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A fter mentally preparing for the coming conversation, Livvy opened her phone’s contact list. She hit the entry for Diana Redfield, put the phone on speaker and listened as Diana’s phone rang.

Finally, Redfield answered. “Director Redfield,” she said, her voice crisp and confident.

“Director Redfield, this is Olivia Williams. I was an FBI agent before I left to work for Blackhawk Security. I…”

Redfield interrupted. “Hi, Olivia. I remember you. I hope you’re calling to see if you can get your old job back.”

Olivia’s shoulders relaxed. “Sorry, I’m not looking to return to the FBI. I’m very happy at Blackhawk Security. But I’m in Washington D.C. right now, working as a backup for Jake Dunbar. He’s with me, and you’re on speaker.”

There was a long moment of silence on the line. Finally Redfield said, “Mel called to arrange to have you backup Jake. But she didn’t tell me why one of our agents isn’t backing him up.”

Olivia’s toes curled in her socks. “That’s a very good question, and it’s one of the reasons I called. Jake and I need to talk to you about some concerns we have.”

There was another long beat of silence. Finally Redfield said, “Can’t Agent Dunbar go to his supervising agent with his concerns?”

Olivia cleared her throat. “No, he can’t. His supervising agent is…” She took a deep breath. “We believe he’s part of the problem.”

She heard Diana suck in a breath. After a long moment, she said, “Yes, we definitely need to meet.”

Livvy said, “We were hoping we could meet with you tonight, for dinner, somewhere outside the D.C. area. Neither Jake nor I think it would be smart for other agents to see us talking to you.”

The line was dead silent, as if all the air had been sucked out of this room and Diana’s. Then Diana said, “This sounds extremely serious.”

Livvy cleared her throat. “Jake and I both believe that it is. And since we don’t know who’s safe, we decided we needed to talk directly with you. We both trust you and believe you have the best interests of the Bureau at heart.”

After clearing her throat, Diana said, “Thank you for that. And you’re right. I’m responsible for all aspects of the FBI, including its reputation. I’m not about to let anyone damage our standing in the law enforcement community.”

“We don’t want that either, and I was certain you’d feel that way,” Livvy said, letting her shoulders relax. “That’s why I called you.”

“I don’t like the idea of a restaurant,” Redfield said. “Too many wagging ears anywhere in or near D.C. Instead, why don’t you and Agent Dunbar come over to my house tonight? I can’t promise a gourmet meal -- what you’ll probably get is pizza. But it’ll be secure and safe, and you’ll be able to talk freely without worrying that someone’s listening in.”

“That sounds perfect.” Olivia exhaled and let her shoulders relax. “Instead of texting me your address, why don’t you tell me now? I’ll write it down.”

“That’s smart, Olivia. Here goes. Are you ready?”

As Redfield spoke, Jake shoved a small notebook and pen toward her, open to a blank page. “Go ahead, Director.”

Redfield recited an address, and Olivia scribbled it down. “Got it,” she said. “What time would you like us to show up?”

“How about seven?” Redfield said. “That’s after the worst of the traffic, and it’ll let you watch for anyone tailing you.”

“We’ll definitely do that. I have a rental car, so we’ll use that in case people know what Jake drives.”

“Very good,” Redfield said. “I’ll see you at seven. And for God’s sake, be careful!”

“We will, ma’am. See you tonight.”

Livvy ended the call and swiveled to face Jake. “I think that went very well,” she said. “Redfield didn’t sound skeptical or suspicious.” She picked up her beer and took a pull. “She sounded like she actually believed me.”

“Why wouldn’t she believe you?” Jake said. “You were an excellent agent when you worked here and you left for a very good reason -- you feared for your life.”

“Yeah, but I never told her that. I just told her I had a great opportunity with Blackhawk Security and I was going to take it.”

“I’m guessing tonight she’ll ask for an explanation about why you left.”

“And I won’t hesitate to tell her.” Livvy took another gulp of beer. “Won’t pull my punches, either. I came far too close to dying in Brighton Beach, and if I hadn’t been really lucky, I would have died.”

“I think it’s time you told her exactly why you left,” Jake said.

Livvy swallowed. Drew a deep breath, then nodded. “Yeah, we have to tell her our stories tonight -- my experience in Brighton Beach, and what Nelson wants you to do in Sheepshead Bay.” She grimaced. “I realized after I left the Bureau that I should have given her all the dirt. Should have told her exactly what happened to me in Brighton Beach.”

Jake shrugged. “Yeah, you probably should have. And it wouldn’t have blown up on me, since I had a solid alibi for why I wasn’t in Brighton Beach, backing you up. Testifying at a trial -- especially a high-profile trial like that one -- holds up every time.”

“Why was it so high profile?” Livvy asked.

“The perp, who we caught when we stormed the house where the kid was being held, was a local police officer, a lieutenant. The shit hit the fan twenty-nine ways from Sunday. The perp tried to pin it on another guy, someone who’d kidnapped a kid a couple years earlier. But it turned out that guy was in prison when the kidnapping took place.”

