Read Online Finding North by Claudia Hall Christian - Free Book Online

said.
    “ Nope,” John said. “That’s
the job — pretend to be married to someone with complementary
skills so that you can get the information you need to keep the
country safe. Over the years, I’ve met other partner teams. Some
are lovers. A few are actually married. But most of them were like
Alex — they are assigned to someone who looks like they should be
their partner. More than once, a partner will kill the other just
to be rid of them. One time, an agent tricked someone else into
killing her partner. Very slick.”
    “ How did you find out?”
Samantha asked.
    “ Alex knew,” John said. “I
think she killed him, but she never said.”
    “ Wow.”
    “ That’s the job,” John
said. “These agents are the best and highest-trained professionals
the CIA, NSA, DHS, MI-6, KGB, or whatever puts out. They are deadly
on a good day.”
    John turned the laptop
around with his free hand and clicked the picture. He slid it
around so Samantha could see the image of Alex and Raz. Samantha
scowled. She stared at the picture for a while before looking up at
John.
    “ How did
you . . .?” she pointed at the screen.
    “ We made an agreement,”
John said. “If something happened, she would tell me. We would work
it out. Kissing each other, and sleeping in the same
bed . . .”
    Samantha cleared her
throat.
    “ Yes, it’s hard,” John
said. “But Alex doesn’t tell personal lies. She’s never hidden what
happens between her and her partners. Ever. To her, it’s always
been a job she’s had to perform in order to be what she wants to
be.”
    “ A Green Beret,” Samantha
said.
    “ Right,” John said. “She’s
never crossed the line we agreed to.”
    “ Sex,” Samantha
said.
    “ Of any kind,” John
nodded.
    “ You’re sure?”
    “ Have you ever known Alex
to lie about something personal?” John asked.
    “ Not well,” Samantha said.
“She gets kind of blotchy red and acts weird.”
    “ I ask her the direct
question and look in her eyes,” John said. “She doesn’t lie. But
that doesn’t make her answers any easier. At the same time, she can
ask me the same question. The temptation is all around me almost
more than it is for her. My job is to be as brutally honest as she
is. That’s the hard part. For me. I’m sure that it’s the same for
you.”
    Samantha gave a slow nod.
John fell silent and turned the computer back around to look at the
image.
    “ There’s something else,”
John said. “You know that Raz and Ben found Alex in the doorway of
that dreadful vault, right?”
    Samantha
nodded.
    “ Do you know what her
father did?” John asked. “Her adoring father Benjamin, the one who
mentored her, stood by her, and trained her in spy craft? Do you
know what he did when he saw his eldest daughter sitting in that
doorway?”
    “ No,” Samantha
said.
    “ Of course, you don’t,”
John’s voice was bitter and hard. “Because her brilliant father did
his job . He
assessed the team as dead and went inside the vault to get
intel. His job .
He sired her, trained her, spent thousands of hours with her all
over the world, and he did his job — no more, no less. His child lay in her own
blood with her best friend’s head in her lap, and the great
Benjamin followed protocol.”
    Joey let out a scream at
John’s intensity.
    “ You’re right,” John
cuddled his son until Joey settled back to sleep. “No need to be
upset about what’s done.”
    Knowing he was telling her
something important, Samantha watched his face.
    “ You know what Raz did?”
John asked. Samantha shook her head. “He brought her home to me. He
didn’t have to. He wasn’t supposed to. Instead of being a spy
automaton, rather than following the rules, he bent down and kissed
her. If he hadn’t done that? She would not be here now. She’d be
dead. Period.”
    Not sure what to say,
Samantha licked her lips.
    “ So tomorrow, my lovely
wife will leave our home, our children, our life, and go to New
York