“How do you know?” She gripped the couch and stared into my eyes. The FBI would have taught her how to detect if someone was lying.
I knew the tricks, too. But in this case, I didn’t have to lie. “Because we are the ones who help them get on with their lives.”
She blinked and her pale skin turned green.
“What do you mean?” Anger radiated out of her pores, but her rigid posture clued me in. She never expected me to tell her the truth.
“Give me a name.” I grabbed my laptop off my desk and sat back down next to her.
Kylie's eyes narrowed.
I typed my password into the secured files. The ones where I kept a folder on each person we saved. Each labeled with a number, not a name.
“I don’t understand.”
“Kylie, I assure you every man and woman rescued from any of our hotels and any leads we produce are present and accounted for. Kyler made sure of it.” I pulled up the folder from the Santorini raid and turned the computer to face her.
She stared at the screen, eyes darting back and forth down the illuminated monitor. Worry etched into her cheeks. She leaned in, squinting at the photographs. Recognition hit her. She saw lives marked by tragedy, now on the road to recovery.
“They’re safe?” The question slipped from her lips, but she knew the answer. It was in black and white.
“All safe.” I reassured her. Taking the computer from her lap and sending her the secure file. “I sent the file to you so you can study it yourself. If you contact them, I hope you will be discreet and sensitive to their situation. Some of them may still be in danger.”
“We are protecting them?”
Her use of the pronounwestruck me.
From her expression, she noticed it, too. I let it slide.
“Included in those files is a folder from a raid executed last night in LA at a party thrown by Cecil Dandridge.”
“Cecil Dandridge.” She looked at me. “The guy connected to the Latin Kings in my report last week. The one with chatter about an auction. It was last night. You got him?”
“Yep, we got him. There were fifteen women and three men at that party, and they are all safe.” I patted her shoulder. “All because of you.”
“Because of me.” She shifted in her seat. “Oh, my goodness. That’s amazing.”
“You did well, Kylie.” I nodded. “I’m proud of you. Focused on the right thing, you can really do some good with us. Kyler and the Grants are not the enemy. I hope you can see that now.”
Her entire demeanor dropped as if the air had been removed from a balloon.
“You’re going to fire me?”
“As your boss, Ishouldfire you.” Saying it out loud caused tightness in my chest I couldn’t explain. But it was the logical thing to do.
“And, if you knew why I was coming here before, why even hire me?“
That was the question. WhydidKyler and Josh allow me to hire her? Of course, Kyler intimated to knowing the real reason, but it didn’t seem smart to jeopardize our whole operation because of my crush on a girl.Fuck, I’m charming, but not that charming.
My first instinct was to make up an excuse. Boil it all down to having sympathy for what she went through with her sister. We could relate to and understand that her true purpose was to protect the girls. And because from a computer screen, she was able to save eighteen people in less than thirty days. My big speech about honesty would make me a hypocrite in five minutes flat.
The truth was more unbelievable than the lie, but I owed it to her.
“I hired you because I was drawn to you.”
Kylie’s eyes blinked a million times as she contemplated my answer.
“I liked you from the first moment I saw you at FBI HQ in a task force meeting regarding the operation in Spain. I watched you during those meetings and admired how engaged you were. Taking notes, chiming in with relevant information, and asking tons and tons of questions. The one time we met in person, I thought I felt a connection.”
