“Before she was fired, Ariella Ryan was an agent for the C.I.A. She did remote surveillance internationally for several years before she married and settled down in New York City, working at a field office and pretending to be the curator for a small museum.”
I held Declan’s stare. Was he serious? The woman had many secrets but a C.I.A. operative. I couldn’t even imagine it was the truth. She was small, fragile, and while I didn’t consider her helpless, I’d seen how she reacted last night and doubted her ability to do any field work.
“You’re skeptical,” Mason said. “I was too, especially after meeting her, but it makes sense. Why else would she want to live off-grid?”
I shook my head. I didn’t believe it. She’d been upset when she found out the cabin didn’t have electricity, angry in fact. Had she played me?
Declan slid a manila folder across the table at me. I forced the file open and sifted through the pages quickly to see what was true and what wasn’t. “Why didn’t this come up when I searched for her name?”
“She goes deep,” Mason said. “Her cover was nearly blown by her ex-husband when he was arrested. After that, the details get a little fuzzy, but we suspect her marriage may have been a cover. She went deep, a little too deep, and when the government went after her husband, someone put a target on her back and went after her too.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “This all sounds crazy.” I had trouble wrapping my head around what they told me, but staring at the file, it was all in there. A copy of her identification and a scan of her C.I.A. credentials, including her badge. “Are you sure this is her?”
“It gets worse,” Mason said. “We’ve been doing a lot of digging into her past. From what we can surmise, her husband may not have been responsible for the Ponzi scheme he went to prison for last year. She’s still being hunted by the same men that set up her husband. From what I found on the dark web, there’s a hit for Ariella Ryan, aka Ariella Cole.”
Fear crept into my chest, suffocating me. She was in danger.
“The good news is her exact location hasn’t been discovered yet,” Aiden said. “We still have time to help her if that’s what you want.”
I stood. The file open but forgotten on the conference table. “Of course, it’s what I want. She needs our help. If she’s C.I.A., then she’s practically one of us.”
“I’m not sure I’d go that far,” Lincoln retorted, his tone sharp, his eyes tight. He didn’t seem on board with helping her.
Even if she weren’t C.I.A. and had just been a girl with a self-destructive past, I still would have helped her. I wasn’t keen on the fact she’d lied to me, kept the truth from me, but she needed my help. I wasn’t going to abandon her when shit got tough.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. “I swear if it’s Skylar again,” I grunted under my breath and withdrew my cell phone. I held up a finger to tell the guys to hold on a minute. “It’s Ariella,” I said. My stomach twisted like a vine, worry evident on my face. I swallowed the rising lump in my throat and planted my feet firm on the floor to ground myself. I had plenty of practice in the field, not letting my emotions come over me. Today was no different. I needed to be strong for Ariella, and as pissed as I was that she lied to me, I also needed to keep a level head. I didn’t want her turning her back on me now, not after what we shared last night.
“Go on, answer it.” Mason gestured to my phone. The guys would not give me an ounce of privacy, but I deserved that after having my head shoved in the sand, unaware of the truth of her past and the danger that surrounded all of us.
“Hello?” I didn’t get another word out before her words poured out of her in a whisper.
“It’s Ariella. I need your help. There’s someone at the resort looking for me, and they’re using my married name. Can you pull surveillance from the hotel and find out who it is?”
She certainly knew a lot about what we could do, Eagle Tactical's capabilities, without a warrant. A typical citizen wouldn’t have been so knowledgeable, but a C.I.A. agent would know our skills and abilities to do what she asked.
“Are you in danger?” I asked, not answering her question. She still didn’t know that I was aware of her previous career, her life before she was married, the secret she’d kept from me. Was I mad at her for deceiving me? Yes, but I would not let that cloud my judgment when she needed my help.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Possibly. I’m hoping it’s just someone after me because of what Benjamin stole.”
“Ariella, we need to talk, clear the air about some things.” I stood, unable to just sit and listen to what she said. I put the phone on speaker.
“I know,” she stammered. “Shit. He’s coming this direction.”
“Describe him to me.” I muted her call. “She’s at Blue Sky Resort. We need immediate access to the surveillance footage. I recall we set up their system and it’s all backed up to the cloud.”
Declan pushed himself up, the chair squeaking as he stood. “I’ll work on getting backdoor access. As soon as I get his name, I’ll have Mason run a background on the guy.”
“I want to know if he so much as has a parking ticket in his name,” I said.
“Of course,” Declan said.
Mason’s expression remained grim, but he didn’t speak. I unmuted the call and tried to catch up with what Ariella had said about the man’s description. Lincoln had jotted it all down while we’d talked amongst each other, and I glanced over the list describing his height, weight, hair color, and clothes.
“I found it odd he was wearing a leather jacket when there was snow on the ground. It caught my attention, but I didn’t recognize him,” Ariella said. “He was outside in the parking lot when I left work yesterday evening. I almost walked by him at the front desk when he spoke to Emma.”
“Mason and Declan are giving me a hand with getting access to the surveillance footage and running background on this mystery man. I’m going to head out to the resort with Lincoln and pick you up. Can you lie low, find someplace to hide? We will text you when we’re at the resort.”
A muffled gasp erupted from the opposite end of the line.
My heart dropped into my stomach. I snatched my phone from the conference table and shrugged my coat on as I rushed out to my truck. Heavy steps followed me with Lincoln on my heels while he tried to catch up. I hadn’t exactly announced I was leaving right now, but with the sound of a struggle, I couldn’t wait another moment.
“Ariella?” I pulled the keys from my pocket, started the engine, and rushed outside into the brisk chill.
Evidence of a struggle, a gasp, a clack, something had fallen. Was it the phone? The line went dead.