Chapter 5
His voice carried through the room.
He extended his hand.
“It’s been a long time.”
I shook it.
“General.”
He gave a short, disbelieving laugh.
“I was told you might be in Virginia this month. Nobody told me you were attending tonight.”
The MP beside me swallowed.
Then, almost under his breath, he said the words that finished what Victoria had started.
“Ma’am… why didn’t anyone tell us Deputy Director Rachel Monroe was attending tonight?”
Daniel’s face lost all color.
Victoria sat completely still.
Caroline looked from me to her father.
“Dad?”
General Hayes turned slightly.
“You know Deputy Director Monroe?”
His daughter asked it.
The general’s eyebrows rose.
“Know her?”
He looked at me.
“Rachel Monroe coordinated the interagency extraction framework my people used during the Al-Safir crisis.”
Silence.
Daniel blinked.
“The what?”
General Hayes looked at him.
Then back at me, clearly realizing something was wrong.
“She was part of the team responsible for getting thirty-seven personnel out after the perimeter collapsed.”
My scar seemed to burn beneath my ribs.
Memory flashed.
Dust.
Sirens.
Concrete.
Blood on my gloves.
A helicopter lifting through smoke.
A radio operator screaming coordinates while half a building burned behind us.
I pushed it away.
Victoria’s lips parted.
“But she said she worked for the government.”
General Hayes looked at her.
“She does.”
“I thought administrative work.”
No one answered.
The humiliation she had designed for me had reversed so completely that even I felt almost uncomfortable watching it.
Daniel finally found his voice.
“Deputy Director of what?”
I looked at him.
“Daniel.”
“Rachel, what does he mean?”
“This isn’t the place.”
His eyes widened.
“You’re a deputy director?”
“Yes.”
“For the Department of Defense?”
“My current appointment involves joint national-security operations. That is about as specific as I’m willing to be in this room.”
Daniel stared at me.
“You never told me.”
“I told you I worked in national security.”
“You said government work.”
“I said there were details I couldn’t discuss.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No,” I said quietly. “It isn’t.”
Victoria stood suddenly.
“This is ridiculous.”
General Hayes turned toward her.
That stopped her for half a second.
She forced a laugh.
“Surely there has been some misunderstanding. Rachel never presented herself as someone with this kind of authority.”
I looked at her.
“You mean I never bragged.”
“I mean—”
“You decided that because I didn’t announce my title at family dinners, I must not have one.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“I was trying to protect my son.”
“From what?”
No answer.
“From his wife?”
She glanced toward the surrounding officers.
Now she realized they were all listening.
I continued.
“You removed my seat.”
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
“You publicly suggested I didn’t belong with my own husband.”
“Rachel—”
“You encouraged another woman to take my place beside him.”
Caroline immediately stepped back from Daniel.
Her expression changed.
For the first time all night, she looked embarrassed.
Then I said the last part.
“And when I refused to disappear quietly, you called military police and accused me of being a security problem.”
The staff sergeant shifted beside us.
Victoria looked at Daniel.
“Say something.”
May you like
Daniel opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
