Dangerous Liaisons (7 page)

Jesse watched almost fascinated when Cole shivered.

“I heard a sound as I pulled on his pants,” he said, “and grabbed his CR-21. I aimed at the door so fast it amazed even me. Landed on my backside, but if anyone had come inside, they would have been dead.”

Cole paused. “My trigger finger itched to open fire on them the way they had us. The knowledge that they were waiting for us stopped me. I knew someone had sold us out. So I melted into the jungle.”

How long had Cole been MIA? Tom’s initial report stated all of Green Team had perished. The report must have been premature. But he would have known Cole had survived when she saw him last night, yes he hadn’t said anything. Had it only been last night?

Cole leaned forward. “OIA reported you were the mole. I saw the receipt for a two hundred thousand dollar transfer into a Cayman island account with your name on it.”

Jesse cocked her head. “Two hundred grand? Try two million.”

Cole’s scowl turned ferocious.

Jesse sighed. She was tired, so tired, and was nowhere close to ending this nightmare. “I can’t be bought,” she said, “and I’m not the one who got the two million.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s Lanton’s blood money. I guess the going rate for a setup is ten per cent of the take.”

Cole studied her. “What proof have you got he’s the mole?”

Jesse’s pulse accelerated. This was a legitimate question, and Cole deserved to know everything—he deserved a helluva a lot more than that, in fact. But the faces of the men she’d seen slaughtered were burned into her memory. She wouldn’t—couldn’t—forget the way the one man dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes after being shot, or the way the other staggered backward as the AK47 emptied into him…or the four bodies lying on the ground like discarded garbage.

She had to live with that nightmare, had to live with the knowledge that had she gone straight to the village, she could have saved them. Now, she had to live with the possibility that she’d left someone behind. For all those reasons, she had to keep her vision clear. The man sitting across from her might be exactly who he said he was. Then again, he might not. The bell on the diner’s door tinkled, and Jesse glanced up to see a man enter. He made a beeline for the counter.

Jesse waited until he had passed, then placed her elbows on the table and leaned toward Cole. “Green Leader played you the recording of my two calls to headquarters?”

Cole gave a single nod.

“The first call gave the okay?”

Cole nodded again.

“The second call was a threat directed at Lanton?”

“Right.”

“That’s what you heard. That’s not what happened.”

“What happened?" he asked in a voice that betrayed no emotion.

She didn’t blame him for being noncommittal. For all he knew, she was as good an actress as she feared he was an actor.

“The first call, I’d found no problems, and gave the all clear. The second call, however, I made after meeting with my contact. He informed me we had a mole. But before he could give details, mercenaries burst in on us and shot him.”

Cole’s face softened. “I’m sorry.”

“He had a young wife and child,” Jesse said. Sharing that information hurt. Unshed tears stung the corners of her eyes. “I called the second time to instruct Blue Leader to abort the mission. Green Leader intercepted the call, then rejected my verification and canceled my code.” She started to say she’d gone back to the village, but stopped. Why talk about the men she’d seen murdered…why own up to the fact she’d left Cole with those monsters?

“The recording was very convincing,” Cole said.

“So I’ve heard.”

“Even if Lanton tipped Perez, altering that call doesn’t make sense. He could have said your call spooked him, and ordered Green Team to stand down.”

Jesse glanced at the ceiling. “It makes sense if he wanted every law enforcement agency to make finding me a priority. Though that doesn’t explain how I got out of Colombia so easily.”

Cole frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Getting back to the States was easier than it should have been.”

“The Colombians didn’t try to kill you along with your contact?”

“They put up a good chase,” she replied. “But I wasn’t surprised that I eluded them. We’re trained for that.”

“Why not kill you along with your contact?” Cole asked. “That way, any defense is buried with you, and OIA closes the file.”

But Jesse knew why. “Because Lanton wants something I have.”

Or believed she had. Why hadn’t she seen it before? Green Leader had intended from the start that she take the fall for selling out Green Team, just as he intended that she make it back into the States. After all, he couldn’t chance an incriminating leak occurring as a result of her sudden death—and he needed her to lead him to the evidence.

