Long Road Home(20)

“You don’t have to say anything,” she said, though he could hear the anguish in her voice. “Now maybe you can see why you have to stay away from me. You can’t be near me. Ever.”

“Bullshit.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“You left for a reason, Jules. Why did you come back, and why are they chasing you?”

“They don’t take kindly to people leaving the fold.”

“Why would you chance leaving now, after three years, if the only reason you stayed was because they threatened Mom and Pop?” There was something about her story that just didn’t ring true. That she would lie to him thrust a knife straight into his chest.

“Because I was foolish,” she said in disgust. “I thought I was smarter. Thought I could just disappear and no one would care or try to find me. As long as I stayed away from my family, they wouldn’t know where I was. I was wrong. I should have just f**ked up an assignment and died.”

He looked at her in shock. She wasn’t being melodramatic. She was dead serious. Had she contemplated death before?

“How did you find me, Manny? Did they contact you?”

“I never stopped looking for you. I’ve used department resources, manpower, all the technology I have at my disposal, and until a week ago, nothing.”

She leaned forward. “Who do you work for? You said not FBI. What then?”

He debated whether to tell her the truth. But he wouldn’t lie to her, not like she had to him. “I work for the CIA.”

He was unprepared for the revulsion that spread across her face. Had her years with the NFR influenced her so greatly? The NFR was one of five main groups the CIA had spent years trying to infiltrate. The only group they had been unsuccessful with so far.

“The CIA? How long? Were you already working for them before I left for France?”

He nodded. “I joined right after I graduated from college.”

She laughed harshly. “So the computer business was all a front?”

He nodded again.

“I was going to ask you for a job when I got back from France.”

“And I was going to ask you to marry me.” It slipped out before he could recall the words. But it hardly mattered. It was a lifetime ago.

She jerked back as if she had been slapped. “W-what?”

His phone rang again, and this time he really did give serious thought to throwing it through the window.

“This better be good,” he snapped.

“You need to get moving,” Tony said.

Manuel was immediately on alert, motioning Jules to get up and follow him. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few bills and threw them on the table. “What’s going on?” he asked as he guided Jules outside to the car.

“Satellite picked up a transmission a few minutes ago. Your girl was a topic of conversation. They seem pretty pissed at her. They also know you’re headed for Dallas. My suggestion is to turn south to Houston and hop a plane to D.C., pronto. And Manuel, Sanderson is all over me. He knows what I know so far. You need to be careful. If you need to call me, use our backup method, you got me?”

Yeah, Manuel knew what he was talking about. It was a pain in the ass to route the calls through the dozen channels he’d have to go through, but he didn’t want the boss man to be breathing down his or Tony’s necks.

Manuel slammed Jules’s door behind her. “I want a full report later. Dig up what you can about the NFR. Particularly their recruiting tactics. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

Chapter Ten

Jules pretended to sleep on the drive to Houston. She could feel Manny watching her. Wanting to question her further. But she had no desire to talk about the years she had spent with the NFR. Not now. Not ever. She’d just as soon forget the whole thing.

She nearly laughed. Kind of hard to forget when they were breathing down her neck. What a fool she’d been to think she could escape so easily.

And now to discover he worked for the agency that held her life, and now his, in its hands. For a brief moment, she entertained the idea that maybe he wasn’t as uninformed as he pretended to be, but no, she couldn’t believe that of him. In a world where she could believe nothing and trust no one, she clung to the idea that this man was honorable despite the monsters he worked for.

She couldn’t tell him the truth. He wouldn’t likely believe her anyway. And the truth would get him killed just as quickly as being with her would.

“You can open your eyes, Jules. I know you’re awake,” Manny said dryly. “We’re almost to the hotel.”

“I need to stop at a pharmacy or grocery store,” she said.

He frowned. “I’d rather you not be exposed unless absolutely necessary.”

“I need to dye my hair back. Red’s a little noticeable.”

He looked like he wanted to question the reason for ever dying it red, but she fixed him with a silencing glare. His lips tightened and he exited the freeway and then pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store.

“Let’s make it quick,” he said in a low voice.

A few minutes later, they returned to the car, everything Jules needed in a small bag.

They drove up a few exits before Manny pulled off again and into the parking lot of a small airport hotel.

He drove under the awning of the front entrance then turned to look at her. “Can I trust you to stay here while I check us in or do I need to haul you inside with me?”