“More than you think.”
“I’m talking about Samad.”
“I was talking about you.”
“No, really, you should’ve seen the look on his face when he saw the plane in Belize.”
“What do you mean?”
“We got some help from the Israelis to fly him out. El Al plane. Big Star of David on the tail. He went nuts, like we were pouring holy water on him.”
“We don’t have a black site in Israel, do we?”
He grinned. “Black sites? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She smirked. “So where’d we take him? I haven’t found anything, and no one’s talking. I mean, they haven’t even gone public yet. It’s crazy.”
“To be honest, I have no idea where he is now. Kogalniceanu in Romania, Stare Kiejkuty in Poland, and Diego Garcia are all a no-go. Too many outsider eyes and ears. Hell, they could have him on a boat. We’ve done that before.”
“Rumor is the President’s Special Task Force wasn’t even notified, meaning there are only about a dozen people in the world who know what happened.”
Moore agreed and, of course, wouldn’t be entirely honest with her, either. “With all the bullshit we’ve had to go through since nine-eleven, they want to make sure we do this thing right — lest the media starts wailing about how Samad was taken to a secret CIA prison and tortured.”
“So as it stands, Samad is being interrogated at an undisclosed location, and some people on the Hill want us to believe this undermines the public’s trust in our justice system.”
“What do you think?”
“I think you should have killed the motherfucker when you had the chance.”
“Wow.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t.”
“I thought about it — but he’s got intel we need.”
“So …did you read my file?”
He cocked a brow at her. “If I say no, you’ll accuse me of lying. If I say yes, you’ll call me a stalker.”
She sipped her coffee. “I don’t care if you did. My parents won’t talk to me anymore because of the choice I made. My father still believes Rojas was a great man. You know we spent two years putting that together.”
“I don’t pretend to know how you feel about it.”
She nodded and tugged out her cell phone, as if to change the subject. “Hmmm, let’s see what I have here on you. I was surprised you got lured away from the DIA and resigned your commission. You were supposed to get the Navy Cross and they downgraded it to a Silver Star.”
“I don’t talk about that, except to say that by then the Navy and I were ready to part company. I’ll always be a SEAL, but the politics were getting a little too hot for me. I had some other things going on, too.”
“They sent you to The Point, though, huh? I’ve requested to train there three times. Denied three times. Which, of course, is bullshit.”
The Harvey Point Defense Testing Activity facility in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, was a little-known CIA school dedicated to hard-core paramilitary ops training. Those boys at The Point thought they were some badasses, but Moore breezed through that training and showed them a thing or two about shooting, moving, and communicating, SEAL-style.
“You don’t want to go to The Point.”
“Why not? Because I’m a
“Because what you do with the political action group is much more clever and dangerous. I couldn’t do it. Those meatheads over there couldn’t do it.”
Her gaze seemed to focus on infinity. “I’m finding it very hard to …I just don’t know if this is …”
“What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done in your life?”
“Are you nuts?
“Sitting here with me?”
She reached over and punched him. “I mean all the lies. I mean letting down my guard and really living the entire lie. I started dreaming that his father wasn’t a criminal and actually thinking about a life with Miguel.”
“We all have our moments of weakness.”
She bit her lip. “I’ll never forgive myself for what I did to him. He was a beautiful man.” She blushed and glanced away, trying to hide tears.
“That’s okay. It hurts now, but eventually the sting will go away.”
“You really think so?”
He raised his brows. “Yes.”
“What about you? The hardest thing you’ve ever done?”
Moore hesitated, and then he told her in an even voice that eventually cracked. And when the tears came, he was not embarrassed because for the first time ever, they felt good.
She slid over to him and tucked her head into his shoulder. “These people here? Everyone out there? They have no idea what it takes to keep them safe.”
“Don’t resent them for that.”
“I can’t help it.”
“You just need a vacation.”
“I just finished a vacation. And I still feel terrible.”
“Maybe you need a new boyfriend.”
She lifted her head and looked at him. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah, you know, to get your mind off things.” He adopted his best innocent-schoolboy look.
“I see. Then I have a question — have you ever been to Spain?”
