Page 89 of Only the Wicked

* * *

Daisy Jonas

Any connection between a CIA officer and the FBI?

Is this your version of ruining a good thing?

* * *

I roll my eyes.

I don’t run from relationships. As Miles pointed out, I fall into them the way one falls into an unclimbable well. But something is off here.

Crawford doesn’t come off as sleazy. He’s more the confident, arrogant, southern frat boy type.

Could it be I’m reading into things? Looking for an issue where there is none? Cold feet because my last relationship exploded spectacularly?

An elevator opens and I enter.

On the way up, out of habit, I open the Bloomberg app and skim through the headlines.

When I open the door to the suite, Sydney rises from a sofa, touching her fingers in front of her waist. She’s barefoot and is a mix of the woman I met on vacation and the woman at the bar.

“I can explain,” she says.

The soles of my shoes click against the tile floor, beating out a slow, steady rhythm.

My instincts didn’t fail me. Something is up.

When I’m within striking distance, I say, “Okay.”

“I had an affair with Senator Crawford. About a year ago. I didn’t know he was married.”

Whoa.

The unexpected answer sinks in. Unexpected, but it’s not a personal insult. She volunteered the information. An affair…

“You didn’t know a US Senator was married?” Does she expect me to believe a woman with CIA training wouldn’t pick up on his marital status? How naive does she believe I am?

“My specialty is Europe. Not the United States,” she says in a tone that’s not particularly apologetic.

I narrow my eyes, attempting to control a surge of anger that I’m fairly certain is unjustified, but I’m not absolutely certain.

“At first, I didn’t know he was a senator.”

I raise an eyebrow, calling bullshit.

“He’s young,” she says. “Most of the senators are geriatric.”

She has a point there. In his forties, Crawford is decades younger than the average.

“Much like you and I, neither of us shared where we worked. I didn’t see him often. We weren’t serious. He was someone I saw occasionally. I wasn’t aiming for a serious relationship and when I learned he was married, I should’ve stopped it earlier than I did.”

I hear the honesty in her words and the self-reproach.

“But you didn’t?”

If she wasn’t into him, why keep seeing him?