“You don’t understand,” Tanner hastened to explain, “we’re taking her to her child.”
“Drop the weapon, Arad,” Fran suggested. “Don’t make me do something we’ll both regret.”
He looked at Fran then. “This has nothing to do with you. It is between him—” he jerked his head toward Tanner “—and me.”
Fran shrugged and lowered her weapon. “You’re right.”
Tanner gaped at her. “What the hell—”
“Let her go,” Michal repeated, halting whatever Tanner intended to rant.
“They used him,” Fran reminded Tanner. “He didn’t deserve a termination order and you know it.” She said the last with more ferocity than Ami had heard her use before.
Tanner had known Michal wasn’t a bad guy? Shock radiated through Ami all over again. That meant the CIA knew…
Clearly recognizing when he was outnumbered, Tanner released her. Ami went immediately to Michal. She thrust her arms around him and held him close, determined to hear for herself the steady beat of his heart.
“Before you die,” Michal said to Tanner, “you will tell Ami all that you and your people did to her.”
Fran leaned against a nearby car. “Might as well get comfortable. This is going to take a while.”
Too thankful for Michal’s safety to care one iota about the rest of the conversation, Ami clung to him, sending up silent prayers of gratitude.
“Tell her,” Michal ordered savagely.
Startled by the savagery in Michal’s tone, Ami shifted her attention to him and then to Tanner. Anticipation spiked. He was finally going to tell her the truth. She could see the defeat in his eyes.
Her disbelief growing with every sentence he strung together, Ami listened as Tanner described her innocuous life as a med school student. The loss of her mother and the long-standing, deep-seated dislike for her father. Then, visibly reluctant, he told her the rest. The way her cover as Jamie Dalton had been initiated. The whole crazy scheme. Down to the fact that he had known she was alive all along, had been the one to rescue her.
When at last he’d finished, Ami did the only thing she could. She slapped him hard. Wanted the sting to go on and on until the quake shook loose some sense of compassion in him.
What he’d done had been wrong.
But it was over now. If what he’d told her was true and he’d brought her baby back to her, she could forgive him most anything.
“Where’s my child?” she demanded, ready to do him bodily harm yet again.
To his credit, he didn’t step back. He took it like a man. “Get in.” He tossed a challenging glare in Michal’s direction. “You, too. I’ll take you both to Nicholas.”
Michal inclined his head toward Fran. “She will take us to my son. The only place you’re going is to hell.” He tightened his grip around his weapon.
“Wait!” Ami pulled back and peered up at Michal. “He only followed orders. Killing him won’t make any of this right.” Her voice grew even more pleading then. “I just want to see my baby.”
“Besides,” Tanner put in, “the two of you need me.”
Michal made a sound of disbelief. “And how have you reached that ridiculous conclusion?”
“I can sink your files. As far as the CIA will be concerned, neither of you will ever have existed. Only a handful of people will know and even they won’t be able to prove it.”
Michal didn’t bother to tell him that Ron Doamiass had already taken similar steps within the Mossad. Michal owed him a great deal. A debt he would never be able to repay. As far as the world knew, Michal Arad was dead. Ron had risked his career as well as his life to set up that very scenario. That it was witnessed and survived by two of Michal’s men had been the pivotal strategy.
Yet, on some level, Michal knew that Tanner spoke the truth. The history of Michal and Ami would be best served if it no longer existed in any government agency.
“Who will ensure that you—” he glanced at the attractive older woman who had allowed him to make his case without interference “—and you keep this secret?”
“What was your name again?” Fran quipped.
“Your son is waiting,” Tanner reminded him, uncertainty as to his own fate hovering in his expression.
