even knew were there, but he wasn’t always right. He was sending her home where she was presumably safe, but what about Jessie Mercado and him? They could still both be in danger. They had started this mission together, and they should finish it together. But now he was arbitrarily putting it on hold and sending her off to pretend she was working with Griffin and the FBI again?
No way. He might have been able to ban her from Afghanistan, but he had no control of her once she was back on U.S. soil. She worked with the FBI only at her own discretion, not Lynch’s. She’d go back to teaching her students until she decided what she wanted to do next.
The phone was ringing.
A text.
DON’T THINK I’VE FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE RED UNDERWEAR. IT’S STILL INTRIGUING ME. BUT I’LL LET YOU EXPLAIN THAT THE NEXT TIME I SEE YOU. CONTACTED GRIFFIN. HE’LL BE WAITING EAGERLY FOR YOU THE MINUTE THAT C-130 LANDS.
LYNCH
Damn him!
* * *
Naval Air Station
North Island
Coronado, California
The first person Kendra saw when she climbed down the steps of the C-130 was FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Griffin, who was standing beside a black SUV several yards from the aircraft.
“Hello, Kendra. You don’t look too happy. I wonder why.” He smiled sourly as he took her elbow and nudged her toward the SUV. “Could it be that you’ve gotten your fill of Adam Lynch this time? Join the club. Now you know how I feel when I have to deal with him.”
“But I notice that you still come when he calls you. You’re a busy man. There’s no way you have time to show up yourself to pick me up.” She looked at the troops being processed out of the transport plane. “Nor go through all the hassle of dealing with the military and the Justice Department to slip me out of here with no problem when my documents are, shall we say, questionable.”
“Lynch has been pulling in favors since you left Afghanistan to make you fade into the landscape as soon as you hit the tarmac.” His lips twisted. “I’m just one of the primary pieces in the main puzzle. He had to offer me a mega-favor to get me to take you under my wing.”
“Well, I won’t bother you for very long,” she said coolly as she stopped in front of the SUV. “You can drop me off at my condo and I’ll handle my own repatriation from here on. But by all means take advantage of whatever favor he offered you. Stick it to him. He deserves it.”
Griffin looked at her in surprise and then chuckled. “He really did piss you off,” he said as he opened the car door for her. “Would you care to elaborate?”
“Isn’t getting me thrown out of Afghanistan enough? He thinks he owns the world. Let him pay for it.” She climbed into the car. “Just get me off this base and let me go back to running my own life. Your work is officially done.”
“Well, not exactly,” Griffin said. “Lynch always strikes a hard bargain. In order to get my particular payoff, I have to produce results that will make him content.” He gestured to the bustling military hubbub going on around them. “This was only the beginning.”
She tensed. “What are you talking about?”
“It appears that he’s apprehensive about your well-being and wants me to take the heat off you until he can do it himself. I believe you discussed it?”
“He discussed it. I didn’t agree to anything.” She gazed directly into his eyes. “Drop me off at my condo.”
“You’re being very difficult.” He sighed. “I can assign you surveillance but apparently that won’t be enough. Lynch wants to make sure that whatever you did in Afghanistan won’t be traced back to you.” His brows rose as he asked curiously, “What did you do?”
“Nothing that should have put me in this position. I’m surprised Lynch didn’t share it with you since you seem to be such friends.”
“You shouldn’t be. Lynch doesn’t share anything with anyone, except maybe you. He told me what he needed and that you probably wouldn’t want to give it to him. He told me to get it for him.” He grimaced. “He made me feel like a pimp. I reminded him that I was head of this office and I’d do what I damn well pleased.”
“Yet here you are.”
He shrugged. “He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. So my team spent the last eighteen