Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes #1)(60)

How many innocents had Wei killed? How many children?

“Look, I know this stuff bothers you, and…I’m glad. I don’t want you to get like me.” Rand peered up at her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m not all good, Sarah.”

“I don’t want to have this conversation.”

Rand wasn’t the bad guy here. End of story. She couldn’t look at it more closely without losing her nerve.

“I need to stash you somewhere—not at the Wishing Well house—while I go see a guy.”

“White? The one Andy mentioned.”

“Yeah.” Rand sighed.

“What’s so dangerous about him?”

“Christ.” Rand rubbed his face, muffling a groan. “Last I heard, he was embedded in a white supremacist group. Not church burners or the lynching kind of biker guys. I’m talking about lobbyists and white-collar types. Believe it or not, those are the ones that scare the shit out of me. He’s an adrenaline, thrill-seeking, fucked-up kind of junkie. I don’t want you anywhere near him if I can help it.”

“Why him?”

“Because while Andy can probably find out more about the auction, Noah’s going to be the guy that could get us in. It does us no good to know what’s happening if we can’t get in there and get the case.” Rand leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and glanced up at her.

“Can’t we just destroy what’s in the case?”

“That’s not our job.” He shook his head. “Hector wants us to recover it.”

Sarah wrung her hands together, wishing she could hold onto Rand. “But…”

“Look, sometimes the job doesn’t make sense. We’re only seeing a small piece of the puzzle.”

“How could protocols be worth all this?”

“I’m sorry.” He reached over and took her hand in his. “This is all very confusing for you, and I wish I could be more patient, but we no longer have an inside view to what they might be doing.”

“We passed a coffee shop. I could hang out there. It was close to the metro.”

“Think you could hang out for a couple hours?”

“I could probably use some tea and time to clear my head.” And to come to terms with this new facet of Rand she hadn’t considered before. The man she’d grown up loving was probably a killer. The thought chilled her blood.

“Come on, I want to get you a burner phone just in case.” Rand took her hand and pulled her to her feet.

The problem was her idealistic, Captain America, cookie-cutter, good-guy view of what they did. The reality was many more shades of gray. They were only the good guys because this was the side of the fight they were on. Good and bad were perspectives that depended on a person’s world view. She saw what they were doing as good and right because it benefitted the people she loved and cared for.

If they were Chinese, she was the bad guy.

Rand could be the man people whispered about in the darkness, afraid they would take his life.

The world wasn’t black and white. There weren’t good guys and bad ones. What it boiled down to was believing in the cause and having the strength to see it through. Rand had. Could she?

…

Wei steered the car out of the lot.

One of the traps would pull their prey in. But he wasn’t going to sit and wait. They didn’t have that much luxury operating within the States.

The reinforcements would arrive shortly and things would be put into motion. Once they had the contents of the case, it would become a scramble to sell what intel they could while maximizing what they knew. Which was why every moment spent waiting for Sarah Collins to come to them was another opportunity lost.

Wei glanced at his phone, confirming the address Ping had messaged him.

With any luck, Wei could snag the girl and the agent all in one go. If he had to pick, he’d take the girl.





Chapter Fourteen


Rand strode toward the metro, phone pressed to his ear.

Do the job.

That’s what’s most important.

Lie.

The thing at the top of his list, since the moment the light hit her face, was Sarah. Nothing else mattered the way she did.

Would she be at the coffee shop when he came back? Or would the reality of who and what he was make her run from him?

“What’s on fire?” Hector’s tone missed the usual note of jovial humor.

“I need to meet with White. Do you know where he is or how I can get in contact with him?”

Rand glanced in a window, checking his six. No tail. No one following him. He’d round the block a few more times before heading out.

“I’m supposed to have a face-to-face with him this morning.”

“Mind if I cut in?” Rand picked up his pace. If he had to be on someone else’s timetable, he had to get a move on.

“What do you need White for?”

Rand got Hector up to date on their plans, but left out where they were staying and where Sarah was now. It was time to start treating everyone like the enemy.

“Fuck. Okay.” Hector sighed. “We put a road block in the hotel case, but I don’t know how long that’s going to last. Probably as long as it takes for the Chinese ambassador to get his foot in with the Secretary of State. Christ, what a mess.”