for the rest of the year, so we are eternally in your debt.”
“ ‘Thanks’ works too,” Mateo said, rolling his eyes at him. I picked my coat up off the couch, gave it a shake, and followed Mateo out the door and into the hallway.
“So where is the shoot?” I asked, setting Brad down on the carpet and pulling on my coat.
“She just gave me the address,” he said, squinting down at his phone. “1000 Fifth Avenue.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Sounds swanky.”
Mateo smiled. “It’s a good thing I wore my fancy boots,” he said, zipping up his jacket. “Looks like we’re going to the Upper East Side.”
Meanwhile, back in Connecticut…
THEY’D BEEN DRIVING IN SILENCE for twenty minutes before the guy slowed the car down. Teri was sitting shotgun, Parker on her lap, Chris and Daryl in the backseat. When the man told them to get into the car, Chris pointed out that the rental didn’t have any of the car seats they’d need, but the man with the gun hadn’t seemed to care about that. He’d pointed with the gun once more, and she’d stopped telling him about children’s vehicular safety.
Teri held on to Parker tight as they drove. She stared out the window, wishing that someone would tell her what to do, feeling very strongly that twenty bucks an hour was not enough to make up for having to deal with this.
The man pulled the car off to the shoulder of I-95 and killed the engine. Teri’s heart pounded. What did this mean? “Look,” she said, already edging toward the door handle, glancing to the backseat. “We’ll just get out here, how ’bout that? And call an Uber, and we won’t mention this to anyone. Right?”
“Never,” Chris agreed.
“Mention what?” Daryl asked.
Parker shook her head emphatically.
“Oh no,” the guy said. His eyes went wide as he looked around the car, illuminated by the flickering roadside light above them. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to scare you kids. I just had to get you out of there for your own safety. I wasn’t sure if I was being followed. If I was, it would have been dangerous to leave you there. Let’s start over. I’m Damon Gilroy, but call me Gilroy. CIA.”
“CIA?” Chris echoed from the backseat, impressed.
“If you’re CIA, what were you doing in a trunk?” Daryl asked.
Parker raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“I can’t tell you everything.” Gilroy lowered his voice. Everyone in the car leaned closer. “But I’ve been deep undercover for the last year with the Bulgarian mob. Today—somehow—I was burned.”
Teri winced. “Where?”
Daryl scoffed. “It’s what it’s called when a spy’s cover is blown.”
“Impressive.” Gilroy gave a ghost of a smile, then his troubled expression returned. “I don’t know how they found out. But they drove me away, and I knew I was about to get…” He hesitated.
“Whacked?” Chris supplied.
Gilroy nodded, looking disconcerted. “Well—yes. I was trying to figure out my exit strategy the whole drive. When we stopped for gas, I knew it was my opportunity. I fought my way out of the car. I knew I needed to get away. To hide. There was a yellow rental car filling up. I saw my chance. I got into the trunk. And was trapped in there until you let me out.”
“So what now?” Teri asked. She hoped the answer was now you go home and never mention this to the Stones.
“I have to get my go bag.”
“Your what?” Teri asked.
“It’s what all spies have stashed somewhere,” Chris explained, her voice patient. “Money, passports, a change of clothes.”
“I’m impressed,” Gilroy said. “But yes. If I have even a chance of surviving, I have to get it and go to ground. Because if I was made… it means there might be a mole in the department. That I don’t know who I can trust.” Gilroy shook his head, laughing quietly to himself. “You know, it seems like the only people I can trust right now… are you four.”
“We can help,” Chris piped up. Teri shot her a look. “Isn’t it what our teachers are always telling us to do? Be helpful?”
“Well,” Teri started. She wasn’t sure Chris’s teachers actually meant things like help a spy start a new life in Mexico.
“I’m so sorry to ask this of you,” Gilroy said. “If I had any other choice…”
His words hung heavy in the car—the fear and desperation behind them.
“We can help,” Teri said, making a decision but still feeling uneasy. “We’ll drive with you to get your go bag, but it can’t be too late.