“So, there were never any rumors circulating that Ana’s parents stole the Daylight Ledger?” A.J. asked, hoping for confirmation, another nail in Porter’s coffin.
“None that they were aware of, and I doubt they would have made it out of Budapest alive after your sixteenth birthday if so, no?” Anthony looked at Ana and held both palms open as if everything were so perfectly clear.
“Why’d they tell you all of this?” Ana asked. “I know you were friends, but—”
“They had concerns that if something happened to them, you would be in danger. They wanted to make sure I could protect you, but I see the FBI hid you away.” Anthony reached across the aisle. “You look so much like your mother. She would be proud of the woman you have become.”
Ana flinched at his touch for a brief moment, then her body relaxed, and she reached out for him, allowing him to hold her wrist. Anthony’s hand stopped trembling once he held on to Ana. “I just don’t quite understand how they were going to break away from the Volkovs if the forged copy was meant as a mere distraction, and the originals were meant to go back to Adrik.”
“Your father was a smart man.” Anthony smiled and set his hands back in his lap. “He used the key to decode the ledger, and then he made a translated copy of the entire thing himself. He no longer needed the key or the ledger, you see. Whatever his plan was for exiting the Volkov organization must have hinged on that translated copy.”
“What?” Her eyelashes fluttered in surprise. “So, what were they going to use it for? Why were my parents killed outside the movie theater? How did the SVR know they had the ledger yet the Volkovs didn’t? Something doesn’t add up.”
“Porter knew her parents had the ledger, didn’t he?” A.J. interjected. “He told you about the rumors, but if he made them up . . .” A.J. prompted, and Ana’s forehead tightened when she understood what A.J. was getting at.
“Ohhh.” Ana banded her forearm over her stomach. “Oh my God.” She began rocking on the couch ever so slightly. “Porter and Winters knew my parents had the Daylight Ledger because they’re FBI, and my parents were going to turn themselves in. Offer the ledger in exchange for immunity. But my parents wanted the Volkovs to retain possession of the original ledger and key to prevent the SVR from killing the Volkov spies living in the U.S. before the Feds rounded them up and made their arrests.” She took quick breaths, and A.J.’s pulse raced as he watched Ana come to terms with the fact her parents had been trying to do the right thing. “Only, at the time, neither Porter nor Winters knew the copy at our house was a forgery.”
Damn. This was another theory they’d never considered. A.J.’s head was spinning, and he doubted his now third bump on the head was the cause.
“Winters was in New York, and he had to maintain his distance, so that’s how Porter came into play,” Harper said, putting it all together. “Maybe even that other agent who took the shots that killed your parents was in on it, too.”
“Only Porter didn’t know your dad had a translated copy, or that the originals were already hidden in Budapest. He was just told to make sure your parents didn’t walk away from that theater alive,” A.J. speculated, adding his thoughts on the matter.
Ana covered her face with both palms, and A.J. wanted nothing more than to wrap her in his arms.
“I assume that’s why Director Mendez actually signed off on hiring you six years ago. He must have known your parents had been on the FBI’s side back then,” Harper said, “but since the immunity deal was never officially signed, and maintaining your safety was probably deemed more important, the media never got wind of the truth.”
“This makes the most sense to me,” Roman said, joining the conversation. “No one on the FBI task force who made the deal with your parents could have been at the movie theater that night—”
“They wouldn’t have been able to explain how my parents ended up getting shot and killed,” Ana continued Roman’s theory. “And while Porter made sure my parents were killed, a team was dispatched to my house to search for the ledger and key.”
“And when the Volkovs emerged five months ago, claiming they had the ledger, Winters