Forgiving Paris: A Novel(74)

“But… there is someone you love more.” Oliver raised one eyebrow. “Is that it?”

The hint of a smile played on Jack’s lips. “Maybe.”

Oliver grinned at him. Jack didn’t need to answer questions about Eliza. The two hadn’t crossed any lines, and in fact their work together had been brilliant. “I’m going to miss you, Agent Ryder. You’re one of the best. And you never… ever give up.” He paused. “But I have to say… I think you’re making the right choice.”

“Thank you.” Jack looked like the weight of the world was suddenly off his shoulders. “Let’s just say… I’m going to make my father proud.”



* * *



TEXAS WAS NO longer an option for Eliza, not with so many traffickers aware of her identity. So in August she had been sent to headquarters in D.C. Her new case agent there handled her assignments. Through the fall she worked at a school near the capital, and in November she became a junior at a troubled academy in Virginia.

Through it all, with every mission and tense moment, she thought of Jack. She wore the necklace backward, but she wore it every day. His words as close to her heart as they could possibly get.

January saw her in Maine and February in New Hampshire. With every school, she helped bring down another gang of traffickers and drug dealers until she was one of the most hated informants in FBI history. Even so she wanted to see her year out.

Her case agent sent her to New Mexico in March and to Oregon after that. Traffickers weren’t organized enough to figure out where she was headed or who she was going to take down next.

Along the way, Eliza found another copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She had lost hers during the raid at the Palace, and never had a chance to finish it. But in April, she made the time.

The story was everything Eliza had hoped it would be. And as she finished the school year in California she fancied herself much like Queen Lucy, the valiant. Brave enough to take on whatever task was asked of her, and certain that Aslan of Narnia was looking out for her.

Because once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia.

Between moments of danger, Eliza also read the Bible. She read how with God at her side, there was nothing man could do to her. Because man could only take her physical body, but never her soul. That would belong to God alone, forever.

The way her heart would belong to Jack.

She spent the last month of her service as an HLCI in the office, identifying traffickers from surveillance footage and helping decipher illegal solicitations. And then suddenly it was July 9, her twenty-third birthday, and her years of working for the FBI were over.

To celebrate, the bureau surprised Eliza with a ceremony. In the room were every case agent and teammate she had worked with except Jack. He was completing a mission in Honduras. One fraught with the very worst kind of danger.

Oliver had flown into Washington, D.C., to join the celebration. He handed over her final check. “Your record has been expunged of all charges. We will set you up wherever you’d like to go, Eliza. You’ll have a new name, a new identity.”

She had known that was coming, and she had the name picked out. Lizzie James. The name she had been given by her parents would be the one she would finish life with. She liked the sound of it. As if nothing bad had ever happened to her, and she was still that little girl headed to the beach with her mama and little Daniel.

When the ceremony was over and the other agents had said their goodbyes, Oliver approached. He handed her a satchel, the way her case agent had done before every mission. “Sir?” She had been told she wouldn’t get her new paperwork for at least a week. “Is this… for me?”

“Open it.” Oliver took a step back and smiled. Like a proud father, anxious to see her reaction to what was clearly her best birthday gift.

Eliza opened the leather cover and pulled out the contents. It was her new paperwork, a California driver’s license with her new name—Lizzie James. Next was a birth certificate and a passport and finally a travel itinerary.

To Belize.

“What?” Eliza held her breath so she wouldn’t gasp. “I can’t… Sir? What is this?”

“Belize is safe for you, Eliza. You’ll fly into Belize City and then to Placencia.” He smiled. “Someone will be waiting for you.” Emotion sounded in his voice. “Someone who will make a very fine professor one day.”

Eliza wondered if she would drop to the floor from sheer joy. How could this be happening? She put the paperwork back in the satchel and hugged Oliver. “Thank you. I can’t… I can’t thank you enough, sir.”

“Go…” He gave her one last smile. “Live your life, Lizzie. You deserve it.”

And with that, Eliza gathered her things and left the FBI building for the last time. At six the next morning she was on a flight back home to Belize. Her country, the country of her childhood and her family. And she was headed to Placencia and the Belizean Great Barrier Reef and sixteen miles of sand that she’d never walked in all her life.

But that wasn’t what kept her on the edge of her aisle seat. The reason was a small note she’d found at the bottom of the satchel. It was in Jack’s handwriting and it said only two words.

Wear white.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR