“Take care of yourself, Jagger.”
“You, too, Agent Foster.”
He was rewarded with the tiniest of smiles as she turned and walked out of the room. A long moment later, Jagger was still standing there, lost in thought about a woman who’d never be his, when Liam appeared in the doorway.
“Good. You’re still here.” He rushed into the room with his trusty tablet clutched in his hands.
“Yep.” Jagger mentally shook off the disappointment Talia’s departure had caused. “I’m still here.”And she’s gone.“Why? What’s up?”
“I got the security footage, and I thought…” Liam glanced around the room. “Damn. I was hoping Talia would still be here, too.”
You and me both, brother.
“I take it you found something?” He stepped toward his teammate and friend.
“You could say that.” The comment was low and mumbled. But then, “I finally got the security footage, as well as the facial rec info.”
“That’s good news…right?”
The guy had sure rushed in here like he’d had something good to share.
But Liam shrugged. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“On the one hand, it’s impossible to tell whether Baxter’s shot was justified. But on the other…”
“Spit it out, Liam.”
“What you think of the news also depends on whether our Homeland handler knew one of her former CIA teammates was on Sanchez’s payroll.” He flipped the tablet around so Jagger could see the screen.
What the?—
He took the electronic device out of Liam’s hands. Jagger studied the screen, which had been divided into two separate windows.
The left half showed a photo of a man he didn’t know. Short, dark hair. Straight nose. Square jaw. Hard, intent eyes that stared straight ahead.
Filling the right half of the screen was a scrollable data dump of intel on the man in the picture…
Keith Sinclair. Former Army Ranger turned?—
“This guy was CIA?” Jagger’s eyes flew up to Liam’s.
“Not only was Sinclair an agent for the secretive alphabet agency, he was also part of the same covert group headed-up by our very own Talia. Question is, does she know her former spook buddy flipped sides and was now working for the same bastard behind the guns we helped seize last night?”
It would be one hell of a coincidence if she didn’t.
“I don’t remember Sinclair’s name being on the list of targets we were given.”
“Because it wasn’t.” Liam took the tablet back, holding it loosely at one side. “Trust me, I triple checked. The name Keith Sinclair isn’t in any of the intel that we were given. So either Talia’s team made a mistake, or?—”
“The omission was intentional.”
But why?
That’s what he was trying hard to understand. What would Talia gain by hiding the fact that she knows one of the guys from the port?
“She could’ve just been embarrassed.” Liam gave one shoulder a shrug. “I mean, wouldyouwant anyone knowing you used to hang with a traitorous POS like Sinclair?”
