“Before I start, I have to admit I’m surprised you don’t already know about Julian.”
“Miller?” Jagger motioned to the clipping they’d placed in a clear storage bag she’d gotten earlier from the kitchen. “Why would you assume that?”
“Don’t be coy, Jagger.” Natalia chose to sit on the opposite side of the couch. “Two minutes, and you and Cutler would know everything about me. Personal. Professional. Even stuff that’s supposed to be sealed.”
“This is true.” He made no attempt at denial. “Now, I can’t speak for the others, but what I can promise you is that I’ve never looked into you.”
“Not even a little?”
There was an immediate shake of his head. “I like to form my own opinions about people. Even the ones I work with.”
“I have to say, that surprises me.”
“Ryker trusts you enough to bring you onto his team. When he took that promotion, you were the one he chose to take his place.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t always mean?—”
“And then,” he interrupted, “when the man decided to have two separate handlers for the ever-evolving R.I.S.C. teams,youwere the agent he moved to D.C. to handle us, Charlie, and Echo. Not someone else, Talia. You.” His dark eyes locked onto hers. “I’ve known the man for years, and his word is his bond. It’s like that old sayin’…any friend of his and all that.”
“Is that what we are?” she asked softly. “Friends?”
“Darlin’, we can be whatever you want us to be.”
Natalia grew flushed as a rush of flutters raced their way through her chest. If only he knew what she wanted. Howbadlyshe craved him. If only she had the strength to tell him.
If only.
“I’m the reason Julian’s dead,” Natalia blurted the admission before she could talk herself out of it. “Not directly, but I was in charge of the op that got him killed.”
As far as segues went, it was far from being smooth, but at least the truth had finally been set free.
“What happened?”
“It was three years ago, in Afghanistan. A terrorist by the name of Ahmed al-Asiri took a group of innocent men and women hostage. Our job was to locate and implement rescue, along with an off-books, black ops team. We were sent there to find them and bring them home. Instead, we found a pile of bodies and…a bomb.”
“That’s how Julian died?”
Her head moved in a slow, solemn nod. “But not before he saved the rest of us, first.”
“How so?”
Natalia thought back to that day. She could almost feel the warmth from the desert sun on her face and taste the grittiness of sand on her tongue. Jagger’s dark, intense stare never left hers as he listened to her share the part of her past that refused to let go.
“We did everything by the book from the beginning of the op. Followed the same, basic outline as all the ones before it.”It should have been so easy.“Rahim Khan was my regional asset. He came highly vetted, and the intel he’d provided on previous ops was always solid.”Always.“Every one of my jobs with him was a success. So when Rahim came to me with GPS coordinates of al-Asiri’s hideout, and said that was where the hostages were being held, there was no reason for me to think the information was less than valid.”
“Khan double-crossed you?”
“My former boss at the agency thought so. As did his boss and the guy above him.”
“But not you.”
“No.” Natalia pictured Rahim’s kind, smiling face. “A year before this particular op, Rahim’s wife and son were caught in the crossfire when two of al-Asiri’s men started shooting at a small group of enemy militants in the middle of the village market. His wife was shot in the chest. Their son took a bullet to the head.”
Jagger cursed beneath his breath, running a hand over the course hair covering his jaw. “Poor man.”
“Exactly.” Natalia swallowed. “There’s no way in hell Rahim would’ve sided with the terrorist group responsible for killing his family.”
After a moment of silence to process what she’d shared so far, he spoke up once again.
