Page 79 of No More Spies

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Kala sank down on the bench Joyce had placed in front of thefirepit someone had dug. Given how perfectly precise and deep that sucker was,she was betting it hadn’t been Joyce. She noticed the way Joyce held her rifle.She was firm and had a steady hand, but she hadn’t held the rifle above themiddle of her chest even though she’d been below them. The older woman alsoavoided shifting her left shoulder when she’d set down her pack and welcomedthem into camp. She had an old shoulder injury according to her records—yes,she’d read them—and it looked like it definitely still bothered her. Shewouldn’t be able to lift the shovel enough to dig a pit as deep as the one infront of them.

Zach was here somewhere, and she had to pray he didn’t run.

He saved Lou and Aidan when he didn’t have to. He talked toLou. Maybe he would talk to her.

But first she was going to work Joyce for every bit of intelshe could, and she would use the woman’s obvious love for her dad. “This isnice. I haven’t spent a lot of time in this park, but I did go hiking andcamping in the national forest land around Bliss.”

Joyce sat down on an old camp chair across the pit from Kalaand Coop. Cooper had immediately taken the seat beside Kala, his big presencereminding her she wasn’t alone in this op. Nope. She had a keeper, and he mightnot like the way she played this game.

“Oh, I love that town. I sometimes work in Creede. Just tempjobs where they need me. And sometimes the lodge on Elk Creek Pass has seasonalwork.” Joyce sat back. “I love it here, but it’ll be too cold soon. I’ll haveto move on to Arizona and California. The desert is beautiful, too.”

“I bet it is. How long have you been on the road?” Kalaasked.

Cooper turned his head her way and gave her a grin and awink that saidyou’re doing great, babe.

She was pretending to be her sister. Everyone loved Kenzie.Everyone talked to Kenzie. Kenzie cared about people.

Although it wasn’t like she hated the woman in front of her.Not at all. Joyce seemed kind. Kala cared about Zach, and this woman had beenhis rock. Was she pretending to be Kenz or was she simply uncomfortable withthe part of herself that actually wanted to know Joyce’s story? If she knewJoyce’s story, she would probably like her for herself and liking people…it washard.

Cooper had said she felt deeply. Cooper knew her. Was heright and she was being a coward because caring about people meant openingherself up to hurt? Because the truth of the matter was, she did want to knowJoyce’s story, the one beyond what was in her file. She wanted to know why sheroamed the way she did when once she’d had a place to live and roots.

She also wanted to know why she kept staring at Cooper likehe was some golden god of a man deigning to visit her home. Joyce wasn’t eventrying to take her eyes off him.

The older woman seemed to realize she was staring and shookit off, moving her attention back to Kala. “Oh, I started van life years ago. Inever liked to stay in one place too long. It was what I loved about the Army.Never stayed at a base more than a year or two and then we moved out.”

“You had a stellar record,” Cooper pointed out. “I’msurprised you left.”

Her eyes were back on him, concentrating in a way that madeKala uncomfortable. Like she was looking for something in his eyes.

Or Cooper was a work of art and she could still see andappreciate him.

She needed to tamp down her jealousy. Tolerance was more ofa Kenzie trait. She could do it. She didn’t have to plant a flag and defend herterritory from an elderly woman who in all other ways seemed super sweet.

“I didn’t want to. I had to. My sister got into sometrouble,” she said quietly. “Shannon was ten years younger than me. Our mommacalled her an accident, and not a happy one. I’m afraid I was more of a motherto her than our own. By the time she came along, Mom was bitter and angry allthe time. She would tell Shannon that she only had her to spite her biologicalfather.”

Sometimes she was reminded how lucky she had it. Her parentswere all kinds of awesome.

And weird. Not normal. Not normal did not mean bad.

She’d picked up another inner voice lately, but it was kindof at war with the others. With the ones that told her not normal wasn’t bad,but she was. Her sessions with Lena had concentrated on how useful she was tothe Agency since she didn’t have much of a moral compass. Lena had even madesome reference to her father Dextering her—putting her talents to good usesince it would be so easy for someone like her to go bad.

It wasn’t anything she hadn’t heard before, but lately itbugged her.

She’d had all the love she could have gotten, so why was shestill the way she was?

“What kind of trouble?” Cooper asked.

Joyce’s gaze moved back to Kala. “He likes to pretend,doesn’t he?”

See, now she liked the woman again. “It goes with being ashot as he is. He thinks he’s a good liar. Obviously, I’ve read a dossier onyou. So has he. We wouldn’t be here without all the intel we could find.”

She nodded. “Good, then maybe you can explain what’s goingon with Zach. He won’t say a damn thing beyond he’s on leave, but I don’tbelieve him. Something’s gone wrong. I have to wonder if his damn father ain’tback in the picture. Or if it’s… Well, the fact that he’s here tells me a lot.”

Oh, she was interested in all of those words. She wasn’tsure what Zach being here told Joyce since she’d asked Kala why he was here,but she’d become confused a couple of times already. Kala zeroed in on whatseemed the most important thing. “Zach’s dad is in the picture? From what myfather discovered, it was a boyfriend who got Shannon in trouble. She was achemistry student, right?”

“She was the smartest person I ever met,” Joyce said with asigh. “Sometimes I think her life would have been easier if she hadn’t beenbrilliant. It’s hard to know so much more than the people around you and tostill be stuck in a dismal existence. Our mom put food on the table but notmuch else. I would work after school so we could buy clothes. Momma spent allthe extra money trying to find some new man who would take care of her for morethan a night. When you grow up like that you often react one of two ways. Itput me off any kind of relationship, and my sister only wanted someone to loveher. Wanted to prove she was better than Mom gave her credit for. That girl gota full-ride scholarship to Stanford University. Do you know how hard she workedfor that? I still…I don’t know why she gave it all up for a man. She could havebeen something.”

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