“No, I want to talk to you alone.”
Uh-oh. “Is this about Markus? We have a little date planned but it’s not serious. I mean, I just got divorced.”
Valentina looked bored with the Markus comments. “All I can say about that is good luck, girlfriend. However, what I’m about to say might affect your relationship.”
Gabby settled into a chair and took a nervous sip of latte. If it wasn’t about Markus, then what could it be? “What happened?Am I in trouble?” She had drugged and tied up three EOD agents yesterday. Everyone had seemed cool with it at the time…
“No.” Valentina didn’t elaborate. Instead she turned to her computer and finished sending an email. The woman could give a master class in compartmentalization.
If Gabby wasn’t in trouble, it was probably a standard outtake thing. They probably had to revoke her security clearance and threaten her with a trip to Guantánamo again. Or maybe it was a survey. Everywhere had HR.
To distract herself, she picked up her phone and started scrolling through all the notifications that she missed yesterday. The neighborhood LISTSERV had been popping.
9:00 am: “That guy is still parked outside the Greene house. Does anyone know who he is?”
Someone commented,“Gabby’s grandmother said he’s nice. Idk.”
Shelly responded.“Gabby can’t have her relatives parked on the street all day. Calling cops. Again.”
2:00 pm: “Does anyone have a favorite Korean takeout place?”
By 8:00 p.m., it was a flurry of comments. There were photos of the entire altercation, including Shelly in handcuffs and all of the neighbors in their yards watching.
“Congratulations again,” Valentina interrupted.
Gabby looked up to find Valentina staring at her and ready totalk. She smiled hesitantly. “Um, thanks. How did everything go last night?”
“Our agents took everyone to interrogation after their arrest. Kramer cracked almost immediately, implicating Sergei Orlov and killing anyone’s chance of pleading out with a lesser charge. They will all be going away for some time, thanks to you.”
“What about Fran and Smirnov?” Those were the two who actually scared her.
“Between Fran’s confession in front of three agents and a mountain of evidence in Smirnov’s office, they’re done.”
Gabby relaxed into her chair. If she wasn’t in trouble and the bad guys were locked up, why was she here?
“Thank you again.” Valentina paused and swept her hair up in a ponytail. “You did far more than we asked or expected of you.” Valentina made uncomfortably direct eye contact. “I know I’ve given you a hard time. It really did take me a minute to warm up, but you’re top-tier agent material, Greene.”
She heard Valentina say the words, but she didn’t process them. It was like she was watching a movie of her life. This couldn’t be happening. Just two weeks ago, Valentina had been sitting at her kitchen table in front of a plate of leftover pancakes and a pile of homework, looking highly suspicious of Gabby.
Today, Gabby was at EOD headquarters in a sleek op center being treated not only like she belonged but as if she were “top tier.” This must be what an LSD trip felt like.
“You need more training, of course, but the raw talent you displayed on this mission shows that you will make a damn fine agent. That spy decoder pen was just—” Valentina paused to laugh. “That was the chef’s kiss on this operation.”
Raw talent?Gabby blinked. The pen was in her pocket because she’d confiscated it from Lucas. Nothing she did was planned, ever. She was muddling through a sea of people who needed things from her all the time—if anything happened, it was a product of circumstance. Didn’t Valentina see she was a walking comedy of errors?
“Val, I’m really not good at this. A few things just happened to go my way.”
“No, it’s talent. Accept the compliment, Gabby. You earned it.”
The weight of sadness she’d felt on the way into the building faded. In its place was something new. Instead of feeling weighed down, Valentina was lifting her up.
All Gabby had wanted an hour ago was to enjoy her morning coffee in peace and quiet and to recover from the last two weeks of insanity. The EOD was all wrong for her for the same reasons as when Valentina and Alice had first approached her: 1) she hated danger, and 2) she was a mom.
Although if she hadn’t been kidnapped on Monday and tied up in her kitchen on Wednesday, the work-life balance would have been better. Double agenting was a lot more than single agenting, especially when you didn’t sign up for it.
“I’d like to offer you a permanent position with the EOD,” Valentina said with an assuredness Gabby could barely comprehend.
Even though she’d felt Valentina working up to this, the offer hit her like an unexpected Oscar win. It was preposterous. A secret agent for real? Not just a fill-in because she happened to look like someone.
