Whispered Lies

The room was so quiet for a moment, Gabrielle could hear the air circulating.

“Who?” Carlos asked so softly it raised the fine hairs along her neck. When she shivered, he lifted the sheet up to cover her and drew her back closer against his chest.

She could feel Carlos’s heart beating powerfully. The heart of a warrior who fought to protect the world.

“Alejandro Anguis, the man I hope to see one day die for his crimes.”

TWENTY-THREE

WHY DON’T YOU give Babette a call?” Carlos tossed his cell phone on the bed for Gabrielle, who stood on the other side buttoning her blouse. In hindsight, he should have had her try to reach her sister last night, but hoped he’d have received word on Babette by now.

Gabrielle looked up, eyes wary. “Why? It’s not even five in the morning yet. Did she text you?”

“No. Just give her a call and see if she’s okay.” He wasn’t ready to tell Gabrielle her sister was missing. After last night, anything he said or did was a land mine waiting to be tripped.

She knew the name Alejandro, but didn’t know that the Anguis tattoo was a snake and dagger. If BAD or Interpol freed her, she’d eventually find out about the tattoo and…

What had he thought? That the day would come where he’d really be free of his past? That there was a chance of ever having more of a life than a box of memories tucked away in a safe house?

Face it, hombre. The only hope you have to stay alive is to remain unencumbered to run and hide…and kill when necessary.

His best-case outcome scenario was to secure her freedom, then to disappear himself into the bottomless recess of BAD’s network, become a deep-undercover operative only.

Family was everything and he had to stay alive to assure his was safe, so that one day he could free Maria and Eduardo.

Gabrielle gave him a curious glance, then finally lifted the phone and keyed in a number. She held the phone to her ear, amused by something she listened to before she spoke.

“Cute recording, Babette. This is Gabrielle. Just wanted to say hello. Call me.” She hung up and tossed the phone back.

“Why don’t you text her, too?” Carlos suggested.

The humor drained from Gabrielle’s eyes. “What’s this all about?”

Well, hell, subtle wasn’t working. “Don’t get upset until Gotthard gets us an update, but Babette’s security card was not sca

“Oh, mon Dieu!” Gabrielle grabbed the phone, frantically texting, then looked at him. “I said it was an emergency. To call immediately. What are we going to do?”

The panic growing in her eyes was the reason he’d waited as long as possible to tell her about her sister. He walked over and put his hands on her shoulders. “We don’t know that anything has happened. She might have lost her card.”

Gabrielle studied his face, then narrowed her eyes. “Rae knew this last night. Didn’t she?”

This was where things would go from bad to shit bad. “Yes, but she’s probably been up half the night working on this.”

“Which means you knew, too,” Gabrielle accused, ignoring the rest of what he’d told her.

“Yes, but-”

“But you didn’t think I needed to know last night?”

“No. There was nothing any of us could do until we determined Babette was definitely missing.”

Fury burned away the panic. “News flash. She’s missing! So what are you going to do?”

He wanted to snap right back at her over his frustration at another teenage girl being in danger, but couldn’t when worry for her sister was behind Gabrielle’s acidic tone.

Someone knocked at the door. Carlos walked away, glad for the short reprieve from how her shoulders sagged next. He could handle anger, but his insides clenched at the disappointment in her voice. That he’d let her down.

When he opened the door, Rae stalked into the room with a weary-looking Korbin right behind.

“Long night?” Carlos asked him.

Korbin shoved a droll look his way. “Yes, and not due to anything physically draining. Rae is a maniac when it comes to something she can’t solve.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about Babette?” Gabrielle yelled at Rae.

Rae gave Carlos a pointed look. “Leash her until I have coffee or I may have to kill her.”

Gabrielle launched at Rae, but Carlos caught her around the waist before she committed suicide.

Rae didn’t move a muscle as Gabrielle flailed her arms and kicked, yelling, “Let me go. I’m flying back to the school.”

“Calm down and I’ll take you.” Carlos struggled to hold her without causing a bruise.

When she settled down at that offer, he set her on her feet. “Get packed and we’ll go.”

“Bad idea.” Korbin scratched the beard shadow on his face.

“Why?” Gabrielle demanded.

“Could be a trap. Someone could have figured out what Gabrielle did in the computers and be waiting for both of you.”

“No one could have followed what I did in the IT center,” Gabrielle argued.

“Someone tracked you to Peachtree City and let your ex know you were going to be in Milano,” Rae reminded her.

“I don’t care. I’m going to get my sister.”

Carlos’s phone dinged with a new text message. Gabrielle rushed into the bedroom and dove for the phone, punching the keys and reading. When Carlos caught up to her, relief burst with her next exhale.

“Babette sent me a text message.”

“Call her.” Carlos wasn’t so quick to accept a text message as being from her sister.

Worry swept across Gabrielle’s gaze when she caught his insinuation the text could be from anyone. She punched the keys and waited, then her eyes lit with happiness.

“Babette, are you okay?” Gabrielle’s face ran the gamut from relief to concerned to a

Gabrielle glanced at Carlos during that lie.

He wanted to say, See, sometimes a small lie is better than a complicated truth. Instead, he walked out to the living room while she finished talking to her sister.

“Now that the drama is over, let’s get back to the mission.” Rae poured a mug of coffee from the carafe that had been delivered earlier. She must be pretty spent. Drinking anything other than her standard tea was a sign of the strain she was functioning under.

“Gabrielle’s just worried about her sister and she’s not trained to do this,” Carlos defended.

“She’s a risk to you and this mission.” Laptop open and typing, Rae sipped on the coffee, twisting her mouth at the taste.

“I’ll worry about both of those.” Carlos added that to the list of everything else, including not putting his team at risk.

When Gabrielle walked into the room, Carlos gave Rae a let’s-drop-it look the female operative considered briefly, then shrugged.

“Babette’s fine and I made sure she would not break any rules or disappear for the next month.”

From where he stood at the window, gazing down, Korbin asked, “What did you have to promise to get that?”

“I said I’d visit soon,” Gabrielle murmured, then glanced at Carlos, who couldn’t give her the assurance she wanted.

“Okay, I’ve got Gotthard on-screen,” Rae muttered, then told everyone in a clear voice, “Line up behind me if you want to talk to Gotthard.”

Korbin stayed at the window. Carlos and Gabrielle stepped behind Rae within the range of the mounted video cam. Gotthard’s face appeared on the monitor.

“Retter says security has been filing into Columbia since late last night. Someone from the U.S. is definitely meeting with the oil minister on neutral grounds to assure him our government is not behind the attacks on his life and possibly offer assistance in hunting down the assassins. We may at least have a date, if not a time frame for whatever is going down.”