Page 7 of Rescuing Rebecca
“Alright, alright,” Jamie protested, holding up his palms to put a halt to Jay’s defensive comeback. “I hear you. You’re good. I’m not questioning your honesty. I just wanted you to know you don’t have to carry the burden alone. Because out there—on Big Diomede—we’re gonna need you at peak performance, and I don’t want anything messing with your head.”
Jay nodded. “Yep. I get it.” He circled his finger around his temple. “If things start to unravel, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Good.” A strip of long hair falling into his face, Jamie brushed it behind his ear with his thumb and resumed his slouched position. “So? Tell me about Rebecca. When did you find the picture of her? Why am I only hearing about it now? And what do you make of her inking her skin to look exactly like Maya? I mean—why would she do that? It doesn’t make much sense, does it? Why would she want to look even more like the woman who sexually assaulted her boyfriend before trying to kill her?”
“Fuck,” Jay groaned, wishing Jamie would leave shit alone. He’d told him about how Maya had snapped after he’d repeatedly rejected her advances. How she’d drugged and raped him shortly before the end of their final year of uni. How she’d left him alone and bleeding—her initials carved into his leg—while she’d returned home with the intent to murder her entire family.
God, the aftermath of what she’d done. The losses he’d suffered. The guilt he’d carried. It’d been too much for a twenty-one-year-old living on his own. No parents left. No family to turn to. No real support from overwhelmed health and legal systems.
None of that had stopped him from loving Becca or wanting Maya behind bars. But with both of them on the run, he’d forced himself to go on with his life. Finish school. Graduate. Join the Central Intelligence Agency as he’d promised he would.
And with nothing left to live for, he’d thrown himself into his job. Spent all his time and energy proving himself to Diane Heughan. Focused on making himself indispensable to the CIA and his mentor by developing new software, improving existing programs to mine data faster, hardening security systems, and creating custom scripts to give their unit the edge on encoded communications and counter-intelligence activities.
At the same time, he used those systems to keep tabs on Becca while he scoured the darknet, looking for Maya. Five years of one wild goose chase after another, and nothing, no legitimate signs of the murderous bitch anywhere.
And then shortly after he’d been assigned as tech support to the JTT, he’d spotted her in Munich—or so he’d thought—right up until he’d taken a closer look at the image. His computer couldn’t differentiate between the twins, but he sure as hell could.
“One of my facial rec programs picked up what it thought was Maya about a week after I’d joined the JTT. One look, and I knew Becca had changed her appearance. As to why? I have no fucking clue.”
“Why didn’t you say something? We could’ve helped.”
“With what, dumbass? I was new to the team—the last to join. Johnson had us running in circles, and I didn’t want to drop my shit into the mix. I swear, I didn’t know about Dominion, or that Becca was tied to all of this.”
“I believe you. We all do. But man, seeing her with those tattoos must’ve been triggering.”
“Yep. Dove right into the Captain Morgan’s and dragged you down to the bottom of the bottle.”
Jamie snorted. “Best thing that could’ve happened as far as I’m concerned.”
His heart on his sleeve, Jay nodded. “I never said thank you.” He paused to swallow the lump in his throat. “You saved my life that night.”
Just like always, Jamie’s steadfast gaze never wavered. “You don’t have to thank me, Jay. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. Except keep you there. Keep you talking. You’d have done the same for me. Hell, you have done the same for me.”
“Maybe.” He ran a hand over his jaw, and the scrape of beard stubble against his fingers felt safe and familiar. “But the action you took—forcing me into therapy—went beyond. And I’ll be eternally grateful.”
“It’s all good,” Jamie said, nudging Jay’s foot under the desk with the toe of his shoe. The equivalent of a back-slapping bro hug for a couple of guys too tired to get up to execute the real deal. “So, what’s next? Where do we go from here?”
“Fuck if I know.” Jay shook his head. “But I’m done waiting. Done trying to figure out what the hell’s going on, with Becca, with Maya, with Dominion. I want the truth. All of it.”
“Then I guess it’s time to go get your girl.”
“You’re not worried?” Jay asked, his own reservations about dragging the JTT into a battle against an army of Russian super soldiers spiking his blood pressure.
“Nah, we’ve already survived enough shit to get here. Besides, what’s the point of living if we’re not dodging explosions and rolling our eyeballs at dramatic one-sided monologues?”
Jay huffed. “Don’t be a dick. What about Summer and Halia? What if something happens? What if you don’t come home? What if?—”
“Listen,” Jamie said, interrupting Jay’s downward spiral. “This is what I signed on for when I joined the JTT.” He waved his hand around the boardroom—empty except for the two of them. “It’s what we all signed on for. We’re aware of the risks, and we’re choosing to stay. Choosing to fight. Because we believe in the mission. Believe we’re doing the right thing. Believe when the dust settles, we’ll be on the right side of history. But more than that, I’m here for Summer and Halia, for their future, for their rights and freedoms. Nothing is more important to me than doing everything within my power to leave behind a world worthy of them. A world where Summer can chase her dreams without fear. A world where Halia can learn and grow, knowing it’s safe to be whoever she was born to be. A world where hope isn’t a rebellion, but a birthright. That’s why I’m here, Jay. It’s why we all are.”
Well, shit…talk about perspective.
The fog of guilt clearing enough for Jay to see through to the other side, the air around him lightened, and something steady formed deep within his mind. A quiet confidence he’d made the right choices and followed the right path.
Yeah, he better understood Jamie’s motivation, because they wanted the same things.
Their loved ones safe, together, happy.
Nothing else mattered.
