"And what's going to happen to this someone when I find him?"
"That, my dear, is not your concern."
"See, that's the thing. I don't want to help anyone if their intention is to end someone's life."
"Would you like me to promise you that I'm not going to kill him?"
"Well, considering I don't trust anyone, I wouldn't believe your promise anyway. How about you tell me who you want me to find, and I’ll determine if I turn him over or not?"
"And how does that bring me any guarantee, Agent Kincade?"
"Oh, it doesn't. But weren't you just talking to me about trust?"
He chuckled. "My, you are a handful, aren't you? Well, even though my word apparently isn't worth much to you, I still give it. No one is going to die. At least not by my hand."
"What's he done?"
"Suffice it to say that he took something from me, and I want it back."
"You do realize I don't work for you, right? You can't make me make me do things I don’t want to. I have zero intention of doing anything illegal."
"Agent Kincade, I am wounded that you think I would ask you to do such a thing. I recognize that your integrity matters to you. It’s important. Sadly, I have to inform you that I am not the villain you think I am. Not everything is as black and white as it seems."
"Now, that’s just the thing. I do believe in black and white, not shades of gray. I think black and white is safe."
"It might be safe, but you'll find that you end up very disappointed, because not all men can be heroes. Not all men see things as black and white. Not all men can be exactly what you want them to be. So what do you say? Will you help me or not? The choice is yours."
The move was mine. I didn't think I'd ever wanted anything so badly. A chance to show my father that I wasn't a disappointment, that I could close the biggest open case of his career. "I would do it, except we have a little problem. I am no longer an Interpol agent. As of a couple of days ago, I've been suspended."
The cursing on the line was so inventive I wasn't sure I'd heard some of those words before. "Agent Kincade, now is not the time to play games. You will go back to Interpol, because my plan does not work if you do not. Without your access, you're useless to me. And something tells me that you would very much still like to be the apple of your father’s eye."
That stinging burn in the dead center of my chest told me he had my number. He knew exactly who I was, what motivated me, and why I needed it. I hated that I was that transparent. I hated that the stranger who knew my father so well could read me without ever having met me. "What do you want me to do? I've been suspended."
"If you've been suspended, then find a way back. Because at the end of the day, all your father has ever wanted was you by his side."
"Clearly, you don't know him as well as you think you do if you think that's what he wants.”
“Sometimes your parents can surprise you. What you think they want is not what they actually want. Go back. Talk to him. Be contrite. Apologize or do whatever it is you need to do. If you do that, I swear to you, you'll be back in. And I need you back in for this. Besides, how else would you show your father that he made the mistake of a lifetime if you're not back at Interpol?"
"What you're asking is impossible."
"No, nothing is impossible given enough time and resources. Unfortunately for you, Agent Kincade, you don't have much time. So if I were you, I'd figure out a way to make that work."
Chapter 4
East
There was no avoiding her.
Nyla had infiltrated my mind. As much as I wanted to cut her out, in a few short weeks she'd become so intertwined in my world that I couldn't extricate her. She was more than under my skin. She'd woven herself down to a cellular level. But she was the enemy.
Or maybe you have it wrong.
I didn't have it fucking wrong. I knew I didn't.
What was worse, what pissed me off even more, was that after everything we'd been through, what happened in Monaco, all the shit with her father, she knew she had to be careful.
Her boss was obsessed with her. She wasn't taking care of herself. She wasn’t sleeping. She wasn't paying attention, wasn't watching to see if she was being followed. And she was.
By me.
Bird's Eye was more than cameras and phone tapping and computer hacking. It was actual, physical surveillance... by me.
You know this makes you a creeper, right?
I was not a creeper. She was coming for us, so I was going for her. She deserved everything that she got. Hadn't I taught her? Hadn't I asked her to be more careful? But there she was, running around the world like she hadn't been attacked. Like she hadn't found her fucking boss inside her flat. Why didn’t she give a shit?
She's not your problem anymore.
That was true. Still, I rubbed at the ache in the center of my chest. This was my own fault. I'd let her get too close. My phone chimed, and I pulled it out of my pocket as I watched her flat from above the parking tower. It had been a matter of a few keystrokes to purchase the small flat above the parking levels that looked directly into her townhouse. And then it had been a simple phone call to have a decorator come in with some simple comforts. A couch, a desk, somewhere for my laptop and computers. Just so I could keep an eye on her.
Are you protecting her?
