Page 72 of Trust No One

Allen stared at her. “We don’t give details of our operations to outsiders.”

She curled her fingers around the arms of the chairs. “I was a CIA employee,” she said. “My compensation was generous. But not generous enough to buy real estate worth over one hundred fifty million dollars.”

Bradford raised one eyebrow. “That would be difficult, even on a CIA salary.”

“Yes, sir.” She glanced at Gideon. “Our colleague, Gideon Wolf, spent some time on the dark web. He has other information you’ll find interesting.”

Gideon slid another manila folder over the desk toward Bradford. The director glanced at it, then looked back at Mel. “What is it you’d like me to do?”

“Analyze the video. Watch it as many times as necessary until you’re convinced it’s legitimate. Then watch it some more until you’re convinced it’s a cold-blooded murder.”

She leaned closer to Allen. “Then arrest him. Hold him while you examine the rest of the evidence we’ve put together.” She drew in a shuddering breath.

“He needs to be out of circulation. He’s threatened one of our employees, and in the video, you can hear him and Larrimore discuss killing her. Bree Gordon.” She took another deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart.

“Just today, we caught Kingsley trying to kill a young woman he’d bribed to put bugs in mine and Dev’s hotel rooms. Fortunately, we were able to stop him, and the young woman is on her way to Chicago. Kingsley can’t be allowed to kill anyone else.”

Mel nodded at the flash drive. “Bree ran into Kingsley and Larrimore recently at a conference. They threatened her there. On that video, they talk about taking care of unfinished business.”

“And you think that Kingsley still represents a threat to Ms. Gordon?”

“Yes, sir. I do. Watch the video.”

“Is Ms. Gordon a bodyguard?”

He’d clearly done his research on her and Dev before he’d met with them. “Yes, sir. A very good one.”

“So she should be able to protect herself from a threat.”

Mel’s blood began to boil. “Bree is very good at her job,” she said, leaning forward and putting both hands on the director’s desk. “But why should she have to be on high alert at all times, waiting for Kingsley or one of his associates to come after her? And you should be ashamed to say that, even indirectly. Kingsley needs to be locked up and forbidden from talking to anyone until you can roll up his network.”

Bradford leaned back in his chair and studied Mel for a long moment. “You make some good points, Ms. Melbourne. But you’ve made serious accusations against a CIA employee.” He moved a pen around on his desk. “I’ve looked at your records from your time with the CIA, and you have consistently high evaluations.” He shifted his gaze to Dev. “You, too, Mr. Smith. You were both a credit to the Agency.”

He stood up. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” he said. “I’ll study these videos carefully. May I call you to follow up, or if I have any other questions?” he asked.

“Of course, sir,” Mel said, standing as well. “Thank you for making the time to see us.”

She turned and stormed out of the Director’s office, followed by Dev and then Gideon. They were very careful not to slam the door. No one said a thing until they were back in the car and several miles away from Langley.

Chapter 25

Dev gripped the steering wheel hard as they drove away from Langley. His knuckles whitened on the black vinyl, and he kept his eyes on the road in front of him, instead of turning to look at Mel, sitting beside him. Allen hadn’t trusted them. But then, why would he? They were strangers to him.

“What the hell, Dev?” Mel said once they’d left the grounds of the CIA behind them. As if she were afraid that the Company had giant listening devices in place to spy on the people who came to their building.

“Yeah,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting him to believe us right off the bat, but I thought he’d be more… grateful. We were taking a big chance by going to him.”

Mel drew a deep breath. “Fuck me sideways,” she said. “I can’t believe that asshole took Kingsley’s side.”

“He didn’t take Kingsley’s side,” Dev said. He wanted to reach for Mel’s hand but knew this wasn’t the time. “He merely said he’d look into it. I think that’s a win.”

Mel banged her head into the headrest behind her. “I figured if we were able to talk to the CIA Director, show him the video, explain what we know about that rat bastard, we wouldn’t have to worry about Kingsley. Allen’d grab him and throw him into a cell so they could interrogate him. Problem solved.”

This time, Dev couldn’t stop himself from reaching to squeeze Mel’s hand, clenched into a hard fist on her thigh. He smoothed one finger over the back of her hand and felt her relax against his hand. His fingers tingling from the contact, he snatched them away and gripped the steering wheel again.

“He didn’t know us, Mel. So why would he have trusted us? He didn’t take Kingsley’s side. He just needs to verify the information we gave him.”

He glanced over at her. “We don’t trust him, either,” he pointed out. “Becausewedon’t knowhim.” He shrugged one shoulder. “I think we got as much as we could expect from him. But he has all the information you and Gideon gathered. He’ll have his own agents verify what Gideon found on the dark web.” He clenched his teeth. “Maybe we need to put someone from Blackhawk Security on Bree and Jameson.”

---