Sudden Recall, page 17
Soon, Lord. Please.
It was becoming more natural to speak with God the more Parker did it.
“We need her debriefed.”
Parker turned.
“This is a matter of national security, and no one is going to get in the way of our nailing down exactly what happened the past few days.” Barnes folded his arms. “Especially with regards to Karen Miller’s involvement in this matter.”
“You don’t want to just ask me where the flash drives are?”
“You know about those?”
Parker rolled his eyes. “I exchanged them for two fakes.”
“You did what?” Barnes went pale. “Who has them?” He lifted the clear plastic bag Sienna had put them in. “And what are these?”
“Those are the CIA’s fakes they had made up to trick Thomas Loughton and Amand Timenez two years ago.” He flicked his finger toward them. “Karen…you said her last name was Miller? She has the real ones.”
Barnes turned to the man next to him. “Find her.”
The agent scurried off to one of their vehicles.
“What else?”
Parker walked the man through what he knew. Karen’s plan for the past year, what she’d told Sienna. Everything that had happened since that night on the highway. All of it up until this moment.
CIA agent Barnes strode away, pulling out his phone as he walked.
Ames walked up beside Parker. “Nice guy.”
Parker felt one corner of his lips pull up. “Sure was.”
But Parker didn’t want Barnes to commandeer Sienna for the time being. Even with her in the hospital, there would still be endless questioning by the CIA and local police until this was all ironed out. Eventually she would be free to take a break and—hopefully—they could talk some before she went back to work.
Jonah strode over. “Hailey, Wyatt and I have to get back to the station.” He clapped Parker on the shoulder. “We can’t all be on vacation like you.”
Parker laughed. “Yep, the past few days sure felt like a holiday break.”
Ames grinned. “You realize that hauling-yourself-up-the-drainpipe maneuver is going to go down in history. Not to mention your little speech on the phone.” Ames switched his voice to a high pitch. “I love you, Sienna. I always will.”
Parker swung his arm to cuff Ames around the neck but slow enough the man could duck. He did, even though he knew Parker wasn’t trying to hit him.
He glanced at Sienna.
Jonah said, “Boy, I remember that feeling.”
“Huh?” Parker turned to him.
“Being in love. Those days when it’s all fresh and new.”
Parker couldn’t help smiling in Sienna’s direction. “Yeah.”
“Understandable.” Ames looked at the two friends. “Perfectly understandable. It’s actually good to know that Mr. Tough Guy has a heart and not just the cold hard rock we all thought was there. I mean, you have to admit you were pretty bitter. But none of us knew why or who did you wrong.” He grinned. “Guess now you’re all fixed up.” Ames clapped his hands together. “Who’s next?”
Jonah clapped Ames on the shoulder. “You’re the only one left.”
Parker figured they were getting a little ahead of themselves, considering Sienna hadn’t even told him she felt the same way or acknowledged the fact he’d forgiven her for leaving him in Atlanta. He understood it now, but he needed to come to an agreement with her that they had some kind of relationship they could either settle into or start working on.
But Ames and Jonah were right. He’d told the truth on the phone. He did love her.
*
“If you know anything of her location now, if she said anything about what she had planned or where she was going, we need to know.”
Sienna gave more of her weight to the EMT, and the woman braced but held her up. “If I knew, I would tell you.”
The CIA agent—Barnes—said, “You lived with the woman for a year.”
“She was in a wheelchair.” Out of the corner of her eye, Sienna caught Nina fighting a grin. “And I had amnesia. I wasn’t exactly looking for inconsistencies in her story.”
“You had amnesia?” The EMT shifted to feel around Sienna’s head. “Did you hit your head today?”
“No. My head is actually fine.”
“We’ll keep an eye on it, anyway.”
Sienna said, “Great. Let’s head out. Nina?”
Her friend laughed. “Only you could be funny when we’re in this much pain.”
The pain was considerable, but Sienna had a lifetime of practice putting off what she wanted in order to get something done. A lifetime of meeting other people’s goals, their expectations, their qualifications for success. Nina was the one exception, never demanding anything of Sienna other than what she demanded of herself. They’d pushed each other to succeed and picked each other up when they failed.
And now there was Parker. He’d wanted her future, and she hadn’t been ready to give it up. But the reality was that in order to say yes to him, she only had to give up other people’s expectations for her and exchange them for the life she wanted for herself. The secret dreams she’d always had.
“You can come with us,” the CIA agent said. “We’ll get you to one of our hospitals where you’ll be treated properly.”
The EMT jerked straight. “Say what?”
“We’re already going to the hospital.” Was the man slow or just so determined he couldn’t see straight? “I’ve told you everything I know. Give me your card in case I think of anything else, and I’ll be able to call you. Isn’t that how it works?”
“Not in the CIA.”
“Then I’ll just call you when I’m recovered. Thanks and goodbye.”
“You aren’t going anywhere without an official escort.” He waved at one of his friends. “In the ambulance, please.”
The man nodded and climbed in.
