to be dirty. I handpicked them,” he said with disgust.
“Don’t blame yourself. We’ve all been duped. Betrayed.” And Kyle most likely felt betrayed by her, too. Her secret life. “It couldn’t have been easy when you found out about my parents.” She had to apologize at some point. “I’m sorry I never told you.”
“I knew before the news broke the story.” His gaze lifted, and the lamppost nearby threw a shadow across his face when he advanced a step closer. “I found out four months ago, actually.”
Four months? “That’s when you stopped calling,” she whispered in understanding. He’d been phoning her while on assignment with the hope of getting back together, and then the calls just stopped. She thought he’d given up, but oh wow, he’d found out the truth. But how?
He nodded as if reading her thoughts and letting her know that yes, whatever she was thinking was true. “As I’m sure you know now, Mendez tasked me to be the eyes and ears at the attaché here, worried that corruption within the task force could easily happen, given the Feds had permission from the Hungarians to take down Russian organized crime.”
“And he told you about me?” Mendez knew her history from what A.J.’s team had told her.
“I stumbled upon some old photos while looking into the Volkovs once they were rumored to have re-emerged. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a sixteen-year-old version of you standing in the Buda Labyrinths with two notorious Volkov spies who died fifteen years ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you found out?” Her arm went tight to her abdomen, her forearm applying pressure to cope with the moment.
“I went to Mendez with my concerns about you and was shocked to discover he already knew and, in fact, signed off on your hire.” He hissed a low breath. “He wouldn’t give me the details. He said what happened to your parents was classified. And he forbade me from telling anyone, including you, that I knew your real identity.”
She turned back toward the sea of officers and agents in the distance. “Is he the one that asked you to come to Headquarters when you heard about the hit against Katya?”
“Yes.” Kyle’s hand came down on her shoulder, urging her to face him.
“It was you in Porter’s house Monday night,” she said at the realization. The unnaturally colored contacts. The deep voice. It hadn’t been Winters. The frame was too lean. “Why were you there?” She forced herself back around.
He brought a hand to his bearded jaw. “I had concerns Porter might have been dirty. And when we got the call about him going MIA, I was worried he may have faked his own disappearance. I wanted to check out his house. I won’t get into what I knew, but—”
“You didn’t leak the surveillance footage, did you? Steal the contents of the safe?” She took two worried steps backward.
“Of course not, and I never expected to bump into you that night. I was upstairs completing my check of his house when I heard someone come in. I did see the safe behind the framed photo on the wall in his office, but I couldn’t access it without any tools, so I’d planned to come back before—”
“Before I surprised you.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you, but I wasn’t sure what to think once I realized it was you,” he explained. “I assume someone else was there before you and I showed up. I went to check the security footage, but it’d been wiped clean. Given the news leak, it clearly wasn’t you who deleted the surveillance.” His tone was a bit calmer now, though he had to be so angry with her.
“After seeing me there, and with what you knew, why’d you still believe I was innocent, that I wasn’t the mole?” She remembered learning Kyle had led the “not-guilty charge” against her.
He reached out and lightly squeezed her upper arm. “I can read you like a book, Anastasia. I may not have known your secrets while we were together. But you, a dirty agent? No.” He shook his head. “That I refused to believe.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
His lips tipped into a tight but forced smile. “We weren’t right for each other.” He released her arm and tossed a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m guessing that Navy man is right for you, though?”
“I, um.” She peered over to see A.J. stepping out of the back of the van, probably nervous to leave her