Oath of Loyalty (Mitch Rapp #21)(32)

Rapp walked slowly along the path back to his bungalow, still unsure of his next move. His time with Kennedy hadn’t provided as much clarity as he’d hoped. Maybe the smart thing to do was just keep walking. To penetrate the jungle and never be seen again.

When he arrived at the junction leading to Claudia and Anna, he stopped. Straight ahead, the perimeter fence was visible in the distance. Through the trees to his left, Claudia was sitting on the porch, oblivious to everything but the laptop in front of her.

He looked at the way her hair flowed from beneath her knit hat. At the flushed cheeks and dark eyes partially obscured by glasses she used for reading.

She was one of the most impressive—and complicated—people he’d ever met. A loving mother and loyal partner, but also the ex-wife and former accomplice of one of history’s most successful private assassins. Strictly speaking, she had never been the one who pulled the trigger, but that was a fine distinction he’d left behind long ago. Like him, she’d spent years living by the sword and one day she might die by it. They’d both made that choice and they both accepted it for what it was.

But Anna had no say in any of this. She’d been born in a hole, and he couldn’t help feeling that he was shoveling dirt down on top of her. He’d done a pretty good job maintaining the illusion that he could guarantee her safety and provide her the life she deserved, but that had just imploded. It was time to move on. But not by slinking over the fence. That was the coward’s way out.

He could feel the cold sweat on his forehead as he started toward the bungalow. Despite the sound of his footsteps on the boardwalk, Claudia remained intent on the computer screen. Or maybe it wasn’t the screen at all. Maybe she just couldn’t bring herself to look at him because she’d come to the same conclusion.

He hoped so. It would be so much cleaner.

“Can we talk?” he said, taking a seat across the table from her.

That was enough to get her to meet his eye, but not enough to prompt her to speak. She wasn’t going to make it easy on him. Story of his life.

“This was too close, Claudia. You could have been killed. Anna could have been killed. And even though she wasn’t, what’s this going to do to her? She saw at least some of what happened and hasn’t said a word to me since. Is she afraid of me now? Why wouldn’t she be?”

Claudia just stared at him, seeming almost catatonic. Finally, she blinked. “Please stop.”

“Look, I know we just had this conversation and that we’ve had it more times than we can count. But this is the last.”

“Mitch, please. Stop.”

There was something in her tone that made him fall silent. This wasn’t a conversation either one of them wanted to have, but it seemed like more than that. There was something he wasn’t seeing.

“What?”

She turned the laptop toward him. The screen depicted a high-resolution image of the dead man in her entryway. She zoomed in to highlight a tattoo that covered the left side of his neck, rising all the way to his jawline. It consisted of three letters intertwined with skulls and roses.

“Those aren’t your enemies, Mitch. They’re mine.”





CHAPTER 14


THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON, DC

USA

“SUBTLE,” Catherine Cook said as soon as Darren Hargrave closed the Oval Office door. “The Cape Town media is already calling it the Franschhoek Bloodbath and saying that the owners of the house are missing. Can I assume that Rapp killed all your people and escaped?”

“They weren’t my people,” Hargrave said, sounding less defensive than she would have guessed. He was becoming increasingly confident in his position. Maybe too confident, but it would be a mistake to count on that.

“This was a hit team sent by Gustavo Marroqui,” Hargrave continued. “A Guatemalan gang leader who Louis and Claudia Gould have a very ugly history with. A similar team showed up at a house they were living in in Bosnia a few years ago but they were tipped off and managed to escape. It’s completely credible that Marroqui could have discovered that she’s alive and it’s absolutely certain that if he did, he’d move against her. Like Mitch Rapp, Gustavo Marroqui isn’t a man to let things go.”

Catherine took a chair in the Oval Office’s seating area while her husband seemed content to spectate from behind his desk.

“So, this is your definition of a success?” she asked.

“One hundred percent,” Hargrave replied. “We always knew that the chances of a bunch of Guatemalan gang members succeeding against Mitch Rapp were low, but it doesn’t matter. We accomplished exactly what we set out to do. It won’t take Rapp long to figure out these were people from Claudia’s past and not his. When he does, he’s going to have no choice but to go after Marroqui—a man who even the CIA can’t locate and who virtually owns the Guatemalan government. That leaves Rapp—and likely his people—consumed with something that has nothing to do with the president.”

“You don’t think that the timing of this is going to seem a little suspicious to Rapp and Kennedy?”

“I’m sure Irene will acknowledge the possibility that we discovered Claudia Gould’s identity and leaked it to Marroqui. But is she going to let Rapp go to war with America over that possibility? With no evidence at all? I seriously doubt it.”