“I asked for forgiveness for taking the lives, but I also know that the Lord understood the circumstances—that we were all fighting for our lives. I thought about those men and their families—who were probably completely innocent—and I cried for them and prayed for them. Experiences like this will test anyone. I wanted the analyst job so that I wouldn’t have to make those life-and-death decisions, but here I am, making them anyway and trying to deal with the fallout the best way I can. And the only way I know how to handle it is to ask for God’s help. I couldn’t do it alone.”

Maybe she had a point. “Thanks for that. Hearing your perspective on things helps me.”

“Don’t expect to process this overnight. You will need time. I know I did.”

He nodded. “We need to figure out our next steps.”

“I can’t believe Ace and Dax are dead.” She sniffed.

He knew she was not only in great pain, but also holding back her emotions over what had gone down. “I’m sorry. There was nothing I could do to save them.”

“It’s not your fault. I didn’t mean it like that. I just hate feeling like I’m responsible. They were there to protect me.”

He glanced at her. “They knew the dangers when they signed up to be Agency security. We have to figure out how the Agency safe house got compromised.”

“I know. I don’t really want to believe that anyone on the inside would sell me out, but given the progression of events, I don’t think we can turn a blind eye to that possibility.”

“If that’s true, though, maybe we shouldn’t accept whatever they provide you next.”

“You’re forgetting that they still want to keep me under surveillance.”

“Let them clean up the mess that just happened and see whether they want to put another security team in the line of fire.”

“I don’t want to put another team there, but I don’t think I’m going to have much choice in the matter.”

Hunter was uncomfortable with this entire setup. Something seemed incredibly wrong to him, but he couldn’t figure out where the greatest threat was coming from, and that was essential to being able to keep Layla safe.

When her cell phone rang, it startled him, but he tried to play it cool.

“Yes,” she answered, putting it on speaker.

“I’m getting reports from our people at the safe house now,” Frank said. “What in the world happened? It’s a complete bloodbath.”

“We were ambushed,” Hunter said. “We’re fortunate to be alive. Those men were professionals and were not messing around.”

“That’s evident from the two dead bodies of my men,” Frank shot back.

“With all due respect,” Hunter said, “your men were doing their jobs, and their brave actions saved our lives.”