Cole frowned. “What could be bigger than evidence that he’d sold out to the Colombians?”

Jesse gave a low laugh. “Nothing. He wasn’t worried about getting nailed as the mole. I reported what had transpired during the meeting with my contact, including the fact the mercenaries shot him before he revealed the mole’s identity.”

Cole released a slow whistle.

Jesse nodded. “I couldn’t have walked into a better trap.”

“You couldn’t know.”

But she should have. “How long have you been with OIA?” she asked.

“Ten years. I was recruited six months before my enlistment was up.”

“And they enlisted you to find me because they knew you had a personal stake?”

“Makes sense,” he replied.

“Just like it makes sense you set me up in that alley.”

“I didn’t—”

She shook her head. “Don’t tell me you didn’t want me bad enough to fuck the devil if you had to. I would, if I were in your shoes.”

“All right,” he replied. “I planned a setup, but it wasn’t the guys in the alley.”

She lifted a brow. “Or what happened at Rayburn’s?”

His eyes darkened. “Charlie is a longtime friend. I wouldn’t use him, and I sure wouldn’t sacrifice his dog.”

“No,” she agreed, “but mistakes happen.” Her not heading straight for the Colombian village was a prime example.

“Last night,
or Charlie’s place
, isn’t my style,” Cole said through tight lips.

Jesse shrugged. “Have it your way.” She started to scoot from the booth.

Cole grabbed her wrist. “I found you, Jesse. That’s how they found you.”

Jesse stared at Cole. “What?”

“Green Leader put me on the scent, then sat back and waited.”

“You’re saying you found me on your own when Lanton, with all his resources, didn’t come close?”

“Lanton
did
find you; through me. Listen, Jess, you know what it’s like to lose a team member. But do you know what it’s like to lose a whole team?”

“Yeah,” she snapped.

“No,” he cut her off gently but firmly, “you don’t. You’re outraged those men were murdered, but they weren’t your friends. You didn’t train with them, know them for years, watch them get married and have kids.” Cole’s mouth thinned. “You didn’t have to tell their wives, kids, and girlfriends they weren’t coming back. I wanted you even worse than I wanted those Colombians. I called in every favor owed to me—and found you.”

She started to rebut, but he was right. If she’d been in his position, she would have found him. Hell, she was in his position. Nothing was going to stop her from proving Lanton’s guilt.

Cole slid his hand from her wrist to her fingers and gave them a squeeze. “You can still win, Jess.”

She startled, the thought that he’d read her mind freezing her brain for an instant.   Then she realized the idiocy of his statement and yanked free of his grasp. “Don’t tell me, you’re going to save me? Play me and I’ll cut out your heart and leave it on this table. I’m already dead. There’s nothing I can do to make it any worse.”

Cole stared back. “You want Lanton?”

“I’ll get Lanton.”

“Yeah? Why haven’t you?” Before she could answer, he added, “Because you’re
not
dead. Because you want to prove Lanton is responsible for Green Team’s death. You want your life back.”

“My life back?”

She would get Amanda to safety—somehow. But get her life back? Her heart sped up. Cole was right about one thing; he had found her, which meant Lanton had found her. And he had to be watching them right now. She scanned the diner. Her gaze snagged on the woman with the little girl . . .the little girl.

“Whoever is behind this knew I’d find you.” Cole’s voice jerked her attention back to him. “What they didn’t count on was that I’d see you in action. The person who sent Green Team into that village to be murdered wouldn’t have gone into that alley.”

Jesse stared in disbelief. “You’re saying my going into that alley proves I’m innocent?” She snorted. “For all you know, last night was a performance.”

Cole studied her. “Was it?”

Jesse considered a glib remark, but answered, “No.”

The bell on the door tinkled again and a man entered.

“You say Lanton is our mole, but he let you get away,” Cole said. “What have you got to prove that Jess? What does he want from you?”

This was the defining moment. Was Cole telling the truth or was he really Lanton’s man? Either way, what did she have on Lanton? The most damning evidence was his membership in DC’s exclusive
Submissions
BDSM club and a two million dollar account she had yet to connect to him
or
Perez. Was that enough for him to send every available assassin after her, or was there more that she hadn’t yet uncovered?

