Page 73 of Devil
“We’re working together.” She hesitated, then added, “He means something to me.” She’d answered in Cantonese, but something about her tone must have conveyed her words, because Darius switched his attention from Li Wei to her.
“Your parents will be very disappointed,” Li Wei said, disdain dripping from his tone.
Devil couldn’t help it, she laughed. “When are they not, cousin?”
His brow furrowed.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know, Li Wei,” she continued. “I’m nothing to my parents other than a duty. I never have been. If who I choose to date or be friends with causes them disappointment, it’s nothing to how they’ve disappointed me. But frankly, Li Wei, I let all that go years ago. They are who they are, and they are perfectly happy to only occasionally bump into my life every now and then. If you think I care about disappointing two people who have not earned the right to have me care about them, you are sorely mistaken. Family isn’t always blood, Li Wei. At least not to me.”
Surprise flickered in her cousin’s eyes. Never before had she spoken so blatantly about her relationship with her parents or the family. Disagreement weighed heavy in his expression, but they didn’t have the time, nor did she have the interest, to hash it out.
“Are you going to call your agents out?” she asked.
He hesitated, then lifted his finger to his ear, initiating a communication device. A few minutes later, the three agents from China came walking down the stairs.
“Have the pilots turned up the temperature as high as it will go?” she asked. Li Wei nodded.
She took a deep breath and turned to Darius and Chad. “Neither of you need to go in there. I know you both feel a sense of duty to your country, and you don’t want an attack to take place on US soil, but I’m the only one here who truly carries that burden. My family, my life, may be here in this country,” she said, her gaze lingering on Darius, “but my obligations lie elsewhere.”
“Nice speech,” Darius said, almost before she’d finished. “Let’s go.”
“Me, too,” Chad said. Both she and Darius jerked their heads around in surprise. She understood Darius not wanting to leave her alone, but Chad?
He grinned. “I like watching the club in action,” he said with a nod to Devil. “Far and away the most entertainment I get, which, yes, before you say anything, is a sad commentary on my life. So let’s not talk about it and go figure out what the hell is happening in the plane.”
Devil eyed him for a moment, then shook her head, not in denial, but in amusement. Stella would not be happy if something happened to her new hire, but Chad Warwick was a grown man capable of making his own decisions.
They were a step away from the door when Li Wei called her name. She turned. He hesitated. “Be careful,” he finally said. She nodded, then walked out.
CHAPTERTHIRTY
With Dariusand Chad trailing behind her, Devil jogged up the stairs of the plane and entered the main cabin. The floor plan was not dissimilar from Air Force One, and they walked right into the space reserved for the president’s security team. To their left was the presidential quarters. To their right was the dining area, followed by the section reserved for the president’s staff. Then, at the back of the plane, the press area.
If an attack on the president were to happen, it would have to take place in his quarters as he rarely, if ever, left them. But it was the midsection of the plane, in the space reserved for his staff, where Highborn and Crawford were.
“Weapons available, but not out,” Devil said. Both men nodded, and they all unsnapped the straps on their hip holsters. With silent signals, she ordered Darius to follow her to the left when they entered and Chad to stay to the right. When they indicated their agreement, she made her way through the security area and into the staff area.
Highborn and Crawford were standing in the middle of the room, conferring about something. They stopped talking when the three of them entered.
“Dr. Devillier,” Highborn said, doing his best to hide both confusion and surprise.
“Agents Highborn, Crawford,” she said, moving along the wall toward the opposite side of the plane. Darius remained to the left of the door, and Chad was making his way down the right side.
“How did you get in here?” he asked.
She smiled. “Friends in high places and all that. Finding anything?”
He frowned, and Devil didn’t miss the way Crawford was inching her hand toward her gun. “No, but we didn’t expect to. This is a routine check. I assume nothing came of your intel about the embassy dinner?”
“The dinner? No, nothing came of that,” Devil said. “Although I did have an interesting chat with Tina Lam today.”
Again, Highborn frowned. Crawford took a step back. “Why would you talk to Tina?” he asked. Devil held his gaze as he worked things out. He might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she trusted he had a modicum of intelligence to get to the point in his career that he was.
The moment he put two and two together, his head snapped up. “You think it’s me,” he said, his voice flat. Not a question.
“I understand you know Jennifer Pritchard?” she asked. His eyes flickered to Darius before he answered.
“We went to college together. Yes, I knew her.”
