Page 58 of Fire and Ice

"Are you kidding? Of course I am."

Jack's hand curved on the back of her neck, moving her head closer to his.

"No Maia, I'm not kidding," Jack said seriously. "You take way too much risks, it makes my teeth hurt. If I can hide you from the Russian forever I would, but I know you're not the type to stand down. I know that confrontation is coming and babe, I know you say you don't want me involved but I already am. He's after Brett, that makes him my problem too."

"We don't know that for sure, yet. It's all speculative at this point."

"He's after you," Jack added abruptly. "I'm making it my problem."

He bent down to give her a quick kiss, tapped her nose lightly with his finger and turned to go inside.

***

"Well this sucks—storm's abrewing!" Brett declared as he grabbed the remote and punched a button to turn on the TV. He started channel surfing. It was a mostly sunny day but the water was starting to get choppy because a Nor'Easter was making its way up the Atlantic Ocean. It was late Saturday afternoon and the sun was starting to set. They had decided to go out to dinner as it was Grace's day off. The housekeeper had insisted on working that weekend but Jack had sent her home. He had made reservations at a French Bistro in Duck for dinner instead. His mother loved French food anyway.

"It's not hitting us until Sunday evening," Robert told his son. "If we leave tomorrow morning we would have no problem."

"I don't mind riding it out, heck I don't mind whipping out the surf board," Brett said. "Why can't we stay until next week? The news said the storm's going to blow over quickly and it's not going to be too bad."

"Because you're safer at the country house," Jack said in irritation. "It's more isolated."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who was staying there for a week. All I could do there was just listen to the silence. While you, big brother, you've got this place and the girl."

"Christ, Brett, would you let that go?"

Jack stood up to grab a beer from the refrigerator. His brother would drive him to drink. He was surprised Kane Taylor had not strung him up yet what with the way he whined.

Maddox and Smith were keeping a watchful eye from the kitchen. Their guns were within easy reach in a shoulder holster. Taylor and Brody were somewhere in the house or outside, probably doing their routine perimeter checks.

Frances did not fail to express her disapproval of the blatant display of firearms, but after Maia's warning, Jack was not taking any chances. It took a devil of a time convincing his mom and Brett to agree to leave the following day without stating that Brett was still a target.

Just then Maia walked in. She wore a somber expression on her face as she walked up to him. "We need to talk."

He nodded and led her into his study.

"I need to use the control room."

"Why?"

"Viktor needs to videoconference," she said and pulled up a picture on her smartphone. "This was taken yesterday at the dock. It was in a New Park tabloid."

It was a picture of them getting into a sailboat. The main focus was Brett, Jack and his parents were in profile, and Maia had her back to the camera. The caption said: "Star witness Brett McCord back in circulation."

"God damn it!" Jack swore. "When did this come out?"

"This morning."

"Why are we finding out about this now?"

"Jack, AGS has other problems. We can't be on top of everything. This is not a priority."

"Then why are you doing this?"

"I can't believe this! I am doing this as a favor. I should be working on the Baltimore angle, not this."

"It would have helped if you had been more straightforward about information regarding Reznikov."

"That was need to know, it still is. How did I know your family was going to show up? They should know better than to expose themselves like this."

---