Karen Whiddon - Mission - Marriage

“Except you?”

“I wasn’t there.”

“And the code?”

After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded. “All traces gone. Except for the copy I’d taken with me.”

“Do you still have it?”

“Yes.”

He swore. “I want that son of a—” Taking a deep breath, he met her gaze. “I want him, you want him and Corbett has offered to help. Don’t you think we have a better chance of taking him down if we work together than if we work separately?”

“Maybe.” She didn’t dare let her guarded hope show. “Are you proposing we work as a team? If so, then like I said a moment ago, I’m in.”

He looked down at his leg. “Are you sure?” he asked, quietly. “Before we do this, we both need to be one-hundred-percent certain.”

Even after two years apart, she realized he knew her too well, knew that she was offering this as a way to protect him.

“Please,” she added, because she didn’t know what else to say.

As he opened his mouth to speak, his cell phone rang.

Watching while he answered, again she was struck by his sheer masculine beauty. Her heart hurt.

How she’d missed him.

And, she thought bitterly, how she hated him for what he’d put her through.

“Here.” He handed her the phone. “It’s Corbett. He wants to talk with you.”

Gingerly, she took the phone and said hello.

“Your father’s worried about you,” Corbett said, by way of greeting. “Why haven’t you contacted him?”

Guilt made her wince. This was the first time in her entire career she’d had to ask her father, a former Lazlo operative, for help.

“You sent Sean,” she volleyed back. “You knew he wasn’t dead.” She couldn’t believe it. Corbett had known Sean was alive. As a family friend, Corbett had attended the funeral, offered his condolences, watched her suffer when with two simple words— he’s alive —he could have alleviated her agony.

But he’d never said them.

Then, when she’d been in the worst trouble of her career, she’d called her father and Corbett had sent Sean back to her. As if she wanted him back.

A horrible thought struck her. Had her father known, too? Had he withheld the truth, even as he comforted his grieving daughter?

The depths of such a betrayal would be impossible to fathom. Such a thing would rank right up there with her mother abandoning her when Natalie was six.

“I sent the best, per Phillip’s instructions.” Corbett’s clipped voice told her the subject wasn’t open for discussion. “Sean got you out, didn’t he?”

Clenching her teeth to keep from saying things she might regret later, she took a deep breath. “Is that all you wanted?”

Silence. Stalemate.

“I need your help,” Corbett finally said. “I’ve got a code for you to crack.” Since the Lazlo Group had their own team of code specialists, this request meant the situation was tense.

As if he sensed this, Sean made a restless movement, dragging his hand through his thick, dark hair.

Damn, she wanted him.

Tearing her gaze away from Sean, Natalie swallowed.

“Hello?” Corbett’s tone grew even grimmer. “Are you there?”

“Yes. Sorry.” Taking a deep breath, Natalie forced herself to loosen her death grip on the phone.

“Will you take a look at the code?”

She sighed. “I’ll try. But, I’ve got another code to figure out as well.”

“Another code?”

“Yes. My team and I were working on it when …” She choked, unable to finish the sentence. Clearing her throat, she continued. “I’m sure my father told you.”

“He did, but not that you still have any of it.”

“I do.”

“Excellent.” He sounded impressed. “I have a feeling you’ll see similarities with the one I’m sending.”

That got her attention. “Seriously? Where’d you get it and where was it going?”

“One of my operatives intercepted it from a dead man. We think the missive was headed to the Hungarian.”

What remained unspoken resonated over the line. This code might be the key to unlocking the secret of the Hungarian’s identity and location. She and her team had been so close. Too close. Instead of them bringing their enemy down, he’d attacked and eliminated them.

“How quickly can you get it to me?”

“I’m working on that as we speak. Once you have it, how quickly can you crack it?”

She eyed Sean, who’d crossed his arms and appeared to be trying to follow the one-sided conversation. “I don’t even have a computer.”

“I’ll get you a laptop.”

“Fantastic. But make it ultralight. The last thing I need to be dragging around is a seven-pound computer.”

“Of course. The Lazlo Group always uses the latest technology.” Corbett sounded distant. “I didn’t plan on sending you a dinosaur.”

“Good.” Distracted now, her fingers itched to get started. “It will be interesting to see if your code and the one I have are the same.”

“We have a short time frame.”

“You’re telling me. It’s difficult enough trying to stay alive and keep Sean from getting killed. Trying to crack a code takes intense concentration. I don’t have that luxury now.”

“Sean can help you with that. You can rely on him to get you the space and quiet you need.”

Rely on him? She almost laughed at the irony. “I’ll figure out something.”

There was a muffled sound, then her father’s voice came on the line. “Are you all right, baby girl?”

“Papa?” She rubbed her now-aching temple. “Corbett didn’t tell me you were in Paris.” Paris was the home base of the Lazlo Group.

His deep chuckle didn’t mask the concern in his voice. “I was worried.”

She had to ask, had to know the truth. “Did you know Sean wasn’t—”

“Not now.” The stern tone of her father’s voice was tempered by love. “We’ll talk about this later, once you and Sean have worked everything out.”

She bit her lip. “We won’t—”

“Natalie, you have no choice. Not now. Maybe once all this is over, but not until then.”

He was right, damn it. She sucked in her breath. “All right, I’ll do my best.”

“That’s my girl.” Her father chuckled again, making her wish she could hug him. “Now, here’s Corbett.”

“How soon can you be ready to do a pickup?”

“Of the code?”

“Of course.” Corbett didn’t even pause, and she realized he’d known immediately that she wouldn’t be able to resist such a challenge. Though he had his own code specialist, Natalie had gained a reputation as the best. For good reason. She used to brag there wasn’t a code she couldn’t crack.

Super-spy, Sean had called her. When it came to breaking tough codes, he hadn’t been too far off the mark.

“Where and how?”

“You’ll need to meet one of my agents.” Corbett named a location, an old abbey on the other side of Glasgow, maybe an hour away at the most. “Can you be there at 1600 hours?”

Auggie came back into the room, looking at Natalie for permission. She nodded and, returning her gaze to Sean, glanced at her watch. “That gives us two and a half hours. We have to rent a car and … yes. We’ll meet your man at 1600 hours.”

With that, she handed the phone back to Sean. She had nothing further to say to the man she’d once trusted. She’d decipher his code, because more than anything she wanted the Hungarian taken down. After that, they were through. As through as she was with her once-dead husband.

Understanding without her telling him anything, Auggie moved closer and squeezed her shoulder with his big hand. Grateful, she reached up and covered his hand with hers. Over the past year, they’d become good friends. Auggie, like Dr. Pachla, had hinted he was willing to become more, though she’d been careful not to encourage any closer relationship.