Page 69 of Westin

“I know. But it’s made me think a lot about what you must have gone through back then, just after Daddy died. I know that couldn’t have been easy for you.”

“It wasn’t,” she agreed. “But I shouldn’t have let it get between us.”

Lee’s chin began to quiver a little. “Thanks for saying that, Mom. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that.”

“I love you, Lee,” her mother said softly. “Whatever’s happening… please come home. As soon as you can. The twins’ graduation is in May, and Johnny will be home for spring break in a month or so. They’d really love to see you.”

Lee smiled even as tears began to spill from the corners of her eyes. “I’ll try. Really.”

“I’m proud of you, sweetheart. I don’t think I ever told you that.”

Lee took a deep breath, barely keeping her voice steady. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”

“Will you call again?”

“In a few days.”

“Okay. Be safe. Please.”

“I will, Mom. I love you.”

“Love you, too, darling.”

Lee ended the call and pressed the phone to her chest as she gave in to the sobs she’d held back. That was the most intimate call she’d had with her mother since she was a preteen. Her father’s death had driven a wedge between them that Lee had never tried to understand, or overcome. But there was no time better than the moment one realized their partner was out to kill them to bury the hatchet—right?

“You okay?” Clint asked.

She nodded. She handed him back his phone without looking at him, curling up on the couch again with her tea mug. She rubbed at her tears and sighed heavily. “You should give me a vehicle and send me off on my own. With any luck, they’ll follow me and leave you alone.”

“And if they don’t? Then we’ll have to fight them on two fronts.”

“You say that like this sort of thing happens on a daily basis around here.”

“I still don’t even know what ‘this’ is.”

“Yeah.” She sat up, shooting a glance in his direction. If she were him, she’d be freaking out right about now, but he seemed as calm as he always was—even when he’d been talking Remington down off the drug dealer trying to kill her. “I guess I owe you that much.”

Lee took a deep breath, trying to get her emotions under control. “So, I hacked into Will’s computer. Not his work computer, but the laptop that he uses for his personal stuff.” She tilted her head to one side. “I was looking for his password into his DEA files in Seattle, but discovered that my partner is just as stupid as Fang. Apparently, he felt that the password he had on the physical laptop, and the simple encryption on his files was enough to keep someone out. He forgot that it was the computer specialists at Homeland who taught me how to hack.”

She sipped from her tea mug, then set it on the coffee table in favor of pulling her knees up against her chest, holding herself for the little illusion of security it provided. “There are emails and audio files on his computer, just like Fang’s. He’s been keeping a record of conversations with his partners, I suppose because he’s not sure he could trust them. Or maybe he was planning to use them for something else. I don’t know.”

“What else could he use them for?”

Lee’s eyebrows rose. “Worst-case scenario? Someone finds this stuff on his computer, but I’m dead? He could say that I’d convinced him that he should do and say certain things with these people as part of the case, but the truth was I was the one who went rogue, and I set him up to make it look like he was going with me. He could turn it all around, stay clean and still get the benefit of all the money these drug dealers have been paying him.” She shrugged. “He wouldn’t be the first to do it.”

“You don’t think it’s possible that those recordings are part of an undercover case you don’t know about? Or a part of the one you were working together?”

“No.” She took a deep breath, then sighed. “I want to think he’s still clean, but I looked at his bank account. Not hard once I hacked the rest of his personal accounts. He has money coming in that can’t be explained by the DEA. There’s an account in his name that his wife probably doesn’t know about, an account that has more than ten million dollars in it. I don’t know what legitimate explanation he could come up with even if he had an answer for the recordings, the emails. It’s just too much.”

“Then there’s no doubt.”

“No.”

“So… who do you think he’s working with?”

That was the tricky part. “Do you know this Petey J?”

“He’s the foreman over at Rocking D. He’s born and raised around here, just like most of the ranch hands in the area. Mom still lives in Milsap.”

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