“Which is how you ended up dating Nicholas Lawrence.”
“Exactly.” Her chin lifts, and her eyes find mine again. “I thought I was getting close to blowing this case wide open, then Nicholas wanted nothing to do with me and fired me. Without access to the lab and Nicholas, there was no way I could gain intel anymore. I didn’t tell Todd at first. I thought I could figure it out on my own, but when he did find out, he was furious. He said I’d wasted the agency’s time and money the last two years all for nothing. He planned to put me back on field support. I was humiliated. Suddenly the ‘secret’ mission wasn’t a secret anymore. Everyone in the CIA knew that I had failed the assignment and couldn’t cut it as a field officer.”
“I didn’t.”
Lacee’s lips press into a sad smile. “That’s because Todd didn’t want you to know. He’d suspected for the last year that you were the mole.”
“Why me?”
“Because in France, you let the nuclear codes get away.”
“That wasn’t my fault.”
“That’s not how Todd sees it. He said you were obsessed with covering your tracks and placing the blame on someone else. Two weeks ago, he told me if I wanted to finish this case once and for all and establish myself as an operative, I needed to prove that you’re the mole. So he gave me the second computer chip.”
“Where did Todd get it?”
“He never said. He just told me to use it to get to you. So I sent you the package from Sienna telling you I was in trouble. Todd knew you would jump on this assignment because, as the broker, you’d already be at the mall making the exchange with Nicholas’s men for the second computer chip.”
I stand up, pacing the boat to release my frustration. “That doesn’t make sense. If Todd really believed I was the mole, why stage this whole thing? Why not bring me in for questioning?”
“He wanted proof.” Lacee’s eyes follow me back and forth as I walk. “That’s where I come in. I’m the one that’s supposed to build a case against you, supposed to gather evidence that you’re the mole so I can incriminate you.”
I stop walking. “And have you done that?”
“I was planning on it.”
I’m trained to mask my feelings, but tonight, I have a hard time keeping the hurt out of my eyes. “Even though you’d worked with me for years and knew me?”
Lacee must see the hurt, too, because she stands, forcing me to look at her. “I did know you, so when things didn’t add up, I gave you the benefit of the doubt, not Todd.”
“And what didn’t add up?”
“I was waiting for you at the mall that day. I saw you follow Nicholas’s man into the bathroom, and I tailed you when you came out. I staged our entire meeting. I couldn’t build a case against you without meeting you first. But then you put the computer chip on me.”
“How did you know?”
“Give me some credit.” A cocky-smirk forms on her lips. “Just because you were discreet doesn’t mean I didn’t notice. But in my head, I couldn’t figure out why you needed someone to carry the chip out of the mall for you. If you were the broker, you could’ve gotten the microchip from Nicholas’s man without all the drama and safely walked out of the mall with it. It didn’t make sense why you would risk putting the chip on someone else unless you legitimately thought Nicholas’s men were after you. Then later, when you and Nicholas met by the escalator, it was clear that neither of you knew who the other was.”
“But Nicholas said he’d never met the mole before, only communicated through messages.”
“I didn’t know that at the time. Until an hour ago, I figured Nicholas and the broker knew each other.”
“So that’s it?” I puff out a restrained laugh. “Those are the reasons why you decided I’m not a double agent?”
I guess I was hoping for something a little more personal.
“No. Those aren’t theonlyreasons.”
She steps closer, and my heart instantly jumpstarts like a traitor. Given all of this new information, you’d think I’d want nothing to do with Lacee Warren, but my head’s having a hard time convincing my heart.
“I got to know you in real life. I got to see the way you treated me, my family, yourfakemom, and Sienna. I mean, it was endearing how you’d fall on a sword for a coworker you’d never met in person before. That kind of loyalty and decency could never belong to a mole.”
Dang, her kind words—they make it impossible for me to stay mad.
“What about you?” I ask. “You risked everything, your career, and your life, just to save me. Doesn’t that make you a loyal partner, too?”
“What can I say?” She laughs. “I’m a thrill junkie. I like walking the line for the people I care about, balancing everything so neither of us crashes to the ground.”
