Page 19 of Operation: Silent Angel
“I should probably put it on now then,” he said, handing the baby to Sienna after he stood. “Mac, step out with me.”
Yvette watched the two men step out onto the back patio, Garcia closing the door behind himself. “Can I help you with anything in the kitchen?”
“No, we have at least forty-five minutes until dinner will be ready,” Sienna said. “He seems nice, Mac.”
“He is. And a good operator too. He’s been in the game a long time.”
“Anthony said you two had a history?” Sienna said as a question.
“Ah, yes. A few at the agency refer to him as my ex.” She paused and chuckled. Then she took a drink of her bourbon. “Calling him my ex suggests there was an end to our relationship. That’s kind of deceptive. It never really ended. Of course, it really wasn’t a relationship that I could explain.” She shook her head and took another drink.
“I can tell it wasn’t just sexual,” Sienna said.
“No, it wasn’t. Imagine meeting your soulmate during a time that neither of you could ever consider having a relationship.” Yvette’s face took on a wistful expression.
“Soulmate,” Sienna repeated. “I’d say it’s a different time and place now, and you both are in a different season of your lives. It might be time to consider it.”
“We’ll see,” Yvette said dismissively with a shrug. “So, tell me about this new potato recipe.”
It was clear to Sienna that Yvette was shutting down that conversation. She wouldn’t press it. But she would talk with Anthony about it that evening after Yvette and Mac left. “The potatoes are cut Hasselback style and placed in individual tinfoil packets. Over the top, olive oil that has been infused with garlic, onion, rosemary, and thyme, is drizzled liberally and of course the potatoes are dusted with salt and pepper before sealing the tin packets. It looks so good. We also seasoned the steaks with the same spices.”
“Okay, I’m really hungry now,” Yvette said. “That does sound really good.”
Sienna smiled and then took another drink of her wine. It wasn’t the red blend they’d brought. She had that bottle open and breathing. It would be served with dinner.
Foxtrot
Driving back to Yvette’s place after dinner, the car was quiet. Yvette could read Mac well enough to know that something was on his mind. “Let’s have it,” she prompted.
“Razor cooks up a good steak.”
“Too domestic for you?”
“You have no fucking idea,” Mac said. “Of all people, I’d never have seen Razor as he was tonight. It was like I was in theTwilight Zone, a weird fucking alternate reality.”
Yvette chuckled. “Things changed at the agency gradually and over time. You didn’t have the benefit of the time passing by slowly as things changed because you weren’t there. So here you are now, seeing the extreme difference.”
“Yeah, I’d agree the differences are extreme.”
“What else? I can tell something else is bothering you.”
“Do you ever feel like you don’t belong?” he posed. “You’re still the same.”
“Am I?” She pulled up to the security gate in the front of her complex and entered her code. The black iron gate rolled open. “No one stays the same when the things and people around them are changing.”
“The state of the world and mission hasn’t changed,” Mac said.
“Sure it has,” she argued. “My scope of all that is different, expanded in many ways as the mission at Shepherd Security now includes a domestic violence rescue operation, a partnership with the DEA to go after high-level dealers and suppliers, and a few other partnerships that are classified higher than your clearance level to tell you about. From Ops, we also safeguard all the family members of the team.”
“I mean the mission out there; keeping democracy intact, taking out the bad guys, dismantling terrorist organizations, keeping China and Russia in check, and making sure the world doesn’t blow itself up.”
“Don’t forget toppling foreign governments and installing leaders we think will be beneficial to our interests, who always seem to turn around and screw us,” she said cynically. “There’s areason I left the CIA, and I thought it was similar to why you did too.”
“There were many reasons I left,” he admitted.
Yvette pulled the car into her driveway and activated her garage door. It opened, and she pulled into her garage. Before exiting the car, she hit the switch again, closing the door. “I’ve never regretted joining Shepherd’s agency. There’s sanity here, a sense we’re doing what’s really important and I never have to wonder what’s the other part of it, the unsaid part, the part we’re not seeing but will come back to bite us in the ass.”
He sighed and got out of the car. “It always came back to bite you in the ass with the CIA. I don’t miss that. Though, I can’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu, knowing full well me doing my job with this mission will probably come back to not only bite me in the ass, but it will also totally fuck me up said ass when I accomplish it.”
