Page 43 of Wild Card (The Trident Trilogy 3)

Millie, Rome, Italy, 2020

As we crawl back in the van, Raine’s waiting with her laptop turned toward us. She’s pointing emphatically at the screen.

“Amina Petrovic is “Mir.” I’m one hundred percent sure. She’s traveled back and forth to Kabul for decades. I don’t know how we missed it. Her travel paperwork says she was visiting family. I’ve identified a great uncle who lived there at one time. But from what I can tell, he was only there for a year on business. He lives in Sarajevo now. Our agents there are tracking him down to question him. How did you leave it with her?”

“She’s mad—which is good. It’ll push her to make a move and hopefully make a mistake,” I say as I take the laptop and start flipping through the travel records. “Apparently, Amar left me some money in his will—specifically some of her family’s money. I let her believe I was considering taking it. I told her I was going to get a blood test to prove paternity. She’s convinced I’m Amar’s daughter.”

Raine touches my arm. “Millie, that doesn’t mean—”

“It doesn’t mean anything. I’m not his daughter. I don’t know what he’s playing at, but I’m not his daughter.” I look around. Everyone’s looking down. “I’m not his daughter—end of discussion. Can we get our focus back on the mission? I dropped some information about Sayid’s journals. She knows he wrote about his ground contact. She doesn’t know if he named her. She’s scared. She’s going to make a move.”

“Brad’s already set a watch around her house,” Raine says.

“Yeah, we need to wait to see what she does. If she doesn’t take the bait, I’ll come back over here and whip her up a little bit more.”

Raine nods as we all settle in for the ride to our villa. Mason’s squeezing my hand extra tight. I know he’s starting to believe Amar might be my dad. If we were alone, I would get into it with him, but now’s not the time. And frankly, I’m too tired to even concentrate on it right now. The van pulls up to a gated villa on a quiet, tree-lined street. I’m assuming this is one of the agency’s safe houses.

“Not much protection here,” Hawk says, looking up and down the street as Brad opens the courtyard gate for us.

“It’s Rome, not the Middle East,” Brad says sarcastically and then switches his tone quickly when Hawk looks over at him. “We like to try to blend in here. As far as anyone’s concerned, you’re tourists. Raine, our command center is set up in the guest house over there. Sorry, Millie, you don’t have agency credentials anymore. You won’t have access.”

“Brad—”

“No, Raine, it’s fine,” I say, looking from Brad to her. “He’s right. Have at it and let me know if you need anything.”

“The entire third floor is yours—four bedrooms and a sitting area,” Brad says, nodding at the front door. “There’s an elevator to the left as you walk in.”

The guys and I head upstairs and throw our bags in rooms. Mason follows me into a bedroom and puts his bag next to mine. I guess we’re going to share a room. He looks over and sees me looking down at his bag.

“We can share a room. It’s no big deal.” He closes the door behind us. “Are you going to take a nap?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want me to stay up here with you?” He pulls me into a hug.

“Mase, we can’t have sex,” I say against his chest. “We need to keep some level of professionalism.”

He pushes me back, laughing. “I think only one of us is talking about sex right now.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m pretty sure both of us are thinking about it.”

“Yeah, guilty.” He gets down on my eye level. “Now, do you want to talk about why Amar Petrovic named you in his will?”

“No.” I look directly at him. “What? Do you think he’s my dad now? I thought we were on the same page.”

“We are on the same page, but I think it’s weird that you’re in his will. I mean, what other reason could he have for doing that?”

“I don’t know,” I say, falling onto the bed. “Maybe he feels guilty about something related to Mom.”

“We haven’t seen the will.” He sits down next to me and starts rubbing my stomach. Somehow, he always anticipates when it’s getting upset. “Maybe his wife was lying about it.”

“No, she wasn’t lying. It’s the reason she wanted to talk to me. She doesn’t want any of her family money going to me. My name’s definitely in the will. We just have to figure out why.”

“I guess the only person who knows why is Amar, and God knows where he is by now,” he says slowly. “Mills, maybe when we get back, you should have a blood test and find out for sure.”

“What?” I say, sitting up quickly. “Are you being serious right now?”

“No, I mean, just to verify it, so you don’t have to worry about it—”

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