Page 8 of Redeeming Violet

“I assume they know about the list,” I told them. “MSS has to know they have American agents in their ranks. I think Timothy tried to double-cross Manuel.”

“I hate spy bullshit,” Jaxon grouched.

God, did I hate it too. I wasn’t cut out for this shit. I was in so deep I needed note cards to keep everyone straight. Bolivians. Chinese. CIA double-agents. People hacking into databases. I just wanted my old life back. My boring nondescript life. I went to work, came home, ate dinner by myself, watched TV, and went to bed.

Simple.

Dull.

Lonely.

Chapter Four

Jaxon

I doubted Violet realized she was shaking. I didn’t know if it was from fear, relief, or a mixture of both, but the woman was trembling. It took all my willpower not to reach my hand over and stop her knee from bouncing. Now that she’d completely dropped the pretense of being in control, I could tell how terrified she was. I wasn’t stupid. There was more she wasn’t telling us. However, it was a start. It would take time, something that was in short supply, before she would tell us the rest.

Or she could just blurt it out and shock the fuck out of me. “I need the guidance chip out of the drone to give to Manuel or he will sell the names to the Russians.”

Eric’s eyes zeroed in on the tears that were now falling down Violet’s cheeks. We’d lost any rational thoughts from him as soon as the Russians were mentioned. He’d been undercover for the CIA in a Russian prison called the Black Dolphin. He was reminded about his time in country any time someone saw his back. It was a mess of scars that crisscrossed from shoulder to shoulder. Russian prison guards had also branded a dolphin into his flesh. It wasn’t pretty. Anything and everything having to do with the Russians was a trigger for him. It was also a reminder that Jasmin and Zane had been taken and tortured as well. Eric had unnecessarily placed the blame of their capture on himself. It wasn’t his fault, yet he still carried the guilt.

The pressure in the cabin changed and an announcement was made by the captain we were on final approach to the airfield. Eric and Jasmin made their way back to their seats while Zane stayed.

“We’ll finish this when we land. I want a lock on Wolf ASAP. We’ll worry about the list after we get them out. What a goddamn cluster fuck. You got anything else you feel like getting off your chest?” he asked Violet.

She shook her head no and looked out the window.

“You better hope to God everything you’ve told us is the truth.” Zane turned and went back to his seat, leaving me alone with a crying Violet.

I was supposed to hate this woman. She was wanted by the US Government on a variety of charges. Some of them were still punishable by death. She admitted she killed a man, though I couldn’t bring myself to condemn her for that; it was self-defense. She’d done the same thing I myself had done dozens of times – only I laid a trap and waited for my prey. The only difference was I was contracted by the government to kill. Though they would deny it and disavow my service if I was caught – but it didn’t make it any less true.

I was a paid assassin, and she was a murderer.

My gut was telling me she honestly believed she was doing the right thing, the lesser of two evils. She’d said it herself – the intel she’d given Timothy was for the greater good. I’d imagine there were hundreds of names on the list of agents. Hundreds of sons and daughters, their lives in Violet’s hands. She’d sacrificed her own freedom and morality to save people she didn’t know. Talk about a fucked up no-win situation.

Her mistake was not finding someone she could trust when Timothy first approached. She could’ve stopped the ball from rolling and Olivia never would’ve been taken. For some reason, I hated this for her.

“Everything is going to work out,” I told her. “Zane’s already working on the next step.”

“How do you know?” She looked at me with tear-filled eyes and for the first time I noticed their color. Brown hued with red. I’d never seen anything like them before. “Jaxon?”

“Sorry. Because I know Z. He’ll check in with his contact and check your story out. When it comes back as factual, he’ll hunt down Manuel Ortega and get the list.”

“You believe me?”

She looked shocked, and I felt bad for having to telling her, “I believe you, but I don’t trust you.”

“I understand.”

“No, Violet, I don’t think you do. I believe you thought you were doing the right thing. But you weren’t. You sold out your country. You may not have benefitted monetarily from it, however, you still did it. I believe there was still personal gain for you – you’re too emotional for this to be about the greater good. Each of us goes into battle knowing we may never come home, every person on the list knew the risk. That’s a choice we make, a sacrifice we hold sacred. You took that honor and shit all over it by negotiating with a terrorist.”

“Timothy would’ve sold the names,” she protested. “They all would’ve died. I saved their lives.”

“No, you didn’t. What you did was get an innocent woman kidnapped and beaten. Then helped a warlord move drugs, weapons, and women. At best, you’ve prolonged the inevitable. Those agents are as good as dead. They were the minute Timothy Clark got his hands on the list. If you think Manuel Ortega hasn’t already dumped the list to the highest bidder you’re naïve. And you’re stupid if you think he’s going to trade you the list for the guidance system of a highly classified SPECOPS drone. He wants them both to sell. He played you.”

“He can’t.”

“He can, and he will. People like Timothy and Manuel? They have no country, they have no morals, and they have no value for human life. You cannot negotiate with someone who has nothing to lose. They don’t care who gets hurt, who dies, who benefits - all they care about is the almighty dollar and power. You’ve lost, Violet.”