Justified Means (Book One) (The Agency Files) (14 page)

“
What happened with Corey? I could tell from your tone that you were calling to red-line her.”

“
I was.”

“
So why didn’t you do it?” Mark continued when Keith didn’t speak. “My guess is one of two things. Either you thought you needed to have yourself evaluated to assure you were still objective, or you were concerned for Erika.”

“
Both, but primarily Erika.” He swallowed. “Frankly, Corey seems to have cracked, but her being there was better than risking a replacement drop for both of us.”

“
What happened?”

With a detachment that characterized Keith with every debriefing, Keith told of Corey
’s arrival, of the snippy comments, the verbal catfight, but he hesitated when it came to Erika’s perspective. “I—”

“
Keith, you’ve been with us for five years. You’re one of the best agents we have. I want the facts, yes, but I also want your impressions. I need your instincts.”

“
Erika seems to think Corey had a thing for me.”

“
I’ve thought that for a couple of months.”

When he felt surprise creep over his face, Keith shut down.
His job was to keep his emotions hidden. Exposing them now could mean his job. “I—I didn’t know.”

“
Well, at least now you guys can do something about it—if you can get past yesterday anyway.”

He knows,
Keith thought to himself
. I should have known I couldn’t hide anything from him.
“I can’t, Mark. Not after what I saw today—um, yesterday.”

“
Why not?”

“
If you’d seen her yesterday…” he shook his head. “Not possible, and besides, even if I was willing, Corey would consider it a betrayal of whatever. It’s weird, Mark. It’s just weird.”

“
Do you trust her to protect Erika?”

He thought carefully before answering, wanting to be sure his answer was unsullied by his thoughts and opinions.
“I trust her with Erika’s physical safety. She won’t let Alek get to her. I don’t trust her to treat Erika well. She’s already been just nasty. I’d managed to make Erika feel safe. She hated it, but she felt safe.” He kneaded his knees with his hands before meeting Mark’s gaze. “Look, Mark. I assessed the client, discovered how to keep her fighting, but feeling reasonably safe, and was on the top of my game. I allowed no more laxity in rules than Karen did and approved of. Corey walked into that cabin and destroyed a week’s worth of hard work in minutes. By the time she was done, Erika was threatening media exposure and lawsuits.”

Though he didn
’t say them, a string of foul words flew across Mark’s face. “I’ll send Karen in to relieve Corey.”

Disappointment washed over Keith, but he nodded.
“I think it’d be best.”

“
You don’t want to go back?”

“
If you thought I should, you’d have mentioned it.” The words were hard to swallow, but they were true.

“
You’ll replace Karen in a week, but I don’t want you and Corey in the same space until we meet here.”

Keith nodded and asked about his assignment for the week.
“I assume I’m not on vacation.” The attempt at a joke fell flat.

“
No, can’t spare you yet, but good try. You’ll be assigned to the taskforce on Alek Anastas.”

“
Have you located Helen Franklin?”

Mark
’s face answered before he opened his mouth. “She’s officially on a ‘walkabout,’ but we actually have her in a hut in Fiji.”

“
Who here knows that Helen is who Anastas is really after?”

“
You, me, Karen, and Corey—and of course Jill and Tony in Fiji.”

“
No one else?”

“
No, why? Something is bothering you. I want to know what it is.”

“
It’s—” Keith frowned, searching for words that didn’t sound accusatory. “Well, did we ever figure out how they found the cabin?”

“
No. All of the scenarios we considered were refuted—except one that is impossible.”

“
What was that one?”

“
A mole.”

“
That’s the one that’s concerning me,” Keith admitted. “I had a few theories myself, but all of them would have meant Erika would be dead right now.”

“
Our list of moles is short.” Mark flipped through a file on his glass and chrome excuse for a desk. “Yep, it’s just you, me, Karen, Corey, Jill, and Tony.”

“
Well, it’s not you, and it’s not me. Jill and Tony would have to have accomplices, but it might explain the misses.”

“
Ok,” Mark was already pulling up files on his computer. “What about Karen?”

“
I can’t see it. Karen, more than all of us, couldn’t do it.”

Agreeing, Mark moved to the next option.
“Ok, Corey. What do you think?”

“
I don’t like it. It’s too easy. I mean, honestly, if she was a mole, she’d know we’d suspect her the way she was behaving. She’d have been more like Karen than the crazed person she was.”

“
And, as your boss, I have to consider you. After all, you just left the client with someone who showed clear distaste for her.”

Keith
’s stomach plummeted for a moment. “That doesn’t make sense either. If I am the mole, there’s no way Erika is in physical danger from Corey.” He kneaded his palms together, thinking. “I should tell you, Mark, I almost didn’t come back. I started to hide in the woods and keep an eye on them.”

“
Why did you come then?”

“
I thought my presence could be noticed and it put them in danger.” As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Keith added, “And I really don’t think Corey will hurt her. Yeah, after what she just put Erika through, and after messing up all the work I put into making Erika feel safe, even if she did hate it, I wanted to think Corey was it, but I don’t. I think she needs a month off to decompress and to get the idea of her and me out of her head, but otherwise, no. I just don’t think she’s the one.”

