Page 70 of Betrayed

Chapter 19

AN HOUR LATER, HE SATacross from Mari in the Rossi conference room. Her posture was rigid, her gaze pointedly looking anywhere but at him. After he laid out his plan to turn up the heat on Adriana, hoping in her panic to cover her ass that she’d lead them to her associates, his words were met with a stony silence.

“We’ll need you to play your part,” Arturo advised, “but we’ll keep you safe. This I promise.”

When she spoke, she acted as though he wasn’t in the room and addressed Jonas.

“I don’t want to work with him. I won’t.”

“Yes, Mari. You will,” Arturo countered. “You have no choice.”

Ignoring his growled response, she pleaded with Jonas. “Please. There must be someone else besides him.”

The younger man shook his head, his expression sympathetic and his tone gentle when he replied, “I’m sorry, darlin’, but it’s an MI6 case. The security breaches are directly impacting homeland security in the UK. We’re subcontracted to SIS and Arturo’s our lead.”

She glanced down at her lap again. When he looked over, he saw she had her hand clenched so tightly her knuckles had turned a stark white.

“What if I refuse?”

Arturo answered that as well, remaining calm, although he had the overwhelming urge to scoop her up and hold her in his arms. Once there, he was torn between soothing the justifiable hurt caused by so many, himself included, and turning her over his knee to redden her obstinate backside until she saw reason. Instead, he laid it out straight for her.

“If we have to run this op without you, Adriana potentially walks free and Derek goes down as the lone culprit.”

“And that would be bad how?”

His response was gently scolding. “You don’t mean that. Lives have been lost already. Good men who served their country honorably. The count is low now, but with this technology, and innumerable other secrets they may have sold, many more could die. Innocents like you that are caught up in things they know nothing about. And Adriana is complicit in all of it, more so than Derek, since she recruited him. Would you see her get off scot-free?”

That got to her. He could tell by the greenish tinge that crept into her face and the tears welling in her lovely eyes. If it were possible, he’d kill Derek Hoffman all over again for embroiling her in this mess.

She spoke quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. “I didn’t know Adri recruited Derek.”

“Working as the VP’s assistant, she made contacts, serious contacts, but they needed someone involved in R&D. Businesses run credit checks all the time on employees. Derek was low-hanging fruit with his mountains of debt.”

“Ripe for the picking,” she concluded.

“Exactly.”

“I feel like it’s my fault. He did this for me and the kids.”

“Stop it,” he insisted. “You are innocent in this. Did you ask him to lie, cheat, or to steal top secret intelligence and sell it to terrorists? The only role you have in this mess is to help put Adriana away for good.”

Her innate sense of right and wrong won out the next moment. “What do I have to do?”

Arturo quickly explained the operation. Mari’s role was simple, confide in Adri that a man, a foreigner, had been in touch, wanting to meet with her about a special research project he and Derek had been working on before his death.

“And how will that help?”

“Add to it,” Jonas inserted, “that he is interested in his research and notes, including computer files, and that he promised to compensate you well for your trouble.”

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