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“Yes.”
“How can you expect me to do that?”
“What do you mean, ‘how can I expect it’?Women make these sacrifices all the time. I have friends—top-notch law enforcement officers—who gave up their careers entirely because it was the best thing for their families. I’m not asking you to give up your entire legal career. Just an aspect of it.”
“An aspect? What if I asked you to give up undercover work? That’s just an ‘aspect’ of your career, but it’s what you enjoy most.”
“I would do it if that would solve our problems. But it wouldn’t.”
Jack took a breath. “There has to be a better solution.”
“There’s not. This case proved it. I haven’t even begun to tell you the problems your trial created for me and my role in Operation Gibbet.”
“I was doing my job.”
“I’m not just talking about doing our jobs,” she said, pleading. “I’m talking aboutus. This stupid rule that I don’t talk to you about my active investigations and you don’t talk to me about your cases is killing us. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to talk to your wife about something that’s going on at work without worrying that your client might end up in jail? Wouldn’t it be nice if I could vent to my husband without worrying that I was exposing an FBI weakness to the entire criminal bar?”
“Criminal defense bar.”
“Stop it. I’m being serious. Think about the questions I just asked you. Don’t you sometimes feel like there’s something missing between us?”
He could see in her eyes that she was speaking out of love. But even without that, her words landed with more force than she could have possibly realized. It was the “fog” he’d been feeling for some time, even before the Imani Nichols case—the sense that something was indeed missing in their relationship, and his inability to pinpoint exactly what it was.
Andie closed the dishwasher door and started the machine. The motorized spray hissed like white noise in the fog.
“So,” she said, her expression as serious as Jack had ever seen. “You’ll think about it?”
Theo took a taxi to Heathrow for the Friday afternoon flight to Miami. Kelly was standing at the curb outside the terminal. She had a carry-on bag with her. They’d already said their goodbyes in Bethnal Green. Or so Theo had thought.
“What are you doing here?” asked Theo.
“I have a flight to Miami. What are you doing here?”
Theo simply groaned.
“No way!” she said, shoving him so hard that she nearly knocked him off the curb. “You’re going to Miami, too?”
Theo groaned again. “I’m not buying you a ticket to Miami.”
“You don’t have to. I already bought one.”
“With what money?”
“Did you know the FBI offered a fifty-thousand-dollar reward for information leading to the capture of the pirate killer, dead or alive? Guess who gets it?”
That actually made him smile. “I’m happy for you. But you’re not coming to Miami with me.”
He started away from the curb. Kelly walked with him through the sliding double doors and into the terminal. “I didn’t say I was goingwith you.”
“Don’t split hairs. You’re on the plane. I’m on the plane.”
“But we’re nottogether. You’re not in first class, are you?”
Theo stopped short. “Don’t tell me you blew a chunk of your reward money on a first-class ticket.”
She let him fret for a moment, then smiled. “No, I’m not that stupid.”
“Thank God,” he said, and they continued walking through the terminal.
