Page 26 of Trust No One

The realization made him feel like something he’d scrape off the bottom of his shoe. He didn’t want long term, didn’t want to commit to anyone, but Mel deserved better from him. He should have been more discreet. More selective about who he banged after they opened the company in Montana. More careful about walking into the compound, smelling of sex and cheap perfume.

Instead, he’d given Mel a front-row seat to his screwing around. A brutal one-two punch after unceremoniously dumping her when she’d told him she loved him.

Yeah, he’d been an ass. But in his defense, he’d told her he didn’t do long term. Told her not to fall for him.

Maybe he should have been more vocal about it. More forceful.

Too late now. He’d play the hand he’d dealt himself and focus on protecting Mel on this op. He’d get her safely back to their compound – no. He clenched his teeth. Tohercompound. Or die trying.

* * *

Mel glanced at Dev as he strolled beside her through the neighborhood of well-kept older homes and tried to loosen his grip on her hand. She didn’t want to hold his hand like they were lovers or something, but Dev was right. She didn’t have a choice.

Or something. They’d played at it pretty well in the back seat of that sedan. Well enough to fool whoever’d been watching them. She suspected it had been Kingsley. The guy she remembered wouldn’t trust his safety and his life to anyone else. That’s why he’d lasted so long at the CIA without being caught.

His get-out-of-jail card had just expired. She wouldn’t rest until he was in CIA custody, answering for his crimes. Held accountable for all the people he’d killed or had killed. All the lives he’d ruined.

Dev squeezed her hand a little. “Car approaching from behind us. I was going to pretend that we were looking at the house, but if this is the same person who was watching us at the mall, he wouldn’t buy it. He’d expect us to be rushing back to the hotel and a big bed.

“This house has a big-ass tree on the parkway,” he murmured. “Pretend like you’re overcome with lust and push me against the trunk.”

Mel rolled her eyes at him, but she dragged him over to the tree. Put her mouth against his. “My hair all hidden?” she whispered.

“Yep. Not a strand of red showing.” He slid one finger beneath the cap and caressed her scalp, and heat rushed through her body.

The car slowed down as it neared the house, but the tree was big enough to mostly hide them. As it rolled slowly past the big colonial, Dev maneuvered them so their backs were facing the car.

Mel ordered her body not to respond to Dev’s, but her muscles softened and she opened her mouth to him. He swept one hand down to her ass and snugged her more tightly against him. In spite of her efforts to control herself, she knew Dev had noticed the tiny gasp she made. The way her body had melted into his.

The car slowed even more as it rolled past them. Mel didn’t look, pretending to be lost in the moment with Dev. The car behind them stopped for a nanosecond at the stop sign on the corner, then accelerated. As if it was afraid someone in the house would open the door and spot him. She turned her head just enough to see a silver sedan speeding away.

When she couldn’t hear the car any longer, she and Dev stepped back onto the sidewalk. Her head was on a swivel as they walked quickly to their hotel, but there was no sign of the sedan. They made it back to their own hotel and scanned the lot, looking for anyone sitting in a car. Didn’t see the silver sedan or any watchers, and slipped in through the back door.

They hurried up the stairs to their rooms, listening for footsteps following them. Heard nothing.

As they approached their rooms, Mel eased her Glock out of her pocket. Beside her, Dev did the same. She unlocked her door first, then kicked it open and stepped inside, holding her gun in front of her.

The room had been made up while they were out, and there were no signs that anything had been disturbed.

“I’ve got the bathroom,” Dev said as he stepped into the room.

Mel whipped open the closet door. Found nothing but the hangers on the closet rod swaying and clanking together.

“Okay, your room’s clean,” Dev said. “Let’s go check out mine.”

They repeated the steps in his room and found nothing disturbed. Mel said, “I’ll go into my room and open the connecting door. Then we’ll talk.”

Moments later, Dev walked into her room and threw himself into the desk chair. “Where do we stand?” he asked.

Mel paced the room, glancing out the window every time she passed it. “I want to know what the second car was. I didn’t notice one behind us after we got on the interstate. Did you?”

Dev shook his head. “Nope. Whoever it was, he was good. Kept far enough back to be virtually invisible. You think it was Kingsley in the silver sedan?”

“Yeah,” Mel said, walking back to the window and checking the parking lot again. Nothing different from the last time she’d looked. “I have no idea who his buddy was, but probably someone who’s not involved in his dealings. Kingsley wouldn’t trust anyone. He’d pick some naïve newby and tell him it was a training exercise.” She sighed. “I misjudged him in Kabul. Thought he was nothing more than a bureaucrat, trying to do as little work as possible and look as good as possible. I totally missed who he was.”

“You and every other CIA agent at the embassy,” Dev said, sprawling in the office chair. “We didn’t see anything about him that was suspicious.”

Mel shook her head slowly. “Maybe we did. Remember when Laila spied on that meeting in Al Kamen, the town she was in? She saw a guy arrive in a car, dressed like an Afghani but wearing expensive shoes that didn’t match his outfit. A badly-tied turban. And his teeth were bright white. She was suspicious, but we didn’t have anything to go on. I wonder now if that might have been Kingsley. Was he working with the Russians? Trying to undermine U.S. interests?”

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