She went on her toes and kissed him. “I know, but I think this one is going to work out. I’ve got a good feeling about it. So if you want to…you know…ask me anything, I’ll probably say yes.” She winked his way. “Or maybe not. I don’t know. Sylvester told me he thought I was pretty. I might want to go younger.”
She made him smile. “Don’t you even think about it.” He tugged on her hand. “I think I need to show you what I can bring to this relationship.”
He drew her close and kissed her, ready to begin the evening early.
* * * *
Drake Radcliffe turned into the gravel parking lot, the neon light of the bar illuminating the pitch black all around. It got incredibly dark here in Wyoming.
“I just want to make sure you’re back in DC in time for the party.” His mother’s voice came over the speakers of his rented SUV. “Your father is only going to turn seventy once, you know.”
“I promise I’ll be there. This trip I’m on right now won’t take long,” he replied, putting the SUV in park in the second row of the makeshift lot. There were no neatly marked off rows to show the patrons where to park, so it was a bit haphazard, and that played hell on his desperate need for organization. He parked away from the other vehicles, in a place where a person would have to be drunk to hit him.
Of course he was in front of a bar, so there was that.
“They’re working you too hard.” There was a motherly tsk to her tone. “I don’t understand why an analyst has to travel so much. If I’d known how much time you would spend away from home, I never would have let you take that Defense Department job.”
On paper, Drake Radcliffe worked for the Department of Defense as a midlevel analyst. Of course he wouldn’t travel so much, but his mother didn’t know that despite the fact that she’d worked for the government for most of her adult life, first as a young congresswoman and later serving in the Senate.
Yet the woman still didn’t know that two of her children had been CIA operatives.
“All right, sweetheart. I’ll let you go. I don’t suppose there’s been any news,” she said without much hope in her voice.
Oh, there was so much fucking news, but none he would tell his mother. “No. I’m sorry.”
A sniffle came over the line. “I know she’s gone, but not having a body…well, it’s killing me. I had such high hopes when I hired that firm.”
Miles-Dean, Weston, and Murdoch hadn’t been able to find anything because the Agency had cleaned the world that day.
Julia Ennis was missing, and it was presumed she’d been killed. At the time, he’d thought Julia’s death was the worst secret he would have to keep from his mother.
If only that had been true.
“Well, I’ll see you when you get home. I love you, honey,” his mom said.
“Love you, too.” He was a thirty-one-year-old man, and keeping secrets was his life.
So was lying. He lied to everyone, especially his family.
The line went dead, and Drake eased out of the SUV and made his way across the lot, gravel crunching beneath his feet. The whole place was practically rocking, thudding with raucous country music being played inside. He pushed through the doors and realized exactly how out of place he was.
Every person in the building had on boots and jeans and hats. Including the proprietor, who looked up from her seat at the bar and flashed him a smile that damn near made his heart melt.
Sandra Croft.
She could be his grandmother but once she’d been his lover. His first lover, and there was still such a soft spot in his heart for her. One of the only soft spots he had left.
“Drake.” She approached him with open arms.
He hugged her tight. “How are you? I heard the wedding was lovely. I’m sorry I missed it.”
She grinned up at him. “Never thought I would get hitched again, but she’s my soul mate. I’ll show you some pictures when we have a chance to catch up. The grandkids all look adorable.”
He would bet they had. Sandra had made a wonderful life for herself out here in Wyoming. “I would love to see them, and thank you so much for helping me out. I know I didn’t have a right to ask you…”
“You hush,” Sandra replied with a shake of her head. “I will always help you and I will always help Tag. But you should know you owe me. The kid’s annoying. I put him in the back washing dishes so he didn’t keep getting into fights with my customers.”
“I’m sorry about that.” Drake looked around and saw no sign of either of the people he’d come out here to pick up. “Is she here?”