“Just go with it, Priscilla. It will make things a lot easier in the end.”
“Let’s get some breakfast in you,” said River. “We never got our dinner last night so you must be starving.”
She nodded, standing and leaving her coffee mug behind. As every individual walked out the door, she reached for River’s hand and pulled him back.
“River? Are you sure? Are you sure I should be here?” she asked.
“Priscilla, there is nowhere else in the world you should be.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
As Priscilla stepped off the front porch, River opened a huge golf umbrella, covering them both as he held her tightly to his side.
“Whoa,” she whispered looking around. “There are hundreds of cottages. Who are all these people?”
“Family,” smiled River. “Blood and non-blood but they’re family. Former SEALs, Delta, Green Berets, MARSOC, Coast Guard, Air Force, FBI, CIA, even foreign services. They are the most talented men and women on the planet who happened to find one another.”
“I’ve heard of you, of course, throughout the years. I didn’t know who you were or that you were connected to them. I knew that you were with the teams. One thing I knew a great deal about, because as a woman it was interesting to me, was the collection of female engineers and scientists you have here.”
River looked down at her with a puzzled expression. How would anyone know that most of their engineers were women?
“How did you know that?” asked River.
“You know, I’m not sure. I think folks at the bureau just talked about badass women being part of your team.” Again, River just nodded at her, not saying anything.
“Oh, wow, look at that antebellum home. Is that part of all this?” she asked.
“It is. It was owned by Jak’s great-grandparents. It’s been on this property for more than two-hundred years.”
“That’s incredible and those gardens! Holy cow look at all those flowers and shrubs. It’s cold and they look healthy and alive.”
“Yes, it’s something in the soil, apparently,” said River. Still puzzled by her comment, he prodded again. “Priscilla, it’s important to me to know who told you we had a lot of female engineers and scientists. Our anonymity is extremely important to our safety and our family’s safety.”
“Of course. I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m trying to remember when it was mentioned. It’s been at least several months but I think it was in a staff meeting. We were reviewing the cases we were working and Celine mentioned that she was tired of waiting on their equipment to arrive.”
“What equipment?” asked River.
“Drones for one. I heard them say that. She and I weren’t working the same case at that time. Todd told her… oh.”
“Oh? He told her oh?”
“No. Uh, he told her the bitches at G.R.I.P. wouldn’t release them. She said, ‘are we going to let some Einstein women keep us from our goals?’. Those were her exact words. I’m positive.”
“Did she and Todd ever interact socially?”
“I don’t think so. It wasn’t something I was looking for or paying attention to. When my work was done, I left the office and went home. I didn’t socialize with everyone, dinners, drinks, that sort of thing.
“I was close to Celine, or I thought I was, but we didn’t work the same cases very often. The one with you was an anomaly. They needed me to provide the intelligence that we’d received from the students.”
“What was Celine supposed to provide to us?” asked River.
“She wasn’t supposed to provide anything, shedidprovide the information around Vasily and his organization.” River stopped on the path, holding Priscilla’s arm.
“Priscilla, I swear to you that Celine never provided me with any information. Never. I relied on what the SEALs and my family were providing to me. She gave me nothing other than occasional reports that were vague and very vanilla. I got nothing from her.”
Priscilla stared up at him, shaking her head. How could this have been going on without anyone saying something? And what exactly was this?
“What is going on?”
