She sighed. They were almost at the hotel. She knew how it would go. A photo of an envelope wasn’t going to change his mind. Whatever happened in the past, it wasn’t about to be undone by a piece of mail.

Unless Roth had something very big up his sleeve, the only way they were going to get him back was if she did something.

They got to the hotel and Roth was waiting in the room. He’d set up some signal blocking measures, standard things, nothing out of the ordinary.

“I see you’re ready to talk business,” Lance said as Roth shut the curtains.

Laurel turned on the bedside lamps for extra light. They gave the room a sense of intimacy.

“Coffee?” Roth said.

They shook their heads.

“Right down to business then,” Roth said.

No one objected and he began looking in his briefcase.

“Before we start,” Lance said, “I think you should know, Levi, that nothing’s changed for me.”

“In what sense?” Roth said.

“Since I left.”

Roth nodded. “All right, Lance. I hear you. I didn’t expect you to forget what went down.”

“And I haven’t.”

“But time heals all wounds,” Roth said.

“Not this wound.”

Roth nodded again, like he was hearing Lance’s objection, but continued rooting in the briefcase all the same. When he found the file he pulled it out and held it on his lap.

“What I’m saying,” Lance said, “is I don’t see that we have a whole lot to talk about. What you did, there’s no forgiving that. And there’s no forgetting.”

“Why don’t you hear me out,” Roth said.

“Why bother? I can see how thin that file is. We both know there’s nothing in it that will change anything.”

Roth was agitated. He knew that was true. Laurel could see he had no ace up his sleeve. Just the envelope.

“Will you at least hear us out?” he said.

“As long as you don’t tell me anything classified,” Lance said. “If you’ve got any state secrets in there, things that will create complications if I’m told about them, I’d rather not know.”

“When have you ever been to a meeting like this and not exchanged sensitive information?”

“Come on, Levi. We both know this is a charade. You’re not going to change my mind, and even if you did, you know as well as I do you don’t want me back.”

“Lance,” Roth said. “Can’t we just talk?”

Laurel could see it play out. Any minute, Roth would lose his patience and blow it. He and Lance had too much history. She was going to lose Lance before they’d even told him why they were there, and she was damned if she’d waited two years for that to happen.

She got up and took the file from Roth and pulled out the photo.