Page 7 of Soldier, Tailor, Spy

“What the hell happened, Ginger?” He kept his tone level and his voice soft. She didn’t need his scorn or judgement. She was fragile. Still precious to him. “How the fuck did we get here.”

She placed her head on his chest as she cried. “We both know how we got here, Jake. Our misguided attempts to shelter each other and move on.”

Yeah. Talk about hitting the mark. “You’re right. I did more damage than good.”

“Knock it off, asshole,” Ginger snapped. “I hated you for leaving Fawn and me. I hated you more when you worked harder for Asher than you did seeing your daughter. Then, you went and came home. You turned our world upside down. Turned me inside out when you started coming round again. How do you know Wyatt? How did you see everything? What the hell is going on?”

The crack in her voice as the front of his hospital gown grew damp from her tears shredded him. The truth would hurt more, but he also couldn’t lie to her. “Would you believe I’ve been working security for the last four years?”

Ginger jerked away from him. “You’re joking. Jake...”

“No joke.” He tugged her back down to him. “I saw they needed people and took the job. It was the perfect way to watch over my girls without having you notice.”

“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you want me to know you were there?” She looked up at him, her blue-green eyes red from crying. Her cheeks were a blotchy mess, yet she was perfect to him.

“Atonement,” he whispered. “I was trying to make up for all the stupid shit I’ve done to harm you and Fawn over the years. I know I’m a stupid son of a bitch, and I know I ruined a good thing when I had you. Ginger, I can’t tell you how sorry I am for what I’ve caused.”

“Are you saying what happened now is because of you?” She quirked a brow. “Because the guy who held Oscar at gunpoint knew him. Not you.”

Well, shit. That wasn’t the answer he was expecting from his ex-wife. Not in the least. He wondered, while lying there, if there was a connection between Oscar and whoever killed him, but sometimes, in their line of work, two and two didn’t make four. He knew when he started digging into Oscar’s background and couldn’t find a damn thing on the man, as if everything had been scrubbed from his record, there was trouble.

“Did you tell Asher that?” Jake hedged, trying not to push his ex-wife, not after everything she’d been through. “He’ll want to know so he can help us.”

“No. I talked to him briefly after everything, but he’s given Fawn and me room to gather ourselves.” She sat up again and turned to Jake. “I feel like, after all this, I never knew Oscar at all.” She sobbed. “How can that be? We’ve been together for several years. You’d think after us being married, I’d have seen the signs of Oscar being part of something nefarious. But, with him, I saw nothing.”

“He’s a Fed or well, was a Federal Agent,” Jake answered. “That’s about all I know as well.”

“No.” Ginger shook her head. “Oscar was a forensic accountant. I have the number for his office and everything. He wasn’t FBI.”

Oh, how innocent his ex-wife was. Oscar must have kept her in the dark, too. “Ginger, I need you to listen to me when I say this. Oscar was FBI. His partner Thomas is at the house now combing the remains for clues as to what happened and who Oscar was investigating without his partner knowing.”

“None of this makes sense, Jake.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “He told me he was an accountant. We went to dinner with his associates. I don’t know a Thomas. I—” She bit her bottom lip as it trembled. “What is wrong with me that everyone has to lie to me?”

Fuck. With one question, she’d eviscerated him. “Not a damn thing. You don’t deserve this. I’ve always told you; you deserve better than me. Better than the lies I told you to keep you safe. No matter the outcome, I will finish this, and I will find out what happened and what Oscar was really into.”

“I want to be there when you question the person Asher captured,” Ginger stated. “I overheard him talking to you about him—them. Please, Jake, I need to see with my own eyes who killed Oscar and tried to kill me and my kids. Can you give me that?”

Could he? He didn’t know. It wasn’t up to him. Asher was in control of who talked to the prisoners, whether they were there for a short time or forgotten. His commander was always in control of who came and went from the cells. More so after one of Lincoln’s men choked on cyanide and the rest had to have their teeth removed so they couldn’t do the same. “It’s up to Asher. He calls the shots in the cells. Interviewing whoever he has in lockup is a courtesy to me, due to how we ended up here.”

“Well,” Ginger sniffed, “I want in. I should be allowed to see the man who tried to kill me and killed Oscar. It’s only fair.”

The door opened and Asher stepped back into the room with a soot covered Thomas and AJ. All three wore grim expressions on their face. AJ carried a small fireproof safe. If Ginger knew what was inside or where it’d been stored, she gave nothing away as she stared at both people.

“We found this among the debris at the house.” Thomas looked at Ginger. “Do you know what Oscar kept in here?”

She stared at the box, then up at Thomas. She shook her head. “No. Who are you again?”

Thomas frowned. His brow furrowed, as if he’d been sure Ginger would know him. “I’m Oscar’s partner, was, as it stands. We’d been working together for almost two years now. Though, I have to say, he never told me he was married, nor did he tell me you were his wife.”

She gave a sardonic laugh and shook her head. “He never told me you were an agent, nor did he tell me you were his partner. In fact, he introduced me to his boss, people from his firm, and clients. The only reason I believe any of this, and I’m not running screaming at the top of my lungs, is because of Asher and Jake.”

“Be that as it may,” Thomas said, “we have a genuine emergency on our hands. Oscar was FBI. I’m not sure what he was doing either, other than, whatever it was, the office hadn’t sanctioned it. Couldn’t have.”

Every word out of Thomas’ mouth was another red flag for Jake. No one knew what Oscar was doing. He told Ginger about business associates that probably didn’t exist any longer. Whatever the guy had been doing, it was only going to get worse, Jake feared. “Ginger, did you know about this safe?”

She shook her head. “No, Oscar locked his office. I understood the need to do so. He’s a forensic accountant after all, which means dealing with enormous sums of money and clients who might not want the public to know about them. None of us were allowed into that room. Not even while he was in there.”

Another red flag.

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