need to leave quietly. Got it?”
She nodded and wiped at her cheeks.
Rand stood and offered her his hand. She took it and let him pull her to her feet. She was so much stronger than she realized, he just wished she never needed to be. That she’d had a normal life, far away from all of this.
He walked them toward a side exit, pausing for a moment to snag a couple sets of gloves from a box mounted on the wall for hospital staff before exiting into the parking lot.
First things first, he needed to get Sarah in the car and them on the road. After that, they could sort out their next move, but not until after they dumped the vehicle. It was too dangerous to have another face-to-face with anyone they didn’t have to.
It could so easily have been Sarah instead of Irene.
“In.” Rand nudged Sarah toward the car. “Gloves on first.”
He’d have to wipe down the passenger side, just in case. If Wei was this close to them, so were others. North Korea and China wouldn’t be the only ones interested in the information, much less Sarah.
Rand guided the car out onto the road, then the highway, going in the opposite direction of the rental house. He backtracked a few times, winding his way through the city until he was satisfied. Sarah was content to stare out the window, shoulders slumped, so much defeat etched into her posture and face.
They were going to come through this. He was certain of it. But they had to be willing to fight.
“You still have the gun?” Rand asked.
“Yes.”
Good. If push came to shove, he hoped she remembered to defend herself. “When I stop the car, I want you to get out and walk to that bus stop, okay?”
“What are you going to do?” Sarah peered at him.
“Clean the car. Go. Now.” He pulled into a parking spot at a paid lot with no intention of paying.
Sarah got out, never glanced back. Rand used the arm of his coat to wipe down the dash, the center console, the passenger side door. Anywhere he might have touched. Satisfied, he got out, following after Sarah. He stripped off his gloves and tossed them. Sarah fell into step with him, removing her gloves as well.
“Now what?” she asked.
“Get on the metro, brainstorm our next move, then clear out of your friend’s place. Sound good?”
“Yeah.”
“Hector’s going to put a protective detail on our families. Now that the Chinese know who we are, they’ll be searching for pressure points. Things they can use against us.” It’d be a Hail Mary with the auction coming up, but it wasn’t unheard of. Especially with someone like Wei in the picture.
“I hadn’t even thought about that. Do you think Matt and Emily will be okay?”
“They’ll be top of the list.” The kids would be highly motivating if they wound up in trouble.
“What will we tell them?”
“Nothing. They won’t even know they’re being watched.”
They walked the block, down another street, and back again before descending the stairs to the metro. Now more than ever, caution mattered.
Someone had found out where Sarah was when he’d been positive they weren’t followed. Which meant either someone had tailed them, Irene was the mole, or someone had followed Irene. There was no telling at this point, because they couldn’t trust anyone.
“Irene said Hector was dangerous, that he gets his people killed.” Sarah peered up at him, the halogen lights washing all the color from her face. “Are we doing the right thing?”
“What we do is dangerous. Sometimes we die.” He couldn’t begin second-guessing himself now. That would lead to more problems. He knew Hector was on their side, end of story.
“I’m scared Rand. I don’t know if I can do this.”
“You can.” He handed her the metro card from earlier. They pushed past the turnstiles and headed to the platforms.
“What’d you find out?” She hunched her shoulders and let him guide her to one platform, then another without protest or explanation.
“Andy confirmed there’s going to be an auction. Noah’s looking into it. His cover gives him some access to events like this. He thinks he can get us in, but not Andy.”
“It’s stupid—suicide—to go in. They know who we are.”
“Yeah, well, you’re the only one who can open the case, so I figure we have a better chance of getting the contents of the case out instead of the case. Therefore, you have to go in. And if you go, I go.”
“I hate all of this.”
“Me, too.”
They stopped finally on a crowded platform. He pulled her toward him, kissing her widow’s peak.
“Why would they sell the briefcase? They paid for it. That doesn’t make sense.”
“If they can’t get into it, they don’t want to be caught with it. And the information inside is time-sensitive. If those protocols aren’t initiated in another week or two, all the assets are dead in the water. The informants we don’t have identities for will disappear. Then our agents in the field will be left without instructions. It’s over. That’s why they have to shit or get off the pot. I mean, look at me. If I hadn’t gotten the package from you when I did, my informant would have turned around and told the MSS about me, effectively scrapping years of work because of one missed deadline.”