“
That leaves Karen, Jill, and Tony.” Mark stared at his screen before he turned back to Keith. “Ok, I’ll start looking into them more closely. I may need you to do some investigating. Meanwhile, I really want you to go to Columbus and check out the Hard as Nails chain of salons. Take your cousin with you—the pretty one. Have her go in for a set of acrylics or something.”

“
And what on earth am I supposed to say to make going to Columbus make sense?”

“
You’ll buy a boat. I’ll have one there for you. You want her opinion. Let me know what kind of boat she’d be crazy about.”

“
Um, Claire hates the water with a passion second only to snakes.”

“
Car?”

“
She loves mine. She’d kill me.”

“
What don’t you have that she’d go crazy over?”

“
Motorcycle. She’s always loved Harley Davidsons.”

“
And you hate them.” Mark closed his eyes for a moment, and then asked, “When is her birthday?”

“
Next month, why?”

“
That’ll do. Get me a picture of a Harley that you know she’d want and take her to pick out her birthday present.”

“
She knows I can’t afford—”

“
You officially have a bonus and you want to use some of it on her. Now make it happen.” Mark’s tone was dismissive.

Keith stood, shook his boss
’ hand, and strolled from the office, dialing his favorite cousin. “Hey, Claire. What are you doing this week?”

“
He’s not going to fall for you.” Corey couldn’t keep the venom from her words.

“
I don’t expect him to. I expect him—and you for that matter—to do the protecting thing you keep insisting is necessary. That’s it.”

“
He’s a Christian. Christians don’t get involved with non-Christians.”

“
So, that means you’re a Christian?” Erika didn’t give Corey a chance to answer. “Figures. You’re exactly the kind of person I’ve always associated with Christianity. Arrogant, self-righteous, vicious. Yep. Fits you all to a tee.”

“
Unbelievers love to excuse their rejection of Jesus with accusations. It’s revolting.”

Laughter bubbled over until Erika was gasping for breath.
Corey sat, arms crossed, and shook her head at the display of hilarity. Once under control again, Erika stood and threw one last barb at her guard. “I don’t think your Jesus would recognize himself in the nastiness that you keep displaying. I’m pretty sure the songs we sang in Sunday school at Grandma’s were about love, forgiveness, and mercy. You disgust me.”

Corey watched her leave, the angst welling over inside until she wanted to follow, lashing out at the stupid girl.
They were saving her life, and she spent the whole time attacking. What kind of idiot did that?

Though she didn
’t want to admit it, the accusations stung. Her faith was young—untested. She’d seen what it did in Keith, and she liked it; she wanted it. After a long session with a pastor near her home, she’d followed the scripted prayer he offered her, promised to read the Bible every day, and pray in the morning and evening. All she had to do was do those things and she’d be saved from the wrath to come. It seemed pretty straightforward, and it didn’t seem to be asking too much of her. God’s Son dies for her, she prays and reads. Simple enough.

But it wasn
’t. Nothing was. The ache in her heart seemed stronger with every line of text read and every sentence of prayer uttered. If anything, the emptiness inside seemed worse than it ever had been. Corey chalked it up to being like exercise—hurting more in the beginning until you got your muscles in shape. She was just conditioning her muscles, and then things would be easier—they had to be. The joy that Keith showed when apart from his job was infectious. Everyone in the Agency respected him for it and sought him when they had problems.

Problems.
Those problems were the reason she’d talked to him in the first place. She’d been sure her boyfriend was cheating on her—signs were evident everywhere—but she hadn’t wanted to confront it. How someone could be so thoroughly masculine, so good at taking down the bad guys, so untouched by the accusations and violence of some of their clients, and then so gentle and understanding when a weeping woman confessed that she felt betrayed and lost in the wake of her boyfriend’s infidelity…

A prick, so light she hardly noticed it, touched her conscience.
Her job was to protect those in danger, yes, but part of that protection process was to make the experience as less of an ordeal as possible. She hadn’t done that. Erika got under her skin, and Corey couldn’t deny that.

“
It’s her fault,” she muttered. “She made him lose his perspective, and now look. He’s ruined. He’ll lose his job, he’s become weak, and for what? He can’t even consider a relationship with her. A good man lost because some girl has a cute butt or spunky personality. It’s sickening.”

Claire stiffened as Keith pulled up in front of a nail salon, Hard as Nails, and parked the rental car. “The owner of that bicycle shop has something I want you to see.”

“
Bicycle shop?” She studiously avoided even a glance at the large fingernails in the window that beckoned her. She wasn’t handing her cousin over to Alek and his goons. She’d give information as she got it, but family was family. You didn’t help people kill them.

“
Yeah, I thought it was odd too—kind of ironic, y’know?”

“
No,” she said, forcing herself to laugh as natural-sounding as possible, “I don’t know. I have no idea why we’re here.”

“
Your birthday present.”