Forbidden Fantasies Bundle(137)

She was still trying to get her mind around the knowledge that Lucifer and Jed were the same man, and the spinning in her head was making her dizzy. She had to work to focus on the conversation.

“If she’d wanted you dead, you wouldn’t be here,” the tall man was saying. “I should have trusted my instincts on that. I trained her.”

“Are you saying she bungled it on purpose?” Jed asked.

“I’m saying more than that. She not only didn’t kill you, she arranged for you to be taken to that hospital, and she also arranged for the papers to get you out of the country,” the man said.

“So she says,” Jed commented.

“I’m not proud of what I did,” Bailey said. “My only defense was that if I’d refused the job, Hadley Richards would have sent someone else.”

“Hadley Richards authorized you to kill me?” Jed asked.

“The director authorized it and Hadley gave me the assignment. To take you out was the phrase he used,” Bailey said. “You’d killed a valued agent and betrayed your country for money.”

“I believe her,” the man said.

“I’m inclined to believe her, also,” Ryder said. “You should at least listen to her side of the story. Why don’t we sit down, pool our information and see if we can make some sense out of this?” He moved farther into the kitchen. “I’ll make a fresh pot of coffee.”

“Not quite yet,” Bailey said. “I’m not sharing any more information until someone tells me what she’s doing here.” When Bailey turned toward Zoë, so did everyone else in the room.

“Me?” The spinning in Zoë’s head had centered right behind her eyes.

“She’s a friend of mine,” Jed said.

Bailey turned to him. “Did you know that she’s the one who wrote the reports that fingered you as Frank Medici’s assassin and show how the money that the Vidal drug ring paid for the hit can be traced to a bank in the Caymans in your name?”

“No.” The one word was all Zoë could manage.

Bailey patted her bag. “I’ve got the reports with me. They’ve both got your signature, and they’re what Hadley Richards used to get the director to sanction my taking Jed out.”

Zoë pressed fingers to her temple. “Mr. Richards asked me to run a probability check on Lucifer as Frank Medici’s assassin, but my analysis didn’t support that theory.” She glanced at Jed. “I didn’t know you were Lucifer. And I never heard the name Jed Calhoun until we met here in this apartment two weeks ago.”

“What about the report on the money? That has your name on it, too,” Bailey said.

Zoë frowned. “I didn’t write it.”

“Liar,” Bailey said.

“She’s not a liar.” Jed moved then, cutting in front of Bailey to take Zoë’s arm.

“When she resigned, there were rumors that she was sleeping with Richards,” Bailey said. “She could be covering for him now.”

Zoë felt Jed’s hand tighten on her arm, but she couldn’t meet his eyes. The hammering in her head had begun to roar in her ears.

“Ryder, she needs aspirin,” Jed said as he led her to the sofa in the living area. Then he turned back to Bailey. “I’d trust Zoë McNamara with my life.”

For a moment there was a tense silence in the room. Zoë simply stared at Jed. She couldn’t even begin to identify the flood of feelings pouring through her.

It was Ryder who finally spoke. “Well, it’s clear we’ll have to work through some trust issues here.”

“I’ll vouch for Bailey,” the tall man said.

“I’ll vouch for Zoë,” Jed said.

“That’s good enough for me,” Ryder said. “Can we agree for the time being to take the two ladies at their words?”

Zoë met Bailey’s eyes and said, “Yes.”

“Okay,” Bailey agreed.

“Why don’t all of you sit down,” Ryder suggested. “Everyone can tell his or her side of the story, and maybe together we can figure out what the hell is going on.”



FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, they were all gathered on or near the sofas flanking the large coffee table in the living area of Ryder’s apartment. Zoë felt a sense of déjà vu; she’d sat on the same place on the same sofa when she’d first met Jed.

But everything was different now. Jed wasn’t sitting directly across from her. Instead, he was pacing back and forth behind one of the sofas. And he wasn’t Jed. At least he wasn’t the easygoing man with the mocking manner that she’d seen him as that night.