“It could be a trap,” Sarah said. “They know we need it, so they offer it up.”
“This isn’t a movie. Things like that don’t happen very often in real life. They’ll never expect us.”
“I just…have a bad feeling about all of this.”
So did he, but he couldn’t tell her that.
…
Sarah wasn’t so sure Rand had much of a plan, but she appreciated his resolve in claiming he did. It went a long way in calming her nerves. One of them had to know what was going on, and it sure as hell wasn’t her.
“Zip your jacket up and give me your hand.” Rand’s steady voice was a comfort in an otherwise hellish day.
They walked down the street from where their cab had dropped them, the late afternoon sunlight bathing the budding trees in light. Soon everything would be green and growing. New life.
Would Irene be around to see it? What about her sister?
Her fingers fumbled with the zipper pull on Irene’s coat. They’d never traded back. This one fit her a little big in the shoulders. She shoved her hands in the pockets and stared ahead.
There was a Grand Cherokee parked in front of Julie’s house that…wasn’t right. Julie drove an older model sedan. This vehicle was new. Did she have company? Should they wait? Could they slip in without alerting Julie?
“You know the car?” Rand asked.
“No. It’s not Julie’s.”
“Figured. Come on, we’ll be in and out quick.”
Then where? What were they going to do? Going to that auction still seemed like suicide. But what else could they do?
The pseudo-lip balm pressed against her thigh with each step, reminding her of the job Irene wanted her to do. Didn’t photographing the protocols go against the concept of keeping the information ultra secretive? And what if Rand was right? What if Irene was really in on it all and this was an act?
Sarah wanted to be done with all of it. She wasn’t cut out for covert work. She’d been playing in the kiddie pool this whole time, thinking she was some kind of patriotic badass.
“Sarah! Rand!”
“Oh, shit,” he muttered.
Sarah flinched and glanced across the yard at Julie, flanked by Emily…and Matt.
Fuckity-fuck, fuck, fuck.
Sarah stopped in her tracks, Rand’s tight grip on her hand rocking her forward. Her gaze bounced from Emily’s shocked face to the deep, angry lines of Matt’s.
They stood frozen at the curb in this tableau, the divide seeming to grow with every passing second.
“See, I told you she was fine.” Julie laughed and waved at them. “Come in, I’m making tacos.”
Bless Julie. She had no idea what kind of shitstorm she’d just created.
Rand and Matt? In the same room? How the hell were they going to explain this? She might be able to lie to Julie, but her brother? Matt would see through it all. And if he was blinded, Emily was there to figure out what he couldn’t. Besides, Emily knew about her crush on Rand, just like Sarah had always known Emily liked her brother.
She glanced at Rand, catching his gaze. He lifted a shoulder and tugged her forward.
The last place she wanted to be was in that house. She’d take a cold room in hell with Wei over this.
How was she going to explain being with Rand to her brother? Matt wouldn’t even say his name on the rare occasion someone brought him up.
“See? She’s just fine. Had us all worried. Here, let me take your coats.” Julie reached for Sarah.
The blood. No.
“Actually, um, I need to change.” Sarah backed up, hands pressed to her stomach.
Three pairs of eyes grew large.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” she said in a rush. “Our stuff’s out in the carriage house.”
“I’ll go with you,” Matt said. He hadn’t once looked directly at Rand.
“Uh, okay.”
Sarah strode across the living room, out to the sunroom and through the patio doors, her brother right behind her. She could feel him fuming.
Any minute now he was going to explode. Because she’d disappeared? Because of Rand? She couldn’t put her finger on what would have him more upset.
They crossed to the rental house and she let them in. Matt still didn’t utter a single word.
She turned to face him, not prepared for this one bit. “I’m, uh, going to change now.”
He nodded.
Well, that was informative.
She ducked into the bedroom and closed the door. Matt’s footsteps started up, his steel-toed boots clunking against the kitchen tile as he paced. She’d wanted Rand to see Matt, to realize the accident hadn’t stolen his life just put him on a different path. But not like this. Not now.
Sarah stripped out of the jacket and stared at herself in the mirror.
Her face was pale, bits of her hair were pulled out of the ponytail, there was conspicuous amounts of blood on her shirt and jeans.
It all needed to go.
First, she stashed her gun in the top drawer of her nightstand. There was no way to explain to her brother why she was carrying a firearm. She didn’t even want to go there.
