Page 7 of No Reason to Trust

“I was undercover,” Olivia began. “Bargaining with the Russian Bratva. Our boss, Donald Nelson, said you were my backup. Said you’d be outside the building I was going into. And that if I got in trouble, I was supposed to send you a text. I had that text all written out and waiting on my screen so I could hit send and it would immediately go to you.”

Jake frowned at her. “You were in D.C.?” he asked.

“Hell, no,” she said. “I was in Brighton Beach. You know, where all the Russians are.”

Jake leaned back and stared at her. “I’ve never been in Brighton Beach in my life. Nelson never said anything to me about the Bratva or backing you up. What was the date that I supposedly screwed up?”

Olivia pulled out her phone and stabbed at the screen. “May 7th. This year.”

“You sure about that date?” He pulled out his own phone.

“Positive. Not like I would forget the case that almost got me killed.”

Jake’s hand tightened around his phone. Pulling up his calendar, he scrolled to May 7. Stared at his schedule for a long moment. “On May 7, I was in Tennessee, testifying at a kidnapping trial,” he said. “I was one of the agents who recovered the kidnapped kid.”

He turned the phone around and showed it to Olivia. “I was several states away from Brooklyn on May 7.”

Olivia stared at the screen for a long moment. “Did you just put that on your calendar today? After I agreed to talk to you? When you realized you’d screwed up?”

“What?” Jake scowled at her for a long moment. “Hell, no, Williams. Are you always so paranoid?” He turned his phone around and tried to make an entry for May 7. “The damn phone won’t even let me do that. And even if it would, I had no idea what date you were talking about. Nelsoncouldn’thave sent me as your backup on May 7. He knew I’d be in Tennessee. That trial had been on my calendar for months.”

Olivia stared at him, frowning, as if she needed a moment to think through the events of that day. “Are you sure you were in Tennessee that day?” she finally asked. “Why would Nelson tell me you were my backup when you were several states away?”

Shaking his head, Jake stared at Olivia for a long moment. Finally he said in a low voice, “Excellent question, and I have no answers. Just more questions.” He leaned closer to her. “Since you thought you needed backup for that meeting, how did you manage to escape from the Bratva?”

Olivia stared at him a moment, her gaze boring into his, as if looking for answers there. Finally she said, “I told them I’d take their concerns to my boss and get back to them. I had no plan to do that, of course, because they never really said what they wanted.” She frowned. “I had no idea why Nelson had sent me there. It made me wonder why he’d sent me all the way to Brooklyn for what felt like a nothing meeting.”

“So how did you get away without any backup?” Jake asked.

“There was a kid there. Young, maybe sixteen or seventeen. The guy in charge, who I think was his father, told him to walk me downstairs.

“The kid said something in Russian to the older guy. The older guy nodded. Then the kid left with me. I made him walk down the stairs in front of me, and I had my gun on him the whole time.

“As we approached the door to the street, he pulled a gun. Didn’t take a genius to know he was supposed to kill me. So I kneed him in the balls, and when he was bent over, I kicked him in the head. He dropped to the floor. I dashed out of the building and ran across the street. Ducked into a butcher shop and went out the back door. Bolted for my car, feeling lucky to be alive.”

“Wow,” Jake said, shaking his head. “No wonder you were pissed off at me. I’m pissed off at me, and I didn’t even know I was supposed to be there.”

When a tiny smile flitted across Olivia’s face, Jake had to stop his automatic fist pump. “And clearly you got away from Brighton Beach in one piece.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t stop shaking until I was out of New York.” She frowned. “You must have seen my text. Didn’t you wonder about it?”

“I did, yeah,” Jake said. “But I figured you must have sent it to me by mistake. Hit the wrong contact.”

Jake shook his head. “I’m real sorry you had to deal with that. But I had no idea I was supposed to be your backup. Nelson never said a word to me. But even if he planned to, he knew I’d be out of town.” Without waiting for Olivia to respond, he leaned a little closer to her. Lowered his voice. “Do you remember Cliff Kingsley?”

“Of course I do,” Olivia said immediately. “That case was all anyone at the Bureau could talk about for weeks. And it was one of the reasons I went to work for Mel and Dev at Blackhawk Security. They were the people who took Kingsley down.”

“Yeah, they were.” Jake leaned across the table, after looking around and making sure no one was sitting close enough to hear them. “Kingsley was working for the Russians,” he said, his voice a low murmur. “It all came out after he was arrested. The Bureau tried to keep it quiet, but I have some good friends who are higher up the food chain. Apparently, the Bureau had suspected for a while that there were Russian assets in the ranks. After Kingsley was exposed, one low-level guy was arrested, but the powers-that-be always thought there were more of them. But after Kingsley and the other guy were arrested, any other Russians went deep, and no one was able to sniff them out. And Kingsley wasn’t talking.”

Olivia stared at him for a long moment, frowning. “Are you saying that Nelson might be a Russian asset?”

“No idea.” Jake shrugged. “But it’s not as preposterous as it sounds. Kingsley didn’t flip on anyone, because he knew talking would sign his death certificate. And I know Diana Redfield, the FBI director, was certain he wasn’t working alone. But other than that one low level guy, no one’s ever been identified.”

“And Nelson telling me you were supposed to be my backup practically assured that I’d be killed if anything went wrong,” Olivia said.

“Exactly.”

Olivia took a drink of her Guinness, and Jake watched as her throat rippled. Then she put her glass on the table. “But why try to have me killed? I don’t know anything about Russian assets in the Bureau. I knew Cliff Kingsley, but we didn’t work together. I was just as shocked as everyone else in the Bureau when he was arrested.”

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