Page 17 of Justified Lies (TFH Team Bravo #3)

She put a little more emphasis on the word boss for a reason.

There was no reason on Earth that Conner would leave them behind.

Warner was a former SEAL, so she knew the two of them would never abandon their agents.

Marv had done just that. It was CIA protocol to deny everything.

They knew that going in, but she had never thought he would do that to them.

Naive? Yes, but he had always been a part of the family.

“I just want to talk to you about your partner.”

“Ian?”

Ian’s eyes narrowed as he studied her. She was thankful she had decided not to put the phone on speaker. The former MI-6 agent was usually very chill, but the anger she saw in his gaze told her that he would have probably lost it if he had heard this discussion first-hand.

“Yeah, I’ve been checking him out.”

That had her blinking.

“Why would you worry about him?”

“You know, I think of you and El as part of my family.”

“I understand, but Dillon hires only the best.”

There was a pause. “That’s what I understood Green was there doing.”

“Oh, was he? TFH stopped by to ask me about him, but they didn’t say what he was doing on the island.”

“Everyone I talked to told me that he was there for an interview.”

“If he had one, I have no idea,” she said, lying easily. “But then, El and I were off the island for a job.”

“Oh, okay. Well, now that I know you’re okay, I need to get back to work.”

“Thanks for checking in.”

She hung up. “That was hella weird.”

“What?” El asked.

“It was like he was fishing for information. What do we know about David Scott?”

“Who is that?” Ian asked. “And don’t think you’re getting off that easily. I will want to know what he said about me.”

“David Scott is Marv’s supervisor.”

“And to answer your question, I don’t know much about him,” El said. “The dude is paranoid.”

“He was up on your board as one of your suspects,” Ian said. “Do you think he’s using Marv to get information?”

“He could be.”

“You call him Uncle Marv, but he’s not a relation?”

She nodded. “Mom and he came up through the ranks of the CIA together. He doesn’t have much family, and he’s never been married or had kids.”

“You think he would actually sell you out?”

“Definitely,” El said. “His whole life is his career. He would do anything—and I mean anything—to get ahead.”

Ian looked between the two of them. “There’s a history.”

Not a question. “Yep. He wouldn’t help me find El. Protocol,” she said, not able to hide her disgust. “I didn’t ask for an op, just a location. He refused to help, saying he was trying to save my career.”

“And that’s why you had to call Sam,” El said quietly. “This caused her entire life to fall apart.”

“She would kick your ass if she could hear you right now.”

El snorted, then he sobered. “Yeah, he might be considered family, but that job is his top priority. If David sent him out to find information, he would do it.”

“Now, what did he have to say about me?”

She sighed, suddenly feeling her lack of sleep. “He said not to trust you. That he’d had you checked out and that there were bad things about you.”

Ian’s face went blank. “I see.”

“But he doesn’t know we’re still in contact with Sam,” she said. “Which tells me whoever is feeding him information must be using that connection in more ways than one.”

“You mean that Scott might be telling him that Ian is a danger to you? Or possibly Dillon as a whole?”

“You know he was upset by not giving me the information I needed to find you. He didn’t show it much, but I know it did.”

“So, you have your former boss’s boss trying to get him to isolate you?” Ian said. “It’s not completely insane, but it still needs information to back it up.”

“I think if we can find out what these people have in common, we will be able to pinpoint who wanted them dead. The only other suspect we have is Gary Collins.”

Ian sighed and nodded. “I’m going to go talk to Dillon and set up a safe house for you.”

“I thought we were going to use the TFH one?”

She hated the idea of not staying at her home. Throughout her years in the CIA, she had never felt a connection to a place like Hawai’i—not even in Texas, where her parents lived. She adored her house and her neighbors.

“I figured it might be better to have more than one ready.”

“Thanks, Ian.”

“I’ll walk you out,” El said.

“You are not leaving me with all of this, El. It doesn’t work without you.”

