“Yes, but it wasn’t as cold as it sounds. I don’t know. It’s the same with any family. I can tell you what it was like, but only Jamie, Ten, and I really understood. Dad wasn’t a bad man. He believed in his country and he thought he was doing good. I think if he hadn’t taken me and Ten off the streets, we would be dead or in jail by now. I don’t know about Jamie, but then I’m not exactly unbiased when I talk about him. Ten thinks I put him on a pedestal.”
“You were in love with him. You should have.” He knew deep down that he should be jealous of this guy. Jamie Grant still had a hold on Phoebe’s heart even after all these years. And yet he was able to summon up nothing more than sympathy for a man who’d died. He’d died serving his country. He didn’t want Phoebe to think less of James even if it would help his case. “I told you. I know you’re always going to love him. I just ask that you love me, too.”
She stopped, her eyes closing, and she took a deep breath before she opened them again. “I do love you, Jesse Murdoch. I didn’t think I could ever love anyone again, but I can’t deny it.”
“Then know that everything is going to be all right.”
Her eyes slid away from his as she continued. “After college, we went into training and then we started working under my father’s direction. I spent some time in Asia and Jamie and Ten went straight to the Middle East. Jamie and I got married. And then my dad died and Ten took over some of his responsibilities. Of all of us, Ten was the truly brilliant operative. A couple of years back, he started hearing rumors about US corporations and politicians working with hostiles in Iraq. They were after resources and business interests, of course. It wasn’t unusual, but I started to think that one of their payoffs was handing over troop movements and US Army intelligence.”
That was a kick in the gut. He knew there were always people willing to sell out soldiers for cash, but the thought of elected politicians being involved made him pause. They had influence. They could potentially not simply hand over Army intelligence, but actively influence Army strategy. “Did you find the evidence?”
“We needed to move around with impunity. There were people we needed to interview, but Iraq was a massive war zone at the time. I came up with the idea of embedding an operative in an Army unit.”
“What?”
She nodded, resuming her pacing. “You heard me. I thought people would talk more freely to a soldier than an operative. Some of the people we needed to interview were soldiers themselves.”
“We didn’t like to talk to spooks.” He had an inkling of where she was going. When had her husband died? What year? What time?
“See. I knew that. That’s exactly what I was trying to avoid by embedding our own. And it worked. The operative hadn’t served more than a few weeks when he came up with something.”
“Don’t call him the operative. I’m dumb, but I’m not stupid.” The words came out harsher than he’d intended, but now that he was here, he found himself getting emotional.
If he was right…oh, god, if he was fucking right, so much made sense. And he had a story of his own for her.
She paled and then nodded, her movements almost robotic. “Jamie. It was Jamie. I picked a unit that was close to the action and that routinely patrolled some of the areas where the informants were.”
“Phoebe, was it my unit?”
“Yes.”
Jamie. Jimmy. The kid who’d joined them three weeks before it had all gone to hell. He’d actually gone on a couple of those interviews with him. Such a dumbass. He’d believed the story that Jimmy’s stepmother was Iraqi and that was how he’d spoken such fluent Farsi. He’d been thrilled at the time because they’d lost their translator. So very stupid to believe. It made sense now. “Private James Greene. He didn’t call himself Jamie though. Jimmy.”
“It’s always good to come close to the truth,” she said in a monotone. “That’s why I used my real first name and a close last name when I came to McKay-Taggart. If you looked me up, you wouldn’t find the real Phoebe Grant along with my construct and I can remember it easily.”
“He was a good soldier.” He’d been brave during the one firefight they’d gotten into. He’d held his line and hadn’t panicked. He’d had Jesse’s back.
“He wasn’t a soldier.”
“For those few weeks, he was. He did his job and he did it well.” How the hell was he going to tell her what he needed to say? Now it all made sense. At the time, it had been the mutterings of a dying man. “He didn’t endanger us. Is that what you’re worried I’ll think?”
Her hands became fists at her sides. “I endangered you, Jesse. It was my plan and it backfired. Somehow it got out that an operative was coming in with information. Jamie was due to come home and he was bringing his intelligence with him.”