He selected the baby blue panties to go along with the pink ones he’d already picked up. “I can assure you, Vanessa, if you were wronged I will make it right. To do that, however, I’ll need your full cooperation.” He settled his full attention back on her. “We need to finally clear up the mess that happened three years ago. You can help us do that. But I can’t help you if you aren’t willing to come in.”
Like she would do that.
Come in
was spookspeak for give yourself up. No way was she going down that path. Hamilton had saved her from that fate several years ago and she wasn’t about to get caught in that trap now.
“In that case, I’ll take my chances on my own.”
“If that’s your decision, I’m afraid I won’t be able to support your endeavor, Miss Clark.”
She picked up a pair of mint green panties as well as a pair of white ones and passed them to him. “Buy three get one free.”
“Don’t make this mistake, Miss Clark,” he cautioned firmly. “It could have devastating consequences. Whatever you and Hamilton arranged three years ago is clearly no longer valid. You’ll lose whatever life you’ve managed to salvage these last three years. Is that what you want?”
“I’ve already lost it.” Keeping the bitterness out of her tone was impossible. “Besides, I have backup this time.”
“I’m not sure what that means, Miss Clark.”
“Holt Landry is prepared to confirm everything I say. If you can’t help me, then we’ll just have to go to the media.” She studied him closely, didn’t want to miss the slightest shift in his expression or his posture as he absorbed her blatant threat. If he was guilty she wanted to read it on his face, in his eyes or in his voice.
“Threatening me won’t help you, Miss Clark. I cannot measure the relativity of what you’re trying to say. I’ve offered my help. What you do from here is your choice.”
She wanted to believe he was manipulating her, but there was no outward indication, no subtle change in the tone of his voice or indicative physical manifestations of deceit. Then again, like her, he knew all the tricks. He could be lying. But if she only had what she saw and heard upon which to judge his sincerity, she would have to say he was telling the truth.
“In that case, this meeting is over.”
He sighed. His hands found the edge of the table as if he needed the extra support to stay vertical. “My offer stands, Miss Clark. Think long and hard before you betray the Agency or your country.”
That he would throw a blow that low infuriated her all the more. “Considering I eliminated a target that shouldn’t have been a target because the Agency ordered me to, I’d say
my
loyalty has never been in question.” Emotion welled in her voice, betraying her resolve. Dammit.
“That decision was not mine.” His gaze pressed in on hers once more. “The order came straight from the president. However badly you want to clear your name, Miss Clark, you have to know the likelihood of that happening in a public forum is very low. Going to the media with information you can’t officially substantiate will only harm you.”
“So you’ve wasted your time as well as mine with this little discussion.” She laughed softly. “I was certain a man as busy as yourself doesn’t have that kind of time to waste.”
“Come in with me, Miss Clark, and we’ll work this out. You have my word.”
“No, thanks.”
He squared his shoulders, the elegant blue silk suit regal against the crisp white of his shirt and the power-red tie he wore. “In that case, there’s nothing I can do for you. Good luck, Miss Clark.”
She watched him walk out of the store, the panties he’d considered buying left in a crumpled heap on the table.
“You okay?”
Landry.
“Yeah.”
“I’m going to follow him out. Make sure he leaves without talking to anyone else. Then I’ll make my way over to the Land Rover. You and Jeffrey meet me there in five minutes.”
Through the glass front of the shop she watched Landry fall into step a few yards behind the director, his baseball cap pulled low. Jeffrey got up from the bench and wandered into the shop to join her.
“I assume things didn’t go the way you’d hoped.” He frowned at the rumpled panties the director had left behind. Jeffrey liked things neat.
“Too early to tell.” She glanced at her watch. “Let’s go. We’ll need to make sure we don’t have any tails before we meet Landry.”
This whole thing could turn out to be a bust. Director Woods appeared to have no idea what she was talking about. If he hadn’t been in on the plan, then that left Hamilton on the CIA side of things. Had the president sanctioned that final assignment or had he simply looked the other way? There was Paul Echols, the president’s top adviser at the time. And of course, Andrew Page, the Interpol counterpart. The operation couldn’t have gone down the way it did without one or more of them knowing the facts.
