Clara sighed. “But how? My cover has been compromised. If Ortega suspects me, then the mission is already over for me.”
Seb leaned closer, his voice a whisper of sincerity. “I’ll help you fix this, Clara. We’ll figure it out together.”
For a moment, they sat there, the space between them filled with a tumult of emotions. The room was silent except for their breathing, and the weight of the night’s revelations hung heavily in the air. Seb could see the conflict in Clara’s eyes—the battle between her duty and the bond they shared. And in that moment, he knew that no matter what came next, he would stand by her, come what may.
“Hey there’s one thing you haven’t mentioned,” Seb said going over all the events of the past few days in his mind. “What were you doing in the forest near the warehouse when we met?”
“Oh,” Clara said, “Martinez said he had an agent at the gala watching Ortega’s every move and he learned that Ortega had sent all his foot soldiers back to guard the warehouse. Martinez thought that something big was going down there, but he didn’t know what, so he sent me to investigate. I couldn’t be seen driving up to the warehouse because it would have blown my cover with Ortega, so I went through the forest. I planned to get as close as I could to the warehouse and listen from the cover oftrees, but then I stumbled upon all that fighting. Then I caught your scent and the stronger it got, the more I felt the need to find the source.”
Seb nodded, recalling his own reaction to happening across his mate’s scent. Clara rolled her eyes as she continued.
“Then of course my wolf recognized its mate and forced me to shift to help to protect you against those two wolves.”
Truth!Seb’s bear said happily.
Seb could feel the animal puffing out his chest and he wasn’t sure if that was because it had never been in doubt about Clara’s innocence or because she had just admitted to liking the way he smelled.
They were both quiet for a little while, and Clara stared at the wall as if deep in thought. Then she turned to Seb and frowned.
“So, you knew about the meeting with Ortega and the planned diversion for me to steal the ledger,” she said, stating the obvious.
Seb nodded, wondering where she was going with this train of thought. “Yes.”
“Who did you tell?”
Seb sighed. “I told my friends, but…”
“All six of them?”
“Yes, but I assure you, Clara, they can be trusted. In fact, I trust them with my life, and more importantly, I’d trust them withyourlife.”
For a shifter, there was no greater mark of trust than that.
“So, if neither you nor your friends are the mole who has been tipping Ortega off that just leaves two people,” Clara said.
Seb scrunched his brow together trying to work out who she could mean.
“Miller and Lopez,” she confirmed. “I’d thought to include Rory as a potential suspect at first too, because he knew about the mission to infiltrate Ortega’s warehouse, but he didn’t knowabout my mission to steal the ledger. Only Lopez and Miller knew—they were both at my debriefing—other than you and your friends, of course. You don’t think they could have told anyone else?”
“Absolutely not,” Seb said. “They promised they would leave the decision of what to do up to me and I trust that they would honor that.”
“Then it has to be one of those two,” Clara said. “Martinez works for CN-6 and he wanted that ledger. If he had tipped off Ortega, he wouldn’t have gotten his hands on it. Plus, he didn’t know what was going on at the warehouse that night, that’s why he sent me to investigate so that rules him out.”
“I’ve worked with Senior Officer Miller for nearly a year now,” Seb said. “If I had to guess, I’d say he wasn’t a traitor, but I don’t know him well enough to stake my life on it.”
“I’ve worked with Lopez for about the same amount of time, but like you, I don’t really know him all that well.”
“So, let’s find out for certain which one it is,” Seb said.
Clara nodded. “So, I guess we have three objectives now.” She ticked them off on her fingers as she said them. “Catch the CIA mole, put Ortega behind bars, and dismantle CN-6.”
“Piece of cake,” Seb said with a grin.
Clara giggled. “And at least if we unmask the mole, it will prove to everyone that it’s not me.”
“You do know thatIbelieve you, right?”
“Yes, and I appreciate your support. More than I can put into words. But I’m sure your friends still have their doubts about me, and I’d like the CIA to trust me, too. I want to prove to them once and for all that I have no loyalty to CN-6. More importantly,” Clara added, “I want to make up for any harm I caused during the time that I worked for them.”