“Oops,” Livvy said with a grin. “Rule number one if you’re gonna finger someone else for your crime? Make sure he’s not in prison.”

“Yeah. After that little tidbit, along with the kid’s testimony, which was rock solid, the lieutenant’s fate was sealed. No doubt about the outcome of the trial.”

They stared at each other for a moment that stretched a few beats too long, until Jake jumped up. “Let me show you where your room is,” he said, speaking too quickly. “You probably want to, ah, freshen up. Or something.”

Livvy’s lips twitched. She’d never seen Jake off balance, and was enjoying it. Instead of saying something snarky, which was her usual go-to, she said, “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

Jake led her to the spare room and waved her in. He pointed to the hall bathroom and said, “This is your bathroom. There’s another one in my bedroom.”

“Thanks, Dunbar,” she said. “I’ll put my stuff away, then we can talk about our approach to Diana.”

“Sounds good,” he said.

Livvy watched him swipe his hands down the thighs of his jeans -- clearly he was nervous about this.

She was just as nervous, but she wasn’t about to give him any indications of that. To make sure she didn’t, she closed the door in his face, then drew a deep breath. My God . She hadn’t been able to take her eyes off Jake since he walked into the kitchen with that Glock in his hand.

What the hell was wrong with her? She knew better than to get involved with a fellow agent -- even though she wasn’t an FBI agent any longer. But they were working together on this, and any personal connections could be disastrous. So as she unpacked her suitcase, she shoved Jake out of her head and thought only about what she was going to say to Diana tonight.

* * *

After several uncomfortable hours in Jake’s apartment, while they struggled to find topics of conversation that were neutral and unrelated to their cases, they left the apartment and climbed into Livvy’s car. After she entered Diana Redfield’s address into her navigation system, she glanced over at Jake as they pulled out of his parking lot. “You’re not going to kick up a fuss about me driving?” she asked

He swiveled to face her, frowning. “Why would I? It’s your rental car. I figure anyone who can handle a Harley can drive a Chevy.”

She glanced at him, then looked back at the road. “It doesn’t damage your masculinity to ride in a car driven by a woman?”

He looked at her with a puzzled expression, as if wondering what planet she was from. “Hell, no,” he said. “Your car, you drive. And it made perfect sense to take your car, since it’s a rental and unidentifiable as belonging to either of us.”

Wow . She hadn’t expected that from the ultra-masculine Jake Dunbar. “Apparently you have hidden depths,” she murmured. She kept her eyes on the road, although she looked into the rear-view mirror frequently.

Jake draped his arm over the back of his seat and swiveled to face her. “I think what you meant to say is that you’re shocked I’m not a sexist pig asshole.”

An unexpected laugh erupted from her throat. “Yeah, I guess that sums it up.”

“I’m the oldest of five kids. The rest of them are girls. I learned really early not to underestimate my sisters. Not to pretend l was right because I was the boy.” His mouth curled into a grin, and she liked that smile on Jake. The one that said he was proud of his sisters. “My sisters are all awesome, and I don’t say that because they’re my sisters. They’re brilliant, accomplished women.”

“Good to know that about you,” Livvy murmured. “I’ll look forward to meeting them some time.”

He shot another glance at her. “Unlikely,” he said. “They’re spread all over the country.”

“My loss,” she said with a shrug.

Jake glanced at his side-view mirror. She’d seen him doing that regularly. “Watching for a tail?” she asked.

“Yeah. Don’t see anything yet. No cars sticking close behind us. No one hanging back but keeping a couple cars between us. Once we turn off this main highway, it’ll be easier to spot a tail.”

Ten minutes later, he said, “We’re getting closer to Redfield’s house. I’ve been watching the map, and I think we should turn left soon. That’ll take us into her neighborhood, but it won’t immediately scream that we’re going to the Director’s house. And if anyone’s hanging back, it’ll force them into the open.”

“Good plan,” Livvy said, slowing down and signaling a turn.

She drove into a subdivision with largish houses on generous lots. The yards were well-maintained, the lawns mowed, and the plantings at the front of the houses both elegant and decorative.

Two blocks in, there were no cars behind them, so she made a right turn. She took a roundabout route to Redfield’s house, confident that they hadn’t been followed.

She parked around the corner from Redfield’s street, several houses down from the corner. When they slid out of the car, Livvy tucked her arm into Jake’s elbow, letting him hold the bottle of wine they’d picked up close to his apartment. Anyone watching would think they were a couple going to a dinner party.

Diana’s house was a white Colonial with black shutters. The plantings in the front yard were colorful flowers, but everything was low to the ground. So no one could hide behind bushes, Livvy realized. Smart. She’d bet the plantings in the backyard were the same -- low and open, leaving no hiding places.

Jake rang the doorbell, and moments later, Diana Redfield opened it. She was a tall, slender woman, probably in her late thirties or early forties, with short blond hair and green eyes.

