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“That’s not what I saw.” Sami had her curly blonde hair upin a ponytail and looked far more casual than her brother. “I saw a possessiveDom, and I don’t think that man is capable of that level of acting. I haven’tseen TJ in years, but it’s hard to believe he would have changed so much.”
“Yet you think he’s capable of working with an arms dealer.”It was time to get down to real business. Now that he wasn’t here, she realizedhow much they’d left out the night before to spare TJ’s feelings. “If you knowhim, you know he’s not capable of this.”
“I have been around long enough to know that most people arecapable of anything given the right pressure,” Sami replied. “Like I saidbefore, we’ve been betrayed, Ollie and I. I’m afraid the only people we trulytrust are each other, our parents and brother, and the men and women who’veworked with our parents for years.”
“Speak for yourself. I don’t trust Archie as far as I canthrow him, and he’s getting a little tubby,” Oliver quipped.
Sami’s eyes rolled, and it was good to know family was familyno matter where they came from.
“I don’t trust anyone.” Kala strode in, putting a big mug ofcoffee in front of Lou and giving her a wink because Kala actually trusted alot of people. She didn’t like to admit it. Bud strolled alongside her, sittingwhen she did.
“I think we can trust Ben.” Kenzie still had a dreamy lookon her face.
Everyone in the room groaned.
“Bloody hell, I do trust the bloke, and I’m sick of hearingabout him.” Oliver gave her a shudder. “You need to start thinking with thehead on your shoulders, cos.”
“That seems boring.” Kenzie pouted as she sank into herchair.
“It’s not boring. It’s sensible.” Cooper was the last tojoin them.
“Where’s Tash?” She was usually at every meeting.
“She and Dare are taking Parker out to breakfast,” Zachexplained.
“So they’re distracting him,” Lou concluded. “And TJ issleeping, so all the people we don’t trust are out of earshot.”
“Lou, you know we trust TJ,” Cooper argued, a donut in onehand. In the other he had a plate with two cinnamon twists on it. “Hey, I gotyou the last two.”
Cooper always made sure Kala got what she liked. Often Kalawould try to make do with whatever was in front of her because she knew she hadodd tastes and didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. But Cooper would swoopin and change things so she had the most atrocious pizza on earth. Even whenthey were in rural Europe he would find a way to feed her what she liked.
I want to know everything about the care and feeding ofLouisa Ward.
Hadn’t TJ been doing that for her for a long time?
Kala took the plate with a subdued smile. “Thanks, and he’sright. We trust TJ, but we can’t make MI6 do the same. What we can do is provethem wrong. So what do you have?”
Sami opened her laptop. “We have intelligence that puts TheJester in Germany at the same time this photo was taken. It was uploaded to atip site we have asking for help finding The Jester. It’s run through Interpoland talks only about him moving arms in the Middle East. We don’t want to tipoff that the intelligence community is looking for him because of hisconnections to the bombmaker.”
“And this is the first tip you’ve gotten?” Lou leaned over,studying the picture. Well, there was no way to argue that wasn’t TJ, howeverthe other man’s face was down, a hood over his head. They were walking down astreet in Berlin that led by the Brandenburg Gate and eventually to the USEmbassy.
“Not at all.” Oliver was all business now. “We’ve had several.Most of them didn’t pan out. Here’s the truth. Something changed a little overtwo years ago. The Jester had been small time before then, and suddenly the manwas everywhere, but no one is willing to confirm his identity.”
“This is the best picture you have?” Kenzie asked. “Becausethat seems weird. I know Berlin isn’t as packed with CCTVs as London, but thereshould have been more than one picture. If you were following him…or were theyfollowing TJ?”
“That’s the question,” Sami agreed. “Why would anyone havebeen tracking them? And if they were, why this grainy, tells-us-nothingphotograph? It’s frustrating, but I believe it’s real enough that this is thereason TJ was targeted the way he was. I also find it interesting that theywere smart enough to know TJ was vulnerable. I would bet he usually went out onthe town with members of his team when they have downtime.”
“You’re right,” Zach agreed. “If they’d waited even anotherday, he likely would have been called back in, or he would have caught a flightback to the States. That night was the perfect one to take him.”
“I don’t like coincidences,” Oliver admitted.
“So all you have is that picture.” Lou was getting angry.One picture was all it took to put TJ’s whole career at risk?
“Of course not. Along with the picture, we received proofthat someone has been paying the sergeant. He received five thousand in anoffshore account three days after that picture was taken,” Oliver explained.“There was also an eyewitness report placing TJ in close proximity to one ofThe Jester’s recent large sales. We have intelligence that proves The Jesterrecently sold a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of small arms to several groupsin Eastern Europe.”
That part of the continent was on the edge, Russian saberrattling causing all the old Soviet bloc countries to take sides and stasharms.
The money was the key. It wouldn’t be the first time someonehad put money into an account to frame another person. She shook her head.“Five thousand is nothing in that world.”
