Page 96 of No More Spies

God, that voice still sounded like Julia Ennis.

“You will hurt yourself if you walk away from this team.”Her father straightened up and had his “decision made” face on. “If you isolateyourself, it’ll be easier to give in to all of your dark impulses. I shouldfucking know because that’s what I did. Only nearly losing Liam O’Donnell tothat fucker Eli Nelson brought me to my senses.”

Her mom cleared her throat.

“Well, and your mom died. I try not to think about thatpart. Honestly, meeting your mother, being with her before she pulled all thatbullshit fake death thing was what made me reconsider. After my mentor JohnBishop died, I went deep. I pulled away from friends and family. I was startingdown a very dark path where I stopped seeing people as humans with hopes anddreams and lives and started seeing them as chess pieces to move around.”

“Isn’t he Henry Flanders now?” Lou asked.

Her father pointed Lou’s way as though she’d made his point.“Yeah, you get too deep in this ‘career’ and there’s a whole lot of fakeddeaths. It’s a real theme. My point is it took loving your mother to make mereconsider, and then even when she was gone, I was too changed to go back. Ifyou leave this team behind, you won’t return. Cooper is your shot. Baby girl,please take it. Whatever he did, however he hurt you, it’s fixable.”

But she wasn’t. For all her father thought he knew her, thesituation wasn’t the same.

Was it?

She stared at him, not knowing what to say.

Her father shook his head. “You’re not going to DC. I’mstill your boss, so unless you want to quit, you’ll stand down. Stay here. Gohome. It doesn’t matter as long as you’re in Dallas. We have a meeting in themorning now that everyone’s home. I expect you there at eight a.m.”

She knew an order when she heard it. He would move heavenand earth and probably cut her off at the knees. She needed a new plan. “Sir,yes, sir.”

Her father turned and walked out.

Her mother stood up. “And I expect you at the house fordinner on Sunday night for Travis’s birthday. If you’re not there, I’ll sendsomeone to find you. I know you think your father is the hard case, but onlybecause you’ve never put me in a corner. You try to walk away from this familyand you’ll find out how hard I can fight, my love.”

Her mother knew how to make an exit.

Kala watched her, not truly understanding why her heart feltso twisted. There was anger at them not respecting her decisions and treatingher like a child.

There was this odd warmth that came with the knowledge thather parents wouldn’t ever let her go, wouldn’t ever stop fighting for her. Evenwhen they had to fight her.

It was a lot. So much damn emotion, and she didn’t handle aregular amount of emotion well. She looked at the last person in the room. “Doyou have something to say before you walk out?”

Lou’s head shook. “I’m not leaving. I brought a bag with me.I took the second privacy room. Where you go, I go. So if you’re leaving theteam, I’m coming with you.”

Fuck it all.

Too much. It was too much. She stood because she needed someair. She walked through the conference room doors.

“Just remember I can track you, and if you think you can cutthat tracker out, you’re wrong,” Lou yelled after her. “Why do you think I putit in your ass cheek? Your arms aren’t long enough to get there.”

She’d told her it worked best in subcutaneous fat and herbutt was the only place she had some. Liar. Her best friend was a liar who wastrying to keep track of her.

Because she loved her. Because she worried about losing her.

Too much.

She let the door slam shut and strode to the front of theclub in time to see her parents leaving in the massive Navigator her fatherdrove.

They had no right to tell her what to do.

Couldn’t they see this was for the best?

Had her father thought about doing the same thing?

She drew in a deep breath and wished she was back in thewoods with Cooper and they’d never found Joyce, never revealed the secret ofhis birth. She wanted to be with him in that space where nothing mattered butthe two of them. Where she’d felt safe to be exactly who she was. Where who shewas had been a woman in love with a man.

“I knew I’d find you here,” a familiar voice said.