Page 60 of Close Pursuit

Thankfully, she seemed to buy his lie and settled in her seat.

He’d promised her he would never lie to her. He should’ve known it would be his father who made him break that promise. Silently, he renewed his promise to Katie to be honest with her going forward. Not that she was going to like what he said to her when they finally got a chance to be alone and have an honest talk.

Why being honest with her mattered to him, he couldn’t say. After all, she’d been lying to him from day one about who she was and what she wanted from him.

Could it be that he’d actually liked the person he’d been around her when he’d thought she was innocent and kind and normal?

He held his breath through the entire takeoff and climb-out to altitude. Huh. They were still alive. Color him surprised.

He spent the entire flight expecting the plane to explode in a giant fireball and white-knuckled the arms of his chair for the entire six-hour flight to Istanbul.

He was not surprised when American embassy staff met them at the end of the jet bridge and escorted them to their connecting flight to London. The pair of beefy, short-haired men wore civilian suits, but they might as well have had signs around their necks saying, “United States Marine Corps bad asses.”

He wondered if they were there to protect him and Katie or to make sure he and Katie got on their flight to the States. Maybe they didn’t want him tarrying in Turkey where they would be responsible for any shenanigans he got up to. Or maybe it was merely another demonstration of Uncle Charlie’s clout within the CIA.

Regardless of the reason for it, he was glad for the protection. They boarded their plane for London without incident.

The same sort of welcoming committee met them at Heathrow and politely booted them out of England, as well.

Twenty-two long hours after they left Tashkent, they finally landed at Dulles. Dawn was fed up with airplanes and went into major meltdown by the time they deplaned. Katie was frazzled with trying to keep the baby happy, and he was just tired.

They disembarked, and nobody ostensibly met them at the gate. Not that he doubted for a second that they were being closely monitored on the airport’s extensive security camera network.

But then, that was ops normal for his life. He was watched everywhere he went.

He had to admit. It wasreallygood to be back on American soil. This was his home turf. Riddled with enemies though America might be, he knew the terrain. Plus, he had rights here. Resources. And the CIA could not legally operate on American soil. Not that such a pesky technicality slowed down the agency by much. They had ways of getting around that law.

Shockingly, the Customs agent let him, Katie, and Dawn pass without any hassles. They had no bags to collect, so they headed directly for a taxi stand.

Katie laughed a little and said, “It feels weird not to be looking over my shoulder for tails.”

“Welcome home,” he commented dryly.

“Well, not technically. I live in Pennsylvania.”

“Will you go there right away?” he asked innocently.

“I figure I’ll have to stick around D.C. for a day or two. The folks at Doctors Unlimited are going to want to hear the details of what happened to us.”

Right. That, and she hadn’t caught him in her CIA snare, yet.

She continued, “I was thinking about trying to find Dawn’s father to let him know she exists.”

Alex lurched. Okay, he hadn’t seen that one coming. He had to give her credit. It was a good cover story. Believable. Credible excuse for sticking around him for a while longer.

Yep. The cookie jar over at Langley was full of smart cookies. No flimsy cover stories for their operatives, no sir.

A cab driver opened his vehicle’s doors for them. “Where to?” he asked.

Katie looked over at Alex. “Can you recommend a hotel for me and Dawn? Something close to the D.U. offices, but not too expensive.” She added ruefully, “I live on a starting nurse’s salary and have student loans to pay off.”

He leaned forward and gave the driver a street address on the border between Georgetown and northwest D.C.

“You’ll stay at my place,” he announced grimly.

“No. I couldn’t!”

“Why not? We’ve been living together for a while, now.”

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