“No catch. Just a cautionary statement that you take my client’s cooperation into account. Agent Cole did not harm the sergeant, regardless of the text message exchange. That’s the bottom line.”

“But you would’ve liked to?” Detective Stewart asked Izzy.

“At the time I was angry, but I didn’t see him again after those texts, so there was no issue. I tried to focus on my work and not think about him.”

Detective Stewart leaned forward. “You did the right thing by bringing this fact forward. It seems the sergeant was an avid texter, but we have no way of knowing if we have a complete set of his messages. We’re going through them now.”

Izzy wondered if he was harassing other women via text as well. She also wondered if he had other shrines at his home. Why was he so focused on her? The thought gave her another chill. “Detective, I didn’t kill him.”

“I’m just gathering the evidence,” Detective Stewart said.

It wasn’t lost on Izzy that the detective hadn’t agreed with her statement but instead deflected.

“Do you need anything from us right now?” Piper asked.

“Besides access to those texts, no.”

“We’ll get those to you.” Piper stood.

Izzy was ready to get out of there. Once the two of them were outside, she turned to Piper. “I sure hope we did the right thing.”

“I know you’re nervous, but we couldn’t risk it coming out and making you look guilty for hiding it from the police.”

Izzy knew Piper was right, but she felt like she had just dug her hole even deeper with Detective Stewart.

At Langley, Layla braced herself for a big pushback from CIA security over Hunter’s presence, but surprisingly, they hadn’t given her any grief.

The man who sat beside her now wasn’t the Hunter she was familiar with. He wore a dark navy suit and tie. He’d even brought a legal briefcase. They were at a small conference room table, waiting for the IG team to arrive.

She’d had a hard time sleeping last night after Hunter had told her the truth about their past. Everything she thought she knew about how their relationship ended had been a lie. But not one driven by Hunter—it had been the CIA’s doing, and she was having a hard time coming to grips with that. She wasn’t naïve. She knew the personal sacrifices that people made every single day to serve their country at the Agency, but she’d never expected it to become so personal to her. What bothered her most was that they had taken her choices away. The powers that be at Langley had unilaterally determined that they knew best how she should live her life.