Page 40 of Skin In the Game (The BlackWater)

She half laughed then. “Then it got worse.”

She sighed. Thinking back to it, the blood, the stench, all of it. “They found us a couple of weeks later. Interpol decided to actually grow some balls. By that point though we’d been captured and everyone was dead except me and how I wasn’t I don’t know. I was moved back to the London office not long after that.”

“What happened to Ali?”

“He died in the fight although they never recovered his body.” Maddie replied.

“So why the box then?” He asked.

“It felt necessary, it felt like an exit strategy if I needed it. If something went wrong again, if I got betrayed again then I knew I could just disappear and no one could track me down.”

“What do you mean betrayed again?” He said.

She swallowed. “I gave you the highlights. That’s all your getting.”

“Who betrayed you?” He asked.

She looked away her index and middle fingers tapping almost manically on the top of the table in front of her. Fucksake Maddie, she thought, you couldn’t just keep your mouth shut.

“My team lead. The one I punched. We had a difference of opinion on a number of things and his way of teaching me a lesson was to essentially send me and 9 other agents into a death trap.” She said staring right back at him then because if he was going to make her explain it then she sure as hell wasn’t going to show any weakness doing it.

“What was the difference of opinion about?”

“Maybe you don’t have the issue here but at Homewell there’s a real problem with the male population struggling to come to terms with the fact that not every female agent wants to fuck them and it becomes more of an issue the higher up the ranks you get.” Maddie stated.

“Like Rab you mean?” Brandon asked and she frowned then looking at him and breaking whatever weird thing had built between her and Cole.

“What do you know of Rab?” She asked.

“I know unofficially he’s a sexpest, he’s had numerous complaints about harassment over the years and he’s been singling you out of late.” Brandon stated.

She smirked then. “I could handle Rab. He thinks he’s a big fish but Mitchell…” She shook her head.

“Your lead in China?”

“Yep.” She said.

“So that’s the story then?” Cole asked.

“That’s the highlights.” She stated looking back at him again.

“And you’re certain Ali is dead?” Brandon said.

“You think he’s involved in something like this?” She asked nodding her head to the screen and both Brandon and Cole shook their heads.

“No, it’s too complex. You said yourself the man didn’t have the connections.” Brandon replied.

“So who do you think it is behind this?” Maddie asked.

“Let’s grab a coffee and then go through our suspects.”

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