“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about—”
Caspian cut her off. “Don’t. I know you were there, and Liesel knows it too,” he said.
Sofie’s expression darkened. “Is that so?” she asked.
“What were you doing there? Help me understand,” Liesel said.
But Sofie didn’t reply to her. Instead, she looked at Caspian. “I saw you, too, you know?” she said.
Caspian let out a dry chuckle. “Yeah ... I figured you had. You took out one of Dolores Araujo’s bodyguards.”
“What is this? An interrogation?” Sofie asked.
“I just want to make sure we’re on the same side,” Caspian said. “You came to us, remember? So, no more games. Answer your sister’s question.”
Sofie pursed her lips, then looked at Liesel.
“I was there to protect you,” Sofie said. “That bitch, Araujo, she would have sent killers after you for killing her ex and wrecking her operation in New York. I ... I couldn’t let that happen.”
Liesel already knew that—Caspian had told her as much when he had shared with her his reasons for conducting his own unsanctioned operation in Kenya—but she was still taken aback by Sofie’s words. “How did you know about Araujo?” she asked. “What’s your connection to her?”
“As much as I’d like to chat about me and what happened in Africa, Schnecke, now isn’t the—”
“Time?” Liesel finished for her, doing her very best to keep her voice from rising. “Well, make the time, little sis. Because for the last five years, I thought you were dead. Do you have any idea what that’s done to me?”
Sofie looked away. Liesel’s heart pounded in her chest, and she could feel the rage building inside her. What game was her sister playing?
“I’m sorry, Liesel. I really am,” Sofie said a moment later. “But I can’t.”
Liesel shook her head. “I love you, Sofie. But if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on—”
“There’s no time for that,” Sofie insisted, grabbing Liesel’s hand. “My life’s in danger. And so are yours.”
Liesel shot a glance at Caspian, then back at Sofie. Her sister’s tone was different than she remembered. It was edgier, unstable.
And her eyes ... they don’t look the way they used to. Something happened to her. But what?
“Why would our lives be in danger?” Caspian asked.
“I know you both have questions, and I promise, I’ll answer all of them. But not here. You need to follow me. Right away.”
Sofie let go of Liesel’s hand and pushed her chair back, getting ready to leave. But Caspian caught Sofie’s wrist.
“No,” he said. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
Sofie stared at him for a moment, then slowly sat back down.
“I’m not a good person, Liesel. I’m not like you,” Sofie said.
“What are you talking about? You’re not making any sense,” Liesel said, exasperated by Sofie’s unwillingness to share anything with her and Caspian. Was she suffering from PTSD? Or had she completely lost it?
“In Afghanistan, I was given an opportunity. And I took it. I wish I hadn’t, but I did.”
Caspian leaned in. “What kind of opportunity?”
“To provide intelligence.”
Liesel felt her chest tighten. “To the Taliban?” she asked in a whisper.