“I’ll be back.”

“I’m a big boy,” Ian said as El walked behind him out of TFH headquarters. “I can get to my car on my own.”

The morning air hit him as they walked out to the parking lot. Hawai’i could be muggy in the morning, but he knew the afternoon heat would burn the humidity off. Honolulu was just now waking up, and rush hour hadn’t gotten started just yet. El loved this time of day, especially in Hawai’i.

“I wanted to talk to you about Marv.”

“I know you don’t like him.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t like him either.”

“You know him?”

“No. But I know the type. They would sell out anyone to get ahead. Plus, he was trying to drive a wedge between me and Eden. That makes me suspicious.”

“He is such a yes man that Ed is probably right about why he did it.”

“But?”

He sighed as they stopped next to Ian’s car.

He had been suspicious of Ian when his sister first started as his partner.

Once Sam had checked him out, and El had gotten to know him, he’d begun to like the guy.

He was intelligent, dependable, and not as stuffy as he sounded half the time.

It was that public school British accent of his.

“You’re right. He would sell me out. He would sell Eden out. Granted, he wouldn’t go ahead with it without getting something in return, but he would still get it done.”

“He sold you out when you were taken,” Ian said.

“No, not in the way you think. You know what being an operative means. You get taken, especially in a powder keg environment like the Middle East, and The Company will deny knowing who you are. Going in, you understand that.”

“Your sister didn’t stick with that plan.”

His mouth curved. “My sister would never leave anyone behind.”

“That’s good to know.”

“So, on some level, she understands what he did. She would never be that person, but she gives him some grace because I think she feels sorry for him.”

“How so?”

“He has given his entire life to the CIA. The man has no family. Not even any siblings. His parents died when he was in college. He never married.”

“So, pity?”

He smiled. “Yeah. That’s the basis of it. And while I don’t think he had anything to do with what happened to me or what is happening now, he can’t be trusted.”

Ian nodded. “I’ll reach out to a few people I trust about him. First stop will be with my father. He knows everyone on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Ian’s father had been MI-6 also. He might be able to give them some insight. “Be careful. One thing we know about these assholes is that they monitor things we’re doing.”

“Sure thing.”

Then, he slipped into his car and pulled away from TFH. El was heading back into the building when Team Bravo, sans Kap, came striding out of the building. He didn’t know much about each member other than Kap, but he knew that they were considered the SAR group.

“Where are y’all heading?”

“We’re headed over to the sniper’s nest,” Seth said. “Did you want to come?”

He hadn’t expected that.

“I would love to, but my sister and I need to keep going over all the victims. We’re the two with insider knowledge.”

Seth nodded, and they went on their way.

He wanted to go with them. To be doing things rather than sitting around.

He knew he was needed by her and, for once, he would definitely prove he had his sister’s back.

As he walked back into the building, he realized that part of him still blamed himself for what had happened.

He knew that whoever was behind this was a master manipulator.

He wasn’t the only agent who had fallen for the lies that had almost ended his life.

His question had always been, why had he been left to live?

So many of the others were found in less than twenty-four hours after they went missing. He had been kept alive.

“Hey,” Ed said as he walked back into the room. He stared at her. “What’s wrong?”

“Something that has bothered me.”

“A lot of this crap bothers me.”

He sighed. “Why did they keep me alive?”

“That’s a good question,” Ed said. “But the others—”

“They were all found within twenty-four hours. Why was I kept alive? Even Don Simmons, who was the first, was found dead within twelve hours. Why did they keep me alive?”

Her face seemed to lose color.

“What?” he asked, almost afraid of the answer.

She swallowed. “Me.”

“What?”

“The one thing they could count on would be that I would look for you.”

He didn’t want her to be right, but in his heart—worse in his gut—he knew she was. And if she was, he hadn’t been the only target three years ago. Someone had either used him to lure her out or had wanted them both dead.