It didn’t matter as much who knew as who made the final decision. That was the real answer she needed. Then she would know why her life expectancy continued to be far too short.
Since an emergency egress didn’t seem necessary, she and Jeffrey moved into the mall’s main thoroughfare and headed toward the food-court entrance. Just another part of all this that didn’t make sense. Why let her walk away? Now or three years ago? And what about last night? Hamilton hadn’t made any move to stop her. He’d known she was alive all this time. Why let her sit idle for three years? Why not act before now? What had changed?
There had to be more to this than Landry was telling her. Maybe more than he knew.
If she found out he’d left her in the dark and let her walk into this tête-à-tête blind, she would kick his…
As they passed the carousel loaded with delighted children, an electrical charge zapped along her nerve endings, making the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
“Jeffrey.”
He stopped, only then realizing that she was no longer beside him. “Is something wrong?”
Olivia prodded herself forwardshe didn’t dare turn around. “We’re going to take a little detour.”
He looked at his watch. “We only have three minutes until we’re supposed to meet Landry. We really should be on our way.”
A long-ago deeply ingrained instinct sent adrenaline charging through her veins. She grabbed Jeffrey by the arm and started forward again.
“Listen to me, I won’t have time to say this twice.”
“I’m listening.” He leaned his head closer to hers as they continued to weave quickly through the meandering Sunday-afternoon shopping crowd.
“What’s going on, Nessa?”
Shit. She’d forgotten about Landry and the wire.
“I think we have a tail.”
“You think or you know?”
Damn him. Didn’t he get it? She’d been out of this business for three years. She wasn’t sure.
Frustrated, she stopped and turned around. The abrupt moves of no less than three
shoppers
some four or five yards behind her gave her the answer she sought.
“I fucking know, Landry.”
He swore the way Brits will do when annoyed. Politely, with arrogant dignity.
“Get the hell out of there,” he ordered. “I’ll be waiting for you at the curb.”
Nothing polite or dignified about that.
If they made a dead run for it the chase would begin.
She scanned the upcoming shops. The food-court entrance was near one of the anchor stores…Macy’s. They still had a ways to go to get there.
They needed to lose this tail.
She looped her arm through Jeffrey’s. “We have to move quickly, Jeffrey. Just stay with me, okay?”
His arm tightened around hers. “I’m right beside you.”
She would owe him big-time when this was over…assuming they survived.
She cut into the candy store on the right. The shop was packed with patrons, which helped. She tugged Jeffrey through the crowd and exited on the opposite side of the store. This time she wasn’t walking, she was running.
“Talk to me, Nessa.”
Why the hell didn’t he stop calling her that?
Hanging on to Jeffrey’s hand, she rushed into Macy’s. The only way to stay ahead of the man behind her was to move through a crush of shoppers. The guys on her tail would have the same training as her. Losing them in an open area would be next to impossible.
“Answer me, Nessa, or I’m coming in.”
“We’re on our way, Landry.”
She cut through the men’s department. Wished like hell she knew where the employee exits were located.
The guy in the jeans, T-shirt and sneakers was gaining on them. They had to move faster. Yet attracting unnecessary attention wouldn’t be a good thing.
Dammit.
She headed for the women’s department. Her heart rocketed into her throat. She couldn’t let them catch her. Not now, with Jeffrey stuck in the middle.
The sign for the dressing room captured her attention. She dashed in that direction. Was immensely grateful no clerks were close by as she pushed through the stylish curtain providing privacy as well as elegance to the entrance.
Thankfully Jeffrey didn’t put up any resistance as she urged him deeper into what he would consider forbidden territory.
She pushed him into one of the larger, handicapped-accessible dressing rooms and latched the door. She pressed her finger to her lips to signal silence to him, then pointed to the bench. He nodded and scooted onto the bench, his knees pulled up to his chest to prevent his feet from being seen beneath the door.
