Evidence of Passion (Shadow Agents 7)

He fumbled and opened the door. Mercer wasn’t at his desk. He was staring out the window. His hands were behind his back. His shoulders bowed.

“Shut the door,” Mercer ordered without looking back.

Dylan shut the door.

Mercer exhaled. “I’m going to ask you a few questions, son, and I need you to reply honestly, you understand?”

“Yes.” No.

“What’s the most important thing in your life?”

Rachel. He cleared his throat, pushed back his shoulders and said, “The EOD.”

Mercer looked back at him. “I don’t know if you heard me, but I said you needed to reply honestly. The door’s shut, and this conversation will never leave this room.” Mercer arched a brow. “So let’s cut the bull and try that one again. Agent Foxx, what is the most important thing in your life?”

“Rachel.” Her name was torn from him.

Mercer nodded. “Better. Much better.” He studied Dylan in silence for a time, then said, “But if she matters so much, then why did you push her away?”

“I’m protecting her.”

“She’s a marine. The woman can protect herself.”

Dylan took a step toward his boss. “The rogue stabbed her just a few months ago. She got a concussion in Jack’s blast. She’s not ready to be in the field. Your own doctors said—”

“No one but you said she needed to be shipped down to Atlanta. That was totally your call as the team leader.” Mercer’s shoulders sagged a bit. “Don’t think I don’t get where you’re coming from. You care about someone, and you want to keep her safe. But Rachel Mancini isn’t the type of woman who will tolerate being locked up.”

He wasn’t locking her up. He was just trying to get her out of Jack’s path. Because Jack would come gunning for Dylan again. He knew it. Rachel couldn’t get caught between them.

“You think I haven’t been there?” Mercer asked, surprising Dylan. “You think I don’t know what it’s like to care and to want to do anything and everything in your power to protect those closest to you?” Mercer’s hands dropped to his sides. “We want to control everything, but sometimes we just can’t.”

He didn’t want to control Rachel. He wanted to keep her alive.

“She’s been on dozens of missions with you. You never hesitated with her before,” Mercer charged.

This was different.

“Why?” his boss pressed. “Why the change now?”

Because he’d crossed a line with her. There was no way he could just look at Rachel as an operative any longer. “I put a target on my back. We both know it. I don’t want Rachel getting hurt because of me.”

“You mean...because of your desire to take down Jack.”

Mercer always saw too much.

“I haven’t forgotten about Shannon,” Mercer said. “I remember all too well. You walked through that door—” he nodded toward said door “—and demanded to be lead on the investigation. Your eyes burned with fury, but your voice shook with pain.” His lips twisted. “You’ve changed a lot in the years since then, but that fury—it’s still in your eyes any time you talk about Jack. Fury like that can make a man reckless. Are you reckless, Foxx?”

“No.”

“Maybe you’re lying to yourself now.”

He didn’t understand the point of this meeting. “Look, Mercer, the heart-to-heart is not really working so much, and I need to get Rachel home—”

“No, you don’t.”

Something about Mercer’s tone put Dylan on edge.

“Actually, she’s not your concern at all any longer.”