“I can tell you something of his that would most definitely fit,” the senator smiled greedily as she brought the wine glass to her lips, taking in the aroma of the drink for a moment while her imagination went back to what could’ve been.
“Seriously, Anna!” Mallory said, rolling her eyes at the never-ending ways her boss shocked her with what came out of her mouth.
For several beats the only sound came from the noise of other patrons, too far away to hear any part of the conversation between the two in the Mariner room.
“Well ladies,” Green said as he stepped inside the suddenly smaller space, a large smile on his lips as he broke the silence that had been hanging in the air. “Is everything good?”
The senator dropped her shoulders in a defeated manner. Mallory nearly sighed with relief as the senator made her decision. She could read it in the woman’s eyes — utter disappointment.
“Hendrick, I apologize, something’s come up and we have to cut the evening short. I’ll have Mallory drive you home and we’ll talk soon.”
The senator stood, walked over, and gave Green a quick hug. He went to give her a kiss on the cheek, but she stepped back before he could. The look of confusion his fake persona gave wasn’t met with a response of any kind, other than the senator stepping back to the couch.
“Let’s go,” Mallory said as she moved between Green and the senator. To the untrained individual it would’ve seemed as if she was turning in a natural way toward the exit, but Green knew it was a well-trained box out move to keep him from having any additional interaction with the senator. This lady was good.
He was impressed.
He was absolutely certain in that moment that Mallory wasn’t who she said she was. But his team was better than anyone she’d been trained with. They’d know all about her soon enough. For someone who’d sparked a brief interest in him earlier, she’d just become his main focus. He wanted to know more. He grabbed his phone without saying another word.
They walked in silence to the SUV parked around the corner from the wine bar, and Green wondered where Smoke was. He didn’t see the man anywhere, but he was well aware his friend and running partner was out there. He wondered what he was thinking about the change in plans. They climbed into the SUV and Hendrick quickly sent the audio to Brackish. He wanted to know what the two women had been talking about while he was out of the room.
The beginning of the ride from the interior of Seattle toward Green’s house started the same way it had earlier that evening. Mallory wanted to drive in utter silence. This time Green had a million questions he wanted to ask her. He waited though. If nothing else Green was a very patient man. There’d been times he’d remained still for countless hours, his eye on the scope of his gun, his breathing steady, and not a sound emanating from him. This drive was nothing.
Green watched Mallory as they drove and concluded she was either former military or she’d lived under a parent who was. He decided to test his hypothesis. He could slip his earpiece in and turn on his mic and include Brackish in this conversation, but he didn’t want to do that quite yet, unsure why.
He looked directly at her to see her reaction. “What branch were you in?” he calmly asked.
Mallory visibly jolted from whatever she’d been thinking about. “What?” she asked.
“What branch were you in?”
She didn’t answer, so he decided to give her a story and see if that opened her up.
“My brother was a Navy officer, and you act just like him,” Green said, making him laugh internally at how opposite that sentence was, as his own brother lived with his dad, both of them drunks who’d never done anything with their lives.
The stoic and hardened features of her face made an instant change.
“I was a Navy officer too,” she said eventually. She finally turned his way the slightest bit and gave him the semblance of a smile. Noticing her actions seemed to have thrown her off kilter, but she recovered quickly, and maybe, just maybe, he’d earned a little respect from her. That was soon to be determined.
“Thank you for your service, Mallory. I respect all who serve our country,” he said, seeing her soften.
She turned to look at him for a moment, a transformation in her energy obvious. He was starting to gain her trust, and he had no doubt he needed that in order to get close to the senator again. He shut down the pang of guilt he felt at the thought of using Mallory to get what he wanted. It was for the mission he assured himself, which could save a lot of lives. He wouldn’t be hurting Mallory by lying to her. She was just a small fish in a very large pond. She was also in the wrong place at the wrong time. He didn’t think she was involved with the senator’s profiteering, but he’d never know if he didn’t look into it. He had a feeling about her.
“Did you go to the military school in Washington D.C. or did you go to college first? My brother went via ROTC and has been in forever,” Green said, knowing that Annapolis, Maryland was the home of the Naval Academy, but it was good to continue to play the part of an uneducated simpleton.
A completely different woman sat before him. She was relaxed, calm, and easy to talk to. She responded to his question and started giving more than he asked for, “Yes, I went to the academy and served seven years after graduation. I met Senator Miller my last year in, and she promised me a job if I ever got out. Obviously, I took her up on the offer almost three years ago.”
A quick calculation led Green to suspect there was a gap between her serving seven years in the military and then the three years she’d been working with the senator. He didn’t want to open up that line of questioning quite yet. Instead, he kept going with the natural flow of the conversation.
“I’m impressed. I wish I would’ve been more focused in my youth. I don’t know if I would’ve been a good officer or not, but it definitely would’ve been good to try,” Green said as if he knew what it was like to not conquer every obstacle ever put in front of him. He was adapting to his inferior role far too easily. He didn’t like that at all. Could a person lose their brain function if they stopped using it? He’d better not find out.
“You’re in a great position now so past choices don’t have to define who you are. It’s good to move forward and know who you are, where you’re going, and what you’re becoming,” Mallory said, truth in her words. She was one of those people who saw the best in everyone. He didn’t want to like this woman, but it was hard not to once she let her guard down.
She was highly educated and an obvious protector, but she wasn’t nearly as adept at leading people down conversational roads as Green was. Without her realizing it, the two of them spoke fairly openly all the way to his house.
As Green exited the vehicle Mallory asked, “Hey, Hendrick, I don’t mean to impose, but do you mind if I use the bathroom?”
“By the way you’ve been drinking water I’m surprised we didn’t stop three times on the way here.” Green laughed while waving her in with a nod of his head.
The problem for Green was that he’d only been in the house for a few minutes before being picked up that night, and he hadn’t used the bathroom yet. He remembered it was on the left side of the hall but couldn’t fully recall if it was the first or second door.