Page 39 of Sweet Little Spies

“Yep,” Kala revealed. “And my dad wanted to call yourparents in the same way he did Uncle Sean and Aunt Grace and Aidan’s parents.Guess who pulled the ‘I’m a professional’ card?”

Brianna groaned. “Well, it’s his fault now because he seemsto have forgotten who our parents are. Mom is not the most patient woman, andshe married two guys who would do anything for her. I’m supposed to go to theirplace for brunch tomorrow. I’ll see if I can mitigate the damage. Good night.”

Bri walked out.

“Now I kind of want to kill him myself,” Kala said with ahuff.

She turned to her murderiest cousin. “Somehow I think himdying would make things worse.”

“Well, it wasn’t like he was trying to avoid it.” Kenzie’seyes had widened. “I couldn’t believe he stood there while they were shooting.It’s a miracle all he got was a scratch.”

“Has he always been this reckless?” She realized what she’dasked and backed down. “Sorry. You can’t answer.”

The twins exchanged a look, and then Kenzie turned her way.

“He was known in Army intelligence for being super reliable.Like Tris was the guy who did his job and did it well. He was the dot all theI’s and cross the t’s guy. He was also passed over for Agency work because itwas deemed he had too many close ties to really do the job.”

“They were looking at him pretty much from the time hejoined the military,” Kala explained. “Because of who his fathers are.”

Jacob Dean and Adam Miles had been Special Forces at onepoint, but Carys knew it was what they’d done after they left the military thatlikely made the Agency interested in Tristan. After years at McKay-Taggart,they’d formed their own company along with some other brilliant minds.Miles-Dean, Weston, and Murdoch was known for cutting-edge facial recognitionsoftware every intelligence agency would like to get their hands on.

“From what I understand, the Agency discussed bringing himin early, but after consideration they decided he wasn’t morally gray enough,”Kala explained, winking her sister’s way. “We didn’t have the same problem. Youshould know something. Kenz and I are the only ones on the team the Agencyactively recruited. Everyone else was brought in as backup. Cooper McKay wouldnever have been considered if we hadn’t insisted on it. And neither wouldTris.”

Carys was confused. “Why? I guess I don’t understand whatyou mean by morally gray. I get it in a romance novel hero sense, but not here.I mean everything you do, it’s to protect your country.”

“Of course,” Kenzie said.

“Eh,” came Kala’s reply. “I mean, sure. But it’s about howfar we’re willing to go. The big bosses didn’t think Tris would be willing togo far enough.”

“Well, he showed them, didn’t he?” It hurt when she thoughtabout it. This could have been avoided.

Or maybe he always would have changed.

“I tell you this because once he started working with myteam, he signaled a willingness to work outside it as well,” Kala continued.“Tristan has some very specific skills.”

“He’s addicted to the Dark Web.” He always had been. Even asa kid she’d known how dangerous it could be.

“He’s an excellent hacker,” Kala corrected. “He’s good atputting things together and gathering intel. Turns out he’s good at tracking asignature.”

“And pretending to be someone he’s not,” Kenzie finished,and she studied Carys for a moment. “Have you thought about the fact that he’sbasically been undercover for two and a half years? He didn’t think it would bethis long, didn’t think he would have to go so deep. Sometimes when an agent isundercover for so long, they take on aspects of the character they’re playing.They kind of have to in order to survive. Tris became incredibly secretive.”

“And reckless,” Kala added. “He wasn’t as reckless in thebeginning but lately… Well, I’ve been worried we’re going to bury him. The onlyone he talks to is Zach.”

She’d seen the handsome Army captain at The Hideout, butshe’d never spent much time with him. “They don’t act like the closest offriends when he’s in town.”

Kenzie sat back against the headboard. “I think they do iton purpose. They’re both technically Army intelligence. At least that’s what itsays on the books. Cooper is technically military, too, but what he does islogistics and transportation.”

“The point is there’s a lot we don’t know, but we’re worriedabout Tris,” Kala continued. “You’re now a part of this, and since we’ll bewith you, I need to know how hard a bodyguard I’m supposed to be.”

“Well, I would prefer not to die,” Carys replied.

“She means do you really want us to keep Tristan away fromyou? Right now he’s planning on going in as Aidan’s bodyguard,” Kenzieclarified.

“How can he do that?” Carys was confused on how all thisworked. “If this doctor person knows about the wedding, how could he not knowabout Tris? I know when he entered the Agency they scrubbed him off socials,but there are still records of him.”

The first awful indication life had changed because ofTristan’s job had been waking up to all her socials being taken over. Shewasn’t a slave to her socials, but they had been a way to memorialize some ofthe nice parts of her life. She’d woken up one morning and they’d been changed.All the pictures of Tristan had been gone. All her posts about him, messages tohim…simply gone.

It should have let her know how the next years of her lifewere going to go.

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