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“Good to meet you too, Trista,” Joel said. He sat there like an idiot, holding onto her hand, not realizing that he hadn’t let go of it until she pulled it free from his.
“Can I buy you a beer?” he asked.
Trista shook her head and reached into her purse, pulling out a gun and pointing it at his chest. “No, thank you,” she said.
“What the hell?” Melody shouted. “What are you doing?”
“What I have to do,” Trista whispered. “I’m sorry Melody.”
Trista
Trista wasn’tsure how this was supposed to go. Her instructions were clear—find Joel Swensen and bring him in alive, by any means necessary. Keeping her job a secret from her friend while she got close to Joel’s ex-partner wasn’t easy. Working for the CIA was something that she loved but lying for a living wasn’t something that she enjoyed doing. She looked at it as part of the job—lying to her friends and family had become a part of her life, even if she hated doing it.
“You will need to come with me Mr. Swensen,” Trista ordered.
“And why would I do that?” Joel asked. His slight smirk told her that he thought he had the upper hand in all of this, but he was wrong. He might be a good cop, but she was better. It’s why she eventually was recruited to join the CIA.
“For your own safety,” she insisted.
Joel barked out his laugh, “It seems to me that the only person threatening my safety is you, honey,” he said.
“How about you put the gun down and tell us what this is all about, Trista?” Axel asked.
“Can’t,” Trista said. If she involved Axel and Melody in this, they wouldn’t be safe. She needed to get Joel out of there and then, hope that nobody was following her. It was going to be her best option to keep him safe. The men that he had looking for him were bad news and if she involved her friends, they’d be next on their list of targets.
“It wouldn’t be safe for either of you to get involved in this,” she breathed. She pulled her badge out of her jacket pocket and quickly flashed it at them. “I’m CIA and you’re in trouble, Joel.”
“So, it’s Joel now?” he asked. “What happened to Mr. Swensen?”
“If I’m going to help you, we should be on a first-name basis. The men who are after you won’t care what I call you, really,” she said.
“Men who are after me?” he questioned. “And who might they be?”
“The Gemini Brothers,” she leaned in to whisper. “I believe that you took down their gang’s leader a few months ago, and they’re looking for retribution.”
“Why would any of this be on the CIA’s radar?” Joel asked.
“Because we had a man on the inside when you took down the lead suspect. We need your help releasing Dante Gemini so that we can bring down their entire operation. It’s the only way to stop them and their human trafficking ring.”
“Wait, you said that the Gemini Brothers were after me, but this is about letting a known murderer go?” he asked. “Why would I do that?”
“Because the Gemini Brothers are after the same thing. They want Dante released from prison, but they won’t stop there. They’ll kill anyone close to you to get you to comply, and when you do, they’ll murder you too. If you agree to work with me and the CIA, we’ll get him released, but no one will have to end up dead.”
“Except the countless people who get in Dante’s way. What happens when he’s free and goes on a revenge-killing spree?” Joel asked. “Because you and I both know that’s what will happen, Trista.”
She shrugged, “We just have to be one step ahead of him and keep anyone else from getting killed. The CIA needs time to be able to bring him and his family down. We want all of the big players, not just the head of the family. Dante being in prison doesn’t make him less powerful. They just put another head in place and Dante controls the family from prison. You have to be smart enough to understand that, Joel. I mean, you seem like a bright guy.”
“Gee, thanks for that,” Joel grumbled.
“You know what I mean, Joel. I didn’t intend to insult you in any way. I need you to come with me—you’re not safe here. And everyone around you is in danger. Do you want that for Melody and Axel?” Trista asked.
“Oh—so now you care about me and my husband?” Melody questioned. “You used me to get to Joel. I thought that you were my friend, Trista,” she spat.
“I was your friend,” she breathed. “I’d still like to be, but the unfortunate part of my job is that sometimes, I have to lie to my friends.”
“By lie, you mean you have to make up an entirely different life to feed to me, right? You told me that you’re a nurse,” she said. “That’s what you do for a living, right? You lie.”
“Well, it wasn’t totally a lie. I was a nurse at one point—in the military. I served my time, and when I got out, I decided that I didn’t want to become a private practice nurse, so I went into the police academy instead. I was good at being a cop, and that’s when the CIA took notice of me and hired me to be an agent. There, now you know everything that there is to know about me,” Trista promised.
