Page 51 of No Reason to Trust

He tossed his kit bag into his suitcase, then shoved the lid down. Snapped the locks, then set his suitcase on the floor. “I’m gonna need to eat something before we start driving. I don’t want to eat in the restaurant, in case Alexei’s men are still looking for us, but we could do room service again. Or we could start driving and find a restaurant along the way.”

“I can’t go that long without coffee, and I’m pretty sure you can’t, either,” Livvy said. “Let’s order room service. I’d like French toast and bacon.”

“Sounds good,” he said, reaching for the room phone. “I’ll order it.”

When the two orders of French toast and bacon arrived, along with a carafe of coffee, Jake sat on the couch, with his plate on the coffee table in front of him. Livvy sat at the table where they’d eaten their other meals. Neither of them talked while they ate.

Twenty minutes after their food and coffee arrived, they refilled their travel mugs with coffee from the carafe and got ready to leave. The elevator was half full, and they rode down to the lobby in silence. It took only a few minutes to check out, then they took the elevator to the parking garage.

Jake put himself in front of Livvy as they stepped out of the elevator on their parking level. He stood silently, listening, and he knew Livvy was doing the same. After five minutes, he looked over at her. “I don’t hear anything. How about you?”

“No. Nothing,” she said, in the same sharp whisper he’d used.

They’d parked close to the elevator so they wouldn’t have to walk down rows of cars that would be potential ambush points. In less than five minutes, they’d loaded their bags, gotten into the car and were driving out of the garage. Twenty minutes later, they’d left Brooklyn via the Verrazzano Bridge and cruised through Staten Island into New Jersey. When they reached New Jersey, Jake let out a long, relieved breath. He’d expected an ambush at some point on their way out of Brooklyn.

“You watching that side-view mirror?” he asked Livvy.

“I am. No signs yet of anyone following us.”

“We left really early. Probably too early for Alexei and his men to be up and about.”

“Hope so,” Livvy said, still staring at the mirror. “But I’ll keep watching.”

The drive back to Washington D.C. was smooth. Quiet. Neither Jake nor Livvy said much, because there wasn’t much to say. When they reached the outskirts of D.C., Jake glanced over at her.

“Not sure what your plans are, but I assume you’ll be returning to Helena at the earliest opportunity. Do you want to go to headquarters and talk to Diana? Tell her what happened, and see how her investigation is going?”

Livvy frowned for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Yeah. I need a sense of closure. Need to know what she plans to do next.”

“You don’t have to be there in person,” Jake said carefully. “I can drop you off at your car, so you can get back to Helena, and Diana can fill you in later.”

She stared at him for a long moment, then looked away. “I know that’s what you’d prefer, but I’d like to talk to Diana with you.”

“I think you know it’s not what I prefer, but I figured that was what you’d want. If you want to talk to Diana, I’m happy to go directly to headquarters.”

God, could they be any more awkward with each other? Any more stiff and careful?

Blowing out a breath, Jake found a place to park and exited the car with Livvy. By the time they reached Diana’s office, Jake was not just uncomfortable. He was getting pissed off. But he forced himself to smile at Diana’s receptionist. “Is the Director available?” he asked.

“What are your names?” the woman asked. “I’ll ask her.”

She picked up the phone and murmured into it. Then she ended the call and smiled at them. “Go ahead into her office.”

Jake opened the door for Livvy, then followed her into Diana’s office. Her desk was cherry wood, gleaming in the sunlight from her window. Bookshelves lined two walls, stuffed with books and file folders. Diana stood up as they entered. “Welcome home,” she said, holding out her hand to shake first Livvy’s hand, then Jake’s. “Have a seat and tell me how it went.”

They sat in the chairs in front of the beautiful desk and took turns telling Diana exactly what had happened. When they reached the part about the ambush in the alley, Diana frowned. “You’re both okay, right?”

“We’re fine,” Livvy said. “I didn’t want to shoot him, but he gave us no choice. If I hadn’t, he would have killed both Jake and me.” She shrugged. “That was yesterday afternoon. We left for Washington this morning.”

“It sounds like you accomplished a lot,” Diana said. She smiled. “I’ve had both Windsor and Nelson under surveillance since before you left. They’re both fairly… cocky,” she said. “Neither of them checks for bugs in their apartments. Or their cars. I had them both arrested yesterday. Even without your reports, I have enough evidence on both of them to put them away for a very long time.”

Jake leaned forward. “Any sense of who they report to in the Bureau?”

“Not yet. But I’m working on it,” she said. “I’ve put surveillance on three people, although only two are serious suspects. I’ve also wired their cars, their homes and their briefcases.” She smiled. “These suspects go nowhere without their briefcases.

“Now that you’re back in town, once I have your written reports from your meetings and the surveillance you installed in Alexei’s office, I’ll go to the prison and question Nelson. Windsor too, but I think Nelson is the brains of that pair, and he’ll know more. Right now, I can say with some confidence that two of the three people I’m focusing on are Russian moles. Eventually, Nelson and Windsor will confirm that for me.” She smiled. “I have many tools to convince them to cooperate and give up their contacts.”

Jake pushed a piece of paper across the desk to Diana. “This is the access code for the cameras Livvy and I installed in Alexei’s office. I’m not sure how helpful they’ll be, but you might get some useful information from them. Unless you speak Russian, you’ll need someone to translate the tapes for you.”

---