“Agent Donovan—”
But she was already shaking her head. “You know that you can’t keep it a secret. You’ve done a good job keeping me isolated, but you know that as soon as I walk in my front door, I’ll get on the Internet and I can find out any damn thing I want to about Jeremy Greene. It doesn’t matter how deep it’s buried, I’ll find it.”
Leeds sighed. She would, too. She was the reason the FBI—hell, the U.S. government, not to mention MI5—had finally managed to get their hooks into the bastard.
“It wouldn’t require much digging. You’re not going to like it,” he warned.
“No shit.” It was her turn to sigh. “Sorry. I’m a little . . . wound up.”
Leeds only nodded, a frown settling on his face as he maneuvered the BMW through traffic. Kendra wondered if he was stalling, and again felt an uneasy sensation, like static electricity, pop along the surface of her skin. If she were more superstitious, she’d have called it a premonition.
“Sir Jeremy was shot . . . in the arm. Barely a scratch, really.”
“How . . . unfortunate.”
“They patched him up quickly, and brought him to Washington. Very few people know about it. Only top officials . . . and now you.”
Kendra stared at him. “How’s that possible? Everyone who was involved in the operation knows that he was there that day. They’d know we got him.”
“Not necessarily. They know we picked him up. But Sir Jeremy immediately got word to his lawyers. The U.S. government didn’t want the political firestorm. He’s a British national. He’s a billionaire. It’s plausible.”
“Plausible,” Kendra said slowly. “But not true.”
“No. We had him a little longer than anyone realizes. And he agreed to flip.”
“Flip . . .” Her mouth tightened. She’d known that was their original intention. Hell, she’d argued for it. But that was before. “I see. We’re working with the goddamn bastard who’s responsible for members of my team being killed?” Despite her best efforts, her voice rose. She wanted to strike out at something, but ended up curling her fingers into her palms.
“We’re not working with him,” Leeds disagreed. “He works for us.”
“Where?”
Leeds frowned. “Where?”
“Where’s he working for us?” she demanded sharply. “He’s not behind bars, is he? Not feeding us information about his clients from a military fucking prison, is he?”
“No, of course not.”
“We’ve let him go back to his life, haven’t we?” This time she couldn’t stop herself. She slapped the console. “Goddamn it! I was there! I saw Daniel’s head blown off right in front of my eyes! Allan . . .” Her breath hitched, and she struggled against losing control. “God, Allan had a wife . . . they’d just gotten married,” she whispered, anger draining away and leaving only an unsettling despair. “So many died . . . and we’re letting that asshole go free.”
“He’s not free. Not technically.” He shot her a frustrated look. “Shit, I don’t like this any more than you do, Agent Donovan. But it’s not like you didn’t know this would happen. Sometimes we need to get involved with a few bad guys to take down someone even worse.”
“Like when we helped Osama bin Laden fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan?”
Leeds’s jaw tightened at the cutting tone, and he focused on his driving. Equally silent, Kendra folded her arms across her chest and stared out the window. For the next five minutes, the only sound was the traffic outside and the hum of wheels against asphalt. He let out a sigh when he let up on the accelerator, moving the BMW off the expressway into the Mount Pleasant area.
He snuck a glance at his silent passenger. “Look, I hate that it looks as though the bastard’s life is the same,” he finally said in a much quieter tone. “But he’s been working with us to set up several undercover stings. His intel has been good. The brass is pleased.”
“Oh, well. I guess that makes it all right, then.”
“Kendra—”
“I understand.” The heat that had blasted him only seconds before was gone. Her words could have been chipped out of ice. Oddly, Leeds preferred the hot anger. He shot her a wary look, met the onyx eyes. The expression in them wasn’t cold, exactly. But he couldn’t read it, either.
“I wasn’t supposed to talk to you about Greene.”
“You know I would’ve found out.”
Leeds steered the car into the lot outside her apartment complex and parked. “That’s why I told you. I thought it would be better coming from me.”
“Thanks. And thanks for the ride.” She opened the door and slid out. “I can manage from here.”
Before she could slam the door, he leaned over. “Kendra, you’re not going to do anything stupid?”