Olivia shucked her boots and jeans, tossed both onto the bench with Jeffrey. Fortunately for her, the previous occupant had left a dress and a pair of slacks in the room. She jumped into the slacks that were two sizes too large but she didn’t care. The dress she hung over the door so that anyone who approached on the other side would think she was a customer trying on clothes.
She fiddled with the skirt of the dress, making just enough noise to sound as if she was preparing to try on another outfit.
Holding her breath, she listened for the enemy’s approach. She knew better than to hope he’d give up so easily. Or that her maneuver had been so brilliant.
A rap on the door directly in front of her sent her pulse into Mach speed.
Her body went rigid in preparation to fight.
“Did the dress work, ma’am?”
Relief made her sway on her feet.
Salesclerk.
Olivia moistened her lips and summoned her voice. “Could you bring me a size smaller, please?”
“Certainly. I’ll be right back.”
Olivia pressed her forehead against the door and tried to catch her breath. Damn, that had been close. But they weren’t out of here yet. She glanced at Jeffrey, who looked just a little nervous.
She needed to know if her tail was close by.
“Nessa, where are you now?”
Landry. He was supposed to back her up. He wasn’t doing her a damn bit of good with him out there and her in here. But then, if he were in here he’d only be trapped the same as she was.
She exhaled a long blast of air.
Before she could answer him, the salesclerk reappeared and rapped on the door again. “Here you go, ma’am.”
Uncertain if this was the right risk to take, Olivia opened the door just far enough to reach out. The salesclerk smiled and passed the dress to her.
“Excuse me.” Olivia’s voice cracked in spite of her best efforts to keep it level.
The salesclerk turned back to her, a questioning look on her face.
“There’s a man” Olivia wet her lips again “my ex-boyfriend. He’s been following me around the mall. I think he’s out there waiting for me.” Landry would hear the conversation and understand that she had a plan. She hoped.
The clerk looked distressed. “Would you like me to call security?”
Olivia shook her head, summoned her deepest, darkest fear for motivation. “That’ll only make him more angry. He knows where I live.”
“What does he look like?” The clerk looked ticked off now. Clearly she had no tolerance for men who stalked their ex-girlfriends.
“Tall, brown hair, jeans, blue T-shirt.”
She nodded, her expression knowing. “Oh, yes, he’s out there. He tried to come in here but I stopped him. And there’s another man with him.”
Olivia rounded her eyes. “What will I do? I need to get to my car and get away from him.”
The clerk thought about that for a moment. “Where is your car parked?”
“Near the food-court entrance.”
She pursed her lips, then nodded resolutely. “I can take you out the back entrance.” She gestured behind her. “There’s a storeroom back there where incoming shipments are received and checked in.”
Olivia marshaled a look of desperate hope. “That would be great.”
The clerk hesitated, making Olivia’s heart ram against her breastbone.
“Do you want the dress?” she asked.
Damn. “Of course. How much is it?”
The clerk looked at the sales ticket. “Two-fifty plus tax.”
“Just a moment.” Olivia drew back from the door and looked to Jeffrey.
Momentarily bewildered, understanding kicked in before Olivia had a chance to panic. He wrenched his wallet from his back pocket and dragged out a platinum Visa. She shook her head adamantly. Comprehension dawned and this time he drew out three one-hundred-dollar bills. His hand shook as he passed the cash to Olivia.
She would make this up to him. Somehow.
After giving the money to the clerk, she urged, “Please hurry.”
The clerk smiled and folded the dress over her arm. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right back. The door’s just over there.” She pointed to the storeroom access. “I’ll have you out of here before he knows what hit him.”
Olivia nodded, managing a faint smile of her own.
When the clerk had disappeared beyond the curtain that blocked anyone outside from looking in, Olivia stripped off the slacks. She jerked on her jeans and shoved her feet into her boots, arranged the knife to a comfortable position and decided to forgo lacing the ties.
She put her mouth to Jeffrey’s ear. “I’m going to check that door to see if it’s locked. If it’s not, we’re out of here.”
He frowned. “What if the clerk comes back?”
“I’ll tell her we got spooked and decided to leave without the dress.”