Page 9 of Trust No One

“I take Kingsley very seriously. I’ll help you take him down. You need someone ruthless. Someone who can see past his mild-mannered appearance. Someone who knows how truly evil Kingsley is.”

He shoved his hands through his hair. “I’ve let you down way too much, Mel. Let me do this for you.”

God, she hated that Dev was right. Hated that his argument made sense. Mel sighed. Closed her eyes, then opened them and sat up straight. “No matter how much sense your arguments make, I want you out of my life, Dev. So I can forget about you. This is not how I want to do it.”

She’d known Dev long enough that she could read his expression clearly.He doesn’t want me to forget about him.

But he was too smart to actually say that. “You can forget about me when Kingsley’s behind bars. Larrimore, too.”

He leaned toward her over the desk. “Kingsley’s a threat to you. As soon as he knows you’re after him, he’ll try to kill you. You won’t be safe until he’s stopped. I know what a worm he is. I know his tactics. None of our other agents know anything about Kingsley.

“I’lltake him seriously. I won’t underestimate him. You need me, Mel.”

“I needed you for a long time, but you never delivered for me,” she said wearily. She couldn’t believe she was actually considering his demand.

“I know,” he said, surprising the hell out of her. “By your standards, I was a shit boyfriend.” He studied his hands, then finally lifted his head. Held her gaze. “In my defense, though, you knew who I was. But you got involved with me anyway. And if you fell in love with me? That’s on you. I never wanted the happily-ever-after thing, and I made that clear.

“But this? Icando this for you. Let me help you. Let me do this with you,” he said. “Let me help you take Kingsley down. Then, if you want me gone, I’ll walk away.” He pulled the check from his pocket and pushed it toward her. “You can even keep this big check. I don’t want it.”

“Hell, no,” she said immediately. “I’m paying you for your share of Blackhawk Security. I don’t want any strings when you walk away. And leaving that check with me? That’s not a string. That’s a fucking rope.”

She shoved the check toward him with two fingers. “Unless you take this check, right now, I’m tossing you out of the compound and never letting you back in.”

“So, I take the check back, and you let me take down Kingsley with you?”

“I’ll think about it,” she said.

He held out his hand. “Give me the check.”

She held his gaze for what felt like hours. Finally she jerked her chin at the check sitting between them. “Take it and get out of my office,” she said, her voice hard. “You can stay in the compound until I’ve made my decision, but I don’t want to see you. Understand?” She leaned toward him. “And don’t ever come into my office again without being invited.”

She stared at him until he nodded. “Got it, Mel.” He turned and walked out the door. But as he pulled it shut, he turned back to her. Held her gaze for a long moment that was… unsettling. Then he pulled the door closed with a quiet click.

Mel stared at the door until the sound of Dev’s footsteps faded completely, then she turned to her computer. She’d dig up all the information she could find on both Kingsley and his buddy Larrimore.

If those two traitors had been selling out American troops before Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, she’d lay odds they were selling out something or someone else now that Americans were no longer in Afghanistan. Kingsley and Larrimore had gotten used to extra money in their bank accounts. They weren’t about to let that income stream dry up.

So she’d start digging today. Find out which pies those two weasels had their fingers in. She smiled grimly as she pulled her computer toward her. If they were doing something rotten, she’d find out. And she’d stop them.

* * *

Two days later, Mel sat back in her desk chair and stared at the computer screen. There was a reason people like her followed the money. Because scum like Kingsley and Larrimore could always be counted on to be taking money for their betrayals.

Kingsley was in a league of his own. He had over a hundred million dollars stashed in Swiss banks. He also owned houses in Germany, France, Switzerland and Ireland. None in his name – they were all owned by layers of corporations – but Mel hadn’t stopped digging until she found the person who’d set up those corporations.

Mel’s foot jittered as she looked at the numbers on the screen. European property? Smart. The extradition laws were complicated, and someone with almost unlimited funds could live for a long time overseas while he fought extradition.

Or he could simply vanish to another continent and start over somewhere new. Somewhere with a more relaxed attitude about criminal actions.

Larrimore, on the other hand, was clearly the weaker link. He had a few million dollars, and the only property she found in his name was a house in a small village in England’s Lake District. Apparently, he thought if he buried himself in the English countryside, people like Mel would have a hard time finding him.

Mel tapped her fingers on her desk as she stared at the computer screen. She needed to talk to someone at the CIA. Someone high enough to be able to interpret these findings for her. Tilting back her chair, she closed her eyes and ran through her mental Rolodex of the people she knew in the agency. People she was reasonably sure were on the level. Honest.

Someone who’d loathe what Kingsley was doing as much as she did.

She mentally reviewed everyone she knew at the CIA. Ran through them one by one, assessing their character and their susceptibility to bribery and covering up other people’s misdeeds.

The name she ended up with was Simon Livingston. He’d been at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. He was career CIA, and good at his job. And, more important, he was honest. She’d never heard as much as a whisper about Simon being on the take. About being corrupt.

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