The past wasn’t supposed to affect her this badly,but it was. Hearing that Zimmerman was connected to El Cuervo had done that. Was that whyhe’d sent her a message? And what did all this have to do with theblackmail scheme?
Hank stood at his office door. He stared across thebullpen at them coming out of the break room. She lifted a hand andwaved. “Bye, Hank.”
Several agents in the room blinked their surprise.They were trained not to give more than that away, and even thatmuch was a slip. Still, she didn’t blame them for reacting likethat when she’d called their boss by his first name.
She jabbed at the button for the elevator, aware thatAdrian had come to stand behind her. When she glanced at him, shesaw he stared at his phone. Swiped. Tapped. Emails, probably.Updates. Reports. He hadn’t had the chance to check in with histeam, and now they were headed out into the field again.
Adrian’s team—underHank’s direction—were after theblackmailer. That was why Adrian had been on her tail, determinedto make a team with her. His involvement seemed so natural afterhe’d been there when two Double Down teammates had died.
Her heart tripped, but she pushed through theache.
New day. Same old wound.
Thinking about Adrian was better than dwelling onEl Cuervo. She hadn’t exactlyput the experience behind her, though she’d tried to make her mombelieve that was true. Hank knew the real story, and he’d beenhelping her with information gathering.
Was Zimmerman really part of the Venezuelan’soperation? And if he’d been part of it for years, that meant theVenezuelans had affected FBI operations for just as long. The viruswould spread both ways, and there was no antidote. Good people hadsuffered. Justice had been subverted. And for what? So Zimmermancould get himself a payday?
The whole thing made her angrier than she’d been atthe men who blew off Will’s head right in front of her face.
“Megan.” His voice was soft.
She glanced at Adrian. The doors to the elevator slidopen on the ground floor. “Let’s go.” Sheswept out of the elevator car into the lobby. Tears blurred hervision, but she didn’t let them fall. She’d shed too many already.To the point where she’d been determined to think her emotions haddried up. Evidently not.
She didn’t want to yield. Not even to God, thoughthat fact made her even sadder than she already was. Yielding meantshe would soften, and that wasn’t going to help her. Vulnerabilitywas what had gotten her into this mess.
What she needed was to be strong. Secure. She had tofind the strength within herself, despite the ways God had helpedher. He’d been with her. He had sent help that meant she could getto the embassy. She knew she hadn’t been alone. But she hadbeen vulnerable.
And there was no way she was going to allow herselfto slip back into that place again.
**
Adrian kept an eye on her the whole way to St. Louis.On Double Down’s private plane, of all things. Actually, accordingto Megan, it was, “One of their planes.” Like that was perfectlynormal.
Maybe in the private sector, because it certainlywasn’t true in the FBI.
Megan didn’t say much beyond that one comment. Shegot on her phone for a while, checking email and such. Her commentto her mother that she shouldn’t send over the email made him askher if they thought the blackmailer was still in their computersystem.
She’d said, “Can’t be too careful.”
The blackmailer had hacked the Double Down computersystem and gotten Emma Burroughs, a victim of his, to leave thesafety of their warehouse in order to gain control of her again. Itwas how the sonic weapon had been stolen by Zimmerman. Emma hadbroken into the facility while the blackmailer had coerced ascientist into giving him the door code to the secure lab. Afterthat, Zimmerman had taken the sonic weapon and ordered Emmakilled.
Thankfully, Mint—real name Davis Malone, and not aman Adrian wanted to meet in a dark alley—had saved her life. NowEmma and Megan’s Double Down teammate were inseparable.
Good things that had come from bad. Kind of likeBradley and Alexis’s marriage.
So why did that always seem to be true of everyoneelse’s life? He only had to look at Megan’s life to see the truth.Some people didn’t get their happy endings, even as much as hemight want that for her.
Adrian had sworn to himself that he would put hiscareer first and then later see what the future might hold for him.After he’d established himself in his field. He knew he wasn’tgoing to be an FBI agent forever. The hours, and the stress, weretoo much to hold onto it long-term. That meant one day he had tolook past his tenure with the bureau. To relationships, andfamily.
Had Megan thought she was going to be an FBI agentfor the twenty years it took before retirement was a possibility?Adrian didn’t like to make assumptions about life—though wasn’tthat what he was doing by pushing the chance to have a relationshipoff until later?
If he’d assumed his first marriage would work, thenhe’d have been disappointed by the fact his wife cheated on him andthen kicked him out. She’d made her choice. In response,he’d decided to focus on his career—thevery thing she’d accused him of. So he had good focus, and it waseven better since the divorce. He didn’t know why that was bad. Itwasn’t like she hadn’t known the job he did before they gotmarried.
The plane landed, and they unbuckled their belts.When Megan reached for her duffel on the seat across the aisle, hesaid, “I’ll get that. If you want.”
She looked like she was about to argue, so he added,“Since you got shot yesterday, and all.” He deftly took it from herbefore she could think to hold onto it. “I wouldn’t want it to bumpagainst your hip by accident. It’s probably still sore.”
He wasn’t going to think about the fact he’d seenwhat he’d see if she was at the pool in a bathing suit. He might
