Page 5 of Redeeming Violet

“Did you guys figure out if I’m lying or not?” she asked.

I didn’t bother answering, instead I took stock of the woman who might be leading me to my death. Jasmin had valid concerns. If I was being honest, I had thought them, too. Once Violet found out the team had gone on a black op, it would be easy to forge mission specifics and pass them off when no one could confirm with Wolf, or any of the other guys, where they were going. But Tex said he’d talked to Wolf before the mission. While the SEAL never gave Tex all the information, he did pass on some key details, and used him as a backup plan if the need arose. So far what Violet had told us matched what Wolf had told Tex. That’s all we had to go on at the moment.

I continued to stare at her and as I’d hoped, she was shifting in her seat, not making direct eye contact. She was uncomfortable and nervous. She was trying her best not to show it, but she was failing. The woman sitting next to me was trained to detect lies; the slightest shift in someone’s body language, an obscure movement, an unconscious tick, yet she couldn’t get hers under control. Either it was on purpose to look vulnerable or the situation she’d found herself in was emotional and personal. I was betting on the latter. She hadn’t sold anything; my gut was telling me someone had something of great value to her. Family. That was all of our biggest weakness.

“Are you married?” I asked.

“What? No.” her answer was sure and quick.

Definitely not married.

“Brothers? Sisters?”

“Why are you asking me about my family?” Deflecting, interesting.

“No reason. Making small talk,” I told her.

“Shouldn’t we be talking about what’s going to happen when we land?”

“You and Jasmin will be safely tucked in a hotel in Juba while the rest of us go hunting,” I lied, and waited for her reaction. There was no way Jasmin would go for missing the action.

“No. I’m going with you,” she protested, just as I thought she would.

“Why? You do know there is a civil war going on in South Sudan, right?”

“I’ve been trained in combat arms. I know how to shoot a gun.”

“You’re a desk jockey. And you think we’ll be giving you a gun?” I chuckled, and she flinched. “Besides, going to the range once a year to qualify does not mean you’re trained in jack shit.”

“Why wouldn’t you? Like you said, there’s a civil unrest.” She was hung up on the fact we wouldn’t give her a weapon.

“Let’s see, you helped a terrorist kidnap an innocent woman. You helped a known money launderer plan a coup. Oh, and let’s not forget when my team went in to save the girl, the house blew up, almost killing us all.”

“I didn’t know they’d planted explosives.” Her eyes drifted closed and once again, I saw shame.

I believed she didn’t know the house was rigged. She had no problem taking responsibility for the crimes she had committed.

“Why’d you do it?” I asked.

“Does it matter?”

“Yeah, it does.”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

The woman sitting next to me was very different than the woman back at the barn. Violet had gotten her way and was on her way to Africa with us, but she almost looked defeated and wary, rather than happy she’d talked her way into coming. I couldn’t understand her, and I didn’t like it. She was a jigsaw puzzle with no image to build from, hell, all the flat-edged pieces to make the border were missing too.

“I didn’t want to do it,” she whispered.

“Why then?”

“It was for the greater good.”

“I don’t believe you,” I told her. She may have believed that’s why she’d done it, but I’d bet my savings this was personal for her.

“You don’t have to. I know why I did it, and that’s all that matters to me.” The stubborn lift of her chin brought back the woman who’d first shown up on Zane’s doorstep.

“Unfortunately for you, it does matter. If you don’t want to be locked in a hotel with Jasmin standing guard, you’ll stop playing coy and tell us something.”