Parker strode over, his anger directed at the CIA agent. “I’ve told you that you can do this later.”
“There is a debrief procedure in place for a reason. No one simply walks away from the CIA. We’ve been watching you for two years. We have to know why this happened now. Who else do you think is going to clean up the mess you’ve all made?”
Sienna rolled her eyes.
The agent turned to Parker. “As for you, you can fully expect charges to be brought against you for turning sensitive information relating to national security over to an unknown.”
“Karen? Seriously?” Parker scoffed. “If you’ve been watching, where were you? Why didn’t you step in and help?”
“The CIA doesn’t operate on national soil. This should have been kept quiet and dealt with in-house, but we’re required to amend protocol in real time.”
“Which is an official way of saying you sat around doing nothing, didn’t help, let four people die and swept in afterward to do the cleanup on your mess. All so you could save face in front of whoever you report to.”
Parker shook his head and turned to the ambulance. “Make some room. I’m coming, too.”
The EMT shook her head. “No more. We’re full.”
Sienna opened her mouth to object, and the EMT stuck her with a needle. She coughed. “Ouch.”
“I think you forgot you’re scared of needles.”
Sienna said, “Now that you said that, I am!”
The EMT shook her head and tsked. “And to think I was impressed. Now I find out you’re a baby about needles.”
Sienna gasped. “I am not…”
The woman patted her on the head. “Lie down and rest, dear.”
Nina looked in stitches trying not to laugh aloud. Sienna shot her a look. Parker stood at the open door and she reached out to him. “Save me. They’re all crazy.”
He smiled. “Anytime. Any place. I’m there.”
“Aw.”
Sienna glared at the EMT. It was hard, because the room was starting to spin. “He told me he loves me.”
The EMT chuckled. “I have no doubt.”
Sienna looked back at Parker. “I don’t want to be a CIA agent anymore.”
“I don’t want to have this conversation when you need to sleep.”
She frowned. “You don’t?”
“Rest,” he said. “We’ll talk later, okay?”
“You’re not mad?”
Parker shook his head. “Why would I be mad?”
“I love you, too.”
He smiled. It was very handsome.
“Thank you.”
Sienna said, “You’re welcome,” even though she didn’t really know what for. Everything was getting fuzzy. She really did need to sleep. Maybe for a week.
*
“Parker!”
He grabbed the ambulance door before it closed and found Nina behind the EMT.
“Thank you,” Nina repeated her friend’s words.
“For what?”
She shook her head. “Coming to get me. For saving her. For loving her. For getting her to admit that she loves you… Do you want me to continue, or is that enough?”
“That’ll do it.” He grinned. “And you’re welcome.”
“Are you coming to the hospital?”
He nodded. “I’ll be right behind you guys. If Sienna wakes up, tell her I’ll be right there.”
Nina nodded. She glanced at the CIA agent with a tinge of worry in her eyes.
Parker didn’t blame her; faced with people she wasn’t familiar with when she’d recently been kidnapped and almost had her finger cut off, he’d feel the same. If Sienna’s friend needed a little reassurance, he was okay with it.
“I’ll be right there.”
The door shut, and Nina left with Sienna and a CIA agent.
“Need a ride to the hospital?”
Parker turned to Ames. He thought he was coming, too? “Taking the rest of the day off?”
“I was thinking more like the weekend.”
Parker held out his hand for the keys. “This time I’m driving.”
TWENTY
When Parker arrived at the hospital, he’d discovered Sienna was never admitted. It took him six hours to track down the EMT, who told him the CIA had stopped them halfway there and escorted both Sienna and Nina into their custody—and their car. The EMT had called for police backup, but the CIA had been gone with the two women before the cops got there.
That was three weeks ago.
Parker had called in every favor and pulled every string he had to pull from Oregon to the Naval Air Station in Oceana but he’d found no trace of Sienna or Nina. They’d disappeared off the face of the planet.
Parker had gone from shock to anger to prayer to hope to a waning desperation. Now all he had was numb cold, a feeling that had him sitting in his truck outside the house where Sienna had lived with “Aunt Karen” for a whole year before he’d even spoken one word to her.
A year of wasting time, wondering what she was doing. What she was thinking.
Lord, where is she?
His team had tried to help or to commiserate with him on the outcome just in case she never came back. But what had kept Parker going was navigating his new faith. Asking questions and searching out the answers. It hadn’t brought Sienna home yet, but it had given him some semblance of peace to be able to rest in the Lord.
A shadow moved behind the curtain.
Parker cracked the door on his truck and strode over. He tried the front door. When he found it unlocked, he went inside.
The furniture was still there, as were the belongings he’d assumed were supplies more than personal. The CIA—or maybe just Karen—had outfitted the cover with enough so that Sienna would believe it, or at least not ask too many questions.
He stood in the foyer and listened.
A rustle.
Parker pulled his weapon and strode down the hall. Sienna’s bedroom door was cracked, but whoever was in there didn’t want a light on for their business—just the ambient evening light from outside.
