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“And we trust Huisman?” Kala asked. “I don’t like the fact that he showed up here. Our location is classified.”
“He wouldn’t need to read classified docs to find us,” Tristan argued. “All he would have to do is follow Kara.”
“You’ve been sloppy,” Chet accused.
“No one followed me,” Kala countered. “Maybe the problem was another whole team showing up to fuck with everything.”
“Maybe you should have figured out you were literally working with a foreign operative,” Chet shot back. “This is not our fault. We were ordered to sit back and let the Canadian do his job. We haven’t been surveilling because Ben was worried Oakley’s team would pick up that something was wrong. If we had been, trust me, none of this would have happened. I would have called Langley and let them know the baby team needed a diaper change.”
She was ready to let them hash it out in a ring somewhere. Her sister would murder Chet and that problem would be over with, and Kala might be chill for a day or two.
Her mother sat at the end of the table. She’d been perfectly silent up until now, allowing Tasha to lead the discussion. Now she cleared her throat as if to say “move this along, daughter.”
She was right. Kala killing Chet would be a whole lot of paperwork. “Whether we trust Huisman or not, we have to consider his intel is real. Someone did try to kidnap Dare a few nights ago.”
“And would have succeeded if not for Ben Parker,” Chet pointed out.
“Did you get anything out of the guy?” Tasha asked. “Where are you holding him?” She sighed at the look on Chet’s face. “Tell me he died after you got what you needed.”
One shoulder shrugged. “Parker was too rough with him. He was a corpse when we got there. I kind of wondered if he’d already talked and the Canadian killed him. He’s not being real open with us, if you know what I mean. We could have avoided all of this if he’d given us Tash’s name to run a check on.”
“Understood.” She didn’t need him to tell her how fucked up things were. Tasha put both palms on the table, ready to explain how things were going to go. “I will be taking Mr. Nash out of Australia this evening. We’re going to drive to a small airfield outside of Sydney. We’ll fly to New Zealand, and from there we’re taking a private jet and we’ll make our way back to the States where we’ll figure this out from there.”
She would take him back to Dallas where they could watch over him.
“You can’t take Nash out of the country. You’re blowing the whole op.” Her asshole ex sat across the table in the safe house along with TJ, who had a blank expression on his face. It was what she liked to think of as his soldier face, the one he used when he wasn’t giving up a thing he was thinking.
“Our op was blown the minute the target was killed in an accident.” Cooper sat back with a shrug.
Tristan shook his head. “Nah. I would say we’ve completed our op because we now have new intelligence on both Oakley and Huisman. Our op was to surveil and report. We have watched and gathered, and I’m ready to write a report that states everyone is fucked up. So we’re done here.”
Her team was seated around the dining room table in the safe house. They’d retreated after Huisman left. They’d walked out like they were going for an afternoon in the city, but Tasha knew they wouldn’t go back. Nate and one of the guys would collect their things after Dare was safely away. They would hole up at Sanctum and decide what their next move should be, but one way or another Dare was going to be out of this.
“You are not done here.” Chet sat across from her. He’d made sure he was directly in her line of vision, asking TJ to move over before he’d sat down. He’d stared at her like he could enforce his will. “You have already cost me an important ally.”
When they’d arrived at the safe house, Ben was gone. Her father had gotten a call from Ben’s handler who’d explained that Ben was coming off the op.
“I’m not sure why Ben was so important,” Zach argued. “He was never going to be able to walk into Oakley’s place. What was he thinking? Huisman would recognize him, so he would have to pull out of the op at this point anyway.”
“I’m not sure Mr. Parker is capable of being rational when it comes to Dr. Huisman,” her mom said quietly. “It might be for the best that he’s not here.”
“It might be best for you and your team, but it’s shit for mine.” Chet ran a hand over his barely-there hair. He kept it in an almost military cut. “I needed Parker, and I doubt he’ll help us out again.”
