Page 47 of The Only Reason (The Trident Trilogy 2)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Mason

Virginia Beach, Virginia

2020

“Shut up, Mason. Shut up and let me finish,” Raine says, quickly looking over her shoulder again.

“Shut up? Really? Someone has started feeling herself a little more in the few months I’ve been gone.” I stop laughing when she grabs my shoulders and leans closer to my face. Raine is ultra-professional. There is absolutely no way she would ever touch me, especially not like this.

“I don’t have much time. I think he’s watching me. Shut up and let me finish,” she says. “There’s something off. I don’t know what it is yet, but something’s not right. The agent Alex they sent in for this—it’s really suspicious. He and Millie have a history. It’s a weird choice for this assignment. I don’t trust him at all.”

“What do you mean they have a history?”

“She met him when we were first at the agency. They dated for about a year.” She pauses for a second. “She really needs to tell you the rest.”

“Raine. Just tell me.”

She shakes her head and sighs. “Fine. When he got transferred to Moscow, he asked her to go with him.” She looks away from me. “He proposed to her. She said no. It got sticky.”

“Sticky how?”

“He was pissed. He stalked her for a while. More than normal breakup stuff. He was obsessed.”

“So you think she feels uncomfortable having him around? It’s only for a few days.” I’m trying to process why Millie would date such a douche, but I’m not understanding the urgency in Raine’s voice. “I’ll take care of her. I won’t let him do anything to her.”

“No. It’s more than that,” she says, starting to pace. “He gave us a pep talk about how we needed to be loyal to the agency—at the expense of our partnership with the teams. It was a real “them or us” kind of vibe. It’s off. I can’t explain.”

“Does he know Millie and I are together? Maybe he’s just marking his territory. It’s a guy thing. It’s no big deal,” I say, shrugging.

“Mason. What have you said about my intuition?”

“That it’s freaky.”

“That it’s freaky accurate. Trust my intuition on this. Something is off.”

I take a deep breath. “Did she tell you about her dad?”

“What about her dad?” She scrunches up her face and grabs the side of my locker wall like she’s bracing for a hurricane-force wind.

“That George guy she works for told her he might still be alive.”

“Excuse me? What the fuck!” she says, slamming her hand against the wall. “I wondered why she changed her mind about coming back. George is an asshole. He will play any card to win.”

“That’s what Chase and I told her.”

“Chase? You mean her dad’s friend?” She stops herself from saying more.

“Yeah. Why? Does that mean something to you?”

“No. It’s just . . . you know, I met him when they got back from Bosnia.”

She’s not nearly as good a liar as Millie is. “Raine, what are you holding back?”

She looks at me blankly. “I don’t know enough to tell you. Really. I’m supposed to be briefed on something this afternoon that apparently involves Chase.”

“Huh,” I say, stroking my beard. “I can’t imagine what Chase’s involvement would be in this. He’s been retired for a while now. Did you know George was the spook assigned to his team—to Millie’s dad’s team?”

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