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She chewed her bottom lip as if thinking it over. “You sure? You don’t want to wait and see what happens?”
With freedom beckoning, he shook his head. “I did what you wanted.”
She put the truck keys on the table, opened the door, and hailed Trace. “Cut him loose.”
THIRTY-THREE
Moe had to remind himself this was part of the act. Romalov had no resources. As Moe watched, Trace stuck a minuscule tracker on him while he removed the restraints. He wouldn’t get far before Beatrice phoned Flynn and told him where to apprehend the man.
Parker motioned Moe toward Maddox’s room, sending him a brief but meaningful glance. “One down, two to go.”
“We have his confession,” Moe murmured softly. “Do we need more?”
“We always need more,” she said. “Romalov could be lying and who is the CIA and MI6 more likely to believe, him or Lydia?” Cal opened the door for her, offering a quick wink before resuming the neutral mask he normally employed.
“Romalov gave you and Lydia up,” she said to Maddox once the door closed. “Start talking or I call MI6. Interpol, too. You have a lot of explaining to do.”
He shook his head, eye swollen. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Me and Lydia what, exactly? I’ve never met that man before and I had nothing to do with Lydia’s kidnapping.”
“How about Lori’s?”
“Lori is down the hall.”
“You know what I’m referring to. The night she went to meet you thirty years ago. You had Romalov grab her and toss her in a Siberian prison.”
His face registered shock. “Thirty years ago?”
“Who else knew about that meeting?”
“You mean the off-the-books meeting where Lydia handed me my burn notice?”
Parker blinked. “MI6 burned you?”
“I worked both domestic and international intelligence over the years. At that point, I had my sights set on a directorship position. I thought I was meeting Lori—she’d given me the cold shoulder for years. Instead, I found Lydia there. She told me Lori never wanted to see me again and that I’d been burned. I fought it, of course.” A muscle twitched under his left eye. “But no one would speak to me. That’s what happens.”
Parker pulled up Lori’s photo. “I’m well aware of what happens when you’re burned. You’re suddenly a pariah. They delete your work history, seize your cash, ruin your credit.”
“They ruin your entireidentity,” he snarled. “Charmaine was the one behind it.”
“How so? You were her handler for a while, weren’t you? Hers and Lori’s?”
“For four years. She was smart, cunning, and ambitious. Top of her class when we recruited her. I groomed her and taught her everything. Even before Lori was paired with her, I thought she was after my job. I discovered she was blackmailing assets to get them to do things for her. She’d created her own network, and all the while, she was laying a trail that made me look like I was incompetent. That the only reason she and Lori were successful so often was because of her. Every time I had to hand her another commendation, it gulled me.”
“But you slept with Lori.”
He glanced toward the room next door as if he sensed her presence. “It wasn’t like a conquest. I loved her. Madly. Blindingly. Because of that, she and Lydia manipulated me.”
“Back up,” Moe said. He couldn’t help it. He had to ask. “Lori manipulatedyou?”
“I was too busy romancing her to realize it was all a distraction so Lydia could continue paving her road to the top.”
“The top of what?” Parker asked.
“She didn’t only want my job, she wanted to go all the way.”
Parker leaned in. “She wanted to be the first female chief of MI6?”
“Did I mention ambitious? She had potential, but it’s a man’s world, even these days. She assumed she’d get my position once she got me out of the way. Didn’t happen, but I was ruined. She was sleeping with my boss and no one would give me the time of day once I was burned.”
