rip open the wounds when all it’s going to do is put him back to square one mourning all over again.”
Grant was right, of course. It was for that very reason she hadn’t said one word to Ian about her investigation. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, especially Ian when he was finally healing, but letting the truth be obscured was fundamentally wrong. Even Ian would never settle for letting someone—anyone—get away with murder.
Grant lowered his gaze from the ceiling and his voice dropped to a hush. “Look, I know how important finding the lost ones is to you. Even when everyone else gives up, you never do. I admire that about you. But this with the Nest... You’re in trouble with this—if you get caught, the kind of trouble that’ll make your POW days seem like a walk in the park.”
“I’m aware of the risks. But my safety isn’t my main concern.” She looked him right in the eye, let him see the truth. “I’m right about this. I know it. Can you just trust me?”
“I do trust you. My trust in you has never been an issue.”
He was right. The issue was her trusting him, and now he stood genuinely worried. She hated that. “I realize you disagree with me on all of this. You have doubts. But I don’t, and if they get away with killing two people, what’s to stop them from killing four, or forty-four?” She set down her mug. “No. No, I can’t worry about the risks. I have to do the right thing.”
“Hardheaded, stubborn—” His voice faded into a grumble.
She pretended to be deaf as a stone. Deeply worried and afraid for her, he needed to vent, and she needed a minute to get her insides to stop shaking. Busying herself, she refocused, refilling her mug at the coffeepot, then returned to the table. “The bottom line is that if Talbot or Dayton are behind the murders, they won’t risk their futures on Crawford getting a whim and withdrawing his confessions. He could recant at any time. They’re going to silence him because neither of them can afford not to—personally or as Nest commanders.”
“Even if Crawford recanted, no one would believe him.”
“No, but in the commanders’ elevated positions—their promotions will come quickly now, right?” When Grant nodded, Madison finished. “They won’t risk a blemish on their records, and they know that politically a Crawford confession would become a public issue under microscopic scrutiny in the media.”
“That much is true.”
“They’ll prevent that.” If she were right, Crawford’s days were numbered. “There’s another nugget that is even more compelling.”
“What?”
Madison leaned forward and dropped her voice. “If Crawford recants, the uproar about David Pace and Beth Crane will pass. But another uproar won’t, and it’ll have heads rolling at the highest levels.”
The color leaked from Grant’s face. “No. No way. Neither Talbot nor Dayton will go public. They wouldn’t jeopardize national security for media ratings or political points. That is what you’re saying, right?”
“Under the right conditions, they would.”
“What right conditions? It’d be political suicide.”
“Not if they leaked every single crumb on the Nest under the protection of a congressional hearing. They’d claim they had no choice but to disclose, Congress would back them on that, and the focus would definitely shift away from them, Crawford and the murders and land squarely on the Nest.”
Grant’s hand on his mug shook, and his eyes narrowed. “The need-to-know loop would never allow that testimony to take place.”
“Which is why I think they’ll get rid of Crawford before he can recant his confessions.” She rubbed at a dull throb in her temple. “Once he does, then neither Talbot and Dayton nor anyone else in the loop can stonewall Congress indefinitely. For a while, yes, but then something will give. It always does.”
Grant paused a moment, clearly thinking. “We know from working there that the need-to-know loop will keep word of the Nest sequestered by any necessary means.”
Madison agreed. “Yes.” Like the others, she’d had restricted access to the Nest, allowed only in her specific area. She was as clueless as everyone else about what was at the Nest and why the facility existed at all, but the secrecy of the facility was made clear to everyone who knew about it. “These deductions have left me with another question. I can’t answer it, but maybe you can.”
He smoothed a thumb over her shirtsleeve at her wrist, his expression guarded. “What question?”
“Why?” Madison looked him right in the eye. “What is so important about that facility that they could be killing people to keep it a secret?”
TWO
Mrs. Renault appeared at Madison’s office door. “You’re back.”
Madison nodded, biting her tongue about Mrs. Renault dropping Grant off out at the Nest last night. “Is it time for the morning report?”
Tall and lithe, the fiftyish Mrs. Renault entered, wearing a slim skirt and fitted top. Her taupe heels clicked softly on the hardwood floor. “I thought with the Valentine’s ball tonight at the club, you’d be home resting.”
“No, I’ve been having a heated discussion with Grant.”
“And you’re not happy with me for taking him out there.”
“Actually, no, I’m not.”
“Fine.” She pulled out her pad and poised her pen.
“That’s all the explanation I get?” Madison fingered her Purple Heart, rolled it over in her palm.
“You were in danger. You needed backup.”
Madison resisted the urge to raise her voice. “I don’t trust him.”
“You have trust issues with everyone but me,” Mrs. Renault said, decidedly calm.
“After last night, I think I should be on the fence about you, too.”
If that comment ruffled her, Mrs. Renault didn’t show it. “Well, I trust Grant.”
Madison envied her that. She was coming to care for this man. She yearned to trust him. But she just didn’t dare. Still, curiosity got the better of her. “Why?” Mrs. Renault’s instincts were usually flawless, but the woman knew he’d been reporting agency activities to Talbot and Dayton.
“If Grant had reported anything negative on us, we’d all have been hauled in for questioning. We haven’t been. My guess is Grant has done nothing more than tell the commander we’ve been working internally to assure no one here breached security by telling the reporters anything about the Nest. He’s probably been instrumental in keeping heat off the entire agency.”
Madison hadn’t considered that possibility.
“You must remember, Madison, Grant is in a delicate position. He’s subject to recall for two years after the date he officially came off active duty. He can’t refuse
