Chapter 2: The Man in the Photograph
“Colonel,” the soldier said, “the extraction team is ready.”
Victoria’s face drained of color.
“Colonel?
Her?”
I returned the salute, though my hand trembled when the baby moved again.
Raymond stepped forward.
“You can’t block my driveway.
Move those vehicles before I call someone.”
The soldier looked at him.
“Sir, step away from the colonel.”
Harrison lowered his newspaper.
“What is going on?
She files paperwork.”
“That was her cover,” another voice said.
A decorated officer emerged from the second vehicle carrying a sealed black folder.
Eleanor gripped the doorframe as he approached me.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t arrive sooner,” he said.
“But there’s been a security breach involving Major Marcus’s final mission.”
My breath caught.
“What kind of breach?”
His eyes shifted toward my family.
“Someone accessed the protected files last night using an address registered to this house.”
Everyone went silent.
Then Raymond’s car keys slipped from his fingers and struck the concrete.
Victoria stared at him.
“Raymond…
why do you look frightened?”
“I don’t,” he snapped.
“This is ridiculous.”
The officer opened the folder, removed a photograph, and held it where only I could see it.
My knees nearly gave way.
The image showed Raymond meeting a man I recognized from Marcus’s classified case—and the date printed beneath it was the night before Marcus disappeared.
Raymond suddenly lunged for the photograph.
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What did Raymond have to do with Marcus’s final mission—and why had he been so desperate to take over my bedroom?
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