“You’re asking a lot,” she told Cole.

“Maybe,” he replied, his drawl pronounced. “But if you’re right about Lanton, then he’s wondering the same thing I am.”

“What I’ve got?”

Cole shook his head. “Why you’ve kept quiet.”

He was right, Lanton would wonder, which she prayed kept him terrified.

Cole scooted to the edge of his seat. “I’ll be back.”

He stood, then strode across the diner and down the short hallway leading to the restroom. The men’s room was at the end of the hall, directly in her line of sight. He opened the door and stepped inside. The little girl sitting at the counter squealed in delight as the kid behind the counter placed a large banana split in front of the girl. Jesse reached for her coffee when she realized that the man who had entered a moment ago was gone, and she hadn’t seen him exit. She glanced down the hall toward the men’s room.

Jesse rose and started for the front door. “My boyfriend’s in the bathroom,” she called to the waitress, who stood a couple tables away. “I’m just going out to the car for my purse.”

The waitress nodded as Jesse pushed open the door. She strolled nonchalantly past the diner window, then hurried along the wall to the end of the building. She stopped and looked back. Twenty feet of gravel and a battered chain-link fence divided the diner’s property from a dense thicket. Two cars were parked along the fence. Probably employees’ cars. Jesse scanned the side of the building. Past the closed kitchen door, about halfway down the length of the building, rested a large trash bin next to a window where the men’s room should be. She hurried past the door and trash bin and heard Cole’s voice.

“This is my mission,” he said. “Get out.”

Jesse crept forward. Loose gravel crunched under her shoes. She halted.

“Cool your jets,” a male voice responded. “She looked at me when I came in, then went back to talking to you. She doesn’t know me.”

Jesse’s heart skipped a beat.

“What do you want?” Cole demanded.

“Hey, we’re looking out for you, man.”

“I don’t like being watched,” Cole said.

“That’s the way it works,” the man replied.

“That’s not the way it works anymore.”

The man laughed. “You’re not in charge.”

“Green Leader doesn’t own me,” Cole said.

A door squeaked and Jesse realized Cole was leaving. She started to turn, but stopped when the man said, “Hold on there. I’ll make it worth your while.” The door squeaked again, and Jesse held her breath, praying Cole had closed the door while still inside the men’s room. If he glanced back and saw the empty booth he’d be out the door in a flash.

The man gave a low laugh. “Get me Lanton.”

Jesse tensed in the few seconds of silence before the man spoke again.

“It’s like you said.” He paused, then, “Take this number down. Seven, nine, three, six, two, two, seven.
Catatonic
, the secure code. Got it.”

Jesse committed the number to memory.

“Okay,” the man said and clicked the phone closed. “That’s the account at the International Bank of the Caymans, a hundred thousand for your trouble.”

Jesse’s heart fell.
Cole is Lanton’s mole
. She had started to believe his story.

“What do you want?” Cole asked.

“Get a confession.” He paused, then added, “By any means necessary.”

The bathroom door creaked as Cole said, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.”

Jesse choked back tears. Cole hadn’t led Lanton to her without meaning to. He had been working for Green Leader all along. Had Cole truly been Green Team Leader, had he been there in Colombia, was he the sole survivor as he claimed? It didn’t matter. She whirled and sprinted to the fence. The discomfort of stitches ripping shot up her leg. She stubbed her toe on a rock, stumbled, but regained her balance. The fence sat six feet away. She lunged, grabbed the chain link, and vaulted over the fence. She dropped to the other side and dove into the foliage as Cole rounded the corner of the diner.

“Jess!” he shouted.

She crouched in the bushes as he jogged toward her. Too late to run, he would see and hear her if she moved. Fool, fool, fool, she cursed herself. Lanton
and Cole
had played her like a fine fiddle.

Cole continued around the corner of the building and skidded to a halt near the bathroom window.

He spun in frustration, echoing her words, “Jesse, you little fool!”