Page 56 of Old Secrets

“Are you sure you’re feeling well?” I bent over to check his temperature, determining he seemed about the same as usual.

“We’ve been shirking on sleep for a while,” he reminded me.

“Go back to bed, then. I’ll fend off the hordes and protect your sleep,” I promised.

To my amusement, Jake flopped on to the newly made bed, and within a few breaths, he snored.

“He’s not getting out of bed today,” I informed Amelia. “I’m going to eat all that food, and after eating that much, I’m not getting out of bed today, either. When are we scheduled to go to China?”

“Tomorrow,” she replied. “Think we can get away without them, Bryce?”

“I’ll just verify the wolf is exhausted and the fox will bite our faces off if we disturb her wolf. It’s not the first or last time a pair has messed up a schedule because of fatigue. They won’t be the last. And their trip to Japan so far has been less than restful. Don’t worry about it. I’ll try to get a concise version of a brief put together for you for tomorrow morning. We’ll come in to check on you a little later.” Bryce rose, and he herded Amelia to the door. “Eat everything you can, and someone will be by to take away what you don’t finish.”

FIFTEEN

“Those bastards killed kids on purpose, didn’t they?”

Ian Malcolm, my first supervisor in CARD, had been a member of Greenwich, as had two members of the quad I’d been assigned to. Of the lot, I would have suspected Brent over Andrew or Jerry, but he’d been the only one in their little assembly innocent of wrongdoing.

As such, Brent still lived.

After my departure from CARD, I hadn’t followed what had happened to any of them.

Ultimately, Greenwich had been responsible for what had thrown Jake and me back together—and for what had torn us apart.

Mellisa waited for me to process the news, keeping an eye on my sleeping spouse, who’d decided to catch up on lost sleep all at once. I’d woken him for meals, but beyond gorging, coming for some cuddles, and using the washroom, he’d returned to bed.

He hadn’t stirred when Mellisa had come in, and as long as we kept our voices down, I suspected he’d sleep through the entirety of the conversation. Still, once he found out the news, he would not handle it well.

“Those bastards killed kids on purpose, didn’t they?”

“It appears they would slack on their cases just enough to make certain Greenwich’s targets could not be recovered,” my therapist replied. “It matches their method. CARD only needed to buy them long enough to get word if they wanted the child recovered or killed. If the child was recovered, it was only because their parents agreed to their terms. Otherwise, they killed the child in retaliation, like they would have killed Annabelle Greenwich. And you, although they did not realize they had invited death to their door.”

Fury, hotter and stronger than anything I’d ever experienced before, burned through me and reached right down to my bones. I hadn’t asked what had happened after I’d fled with the baby. In some ways, I wanted the closure, but in others, I feared our inability to peel answers out of the bastards had cost us so much.

Annabelle lived, and I forced myself to be content with my victory over Greenwich, however accidental that victory happened to be.

Another question bothered me, but the answer wouldn’t torment me, so I asked, “And Brent?”

“After you left CARD, he requested a transfer to a quad, one with a different supervisor. After his transfer, his recovery percentage immediately increased threefold. This was why the other members of the team and your supervisor were on watch, but until now, there was nothing we could do to prove anything. Well, we have all the proof we need. Our proof wouldn’t hold up in Normal courts, but between the appearance of the aura, the circumstantial evidence, and Brent’s immediate improvement upon transfer, I’m confident of the truth. But this is the time we have a talk about the case that broke you in CARD.”

“Michelle Gianni.”

I would never forget being too late to save that little girl. If only I’d been ten minutes earlier, she may have survived. One day, I might forgive myself for what I hadn’t been able to change.

“Upon learning that CARD team had been infiltrated, Mr. Gianni was questioned again. It has been determined that Michelle’s father refused to give Greenwich confidential information. Michelle paid for his refusal with her life. Greenwich made a mistake with him. That man is now our ally, as he would do anything to bring her killers to justice. The Inquisition reached out, disguising themselves as CARD members, and offered closure to the man through linking the kidnapping and murder of his daughter with the Greenwich operative in question. Within five minutes, Mr. Gianni sang more than any canary. He hadn’t assumed the operative had been behind it. They’d waited for a period of over a year before retaliating. Then they waited a few months before attempting to get confidential information out of him again.” Mellisa reached out across the table and gave my hand a squeeze. “It’s important you understand that there was nothing you could do to save that little girl. Greenwich had three of five team members in their pocket, and their orders were to make sure CARD was too late. Their supervisor’s method of doing this was benching you. But you almost got to them despite obstruction. I don’t know if this will make you feel better, but Brent was questioned by a talented fire witch. He is as tortured over the deaths as you.”

“Which is why he requested a transfer.” However much I disliked Brent, I could understand and accept his status as a fellow victim. “Was he doing the best he could?”

“The witch assigned to questioning him thinks so. He will be going into therapy, especially once news goes down the wire that his former partners and supervisor were killing kids on purpose. The Inquisition opted to frame Greenwich for their murders, staging the killings as retaliation for a botched obstruction. It will destabilize CARD for a while, but the organization will recover—and there will be better vetting of members moving forward. That leads me to a request.”

I grabbed a piece of jerky, something Mellisa had brought to give me something to gnaw my frustrations out on, and went to town on it so I wouldn’t start chittering. After working out the worst of my nerves, I asked, “What request?”

“The FBI wants you working with CARD again, but in an organization role initially. With a significant number of members having been outed as part of Greenwich and eliminated, the uppers want to revamp the program. You’re ideal for this due to your drive to safeguard kids—and your experience with Greenwich. You’ve directly witnessed how plants can obstruct an investigation. They want you to go over their protocols and make recommendations for changes to prevent this from happening again. It may require you going out in the field. Jake will be partnered with you along with two Inquisition operatives. Those operatives are currently undergoing training. Your supervisor will be Kelvin Daniels. He knows how you tick, he likes you, and he’s eager to see what you can really do when put in a position to shine. He knows you have baggage, and he’s going to have a team of psychologists, myself included, on hand to assist the entire team.”

Mellisa presented my old dreams on a silver platter, and I struggled to determine if I could handle being the woman I had once been.

“We’ll do it,” Jake announced from the comfort of bed.