Hard to Trust (25 page)

"I was a target. I can feel it in every fiber of my being. I had no family. I had no one to trust to bounce things off. I was perfect for their purposes and played right into their hands. Alex and his father must have rubbed their hands together in glee."

She shook her head and fought back the tears. "At one point, the CIA said they found my father. I still don't know if it's true, or they made that up to mess with my head. It was sort of like a carrot that wasn't a carrot at all. It was more like a carrot that turned into a pile of crap. They traced my mother's dating history back and found out she was involved with a known member of organized crime. They'd suspected he was my father, even though they couldn't prove it without DNA."

"What an odd thing to tell you."

A shudder passed down her spine as the memories clutched at her heart. "I should say Alex told me. Now that I know everything about him is a lie, why would he be truthful about that?"

She sucked in a breath as long-suppressed emotion threatened to stop her in her tracks. "But this whole setup did something important from their perspective
it obliterated any other family in my life. He knew I wouldn't explore the idea of having a crime boss as a father. The idea was so objectionable I couldn't fathom wanting to know his name." She shrugged, trying to dispel the weight of the world from resting on her shoulders. The mind games she'd been subjected to had been more involved and far-reaching than she'd ever realized. "Alex and the CIA made themselves my family. That's how it had been designed from the get-go. They wanted to be my only recourse, which is why this whole thing feels like a stab to the heart. No one is on my side anymore or has my back. Now I know they never did. Everything was an illusion from the start."

*  *  *

"Do you really think they set you up?" Jake's experience had been so similar it was no wonder they'd bonded so quickly. Except for the fact he had two siblings, which helped filter through the noise of Petrovich's brainwashing to help him make sense of what was happening. No matter what, he knew his siblings would be there for him, regardless of their break from Petrovich.

"It's taken me a while to figure it out, but yes. There's nothing else that makes any sense. It was like they set a target on me. As much as it pains me to think this, Alex must have been a part of it from the beginning." She shuddered. "He may have been the orchestrator of the whole thing."

He spotted the pain reflected in her eyes. She'd been betrayed. The betrayal ran so deep that it was hard for her to recognize what had happened. They'd used her emotions as a means to an end. This wasn't the manipulation of the CIA, it was an evil mastermind.

He drew in a breath to steady himself. It would the first time he'd ever verbalized what had been simmering in his gut for years.

He trusted too much, his brother trusted too little, and his sister was somewhere in the middle with a cynical edge. Their upbringing had a hand in it. Being orphaned at a young age had upped the ante. Meeting Petrovich had sealed his fate. Forever they'd be bound by a man who'd been dead for a while now.

But the guilt at his misplaced trust that almost cost his brother his life was something that never left Jake's mind. While Max brushed it off as part of the mission, Jake had never been able to forget that night.

"We left Petrovich because I screwed up." He blurted the words out before he had a chance to check himself.

Her head shot up and she looked him in the eye. She had a puzzled expression on her face. "Are you saying he threw you out?"

Jake shook his head as the memories tumbled through. "The three of us usually worked together. We were a good team. Petrovich knew that. My brother Max was the expert. Never tell him this, but he's a genius. His mind can analyze situations in a snap and come up with a plan."

"But—"

He held a finger to her lips to stop anything she might say. Now that he'd decided to spill his guts, he didn't want her or anyone else stopping him. "We were to take out this guy, and his main bodyguard was a woman. I'd befriended her a couple of weeks before we actually decided to make the hit."

"In other words, you worked your charms on her."

He cringed. "I thought I had this woman wrapped around my finger and figured getting in to take care of the mark would be easy. Except I wasn't as clever as I thought. She had me pegged from the get-go. Max almost died because of my stupidity. We were stranded on a mountainside. Max was bleeding to death, all while assassins sent by Petrovich were trying to kill us. But we knew the area well and found caves, groupings of trees to hide out in. We nearly lost Sabrina when someone came after her while we were going down the mountain. She's quick on her feet, and the guy ended up going over the side."

"Sounds horrifying."

He shook his head. "You have no idea." Jake pushed away thoughts of how close he'd come to losing both his brother and sister.

Memories tunneled through his mind as he laid his arm across her shoulder and pulled her in closer. When would he know he was good enough? Would he ever be confident in his decisions?

"You couldn't have—" Once again he put a finger to her lips. He didn't want her explanations to soothe him. Nothing could smooth over the fact that he'd been cocky, and his brother had almost paid the price.

"While I was working her, she was working me. And I never knew it."

"What are you trying to say?" She worried her lip and stared into his eyes.

"I'm not sure. I only know that every time I think I'm being charming and working an angle, it comes back to bite me." He blew out a breath. "I'll never forgive myself for trusting I'd be able to tell the difference between a lie and the truth."

"We've had similar experiences."

"I can't help but think that wasn't some coincidence."

"What do you mean?" She rubbed her hand along his arm.

"I was handpicked by someone from the CIA who hired The Alliance to take this case. Evidently, I was first on their list."

"Do you know why?"

Jake clenched his jaw and nodded. "I believe the woman in that photo with Alex is the same woman who double-crossed me in Istanbul. I was there shortly after you left. So the question is why."

"No wonder you acted so odd when I showed the picture to you. We're connected, but we didn't know it until now."

Most folks would never believe he had a chasm inside that housed insecurities too numerous to mention. Then again, most folks hadn't lived his life. Hadn't seen what he'd seen. Hadn't done what he'd done.

It was all about playing the part of Jacov Shaw, tactical agent extraordinaire at The Alliance. He'd fooled a lot of people for a long time with his swagger, but somehow she saw through him.

The idea she hadn't been fooled cut him to the quick. Why could she see his frailties so easily when he still couldn't decide whether or not she was telling the truth?

