“Will do.” Bryce turned to her. “It was good to see you, Lay. Please take care of yourself.”
Hunter was quiet until they got back down to the main lobby. “Well, what do you think?”
“I actually felt like he was being truthful.”
They walked outside and toward the Metro.
“I’m going to do some searching on my end and see what I can turn up on him,” Hunter said. “If we find out he has nothing to do with any of this, then we’re back at square one on the investigation.”
“Unless everything is connected to the cartel. I guess it’s naïve to think they couldn’t be working things on the inside to get the result they want at all costs, especially given this is about Diego avenging his brother’s death.”
“Hey.” Hunter grabbed her shoulder and pulled her to a stop.
She froze at the touch of his hand.
“None of this is your fault, Layla. We’ll get to the bottom of this.” They locked eyes for a moment before she turned away. They walked down M Street, headed toward the Farragut North Metro stop.
“I’m glad you’re confident about that,” she said.
“We have to stay focused, and we can figure this out. I promise you that.”
The sound of screeching tires to her left caused her to stop and look over her shoulder. A dark SUV was weaving very quickly down the street. The passenger-side window opened, and she knew they were in trouble.
Her instincts and training kicked in. She tackled Hunter hard to the sidewalk, using all of her body weight and momentum, just as rapid gunshots rang out.
Her breathing was uneven, and she didn’t move as the gunshots finally stopped and the SUV screeched away.
“Are you okay?” she asked Hunter.
He looked up at her with wide eyes. “Thanks to you.” He took a breath. “But, Layla, you’re bleeding.”
She touched her left shoulder, and bright red blood stained her hand. She’d been hit.
At the hospital, Hunter paced back and forth outside the room where Layla was being attended to. He couldn’t believe she had been the one to protect him and that she’d been hit. She claimed it was just a scratch, but he would feel a lot better once a doctor made that formal determination.
He’d known she had to have skills for the CIA to let her in the field on dangerous missions, but he was experiencing firsthand that she was a trained operative. Thankfully, her quick action had saved them both today. The Layla he’d known in law school had never even held a firearm. The Agency had changed her, but he was glad she was able to defend herself, especially given the danger she now found herself in.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the door opened and the doctor walked out of the room. “She’s asking for you.”
“Is she okay?”
“Yes, sir. The bullet just nicked her. She’ll be fine.” The doctor gave him a pat on the shoulder, and Hunter anxiously walked into the room.
Layla sat on the edge of the hospital bed. Her shoulder had been bandaged.
“How’re you feeling?” he asked.
“I told you it wasn’t that bad.”
“Layla, you were shot!” In what world could she not see that as a big deal?
“I know, but I’ll be okay.”
“Your quick thinking today saved our lives.” He ran a hand through his hair. “You moved a lot faster than I did.”
“I’ve had extensive training, so don’t beat yourself up over this. When I started at the Agency, even though I was on the analyst track, they decided to send me to the Farm. I thought it would be good to have those skills and knew I might not get the opportunity again once I was stuck at a desk, so I went along with it. It has definitely paid off, that’s for sure.”
Those comments only fed into a narrative that was developing in his mind. “Do you think they always wanted you to be a field officer?”
“You know, I’ve asked myself that question. When they were recruiting me, I made it very clear that I wanted an analyst position. I feel like I’m best suited to a desk job, and they seemed to accept that, but they still wanted me to do the training. They said it would be helpful for me to understand field ops better, since I have a supporting role.” She tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear.
In his mind, she had much more than a supporting role. It appeared Layla had become the star of the entire show. “There aren’t that many people with your skill set, Layla. Which makes the Agency investigation even stranger. They need you. It bothers me that they would put such a valuable asset in jeopardy.”
“This is probably even worse than we thought and most likely connected to the Mejía cartel. A drive-by on the streets of DC. A team member dead. It has to be linked.” She paused. “I called this in to Langley while I was waiting to see the doctor. They’re working on getting a security detail posted outside my condo. I figured they would want to do it just to keep an eye on me, if nothing else, but given what happened today, I think it’s the right move.”
“I agree. I’ll feel a lot better knowing you’re not alone there. While you were being treated, I did some research on the relationship between the two Mejía brothers.”
“And?”
What he had uncovered made him even more fearful for Layla’s life. “They were tight. Really tight. A big age difference between the two meant that Diego was pretty much a father to Roberto.”
“That makes a lot of sense. Seeking revenge on behalf of a family member can cause you to act irrationally. The cartel usually wouldn’t be so brash, but given the relationship between them, it explains a lot.”
“The normal rules aren’t applying right now.” There was another thing bothering him. “How much money did the DEA seize?” It had to be a big
