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Tim would never know what happened. The ocean was too vast to scan every square mile for the lost weapons. Hopefully, a few hundred innocent people less would die by Ilano, Godfrey, and their politicians’ hands. She thought about the four men who’d been on the boat. Drowning had been a too easy death for them.
Soon, whoever was tracking the shipment would realize the signal was gone. In five minutes someone was going to call Tim, and after he learned what happened, he was going to pick up the phone in his San José home to explain to Ilano why his weapons wouldn’t reach him on time. She was glad this mission was over. What she needed was to get back to the French or New York team base and kick some serious ass. As far away from Tim as possible.
To be on the safe side, she anchored the boat behind the reef and donned her scuba gear. The rest of the way, she made underwater, her weapon and equipment sealed in a watertight bag. She was careful to exit the water, but the beach around the dive center was deserted. Her watertight smartwatch indicated no infrared movement. Sure that it was safe to return to her tree house, she ran through the jungle instead of on the path. Once at her door, she pulled the rope ladder up and tied it to a branch. Then she went inside, took a few seconds to have a warm shower, and activated the communication link to Joss.
Cain’s face appeared on her screen too.
“What are you doing in France, old man?” She sat down cross-legged on the bed. “I thought you were in New York.”
“Visiting my godson,” he said as if a casual visit for Cain Jones was normal.
He was Thomas’s godfather, Lann and Kat’s baby. That baby was winding everyone around his little finger, including her. He was the cutest thing ever, the spitting image of his father, pointy ears and all.
“Lann and Kat are there?” Maya asked.
“Kat wanted to see Clelia,” Joss said.
Now that Clelia was pregnant, the two women couldn’t stop talking about babies.
“Enough of the small talk,” Cain said. “Give us the update.”
“The ship is down.”
Cain smiled. “Good. Excellent work.”
She waited for him to say her job was done and that she could return to New York or to France, or to wherever the next mission awaited.
“Is your cover still good?” Joss asked.
She hesitated. “Yes.” She knew where this was going, and she didn’t like it.
“I need you there a little while longer,” Cain said.
How could she face Tim ever again? Everything inside her shouted no. She couldn’t stay, but she’d taken an oath to do this. Cain and his team had saved her soul when she’d been nothing more than a living corpse. She’d never turned her back on a mission before, and besides, Cain never took no for an answer. It didn’t work like that in their task force. Jobs weren’t chosen or refused.
Inside, she felt like screaming, but her voice betrayed nothing of her turmoil. “What do you need me to do?”
“Ilano will have to replace the shipment you sank today,” Cain said. “I want you to get rid of the next one.”
“For how long do you want me to keep doing this?”
“Until Joss can blow up the source in Mexico.”
“Got it,” she said.
She cut the line and waited for Tim’s call, which she was sure would come. How much was he was going to tell her? The gala dinner was tomorrow, and he had a crisis on his hands.
Even if she didn’t have the inside knowledge, Maya would’ve known something was wrong when Tim called to say he wouldn’t be fetching her on Saturday for the gala dinner as agreed. She understood him well enough by now to know that breaking his word was hard for him to do. Letting her go on her own to San José had to have been even more difficult. As possessive as Tim had become, his business crisis left him no choice. She was to travel alone. Cesar couldn’t accompany her. He was protecting the condo. Tim had more reason than ever to be obsessed with safety. Ilano’s confidence in Tim would’ve been shaken, and she knew how guys like Ilano worked. Results were best obtained by making examples of the people who failed.
Tim had invited her to stay at his house in San José after the dinner, and she’d accepted, of course. She was armed with trackers and audio mikes, which she hoped to plant somewhere in Tim’s residence. The more they could find out, the better their chances of getting to Godfrey. She tried to ignore the breaking of her heart, the unbearable pain she felt every time she thought about her betrayal. One day at a time. For now, she had to find out when the arms replacements were being shipped.