He kissed her because it felt right. "Could you email me those photos you took in Istanbul, and I'll forward them on to The Alliance to see if they can make sense of anything?"

"Did you take any photos when you were there? Maybe we can match them up and figure out what's going on."

"Jennings has what I took. I'll have him do some comparisons."

She nodded as she got up from the couch. "After this whole revelation, I need to take a shower and cry my eyes out in private. Don't want you to think I'm a wuss or anything." With a weak smile, she did what she needed to do and walked into the bathroom.

He called Jennings. "Did you get any facial recognition on the photo I scanned?" He couldn't be a hundred percent positive, but it sure looked like Cleo, which fell into the no-way-in-hell-this-is-a-coincidence category. First the Istanbul connection and now this?

"We're getting a Russian journalist by the name of Marta Kasparaski. Rumor has it she's a Russian agent. Don't know for sure." Jennings hesitated for a second. "That looks like Alex Cromier with her."

"Exactly. There's some belief he might be involved with her. Who knows what their relationship is. Compare that photo to the one I took of Cleo. If they're one and the same, that can only mean that Alex hired The Alliance and wanted to screw both me and Tessa."

"Except Alex is supposed to be dead. The whole thing sounds a little far-fetched, don't you think?"

"Hell yeah, but somehow it all fits together. The mysterious CIA person who isn't forthcoming with information. The numerous attempts on Tessa's life for some unknown reason." Maybe to hope Jake failed, sealing his downward spiral. "This latest wrinkle only adds to the mystery. Also sending you some files Tessa took in Istanbul. I want to see if any of the market photos shows Cleo or matches up with the ones I took."

"What are you thinking?"

"The whole double agent thing doesn't feel right. Nothing's adding up. That dickwad Alex wanted to bring her down." Jake tried to separate his feelings about her from the objectivity of the assignment, but it was difficult. He liked her. Of course his brother would insist it was because he was fickle, prone to getting sucked in by a beautiful woman and being lured into a trap nine times out of ten. But this felt all kinds of wrong.

"I need specifics, Jake, not feelings."

He forced himself to focus. "For one, she's committed to the CIA, thinks of them as family. At least, she did until very recently. I find it difficult to believe she'd cross them." He didn't want to tell him about what Tessa had revealed. "Tessa and I were in Istanbul a couple of weeks apart. It's within the realm of possibilities that this whole thing circles together."

"One thing at a time, Jake. Let's face it, we deal with the most cunning of agents all the time—sometimes it's hard to find their tell. It might be only for a fraction of a second that their façade breaks, but that's when we know. This woman might be someone who only looked like Cleo."

"Tessa's shaken, scared to her bone about the situation, and confused. I'm telling you, she's innocent of everything they're accusing her of."

Jennings sucked in a breath. "That photo you sent me from Aaron's is legit, Jake. And worse, that Cayman Island bank account with Tessa Graham's name on it is worth a million dollars."

"What?" Just when he'd convinced himself he'd finally conquered his fears, he'd been thrown a curve ball.

"We did a test on the photo and our experts are ninety-nine percent sure it's a legitimate photo. As for the bank thing, I can send you a video of her opening the account. It sure as hell looks like Tessa Graham."

He gulped back the clog of disgust in his throat. Being wrong again was not something he'd wanted or aspired to repeat. The one percent error margin was a pipe dream. Intellectually he knew that but couldn't help but harboring the thought that maybe this time he could count on his instincts to lead him in the right direction.

"What about Alex? Any confirmation from a reliable source one way or another? We both think he's alive. He's got to be the double agent, not Tessa. Maybe he's the one that hired The Alliance." He sounded like he felt—that he was grasping at straws.

"We?" Jennings made his point in one simple word. "Everyone has verified that the video was credible. There's no body because that's the way those whackos do things." His breath rattled out. "Keep her safe until they schedule a drop-off time."

This was effed up. But he wasn't going to give up. He couldn't. After all this, he needed to prove he was right about her. First he might have to convince himself.

"Jake, I know you've had a rough time of it lately. I—"

"Save the lecture, Jennings. I'll keep you posted." He hung up right as Tessa came out of the bathroom.

She was wearing a white fluffy robe and had puffy red eyes. He got up to pour her a glass of wine. She sipped at the wine and avoided eye contact. He needed to know for sure. If Alex really was dead, she was better at this game than he could have imagined. He had to know. Somehow he had to get to the truth or get her to break.

This would not go well.

Tessa didn't like the look on Jake's face. She'd been around him enough to know it meant trouble. But before she could figure out what was bothering him, she spotted an envelope lying in the middle of the floor and picked it up. "What's this?" His name was written across the front. "This isn't part of the file we found, is it?"

He shook his head. "It's mine."

"It looks like a thank-you note. Did you do something nice for somebody for a change?" She tried for a little humor to erase that vacant look in his eye.

He sighed. She could see him doing an internal debate. "I haven't read it, but it's more likely an eff-you not a thank-you." His words piqued her interest more than she'd expected. "A client I was sent to retrieve died on my watch. The woman I know as Cleo, the same woman who I believe was in the picture with Alex, set me up and set the dead guy up as well. It doesn't matter what the note says. You can't change dead." He pointed to the envelope as if it carried a disease. "That's a note the widow sent to me."

She rushed toward him, unable to stop the tears burning in her eyes. The pain emanating from him came to her in waves. His eyes had suddenly lost their mischievous sparkle as his gaze avoided hers. She could only guess what he was going through on the inside. She sucked him into a hug. He was so tough, yet so vulnerable deep down inside. "I'm so sorry. I've been there myself and know all about the second-guessing that goes along with it. There's no worse feeling in the world."