Page 41 of Spy With Me
Devi studied him as though she could see to his soul. “Fordrug possession. You told me she cooked meth.”
Not exactly what he’d said, but he could understand herconfusion. “She created designer drugs. My mother was…is a gifted chemist. Myfather met her while she was on a full ride to Stanford. He was a low-leveldrug dealer who started to move up the ladder once he convinced his girlfriendto make his product. My mom managed to refine his drugs. She did some time inCalifornia. When she came out, she went right back to my bio dad, and I wasconceived. She managed to stay out of jail while she was pregnant with me.”
“When did she have Cooper?” Devi asked.
Lacey whistled. “You are excellent at putting ice on yourwords. Zach, do you need a jumper?”
He frowned Lacey’s way. “We don’t need your sarcasm.” Heturned back to Devi. “After she got tagged the second time, my aunt left themilitary so I wouldn’t go into the system. I was very young. I don’t remembermuch about my father beyond the fact that he would show up every now and thenand scare the hell out of my aunt. The longest time my mom did was for my dad.She took the fall. Not like she had a choice. She was in jail when she foundout she was pregnant. By then she had figured out Ray sold her out to thecartel they were working with, and she was terrified. That was when she and myaunt decided to find a family for the baby.”
“They sent him away to protect him but kept you in the lineof fire?” Devi managed to sound irate on his behalf.
The inequity was something he let go of a long time ago.“Ray already knew about me. My aunt managed to pay off enough people in theprison that they kept my mother’s pregnancy secret. From what I’ve been toldshe didn’t show until late in pregnancy, and she spent the last six weeks insolitary. The baby’s adoption was arranged by a private broker.”
“Did Uncle Alex buy a baby on the black market?” Devi asked.
“All right, how big is this family?” Lacey asked. “And doesthat make you cousins in some way?”
“No,” he and Devi said at the same time.
“Alex McKay is my uncle’s best friend. He was very much apart of my childhood. We had a lot of adults around who we weren’t biologicallyrelated to, but they were family,” Devi explained and then frowned. “And now Irealize how I could have handled talking about my cousins. Anyway, I don’texpect you to understand. I know the world values blood.”
“I think I understand more than you can imagine,” Laceyreplied quietly. “From what I’ve been told the adoption was perfectly legal,and Mr. McKay had no idea he was adopting the child of someone who knew who hewas.”
“My aunt worked with Big Tag in the Army. She liked andtrusted him. She heard from some of their Army buddies that his best friend wastrying to adopt,” Zach explained. “So she made it happen.”
And now she would put it all together in her angry brain andcome to the conclusion that everyone in his family was trying to use everyonein hers. She would be right back to the whole he was going down the line ofTaggart women looking for a way in.
He only wanted inside one of them, and she would probablyshoot him if he tried. Or sic her recently acquired attack cat on him.
“So your mom was worried Coop would be one more thing yourdad could hold over her head?” Devi asked carefully, as though weighing herwords.
It was better than the bile she’d been spewing all day.“Yes. I was a toddler at the time, but everyone in the cartel knew I was herson. She thought if she could get Cooper out, he would be safer.”
“And your aunt went to the man she trusted,” Devi continued.
“Ian doesn’t know. I mean he does now, but he didn’t know atthe time,” Zach explained. He didn’t want her lumping her uncle into the lyingpile of shit men she had now. “Ian had no idea I’m Cooper’s biological brother.I didn’t know he existed until years and years later.”
“Did your dad use you against your mom?”
He didn’t like to think about how shitty his childhood hadbeen. “Mom was out for a couple of years while he was in South America working.He came back to the States and picked me up from school one day. Charmed hisway in, explaining he was my dad and only had a few days before he had to beback to work. I’m fairly certain the woman thought he was being deployed orsomething, though I assure you my father would never join the military. Toomuch sacrifice. He took me to a motel, and I don’t remember a lot except that Iate pizza and watched cartoons and my mom cried and shook when she finally gotme back. And she agreed to start working on a project for my dad’s new bosses.She drifted in and out of my life after that until I was fourteen. I didn’t seeher again, though she would send money back and talk to me every now and thenon the phone. I didn’t lay eyes on her until I was twenty-two and starting towork intelligence.”
“That’s when he found out about the career change,” Laceypointed out.
“So your dad’s new bosses were terrorists,” Devi surmised.
Not exactly. “They were arms dealers. They didn’t have apolitical agenda. They were into making money,” Zach replied. “By this point mymother was no longer with my dad. She was paranoid and involved in severalunderground groups that I’m sure a couple of governments would label asterrorists.”
“Including the one my mum’s friend was heavily involved in.It was an animal rights group that operated out of Liverpool.” Lacey took overher part of the story. “It was Shannon who told us about the strange requestsshe was getting from an arms dealer called The Jester. She did some work forhim, and he had a client who was deeply impressed with how she reworked certainaspects of her bombs.”
“She made them smaller. Easier to carry and conceal. Herbombs are also capable of handling small nuclear devices. Think of them like abullet that goes off without needing a gun to deliver it.” Zach was well awarethat his mother was one of the most dangerous people walking the earth rightnow. “They used her bombs in the Jakarta attacks and in some more focusedassassinations that were played off as accidents.”
Devi took a sip of wine as though she needed thefortification. “Did she know what was happening?”
See, there was his hope. Her deep belief in people.Unfortunately, he couldn’t play up her optimism here. “There’s no good way touse one of her bombs. She didn’t know exactly what they would be used for, butshe accepted the money for them.”
“She did it for more than money,” Lacey countered. “Devi,I’ve met Shannon. I consider her something of a friend. Shannon has faced anenormous amount of trauma. It’s affected her mentally. She sold those bombsbecause she was trying to protect herself and her sons. I believe the peoplearound her used her family to put her in terrible positions.”
“My mother is paranoid. Not on some funny level. She’s takenshots at delivery people because she forgot she ordered a pizza and decided theman was coming to kill her.” He wanted Devi to know the whole story. “So to saytracking her down has been difficult would be an understatement. Now after allof that, I met Lacey when we were both looking for the man known as The Jester.He worked with Disrupt and was responsible for her mother’s friend’s death.This is where you’ll likely hate me again. Lacey and I worked outside of theAgency to find The Jester. We found him, fought him, killed him.”
