Page 18 of Redeeming Violet

“Were you going to tell me Manuel was trying to kidnap me?” I hated that my voice was wobbly, but I had nothing left.

“No. Not right now anyway,” Jaxon answered.

His answer pissed me off, giving me the pick me up I needed. “Why not? I think I have a right to know if someone is planning on taking me against my will and trying to sell me. Sell me, Jaxon. You don’t think I should’ve known that?”

“No. You’re too unpredictable, and you’ve proven you’ll martyr yourself. You had no issue caving under demands when lives were threatened. Not once did you consider they wouldn’t hold up their end of the bargain. You blindly followed them, knowing you’d spend the rest of your life in prison when you were caught. You weren’t careful. You didn’t cover your tracks. You were still trying to help the good guys while working for the bad guys. I hate to say it, but you suck at this double agent spy shit. You have no sense of self preservation. So, that would be a fuck no, we weren’t going to tell you. My best guess is as soon as we told you, you’d try and run off, thinking you were doing the right thing, protecting us or something as equally stupid.”

I couldn’t argue with anything Jaxon had said. He was right, I would’ve tried to run away. It wasn’t fair to put anyone else’s life in danger.

“Well, tell me how you really feel,” I huffed.

“I think what you did was unbelievably fucking stupid. But I understand why you did it. I also think the reasons why you did it were selfless. However, I think it bears repeating – incredibly reckless and wrong. Don’t ever give in when someone is trying to blackmail you, and you never fucking turncoat on your country.”

I didn’t actually think he’d tell me how he felt. It was more of a statement for lack of knowing what to say, but I’d hold on to his words. He understood. That was all I wanted. I didn’t need anyone to agree with me. I know what I did was wrong, but I desperately wanted someone to understand.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“Trust me, Violet, there is nothing to thank me for.”

I shrugged and turned toward the small window, ending the conversation. The clouds raced by as we made our way across the ocean, each minute the aircraft ate up the miles bringing me closer to the US and closer to my incarceration.

“When we get home, I won’t be your problem anymore. Once I’m in federal custody, Manuel won’t be able to get his hands on me.”

“You don’t get it, do you? You’re still completely naïve to how this works.” The change in Jaxon’s voice had me turning my head to look at him.

“How what works?” I asked.

“Wake up, Violet. If you want to stay alive, drop the doe in the headlights act and look around. See the people in this plane? Right now, we’re the only people you can trust. We’re not handing you over to feds. We have no idea who Manuel has working for him. If you think you’re the only person Manuel has on his payroll, then you’re just plain dumb.”

“Enough! Don’t call me dumb. Since I’ve met you, you’ve called me stupid and naïve a dozen times, and now dumb. I am neither dumb nor stupid. I may be naïve how the blackmail, back stabbing, selling people into human trafficking works, but I can promise you I did not get to where I was in the CIA because I am dumb. I didn’t think you were going to walk me back into headquarters and announce that you’d caught me. I assumed being the badasses you all claim to be, you’d have some secure connection that would take me into custody and take me back out of the country to lock me in a dark hole somewhere no one would ever hear from me again.”

“While, that sounds like a good plan, I’m gonna need you close by for now,” Zane said and stopped in front of the row Jaxon and I were sitting in. “What do you know about Manuel Ortega?”

“Nothing,” I answered.

“Did you ever look into him, pull his record?” he questioned.

“No. I know nothing about him other than he confirmed he had the list,” I answered.

“Forget everything you think you know about the chip, the list, the Chinese, everything. I only want you to concentrate on Timothy Clark and Manuel Ortega. Tell me exactly how Timothy made contact,” Zane asked.

“Okay. I was at a coffee shop and Timothy sat down across from me…”

“Where?” Zane interrupted.

“Where?”

“Yes, where? A Starbucks? At the Pentagon City Mall? Where?” he clarified.

“A Dunkin Donuts off the GW and 5th Avenue.”

“Do you go there often?” Jaxon asked.

“Almost every morning.”

“Okay, so you were easy to track and follow. You had a routine. You were at the Dunkin Donuts, then what?”

“I was waiting for my order. I sat in the corner and was reading a newspaper someone had left on the table when he sat down across from me. He didn’t say anything, just placed a handwritten list of names in front of me. I was confused at first and was getting ready to push the paper away when Declan’s name caught my attention. I looked closer at the list and recognized more names. Timothy told me he had a job for me. I declined and folded the paper to take it with me to work. I was going to hand it over to the director. Timothy snatched the list away from me and told me I had twenty-four hours to comply or the list was going on the internet and he left.”