Page 79 of Secrets Beneath the Waves

But safety was an illusion. And illusions could get her killed.

She angrily turned off the timer and tossed it on the passenger’s seat harder than she should have. Even with the clear evidence, she decided to turn around and drive back to his house and repeat the route, refusing to believe what she knew to be true. This time, speeding. She got the same result.

Unwilling to accept the obvious, she tried it one more time. Breaking every traffic law along the way. The results were faster, but still short. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t match the timeline Matthew had implied.

The drive home was a blur. She dropped her bag on the kitchen counter and poured herself a glass of water. Her hands trembled as she lifted it to her lips.

She wanted to believe he had an innocent explanation for the discrepancy. Maybe he’d misremembered. Maybe he’d made a mistake. But a small, insistent voice in the back of her mind whispered:He didn’t! He lied to you.

Ellie set the glass down and leaned against the counter as her thoughts spiraled out of control. She replayed every conversation she’d had with Matthew, every lingering look, every moment of connection.

She thought about the way he held her hand, the way he made her laugh. The way he kissed her that one time. Innocently. Almost apologetically. It had all felt so genuine.

But genuine people didn’t lie about things like this.

The worst part was the knot of emotion tangled in her chest. She didn’t want him to be the mole. She didn’t want to feel this crushing sense of betrayal. And she didn’t want to admit that part of her, despite everything, had started to fall for him to some extent.

Ellie shook her head and forced herself to focus. Emotions had no place in her line of work, no room for doubt. If Matthew was the mole, he was a threat, and threats had to be eliminated.

Her decision was made. She would confront Matthew but not in a way that gave him the upper hand. She needed to control the situation, to catch him off guard.

She came up with a plan.

Scuba diving. Out in the middle of the Caribbean. That’s where she’d confront him.The first thing she did the next morning was contact the marina and rent a boat.

A perfect ruse. Isolated, far from prying eyes, with the Cayman Trench a stone’s throw away. If he were innocent, they’d enjoy a beautiful day together. If guilty, he’d have to tell her the truth, or she’d threaten to shoot him in the head and dump his body in the trench.

Twenty-five thousand feet deep. One of the deepest in the world.

Ellie shivered, pushing the thought aside. She grabbed her phone and scrolled through her contacts until she found Matthew’s name. Her thumb hovered over the screen for a moment before she tapped it.

The phone rang twice before he picked up. “Hey, Ellie,” Matthew said, his voice warm and familiar. “What’s up?”

“Hi, Matthew,” she said, forcing a smile into her tone. “I was wondering what you think about going scuba diving sometime.”

“Scuba diving?” he repeated, a hint of surprise in his voice.

“Yeah,” Ellie said. “I’ve been looking at all the spots. I figured it’d be a fun way to spend the day. We can’t always be working.”

He paused long enough to make her pulse quicken. “Sure,” Matthew said finally. “That sounds amazing. What day were you thinking?”

Ellie gave him the details, her voice steady as her heart raced. When the call ended, she set her phone down and exhaled slowly.

The trap was set.

For a moment, she allowed herself to feel the fear, the doubt, the crushing ramifications of her actions.

Her mom’s instructions had been clear.When you find the mole, make him disappear.

“What if I can take him alive?” she’d asked. “Don’t you want me to bring him back to the States to stand trial?”

Her mother had been adamant. “No. If he’s not CIA, then we don’t want him here. He’d have rights and a lawyer. If he is CIA, that makes it messier. We have a way of handling these things ourselves. The CIA doesn’t want the publicity that comes with a traitor in their midst. Everyone knows that if they betray their oath, we’ll take them out and make them disappear.”

Ellie had agreed, but now she wasn’t so sure. It’s one thing to kill a Middle Eastern terrorist trying to kill her, quite another to kill Matthew.

Remembering her mother’s final admonition sent anxiety shooting through her faster than a shot from a taser gun.

Just be sure that you don’t get it wrong. You don’t want to kill an innocent man.