Page 47 of Rogue Voice

“I’m sorry,” she went on. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I always knew, but I was so afraid, I never did anything. I was a coward. I’m sorry.”

The pain in her eyes almost broke Rogue. Nobody should grow up carrying such guilt, such a burden on their shoulders. But to think of Bea, his Bea, feeling this way …My Bea.

Her voice lowered to a mere whisper. “Do what you have to do. I don’t want any of you to get in trouble for my sake.”

Dark stood up, and Slate followed, his expression grim. “We’re not DEA, Bea, though weareworking with the DEA and with Interpol. We will leave Rogue to explain everything to you.”

Rogue exchanged a look with Dark, understanding what his boss and friend was really saying. He was giving Rogue permission to share everything with Bea. Which Rogue would have done, anyway. But it was nice not to have to break any rules. They’d all agreed when they joined not to share any details of their employment with anybody outside the team who hadn’t been vetted and sworn to secrecy, as Alexia and Reka had been when Dark and Ash had fallen in love with the two women.

Love.The word gave him pause.Is this love?As quickly as the thought came, he dismissed it. What he felt for Bea didn’t matter. What mattered now was letting her know that she didn’t need to be afraid. That she was safe, and that he would do everything in his power to make sure she remained safe.

Rogue waited until Dark and Slate left the room and closed the door behind them. The interior walls of the house were paper-thin, but Rogue knew his friends wouldn’t listen in on them. He pulled his chair closer to Bea’s chair and took her hands in his.

“If you’re not with the DEA, then I don’t understand …” Bea began. Suddenly, a torrent of words rushed out of her. “You werehelpingmy uncle. I was there, hiding at the top of the stairs, the day you showed them what your program could do.”

Rogue nodded. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before, Bea. The software I designed for your uncle doesn’t work. I didn’t need it to. I just needed to convince him that it would work—and wait for my team to get there.”

“But my uncle hired you. He says you worked with my father, years ago.”

Rogue sighed. It was still hard to think of those days. “It’s a long story, Bea. I don’t have time to tell you everything today, but I’ll tell you the basics, and I promise you I will tell you anything else you want to know later.”

When she nodded, he took a deep breath. “After university, I joined the Australian Army Corps of Engineers. I had a degree in Computer Science, I wanted to see the world and eventually I ended up going undercover in a joint mission with the DEA.”

Bea gasped. “That’s when you met my father.”

Rogue nodded and steeled himself for the rest of the story. This was going to be hard for her to hear. She might end up hating him. But he had to tell her. “I did my job. I was part of the team that took your father down.” He ran a hand through his hair. “For … medical reasons, I wasn’t there when he died, but Iwaspart of the team that led to his death.” Bea’s eyes went glassy. “I’m sorry. I know he was your father. I wish—I wish I could tell you something different. But I promise I will never lie to you again, either directly or by omission.”

“Never?” He had to struggle to make out her words, her voice was so soft.

“Never.”

Bea stared into the distance, lost in her own thoughts, in her own experience of the past. Rogue waited, the knot around his belly growing tighter with every passing second.

“I’m sorry, Bea. I’m sorry about your father. I’m sorry that I couldn’t tell you the truth when we met. I’m sorry?—”

Bea raised her small hand. “Stop.”

Stop? Stop what?

“Stop being sorry. I told you I knew what my uncle was doing. I knew what my father was doing, too, long before then. The difference was, I loved my father. He was a different man with me. He could be tender and loving.” The knot in Rogue’s belly tightened, but Bea wasn’t done. “In a different world, perhaps he might have turned out to be … a good man. But his chosen work led to the death of thousands of innocents. He taught my uncle how to kill. Stop being sorry for trying to stop that. I understand why you had to do what you did.”

Relief flooded him. “Thank you.” There was nothing else he could say, and yet, never had those two simple words held more meaning for him. “Thank you, Bea.”

“So this time around … you were undercover, as well.”

“I’m working with a team of private contractors. Dark is our team leader, and you already know Slate, he’s part of the team as well. The DEA and Interpol found me and roped us all into working with them on this.”

“Because you knew my father and my uncle.”

Rogue nodded. “We didn’t even know it was your uncle, at the time. We thought your father had somehow survived. The way your uncle grew the business over the last two years … he’s incredibly powerful, Bea. The biggest drug dealer working on the East Coast and moving into Europe as well. The DEA and Interpol agents thought I would be in a good position to earn his trust.”

“Which you did.”

“Which I did,” he agreed. “But I never meant—I never meant to hurt you in the process.”

“Hurt me? I was trapped in that house. Trapped with no one to trust, paralyzed by fear of what my uncle would do if I tried to leave, not realizing that every day I stayed there, my chances of ever leaving grew more remote.” Her expression grew somber,her forehead wrinkling as she thought of her next words. “Life with Oscar Aguilar would have been worse than death. Whatever happens now, you saved me.”

Rogue pulled her into his arms, holding on tight. She let him for a moment, then took a quick step back, taking Rogue’s hand in her two small ones. “But we’re not safe, Rogue. My uncle will kill us all if he gets his hands on us. And he won’t make our deaths easy.”

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