Page 86 of Jael

“It’s not what you think.”

“It’s exactly what I think. You turned up at my dad’s door, pretending to be his friend so you could get dirt on him? And you did it forthem.”

“It isn’t about him or you. It’s about the Siseras.”

“I don’t care who it’s about— Wait, is that why you rejected me? Because I wasn’t part of the strategy? Is that why you rejected me all those years ago?”

“I’m not an agent, and I only started working with them after I left your dad.”

“Why? Why would you do that?”

“Partly to reduce my prison sentence and partly because there were bad men in the world that needed to be locked up.”

“Bad men like my dad. Why wasn’t he arrested?”

“They weren’t interested in him. They had bigger issues at the time.”

“But you would have?”

“I—I don’t know. I never had to make that choice.”

She scoffed. “This just gets better and better.”

“If you take time to cool down, you’ll understand. You’re helping people to make up for what you did in the past. I was doing the same. I was doing what I could to stop more people from getting hurt.”

“And what about you? Weren’t you one of those people? Why did you deserve to get off easy?”

“I didn’t. I would have taken the prison sentence if that’s what was on offer. But I got the chance to make a difference.”

She would have screamed if there wasn’t so much at stake. But she couldn’t afford to lose her head. She turned away from him to catch her breath. It was a shocking revelation, but one that she could use to her advantage. She had to.

“You said the FBI is after Artus and Christopher?” she said.

“Yes. No one can get close to Artus. They needed another way in, so they asked me to get close to you and your dad as an entry point.”

“My dad considered Artus a friend, but he couldn’t have helped you get close to Artus. You only got as far as that job with Christopher, which didn’t go well from what I understand.”

“That was never the plan. I had hoped it was a better opening, but I underestimated what a terrible person Christopher is.”

“I can’t believe this.” Jael barked a laugh. “So you say you had another plan? What was that?”

“The woman who asked me to come back?—”

“What woman?”

“Deborah Mills.”

“She works for the FBI?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s her role?”

When he hesitated, she braced herself.

“She’s the deputy director.”

“Wow,” she mocked. “You know people in high places. I’m impressed.”

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