“So who are your rivals?” Alison asked.
I rubbed at my stubble. “That’s a long list.” I looked sideways at her. “A better question: who is their inside person at the FBI?”
She sighed and looked out over the lake, thinking. After a fewseconds, she did something I’d never seen her do before: she lifted herself up on her tiptoes, stayed there for a moment, and then slowly sank back down. It was hypnotic and not just because of her leather-clad legs flexing gracefully. It was like I was seeing some private part of her, something that she only did when she was alone. Which meant, in some weird way, that she trusted me.
At last, she turned to me. “I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.”
I stepped closer, and now I could smell that cherry and vanilla scent of her.Chyort,I wanted to just grab her waist and bring my lips down on that pouting, stubbornly determined mouth…
She’s a fucking FBI agent. The enemy.I repeated it and repeated it in my head, but even then, I had to bunch my fists to stop me reaching for her. And there was this…achein my chest. I didn’t want her to go. Didn’t want her anywhere but securely in my arms, where I could protect her. I took a deep breath. “Be very careful,” I managed.
She nodded, pulled on her helmet, and ran to her bike. The wind had turned bitter, sending my suit jacket billowing out behind me and making my forehead throb with the cold. But I stood there watching until she was a speck in the distance.
23
ALISON
That afternoon,I sat at my desk pretending to work while my stomach tied itself in knots. I wasn’t just scared, I felt utterly lost. I’d spent my entire career in law enforcement, and there’d always been an unspoken bond, a kind of family. Sure, cops argue, but we always have each other’s backs. But now...
Someone at FBI Chicago had conspired to kill me. And most likely, it was someone on my team: they would have had easiest access to the evidence.
I felt like a tree someone had torn out of the earth, roots jangling like exposed nerves. I couldn’t trust anyone, and I just wanted?—
I wanted to feel Gennadiy’s arms around me again. It made no sense. The man was a killer...but that moment in the graveyard was the first time I’d felt truly safe in years.
I closed my eyes for a second and forced the feeling down inside.Focus, Alison.Who’s the traitor?
I opened my eyes and sneaked a look across the room at Fitch. He was a sexist prick who didn’t like taking orders from me, butmurder?I thought back to just after it happened, when I was standing outside my apartment building. He’d been nice, concerned. Did that rule him out, or was he just a good liar?
Or what about Hadderwell? I turned the other way and watched him through the open door of the break room as he poured coffee, swiping through stock graphs on his phone. He was always boasting about playing the market and picking winners. What if he’d been picking losers instead? Maybe he was in debt and had taken a bribe...
The air started to feel hot, the room shrinking, threatening to crush me. The traitor wasright herein the building, probably in the same room, and every instinct wanted me to run, but I had to stay passively in my seat and wait for?—
A hand thumped down on my shoulder. I yelped and spun around in my chair.
“Sorry.” Halifax scrunched up his brow in concern. “Didn’t mean to scare you. You okay?”
I sat there panting for a second. No, I most definitelywasn’tokay. But I couldn’t tell him why, even though I’d known him for years, even though I counted him as a friend, because…
Because it might be him.I hated the thought, but I couldn’t discount it. He’d been so quick to blame Gennadiy. “I’m fine,” I croaked. “Just...you know. It was a long night.”
Halifax nodded somberly. “You shouldn’t even be at work. Go home, get some rest. We’ll keep trying to find something to tie Gennadiy to your apartment. We’ll get the bastard.”
I nodded weakly and stood up. It was almost quitting time anyway, and I couldn’t stay in the office another second. Caroline gave me a worried look as I passed by her desk.Should I tell her?I could really use a sounding board. She could keep her eyes open, maybe help figure out who the traitor was…
But telling her would put her in danger, too, and she had kids.No, I had to figure this out on my own.
I rode home, stopping on the way to get Cantonese takeout, then clumped up the stairs to my apartment. It was weird, being home so early.What do normal people do all evening?Maybe I could find a movie to watch.
I put the takeout bag down on the coffee table and started unpacking cartons...then stopped.
The rug was out of place. One end was all rucked up, like someone had tripped on it. That wasn’t weird in itself: about a million people had been through here the previous night, dusting for prints. Except...I’d straightened the rug before I left. I was sure of it.
I pulled out my gun and moved slowly into the hallway, breathing quietly. I checked the bedroom: nothing. But the door to the bathroom was closed, and Ineverleave it fully closed. My heart started pounding. I edged towards the door, wishing my leathers didn’t creak so much.
I listened. Nothing. Were they waiting for me, on the other side?
I took three quick breaths, then turned the doorknob and threw the door wide?—