He eased the door open. “US Marshals. Stop what you are doing and…”
It was Sienna.
Parker choked on his words. She was there. Black slacks and a light blue blouse, her long hair falling in yellow waves around her face. Her left arm was in a sling, and in her other hand she had a folded shirt. An open suitcase lay on the bed.
“Going somewhere?”
“Put your gun away and I’ll tell you.”
Parker stowed it in the holster on his belt.
“I’m packing up.”
“Were you planning on saying goodbye?”
She hadn’t moved much, those telltale signs he saw all the time in witnesses and people with something to hide. She was good enough Parker couldn’t read her at all.
“I hadn’t decided yet.” She turned and flipped the lid closed on the suitcase before she slumped down beside it. Parker could see signs of fatigue in the lines on her face. “I just…” She sighed, her eyes downcast. “I hadn’t decided yet,” she repeated.
He wanted to ask her why she was hesitating, why she now doubted what he’d said to her. It was still true. As far as Parker was concerned, nothing had changed from that accident site three weeks ago.
Unless something was different for her.
Parker walked over and crouched in front of her. His knee popped and they shared a smile. He surveyed the sling on her arm and the edges of the white bandage he could see on her shoulder. “How are you?”
“The surgery was more extensive than they thought. It’ll be a while before I can use my arm like normal again.”
“Physical therapy?”
She nodded.
He’d had enough injuries to know that had to seriously hurt. She was probably battling the pain every day.
“Sienna?”
“Yeah?”
“I still love you.”
Her eyes flared. It was the only consideration she gave to any kind of reaction. “I still love you, too.”
“That’s a good place to start, don’t you think?”
“Start what?” She glanced around the room. “I’m not who you think I am—I never was. The CIA agent in me has acted without remorse for the good of the mission. I don’t want to be her now, but she is part of me. That Sienna, the one they want to come back, will always be inside me.”
“You think I haven’t done things I later regretted in the heat of battle? I have plenty of things I’d like to take back, including not coming after you when you didn’t show up in Atlanta. I shouldn’t have let you go. I should have found you and convinced you that we work.”
“I was there. I had to see you, but I also knew I had to let you go.”
“That was then,” Parker said. “This is now. A new day. A new life.”
“Do you believe that?”
“I do.” He scanned her face and saw the worry there. The concern. Did she think this wasn’t going to work? Sienna hadn’t had much of a family life, but she couldn’t deny that when they were together it had been right. Parker wasn’t going to risk their future this time. He was going to do everything in his power to make it so.
For both their sakes.
*
Sienna had spent the past three weeks—minus surgery—talking through every single mission of her entire career. Every victory, every failure. Then on to every interaction with Karen and finally what happened between Parker pulling up behind her to the car accident with Loughton.
Karen had been located by a joint task force that included the NSA and the FBI and brought in. She was currently being detained on charges of espionage. The CIA—or whoever won that fight—had the flash drives. Nina had been stitched up and was back at the condo, considering a move to this side of the country. Sienna couldn’t wait to see her friend full-time again.
If she didn’t have to tell another story for a year, it would be fine with her.
“I want a normal life now.”
Crouched in front of her, Parker looked so…accepting. Something that had been in short supply in a life where Sienna had to prove herself over and over again. Where she’d had to fight for everything. Friendship. Respect. Parker was offering her everything she had ever wanted with no work whatsoever.
He smiled. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“No more CIA.”
“If that’s what you want to do.”
What did she want to do? She’d enjoyed taking care of animals. Tending to her small farm. But was it a life plan?
Sienna glanced around the room. “Do you know why I picked this house when Karen and I moved here?”
Parker shook his head.
“I was searching online. Karen told me we’d sold our old house, and I knew where I wanted to live. The town seemed so familiar, even just looking at maps. Now I know that’s because you told me so much about it, and the way you talked it was obvious you love it here.”
She paused long enough for him to nod. “I know why. I picked this place for the same reason. It’s home—exactly the type of place I could see myself spending years. Waking up, drinking my coffee on the back deck. Watching kids play on the swings. There aren’t any now, but I would put some in…”
Parker laid his hand on hers. “Who owns the house now?”
She’d paid in full three weeks after she woke up from the coma. “I do.”
He looked around, much like she had done. “It’s a great house on a great piece of land. Definitely one I could see raising a family in.” He paused. “So long as I married the right woman first.” His mouth curled into a grin.
Sienna couldn’t help but return it. “Who might that be?”
Parker reached in his coat pocket and pulled out a ring. “I bought this before we were supposed to meet up in Atlanta.”
Sienna gasped and put her hand over her mouth.
“Not that I would have asked you to marry me at the airport, but I don’t think it would have been long after. I knew, even back then.”
“So did I,” Sienna admitted. “I just lost my way in the days we were separated. I started to believe Karen when I shouldn’t have listened. I should have followed my heart.” Her breath was coming in sharp gasps now.
Parker sat on the bed beside her and drew her into his arms. Sienna rested there, more at peace than she’d ever been in her life.
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