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“How? Security at that place was tighter than a frog’s ass.” The Secretary was missing both the plot and the point.
“Not secure enough, considering what happened,” I ground out, the irrational side of me taking over, ready to throw down with anyone who may have had a hand in Diana’s abduction.
“Forget why or how he did it, just send someone to get his laptop.” POTUS lifted his chin in a directive to get a move on.
Once it was only the President and myself in the office, I cut to the chase and asked, “Why am I here? I don’t own Barclay anymore, thanks to the CIA. And you have your Teamguys, which includes your own son, to handle the mission and find out what happened and save Diana.”
“Save Diana,” he said back to me as if he knew those words held deep meaning to me.
And fuck, they did. If only I’d kept checking in on her, I’d have had a two-day head start in finding her.
“We believe this was an inside job, but it has to be an insider from one of the other eleven countries. The CIA director believes there are only a handful of people in this world who might have insight as to who was behind this, and that’s where you come in.”
“Criminals you can’t get to talk, but I can,” I said in understanding. “But that was when I was?—”
“A wanted man. For the country, and for those missing scientists, we need you to become him again.” His calm demeanor as he threw those words at me was a reminder he was a seasoned Commander in Chief and had once been an operator himself. He knew exactly what he was asking of me, and he had no choice.
“That’s why Gray wasn’t notified. I can’t work with Falcon on this.” Not in the field, at least.
“If anyone ever hurt my son or wife, I’d go scorched earth on the world, too.” His hand slipped over his heart. “When this is over, I’ll personally clear your name. Set the record straight once and for all.”
Before I could summon a response, the door opened. I was disappointed to see the Secretary of State instead of my laptop. Where’d they bring my stuff? Fucking Virginia?
I hadn’t come face-to-face with Susan since the day of Rebecca’s funeral, and I wasn’t sure if I was prepared to do it now.
“Carter,” she greeted, tugging at the lapels of her black blazer. “You came.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice,” I snapped, forgetting she was Diana’s mother, and not just another thorn in my side.
“You weren’t exactly my first pick.” Her tone with me wasn’t shocking. I’d been on the receiving end of it plenty of times at Rebecca’s parties. “We don’t know if whoever took her is aware she’s my daughter, but once they find out, it’ll make things more complicated in trying to get her back.”
I began rolling up my sleeves, not giving a damn I was exposing my tattoos while inside the Oval Office. Fuck protocol. “Finding Diana’s my priority. The whys and hows as to why the lab was hit will be a byproduct of her rescue.”
“We already have the best on the planet searching for her and the others.” I wasn’t sure if the President was directing his comment toward Susan or myself, but I assumed he was referring to his secret SEAL Teams in that statement. “I need you to do what they can’t. Your focus has to be on who’s behind the lab hit in Amsterdam. Can you do that for me?”
I respected the man enough not to get into a pissing match about how to handle the mission. If I needed to be a monster again, then so be it. I wasn’t going to let Diana die. “Fine.” He didn’t need to know I had every intention of finding Diana first, because fuck rationality and orders. “I need a word with the Secretary alone before we continue.”
“You have two minutes. I’ll check on your laptop,” Bennett said without rebuttal. He knew he needed my help, so he’d give me that time.
“I need to know if I can trust you,” I said as soon as I was alone with Susan.
“Feeling is mutual.” She kept her chin high, pretending I didn’t scare her, but I could smell her fear. Not even her overly-rich-scented perfume could hide it.
“Do you still think I killed Rebecca?” Since that particular mission was classified and didn’t pertain to this op, I had to assume POTUS hadn’t told her Rebecca’s killers were six feet under.
“I don’t know who’s responsible for her death, but the President assured me it wasn’t you, or you wouldn’t be standing in front of me right now.” Her lip trembled, and it was the first time I’d seen her emotions slip to the surface. “My daughter needs you, and frankly, so does the country. Screw diplomacy in this case. You do whatever you have to do to get her back. I don’t care what POTUS wants, I’m counting on you.” Now this version of Susan I could get along with. But then she had to go and add, “Rebecca wouldn’t want her to die, so if that’s the motivation you need, think about her. Pretend it’s your wife out there, and you have a chance to save her before it’s too late.”
I angled my head, staring her down. Losing my patience. “I don’t need to pretend anything.” That was part of the problem. I was already invested in this mission. I cared too much for a girl I barely knew.
Before we could finish our conversation, the President returned, along with Secretary Chandler holding my computer bag.
“What’s going on?” Susan asked as I accepted the computer case and sat on one of the couches, quickly getting to work.
“Seems Dominick was spying on the company after the change in ownership,” Secretary Chandler drawled, forgetting yet again this was a good thing, that there was hope I might be able to shed some light as to what happened two nights earlier.
Thankfully, I hadn’t deleted the surveillance program from my laptop in an attempt to get over my obsession with Diana.
I opened up the hidden app and typed in the code to access the footage auto-saved there. “The last recorded clip before the signal was corrupted was on Monday at twenty-three hundred hours.” I began working backward through the clips, relieved they were still there. “That means they didn’t discover the cameras.”
