Page 64 of Jacking Jill

Jack glanced over at Benson, who was pacing the parking lot and yapping away into the phone. His cane was nowhere to be seen. That limp was nonexistent. Even some of the lines on his face seemed to have cleared up, Jill thought as she and Jack both watched the strange ex-CIA man chatter away like an excited schoolboy, like this was what he lived for, what he was ready to die for.

“John Benson doesn’t operate by the laws of the state,” came Nancy Sullivan’s voice from behind Jill. “He’s got a different rulebook. And so does Darkwater.”

Jill gulped, casting another look at Benson strolling nonchalantly in front of a crackling bonfire of burning bodies. She wanted it to look dark and ominous, terrifying and traumatic. But for some reason it seemed to fit, like things were as they should be, everything in place for the time being, perhaps in place forever.

And I’ve found my place forever, Jill thought as she felt Jack’s arm around her waist, heard the voices of the Darkwater men and women echo around her like ghosts in the shadows.

Shadows which were dark but not from the absence of light.

It was just a different kind of light.

The kind of light that burns from inside.

The kind of light that burns forever.

The light of love.

The Darkwater kind of love.

∞

EPILOGUE

THREE DAYS LATER.

CIA HEADQUARTERS.

LANGLEY, VIRGINIA.

“Love what you’ve done with the place, Martin.”

CIA Director Martin Kaiser glanced up from his laptop as John Benson strolled into the office with a crooked grin on his face and a surprising spring to his step. “What happened to your cane?” Kaiser asked.

Benson parked his butt in a straight-backed chair facing Kaiser’s desk, crossed one leg over the other knee, carefully plucked a speck of lint from his tailored charcoal wool trousers. “What happened to that picture of you and Alice and your adopted twins?”

Kaiser flicked his gaze to the empty shelf along the side wall, then shrugged. “It invites more questions than I care to answer.” He closed his laptop screen, tented his fingers in Benson’s direction. “Speaking of questions, do you care to answer any of mine?”

Benson grinned. “Plausible deniability works best when you don’t ask too many questions. Come on, Martin. We’re going to be regular guests at the White House a year from now. We’re almost politicians now, old buddy.”

Kaiser chuckled. “I’ve been a regular guest at the White House for over a decade, John. CIA Director has a daily standing meeting with the President every morning.”

“Even Christmas morning?”

“Especially Christmas morning.” Kaiser’s phone beeped on the desk. He glanced at it, swiped the screen, then turned his attention back to Benson. “Speaking of which, you have plans for Christmas? It’s next week, in case you aren’t plugged into the regular cycles of day-night that we Earthlings like to follow.”

Benson laughed, then raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Are you inviting me over for Christmas?”

Kaiser grunted. “Thank Alice, not me. I see too much of you as it is.” He sighed. “Alice asked because Nancy’s coming over too. And that new addition to your merry band of Darkwater damsels. Kay, I believe her name is?”

Benson stiffened in his chair. He’d been busy with the Darkwater men cleaning up the mess at Darkwater HQ the past three days, hadn’t gotten a chance to catch up with Nancy. Benson did know that Nancy had taken Kay to a private hospital, then to her own home in the DC area. Benson didn’t want Kay out there on her own just yet. He still hadn’t decided how best to use Kay Steffen.

And so Nancy shouldn’t be getting too friendly with the former prosecutor. Shit. That would complicate things.

Because it was looking very likely that Kay Steffen would not survive the next mission.

“Kay Steffen was a U.S. Attorney.” Kaiser was studying Benson’s expression. The CIA Director might have spent the past decade behind a desk, but Kaiser hadn’t lost his edge, was always on his game—especially when it came to his old buddy John Benson. “But she’s been linked to Romeo Carmine the past seven years. What’s the play on this, John?”

Benson shrugged, said nothing.

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