She stripped down to her underwear and pulled out more of the clothing Rand had bought for her. More jeans and dark-colored tops.
At least they were predictable, unlike the dress. It was almost comical how flustered he’d been when he’d seen the back. God, if her brother saw her in that dress, with Rand…
Could she just crawl out the window and leave this whole mess behind her?
They were supposed to be leaving, getting to safety, and now what? It’s not like we can tell Rand and Emily to pack off and, by the way, make it easy for your protective detail to follow you.
Matt tapped on the bedroom door.
“Not dressed.” Sarah yanked on the new shirt, pulling at the tags.
“Where have you been, Sarah?” Matt’s voice was twisted, anguished.
She closed her eyes. How did she answer that? The truth wasn’t an option. Matt would see through her lies.
“I missed my flight,” she said. It was a truth at least.
“Why didn’t you call us?”
She stepped into the jeans, rolling that question around in her head. Sticking as close to the truth as she could would be best. There wasn’t time to coordinate a cover story with Rand. They hadn’t planned for this.
“Mom and Dad were worried sick,” he said.
The knife of guilt twisted a little deeper. “I’m sorry, things were just crazy.” She fastened her jeans, turned this way and that looking for any tags she might have missed.
“Sarah, what happened?”
The door creaked open the tiniest bit.
“Come in.” She sighed.
This was going to happen. Matt was her older, very protective brother. He regularly found issue with her job, career choices, and everything else. He had plenty of ammunition since what’d happened to Emily when they’d been stationed in Thailand.
He pushed the door open. The anger was gone, but the lines were still there.
While she’d been worried about national security and spy shit, her family had been left to wonder if she was alive, hurt, or worse.
God, she was a terrible sister, daughter, friend.
She circled the bed and wrapped her arms around her brother’s waist, squeezing him tight. “I’m sorry, things just got mixed up during my layover in Seoul. I’ve never had problems like that traveling. And then, I don’t know, I guess because I left the airport and came back without a flight to get on, they…got weird.”
“Was that where Rand was?”
Shit. She shouldn’t have said that.
“You ran into him somewhere.” Matt leaned back. “Julie said you were here with your boyfriend.”
Sarah opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She’d given Julie the simplest answer possible, and that was the worst option when it came to her family.
“How long have you two been talking? Seeing each other?” Matt tried to hide the hurt behind a stony face, but Emily and the kids had softened him.
“It’s…complicated.” Technically speaking, they’d been communicating for months. Seeing each other? Days.
“Complicated?” Matt dragged his hand over his face and turned, putting his back to her.
“I’m sorry. I just…I didn’t know how to tell you. Everything’s happened so fast. It’s unexpected.”
“So you are together?” Matt pivoted, glancing over his shoulder at her.
“Kind of. I don’t really know what we are.” She crossed her arms over her chest. Her heart ached, all the uncertainty clouding her judgment. What should she do? What were they? She didn’t have answers for the next hour, much less her feelings.
“You’re sleeping together.” He gestured at the pile of Rand’s dirty clothes.
Shit. Sarah glanced away.
“What the fuck? Seriously?” Matt paced away from her and she followed him into the living room. “He turned his back on me. All of us.”
“I know. He blames himself for everything.”
“Well, he should.” Matt turned, fist clenched. He held out his prosthetic, as if that were evidence.
“That wasn’t his fault. You’ve said so yourself.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I was wrong.”
“You’re pissed at me, not him.”
“I’m so goddamn angry with both of you right now. Do you know how worried we’ve been?”
“I’m sorry.”
“You couldn’t pick up a fucking phone?”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“I can’t believe you. After everything we’ve been through? Rand?”
He had no clue. Not a single one.
“You can do better than him, Sarah.” Matt gripped her by the shoulders.
“Me missing my flight had nothing to do with Rand.” She peered up at her brother. “I messed up. Me. Not him. Me.”
“Then how’d you two meet up?”
“Because…” How did she explain that one?
The front door opened and Sarah nearly sighed with relief. Matt’s spine went ramrod straight.
Rand stared at Matt’s back. “Dinner’s just about ready.”
“Oh, good. I’m starving.” Sarah didn’t think she could eat, but trying to would be better than this.
“I’m not finished talking to my sister.” Matt’s tone was ice.
