She looked up at him, confused. “You are not Se?or John?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m afraid not. My real name doesn’t matter, but it isn’t John. And, Felicita, I’m afraid that I’m not going to be able to marry you, after all.”
Felicita began to cry again. “But, but you said—please, please do not send me back there, I cannot go back there…”
“Shh, calm down, you’re not going back. Listen to me, Felicita, I am a special agent of the United States, and I was sent there to do a job. It’s done now, but I liked you, so I wanted to get you out of that life. Now, these people,” and he indicated the man and woman who were standing outside the car, watching them, “they’re going to take you and help you start a whole new life. If you want to go to school, they’ll help you do that, or if you just want to go and get a job, they’ll help you with that, too. But I can’t stay with you, and I won’t be able to see you again.”
He opened the door and pulled her out of the car, then introduced her to the agents who were waiting for her. The woman took Felicita and put an arm around her, then walked her into the building, even as the girl kept looking over her shoulder at Noah. The man stood beside Noah until they were out of earshot, then grinned at him.
“So, I understand she was a big help to you on whatever your mission was?”
Noah nodded. “Yep,” he said. “She provided exactly the diversions I needed, just when I needed them, and she didn’t even know what she was doing. You guys make sure she stays safe, okay? I’d hate to think I brought her out of one bad life into another one.” He rolled his eyes to the agent’s face. “I might have to come back and find out what happened.”
He turned and got into the front passenger seat beside Sarah, then pointed straight ahead. She put the car in gear and drove out of the parking lot, leaving Felicita behind.
“You know you broke her heart, right?” Sarah asked as she drove.
Noah shrugged. “Yeah, well, I figured it was better it be broken by a false promise than by a drug, a knife or a bullet. One of those would’ve gotten her, sooner or later.”
Sarah looked at him, and the expression he saw from the corner of his eye might have been a sneer, or could have been a grin. “And you claim you don’t ever feel anything.”
Noah leaned his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes. “You don’t have to feel something emotionally to know the difference between right and wrong, Sarah. Just because I don’t have a conscience doesn’t mean I don’t know what compassion is.”
The blonde girl shook her head. “Yeah, okay, whatever.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
The big Hummer pulled into the farmhouse driveway at just before noon the next day, and all four of them followed Noah into his house.
“Oh, I think the drive here was longer than the flight,” Sarah said. “At least this big monstrosity of yours is comfortable.”
Neil grinned at her. “Monstrosity? That gives me an idea. I’ve been trying to come up with a name for it. I’ll call it Hummer-stein.”
“That’s cute,” the girl replied. “I’m just glad we’re out of it.”
“Me, too,” Moose said. “No offense, Neil, but your driving scares me to death.” Moose had met them at the Denver airport that morning. His flight from Dubai had arrived only a half hour before their flight from El Paso.
“Hey, it scares me to death, too,” Neil said. “Why do you think I insist on driving the biggest thing on the road?”
“Okay,” Noah said, “anybody who wants a fast lunch is looking at microwavable burritos or peanut butter and jelly. Who wants what?”
“PB&J,” Sarah called out, and the other two guys echoed her. Noah got out a loaf of bread and began smearing peanut butter and jelly onto different slices, and then slamming them together. He put two sandwiches onto each of four paper plates, and carried them to the table. Sarah got up from where she’d been sitting and got bottles of root beer out of the refrigerator for everyone.
“It’s good to be home,” Sarah said, and then she looked at Noah. “Well, I’m not home yet, I just meant it’s good to be back here.”
Noah shrugged. “You stay here enough,” he said. “You can move in if you want to.”
She looked at him for a moment, then smiled. “Let me think about it, okay?”
“Okay. You all remember we got debriefing in the morning, right? Nine AM at the admin building.”