Page 75 of Trust Me

“That’s bullshit, and you know it!”

“Are you saying she didn’t loot the site?”

“I’m saying she did it under duress.”

“That may be so, or that might be another delusion.”

Morgan was going to be sick. The way the government wanted to twist the story was beyond horrific. “Why is State so desperate to hold on to the story that Rafiq is dead? You’re more concerned about saving face than admitting the Intelligence Community and military made a mistake.”

“There’s no evidence mistakes were made by anyone but Dr. Edwards.”

“Get out of my house, Mr. Colt. Go to your office and do your job instead of making a scapegoat of a woman who worked on the front lines to cut off the funding for terrorists and was nearly killed doing so.”

“Tell Diana to turn herself in.”

“You tell her.”

“Why are you here?” Pax asked. “Why aren’t you at Diana’s?”

“She’s not home. She left her condo in a shambles.”

“You went inside without a warrant?” Freya chimed in through the speakerphone.

“Her next-door neighbor noticed the rear door was ajar and, when she went to check on her, noticed the apartment had been trashed. She called the police.”

Freya cursed loud and long. Morgan contained herself, barely. She was trying to clean up her language when her daughter was within hearing distance. Inside, she was spewing the foulest phrases she could think of.

She’d figured Diana was laying low, not that she’d gone on the run.

More chilling was the idea she might not be on the run. “How do you know she hasn’t been taken? Jesus, why are you here and not out searching for her?”

“There was no sign of a struggle. She took her computers and packed a bag.”

“And trashed her apartment before she left? Sure, Jan.” Morgan was completely livid.

Colt shrugged. “She wanted it to look like a break-in.”

“A break-in explains why she left,” Freya said.

“Convenient excuse.”

Morgan’s hand fisted. “It’s not convenient when you’re in actual danger.”

Pax put a hand on her shoulder. “Cal and I will go check out her place.”

Colt didn’t let the conversation end there. “If Dr. Edwards is in danger, that’s your fault.”

His words weren’t wrong, which only pissed her off more.

Friday Morning Valkyries had let Diana down in so many ways, but the situation hadn’t been imaginable when Diana had departed for the dig in Jordan.

She studied Colt, who was more than a midlevel diplomat. She wished Carlos’s wife, Kaylea, who worked for the State Department and the CIA, could offer insight into Colt, but she probably didn’t know him and wouldn’t cross those ethical boundaries if she did.

“Why now?” Morgan asked. “What’s the rush to deal with the situation now, before we get answers about what really went down in Aqaba?”

“Jordan has made the extradition request, and our investigation was completed yesterday. Dr. Edwards’s claim that she saw Rafiq is unsubstantiated.”

It probably wasn’t a coincidence that the case was closed after Rand and his team spent four days being questioned at the Pentagon. They wrapped on Thursday afternoon. The Pentagon’s final report had probably been presented to the State Department yesterday. But still, everything was moving awfully fast, especially for what was usually a slow-moving government agency.

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