“Look, if you want to be angry at someone, be angry at me. Not her.” Rand took a few steps closer, but kept the sofa between them.
“No one should be angry at anyone,” Sarah blurted. “I missed my flight. Yes, I should have called. End of story.”
Rand nodded, hopefully catching the threads of her story. “Matt, I’m sorry. We’ve been trying to figure out things ourselves. It’s not like we wanted to keep secrets.” Rand’s voice softened.
Oh, God. Were they really playing the romance card with her brother? This would kill her.
As if it wasn’t enough that she still harbored feelings for him from her youth, now she’d gone and fallen for the man he’d become, as well. They were different people, but at their core they were the same. And she would always love him.
Matt turned to glare at Rand.
“Sarah reached out to me a few months ago.” Rand pushed his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “We’ve been talking. When she passes through Seoul, we meet up. That’s it. This… We didn’t set out to lie to anyone, man. I swear.”
“Sarah? Mind if I talk to Rand alone a minute?” Matt’s tone went from icy to downright frigid.
She glanced at Rand, who nodded once more. “Okay.” She grabbed her shoes and headed for the door.
Rand reached out, brushing her hand with his fingers as she passed. The contact sent little electrical tremors through her body. Her throat tightened. She glanced at Matt, his gaze narrowed. He hadn’t missed the contact.
Was it an act? Had Rand done that for Matt’s benefit? The chances were good it was. Because Rand knew what he was doing, and she was so far in over her head it was silly.
Sarah darted across to the house, her head still spinning.
Julie was in the kitchen with Emily, glasses of wine poured, and one ready for her. Or at least, Sarah assumed the big glass of sparkling pink alcohol was hers. She slid onto a stool and gulped some down to help take the edge off her nerves.
“Where are the guys?” Emily glanced over Sarah’s shoulder.
“Talking.”
“Spill!” Emily mock-punched Sarah in the shoulder.
“Where are the kids?” She glanced around, as if Julie had somewhere to hide two rambunctious children.
“With your mom and dad.”
“Oh.”
“Your turn. What the heck, Sarah? Rand? When? How? Why haven’t you told me about this?”
Sarah glanced from Julie to Emily.
There wasn’t enough wine in the house to get through this conversation. Still, she had to try. Sarah upended the glass, gulping down the contents. Somehow she had to make her best friend believe she was having a secret, whirlwind romance. Shouldn’t be that hard. They kind of were. Except everything else was a lie.
…
Mitch pushed the hospital room door opened, braced for the worst. Another agent lost.
Irene sat propped up in the bed, the blanket tucked up under her arms. Her eyes opened briefly then shut again.
“Oh my God, Irene. Are you okay?” Mitch shoved a hand through his hair.
“I’ll live.” Irene’s voice was funny, a little slurred.
“What happened? Is—are they okay?” He’d gotten her email about making contact with Sarah and hoped that things were turning around for them. Then—this.
“Yes. Fine. Everything’s fine. A guy snuck up on me, is all.”
A guy?
“I saw the orders and the email about the protective detail. Maybe we’ll get lucky, huh?” Mitch paced the room.
“What’s wrong?”
“Hmm?” He pivoted, rubbing his chin. He was so fucked.
“Mitch, what’s wrong?”
He had to tell her. Someone would. Besides, it was time to make the decision about who he could—and could not—trust. “Charlie’s body went to the ME today.”
“I’m really sorry about Charlie, Mitch.”
“It wasn’t Charlie.”
“What?”
“Someone killed a man, stuck Charlie’s clothes on him, his wallet, everything, and let us believe he was dead.” Mitch’s stomach rolled. “The mole, they’re behind this. Charlie’s alive somewhere. He’s out there.”
“What?” Irene sat up, eyes open, her gaze lasered in on him. “What did the director say?”
“I didn’t tell him anything. What if—what if the Chinese have him? What if that’s how they’re so close behind us?”
“God, I hope not.”
“I will, I just… Who can we trust?”
“Don’t tell anyone.” She tossed the blankets back. “Every time we get a break, they’re right behind us. It’s time we stopped playing like a team.”
“What about Charlie?” Mitch stared at the floor.
“We get the case, then we can find Charlie.”
Mitch hoped Irene was right. That he’d have the chance to put things to rights, that he wouldn’t have to identify another body.