“I don’t come off looking good.” He wasn’t sure telling her this particular story would help his cause, but at least she wasn’t kicking him out.
“You wanted to tell me before. I’m ready to listen.”
“I wanted to tell you a breezy version that makes me look noble for choosing love,” he replied, a wistful tone to his voice.
She grabbed a mug and placed it on the counter. “Well, I want the real version. This feels like something you’re going to have to deal with, and I’d like to know why.”
He’d been thinking the same thing—that he might have to insert himself into this situation. “I’m not sure how I would handle it. I can’t exactly walk in and announce myself. I would have to be sneaky, and I have no connection to some Hollywood actor.”
It was obvious to him that the Agency was using the actor to get to the head of the cartel and likely to put Kayla into whatever place they wanted her in. The easiest thing to do would be to inform the actor of who his “friend” really was. If he could break the relationship between the actor and the man he didn’t know was a criminal, then Kayla would no longer be in danger.
But somehow he didn’t think an email would do the trick. He needed to get into Josh Hunt’s circle, but without Kayla knowing about it.
The kettle started whistling. “Of course you do. There’s always a connection. That’s the funny thing about our world. There’s only a few degrees of separation between any two people. The key is finding the connection. Now tell me the story.”
It was the most assertive he’d heard her talk in days. Well, besides yelling at him in the parking lot. “All right. But like I said, I’m not the hero of the story. It all started when I discovered the MSS agent I’d been going up against for a couple of years had a twin sister here in the States. It was then that I realized I could have a double agent if I played my cards right.”
He continued, and for the first time in weeks, she actually listened to him.
Chapter Six
She couldn’t have written that story if she’d tried.
The next morning Nell sat at her computer contemplating the problems Henry had laid out for her the night before. When he’d been with the Agency, he’d found out about a young American woman named Kayla Summers and her twin sister, who worked as a spy for her home country of China. He’d manipulated the situation so Kayla had believed her sister to be dead and had taken her place at MSS, while her husband had taken the other twin and had the best of both worlds.
He was ruthless. Or at least he used to be. She’d watched the guilt he felt play out on his face as he’d told her the story. He’d lied and manipulated and placed a young woman in a position she shouldn’t have been in, one that could have led to her horrible death.
Would he have ever seen how wrong that had been if he hadn’t come to Bliss? Would he still be out there, still pulling strings and playing games? Had this place truly changed him? Or was it one more manipulation meant to make John Bishop’s life more comfortable?
She’d managed to shove those questions aside briefly as she’d worked on the problem at hand.
“So Kayla is now the bodyguard for Joshua Hunt. I can’t say I like his movies. The romantic comedies are good, but I don’t love action. It’s filled with white male rage.” She wasn’t sure what they had to rage about, but they did it a lot.
“It’s not my favorite either. They often get things wrong, and that’s not how gun fights normally go. It’s way more boring. It’s better to snipe your opponent.” Henry looked up from his laptop. “Sorry.”
It was actually kind of nice for him to be honest. “I take it you’ve sniped a lot of people?”
His eyes went back to his screen. “Probably more than my fair share.”
She didn’t want to find him fascinating. The night before she’d sat and drank her tea while they’d eaten black bean soup and he’d told her the whole story of Kayla Summers going from college student to CIA double agent. Now the young woman was with a security firm, but Henry believed she was still doing side work for the Agency. She was currently the bodyguard for a Hollywood star who had connections to a drug lord.
Henry thought the star had no idea he was dealing with a drug lord. Or the Agency. He feared that someone was using his former protégée in a way that could get her killed.
“I’ve thought a lot about this. I think you should go and deal with it.”
He looked up, frowning. “I’m not sure how I would deal with it. I can’t walk in and announce I used to be with the Agency and I think you’re in danger. Oh, and your bodyguard is also Agency and I’m definitely worried she’s in danger, and hey, she thinks I’m dead and so does her boss. Could you keep that secret?”
Put like that it did sound silly. But she’d lain in bed and all she could think about was the fact that those poor people didn’t know what was coming for them, and Henry could help. He’d explained that he didn’t trust the man who’d taken over his job. Someone who went by the name of Levi Green. Henry was worried Green was manipulating the situation and potentially working with the head of the cartel.
His old world was shadowy and dangerous, and he’d worked in shades of gray.
It was so hard to think of her husband in that world. And yet she also wanted to know more. That world had shaped him in so many ways, ways she hadn’t contemplated.
“The actor is working