“Welcome,” she said with a smile, as if they were actual friends coming over for dinner. “Come on in.”

They stepped into the house, which was decorated with what appeared to be antiques and furnished in a way that complemented the colonial exterior. Jake handed Redfield the bottle of wine. “In case someone was watching. To make it look like we were merely dinner guests.”

Redfield smiled. “Good thinking.” She waved them into the dining room, which had three place settings. “Pizza should arrive shortly. One veggie and one pepperoni. Have a seat while I open this bottle of wine.”

She disappeared into what looked like a kitchen, and Jake and Livvy took seats on one side of the table.

A few minutes later, Redfield returned with three wine glasses and the opened bottle of wine. She set the glasses in front of each place setting, then slid into a seat on the other side of the table.

“Before we say anything, you need to know that my house is swept daily. So you can be sure no one’s listening in to our conversation. Please speak freely.” She glanced from Livvy to Jake. “And please don’t sugarcoat anything. I want to know what you think is going on, and I don’t want you to hide any truths from me to protect me.” She slashed air quotes around the ‘protect me’.

Livvy glanced at Jake, and he gave her a short, tiny nod. As if saying, ‘Perfect’.

“Which of you wants to start?” Redfield said.

“Livvy should start, ma’am,” Jake said. “Her incident was disturbing on so many levels. She almost died. It’s what triggered our suspicions.”

“Call me Diana,” Redfield said. “We’re colleagues, or at least we used to be,” she said with a nod at Livvy. “Tell me what’s happened to have you so alarmed.”

Livvy glanced at Jake and gave him a tiny nod, which he returned. ‘You tell your story, then I’ll tell mine,’ was reflected in his eyes.

Drawing a deep breath, Livvy began, “I was sent on an undercover job several months ago in Brighton Beach. To a Bratva group.”

One of Diana’s eyebrows rose. “Bratva? I wasn’t aware we had any operations involving the Bratva.”

Livvy shrugged. “I wasn’t either, but those were my orders, so I went to Brighton Beach. Did some surveillance for a couple of days, then made my approach.” She glanced at Jake, and she knew he’d realize she was asking permission to tell his part in the story.

Jake nodded. “Tell the director everything.”

“Before I left, my supervisor told me that Jake would be my backup. Even gave me very specific instructions to have a text ready on my phone and send it immediately if I was concerned about my safety.”

Livvy took a deep breath. “Which I was. Very quickly. I had been told that this group of men were interested in working with the FBI. But that was the farthest thing from the truth. They had no interest in working with us, and that was clear from the beginning of our conversation. They had no idea why I was there, although they did acknowledge that my supervisor, Don Nelson, had contacted them.”

Livvy swallowed, and she felt Jake reaching for her hand beneath the table. She curled her hand around his -- retelling her story was rattling her more than she’d realized it would.

“I managed to get away from the meeting, but I knew I’d been very lucky. The man in charge sent his teenaged son out of the building with me. I kept him in front of me, but I was extremely wary. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, he began to reach beneath his shirt. As if he had a gun concealed there. So I kicked him in the, ah, privates. When he dropped to the ground I kicked him in the head. Then I opened the door and ran like hell to my car and tore out of Brooklyn.”

Diana looked at Jake. “And your backup never showed up?”

Livvy inhaled and nodded at Jake. He nodded back, as if he understood completely. This part of the story was his.

“The day Livvy met with the Russians, I was in Tennessee for a trial. The trial was for a kidnapping we’d investigated and resolved six months earlier. We recovered the kidnapped child and arrested the perp, and because I was part of the team that broke into the house and saved the kid, as well as arresting the perp, I had to be there.”

Diana looked from Jake to Livvy, then back to Jake. “Were you ever told you were supposed to be Olivia’s backup for this meeting in Brooklyn?” she asked.

“No, ma’am,” he said. “My boss never told me I needed to back Livvy up. That trial had been on my calendar for months. And my boss, who was also Livvy’s boss, knew very well that I’d be testifying at the trial on that date and unavailable for backup duty.”

Diana’s mouth tightened, and she looked from Jake to Livvy. Back to Jake. “I see,” she finally said. “From the expressions on your faces, there’s more.”

Jake nodded slowly. “Yes,” he said. “A week ago, my boss, who’d been Olivia’s boss, as well, told me he was sending me on an undercover operation. Since Livvy had already told me what had happened to her, I was immediately wary. Concerned.” He pressed his lips together. “And rightly so.”

He told Diana what Nelson had told him -- to rough up the reluctant shopkeepers he was trying to convince to pay protection money to the Bratva. About what Livvy had told him about that particular group of the Bratva -- how dangerous they were. “Thank goodness Livvy got permission from Blackhawk Security to be my backup for this job.” He clenched his teeth. Swallowed. “After what happened to Livvy, there was no one at the Bureau that I trusted to protect me. No one I was certain would have my back.”