Page 4 of Grave Danger

“This is all a mistake!” Ava said, as they reached the police van.

“Yes, and you made it,” said the officer.

He shoved her inside the van, and the double doors slammed shut.

Chapter 1

Miami

Two Years Later

“You are experiencing mirror image syndrome,” the marriage counselor said from behind her desk. Dr. Stanger’s office furnishings were ultramodern, and the oval desktop was solid glass. Beneath the halogen lighting, it glistened like a puddle of her clients’ tears.

“What does that mean?” asked Jack.

Jack Swyteck and his wife of nine years, FBI agent Andie Henning, were seated in matching wing chairs facing their counselor. Jack was dressed in a dark suit and tie, having just come from the courthouse. Andie was wearing FBI khaki pants, the standard blue polo shirt, and an empty holster. Weapons were strictly forbidden in Dr. Stanger’s sessions, and no one had to ask why. Counseling had been Jack’s idea—one last attempt to find an alternative to Andie’s solution to the “rough patch” in their marriage.

Dr. Stanger folded her hands atop her desk. “Mirror image syndrome means that the two of you are looking at the exact same reality and each seeing your spouse as the unreasonable one.”

“That’s not asyndrome,” said Jack. “That’s life.”

“‘Life without parole,’ a criminal lawyer might say,” Andie said, teasing, with an exaggerated sigh.

“Criminaldefenselawyer,” said Jack. “I’m not a criminal.”

“This is not constructive,” Dr. Stanger said.

“Actually, it is,” said Andie. “Ourlifefor the last nine years has been doing things Jack’s way. I’ve lost count of the number of times his work as a criminal lawyer—”

“Criminaldefenselawyer.”

“—has caused me professional embarrassment at the bureau. If our marriage and our daughter are the most important things in our life, why can’t we try it my way?”

“Can I respond?” asked Jack.

“Of course,” Dr. Stanger said.

“Because it’s not reasonable to ask me to stop doing what I do best. I can’t suddenly slap my mug on billboards and ask, ‘Have You Been Injured in an Accident?’”

“To be fair, that’s not what Andie is saying, Jack. Her point is that the essential nature of her work is to put criminals behind bars. She can’t be an FBI agent andnotdo that. But a lawyer doesn’t have to defend accused criminals to be a lawyer. There are a multitude of ways to practice law without being adverse to law enforcement.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” said Andie. “But my point is more than that: Why does it always have to be the woman who changes her career for the betterment of the marriage?”

“Why does either of us have to change their career?”

“Because this isn’t working anymore, Jack.”

The room went silent. Andie had uttered those words only once before, prior to counseling. But it was the first time she’d said it with such conviction.

The counselor broke the silence. “Would you like my take on what’s not working?”

“By all means,” said Jack.

“It’s not the abstract possibility of a conflict of interest between a lawyer and a law enforcement agent that is straining your marriage. It’s the self-imposed rule you’ve lived by to avoid any potential conflict.”

The Rule.It was etched in stone: Andie didn’t talk to Jack about her active investigations, and Jack didn’t talk to Andie about his active cases. Jack’s fear was that he might say something to land his client in jail; Andie’s fear was that she might slip and reveal an FBI secret to one of Miami’s top criminal defense lawyers.

“What’s wrong with the Rule?” asked Andie, capitalR.

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