Page 73 of Trust No One

Mel flattened her hands on her thighs, pushing so hard her fingernails whitened. “Yeah,” she said, her voice flat. “Maybe we do. I’ll see who’s available.” She swiveled on the seat to face him. “For all we know, Allen’s in bed with Kingsley. Maybe they’re both padding their nests for retirement.”

“Highly unlikely,” Gideon said from the back seat. “The heads of the CIA, the FBI, the Secret Service, DARPA and the NSA, along with some of the other spook agencies, are constantly vetted. If Allen was dirty, they’d find it.”

Mel sighed. “I want to stop looking over my shoulder for Kingsley.”

“You didn’t think Allen’d jump all over your information and admit that Kingsley was dirty, did you??” Gideon asked. “The FBI would never admit that to a civilian. And I suspect the CIA wouldn’t, either. I’m guessing Allen’s in his office right now, drilling down on Kingsley.”

“Maybe he is,” Mel said grimly. “But it looks like it’s gonna be up to us to stop that rat bastard.”

“That’snoton us,” Dev said. “We were very clear about Kingsley. About what he’s done, and the danger he poses to lots of people. Including us.”

He rolled to a stop at a red light and turned to look at her. “I’m amazed at your guts. At the way you went after him when he made it clear he wasn’t sure we were telling him the truth.

“You called him on his bullshit. Told him in no uncertain terms that you didn’t trust him to do the right thing. God, babe, I’m so proud of you.”

Mel turned to look at him, her expression tender. Soft. The way she’d looked at him back when they were together. “Thanks, Dev,” she murmured. “That you’re behind me? That you’d fight for me? That means a lot.” She covered his hand with hers and stroked the inside of his wrist.

Mel was loyal to a fault. She’d step between him and trouble – and had done that a few times in the past.

He was damn glad they were working together again. Especially on something this important.

Mel nudged him, interrupting his thoughts. “You think we should call Simon and Caroline? Make sure they got into the safe house okay? Make sure they have FBI agents with them?” She took a deep breath. “After our meeting with Allen, I don’t trust the CIA at all.”

Thankful for the distraction from his thoughts, he glanced over at her. “Yeah, I don’t trust them either. But aren’t you afraid that Kingsley or someone else at the Company could use our phone call to trace their location?”

Mel frowned. “Wouldn’t Kingsley need to be close to us to do that?”

“I have no idea,” Dev said. “Gideon, you know if that’s possible?”

“Yeah, it’s possible,” he said. “But it’s got to be set up ahead of time. Kingsley couldn’t just decide he wants to spy on you and do it. It would take equipment and the know-how to rig it up.”

“Kingsley was never in the field, as far as I know,” Mel said. “He’s always been a bureaucrat. Unless he learned those tricks so he could spy on his fellow agents. Or maybe he has someone helping him. The kind of money he has? That could tempt a saint.”

“Yeah. A lot of people would have a hard time resisting that. And it sounds like a very Kingsley thing to do – lure someone to the dark side,” Dev said. “So I vote no on using our phones to call Simon and Caroline. We could use our burner phone, but I’m not sure they would answer a call from a number they didn’t recognize.”

“I could call Diana and ask her to call them, have them call your burner,” Gideon said.

Mel swiveled to face him. “Maybe call her and ask her if they’re in the safe house. If they are, give Diana our burner phone number and have her ask Simon and Caroline to call us.”

“Will do,” he said. He reached over the seat. “What’s your burner’s number?”

Mel touched the screen so it displayed, then handed it to Gideon. He pulled out a card and dialed a number on his own phone.

“Diana?” he said. “Gideon Wolf. Checking in to see if Simon and Caroline made it to the safe house.”

He listened for a few moments, then said, “Great. Thank you. We really appreciate that. If I give you Mel and Dev’s burner phone number, could you call Simon and Caroline and ask them to call us?”

He recited the number, listened for another few moments, then said, “Thanks so much. We really appreciate all you’ve done for them.”

He ended the call and shoved the phone into his pocket. “They’re in the FBI house. Not in DC. But she didn’t tell me where. She’ll call them and give them your burner number.”

“Now that I know they’re safe, it’s one less thing to think about,” Mel said.

Dev turned into the hotel parking lot. He hadn’t seen any cars following theirs, but he glanced over at Mel. “Were you watching for anyone tailing us?”

“I was. Didn’t see anything. No cars that hung back but took the same route. No silver sedan, but Kingsley’s smart enough not to use it again. If he had any doubts that the sedan was blown, our following him to where he’d taken Graciella would prove thatthatsedan was no longer anonymous. He might not have seen us, but he knows someone snatched Graciella away from him. It's possible he saw this car, but I doubt it. He was pretty groggy from Dev’s blow. So if we haven’t seen anyone tailing us, I think we’re good,” she said.

“Okay. We’ll sit in the parking lot for a while, just to make sure.”

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