Page 53 of Sweet Little Spies

Papa was also the one who would draw this out with sarcasm.Dad would be satisfied he’d gotten Tris here, but Papa would want a pound offlesh. “I’m sure it’s information about what the hell your son thinks he’sdoing.”

“I really would like to know, son,” Papa agreed.

“You don’t know what it’s like to be on the outside,”Brianna said quietly.

What was his sister thinking? “Oh, I don’t? I assure youI’ve been on the outside of the most important relationship of my life foryears.”

Brianna’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, won’t anyone think about howhard this has been on Tristan? Poor Tris. They shut him out. Except theydidn’t. They begged you to come home. Like we begged you. You should know I’mthe one who voted against this plan because I think it’s futile. You don’t haveany interest in your family. You’ve moved on.”

What the hell was he doing? He was getting defensive when hewas the one who’d offended. “That’s not true.”

“You’ve missed every event in the last few years,” Briaccused. “Travis had a kid. You weren’t even around to make fun of him or towelcome Colton into the family. Papa had surgery and you weren’t here.”

“What?”

Papa waved a hand. “It was my gallbladder. I don’t evennotice it’s gone. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“It felt like a big deal,” his mother said.

His papa had surgery and he hadn’t even known? Why hadn’tanyone told him? “No one said anything.”

“I didn’t tell anyone because it was a minor surgery, andI’m fine now. I was back in the office a couple of days later.”

What he wasn’t saying was why he’d kept it quiet. Hewouldn’t have done it out of vanity. Or because he didn’t want anyone to make afuss. Papa quite liked a fuss. “You knew Big Tag would force me to come home.”

“I knew he would try, and at the time I didn’t want theanswer to the question of how hard you would fight him,” Papa replied. “Ididn’t want to know if you would care or not. I’m afraid I’ve been avoidingsome truths, too, and that’s on me.”

What had his family been through?

He’d gotten so lost. He’d thought what he was doing wasimportant, and then it was dangerous. He’d thought he was sparing them pain,but he’d caused them more.

“I would have come home, Papa.” Was he speaking the truth?“I don’t know. It would have depended, but you should know I care. I love you.I’m just… I can’t talk about it because it’s classified, but it’s a complicatedcase.”

“Yes,” Dad said. “Dealing with international arms dealers iscomplex. It’s even rougher when you’re trying to pose as one to connect somevery nasty dots. Do you have any idea where to look for the bombmaker? Youdidn’t find any intel on his system when you tracked him down?”

Tris felt his jaw drop and knew exactly where to look.“Papa, you can’t hack into the fucking Agency that way. Do you know what theycould do to you?”

There was the sound of the doorbell chiming. Dad glanced athis phone and put his napkin on the table. “There he is.”

“What do you think they’re going to do to me?” Papa asked asDad walked down the hallway.

“Tris, you can’t expect us to sit back and let you ruin yourlife,” his mom said, tears in her eyes. “You are going to lose them. I knowsomewhere in your head you’re justifying this behavior by saying you’reprotecting them, but it won’t matter in the end.”

“I was trying to protect all of you.” What the hell had theydone? “Do you think they can’t ruin Mom’s career if they want to?”

“Why would they want to?” Bri asked. “We have a lot offriends in the intelligence world. You’re pretending we’re on our own. You knowthe twins have made it plain if we need something, we should come to them. Theyprotect all of us and they don’t have to shove us away.”

His sister understood nothing. “They aren’t in the positionI’m in.”

“The position you put yourself in,” Papa corrected.

“We don’t know that, Adam,” his mother said. She had a cupof coffee in front of her but her plate was empty. And not because she’dfinished. “You promised you would go easy on him. We don’t know what he’s beenthrough.”

“I promised I would do whatever it took to get our sonback,” his father replied, and there was a coldness in his tone.

Brianna’s jaw had tightened, and Tristan realized this wasan argument they’d had more than once. Way more than once.

He was tearing his family apart. Somehow he’d thought theywould simply accept that this was his work. Like the work his fathers had done.They’d been Special Forces. But it wasn’t the same. His fathers had takenleave, and after they’d left the military, even when they’d done intelligencework, they hadn’t iced his mom out. Adam Miles and Jacob Dean had beenincredibly present fathers.

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