Page 28 of Avenging Angel

“That’s what you’re going to lead with?” Kenneth retorts. “A threat? You CIA guys are all the same. Are you going to torture me if I don’t give you what you want? Throw me into a dark hole? Guess what? I’m already there.”

“And what is it you believe we want, Mr. Johnson?” Vinny asks.

“Thank you for confirming my assumption. The fact that you know my name is quite telling, especially since I never gave it to you. You guys think laws don’t apply to you and you can do whatever suits your fancy—including spying on American citizens.”

Vinny smiles, neither confirming nor denying the accusation. “Why are you really here?”

“Maybe you aren’t CIA if you don’t know the answer to that question. Are you FBI? If you are, then you’ve dropped the ball.”

Angel leans forward. “Just answer the question. We have proof of you shooting the drone; the penalty for which is up to 20 years in prison.”

Kenneth continues to eat his breakfast, not seeming the least bit worried about the crime. “I guess that’s one way to get me to talk,” he says after swallowing his bite of eggs. “Except, if you arrest me, I’ll go public with everything I know. You see, I’m still alive because of that insurance policy.”

Unable to control myself, I ask, “And what is it that you know?”

Kenneth turns to me, and there’s a melancholy behind his eyes I didn’t expect to see. Yet, his answer contradicts the sorrow I can almost feel emanating from him. “Arrest me and find out.”

“We’re not here to arrest you, but with one phone call, we can make that happen,” Vinny warns. Out of the three of us, no one has the power to arrest him anyway.

Pushing away his plate and holding out his wrists, Kenneth says, “Your intimidation tactics won’t work, so do your worst. There’s nothing you can take away from me that I haven’t already lost. I’m surprised that I haven’t been ‘disposed’ of yet after the first time your ‘friend’ questioned me.”

Vinny and Angel both frown while I stare at him in confusion. No one moves or says anything until Kenneth breaks the silence. “If you aren’t going to follow through on your threats, then don’t make them. It shows weakness. Please, excuse me as I believe we’re done here.”

I slide out of the booth to give Kenneth room to leave. Before he does, he looks at each of us as though he’s searching our souls. I’m not sure what he expects to find, but whatever it is, he finds it with me.

His next words send a cold chill down my spine. “You’re his type, but I think you already know that. You’re playing a very dangerous game.”

With that, he drops a twenty-dollar bill on the table, leaving me standing there with a vacant stare, a trembling body, and a memory of a dark cave I’ll never forget.

Angel is on his feet in time to catch me before my legs give out, urging me to sit back down. He slides in next to me and takes my hand in his.

“Breathe with me, Daisy. I’ve got you.”

It takes a few moments for me to come back to the present and catch on that Angel is inhaling and exhaling deep breaths for me to follow along to. After several minutes, my body relaxes.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

I glance out the window of the restaurant and look for Kenneth. When he’s nowhere to be found, I nod. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“No need to be sorry,” Vinny tells me. “PTSD happens to the best of us.”

Angel places his arm around my shoulder in a gesture that provides a great deal of comfort that I didn’t know I needed. He turns toward Vinny and says, “Vin, that was the worst interrogation ever. Kenneth worked you more than you did him.”

“We’re in a diner, Angel, which is a very public place that limited my options. What did you expect me to do? Haul him into the bathroom and waterboard him? Despite your misgivings, I gleaned a great deal of information. For starters, he is well acquainted with the CIA. His lack of fear suggests positional power; that he has an insurance policy the CIA is aware of. It’s why he’s still alive. As he said, he’s surprised that he hasn’t been ‘disposed’ of.”

“And?” I ask. “Why is that important?”

Vinny reaches for a menu and peruses it before answering me. “It means he’s valuable, Daisy. My guess—and this is speculation—is that he has knowledge that the CIA wants to keep secret.”

Angel’s grip tightens on my shoulder. “Do you think he could be a whistleblower?”

Vinny shrugs. “Maybe.”

I ball my fists in frustration and keep my voice low. “He knew I’d been abducted, Vinny. How could he know that?”

“All he said was that you were ‘his type.’ He wasn’t referring to himself.”

I shake out my hands to get the blood flowing back into my fingers. “That’s because he was referring to the man he sells the girls to.”