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Moe gripped the pistol, a new target for revenge slipping past his barriers.
“And Lori?” Parker asked. “You never contacted her?”
Maddox licked his split lip. “Tried to. It was as if she’d disappeared. You’re saying that Romalov abducted her and that she was in prison?”
Many times over the next few minutes, Moe wanted to demand Maddox tell the truth, but a sick feeling had taken root in his gut. Maddoxwastelling the truth.
And then Parker questioned him about the baby.
“I knew nothing about him.” The man’s eyes sought Moe’s, but Moe looked away. “Until years later, I saw a lad, seven or eight, walking home from school with his brother. He looked like her, and I wondered…” He waved it off. “I thought she’d married another and had kids. I followed the boys to their home and discovered the younger one had been adopted. I contacted Lydia, but she denied it and threatened me. She had all the power at that point, and I had none. I appealed to the family to do a DNA test, but they refused.”
Parker flicked a glance at Moe. The vacuum in his head was also in his heart. He gave nothing away and she went back to her professional interrogator mode. As she got Maddox to list off facts and dates, Rory was on the other end, confirming each in Moe’s earpiece.
At some point, he stopped listening. His father and mother had been played by a true mastermind, and he felt his blood boiling. Parker, bless her evil soul, got the intel they needed to clear Maddox, but she wasn’t done yet.
When they stepped into the hall, he stated the obvious, if crazy truth. “They’re both innocent.”
She rubbed her eyes, looking too pale, and marched toward Lori’s door. “We need to be sure.”
His mother was equal parts angry and exhausted. Parker gave her no quarter, starting the interrogation the same way she had with Maddox. “Romalov gave us everything. We know what you and Lydia have been up to.”
His mother seemed confused. And then as though Parker had punched her in the gut, she, too, went pale as his favorite interrogator insisted that she’d been working with Lydia to set up Maddox, Romalov, and the others. Parker poked holes in everything she said, but his mother never caved, never changed her story. Moe prayed it wasn’t an act.
Parker then laid out what she’d determined and what Bryant Maddox had told them. When they finally took a break, Lori was in tears, realizing that her best friend had done a number on her. On all of them.
Parker hobbled outside and he followed, yearning to put his arm around her. “All along, Lydia has been manipulating outcomes of missions, of friendships, of everything.” Parker leaned against the side of the building, blowing out a breath. Cal, Trace, Jeb, and Colton joined them. “There’s no way to know which missions she compromised and which she didn’t. What a mess.”
“Why, though?” Moe couldn’t understand it. “She’s brilliant, as evidenced by her ability to cover her tracks, but she could have had an illustrious career without rigging her success rate.”
“Money, power, fame…” Trace shrugged. “Why do any of the sociopaths we deal with go dark side?”
“Revenge,” Colton added, sending a pointed glare at Moe.
He dug the toe of one boot into the dirt. “I owe all of you an apology. This thing blindsided me, like when I was eight and discovered I was adopted. I’ve lived all this time believing my mother purposely abandoned me.”
No one said anything, but they all nodded in understanding.
“I knew something about Charmaine was off in the mine,” he admitted, “but I got distracted.” He couldn’t stop his gaze from tracking to Parker’s. “The fact that woman ruined my family and set me on this path…” His jaw was so tight, he couldn’t get the words out.
Colton slapped him on the back. “Sucks balls, man. We just want your word you won’t go after her for revenge.”
“Yeah,” Cal added, “cuz then we’ll have to kick your ass.”
“Or break you out of prison,” Colton said with a wink.
“Sheisbrilliant.” Trace studied his weapon, wiping an invisible speck of dust from the barrel. “She’ll try to talk her way out of it, blame the other two, and she might have fabricated enough evidence to put doubt in the minds of the CIA.”
Parker shook her head. “She won’t walk away free. That’s why I went after all of them, to make sure their stories match.”
“Then she’ll try to escape,” Trace mused. “Might be a good idea to keep me on her extradition team when they take her out of the country. Covertly, of course.”
“I volunteer to go as well,” Moe said.
Jeb and Colton raised their hands. “Me, too,” they chorused.
Parker gave them all a weak smile. “We’ll discuss it at the ranch.”
After she explained the next steps, Moe felt a sense of relief. She’d done it. She’d gotten the proof against Lydia that the CIA would need to prosecute her. MI6 would also have sufficient information.
