Kiss the Enemy (Slye Temp) Read Free Page A

Sabrina said, finishing the unspoken part of that sentence.
    Margaux shook her head. “I’ve paid him for all kinds of intel that we’ve used for good busts all over this country.” Finally she shrugged.
    Sabrina spoke in her uber-pissed quiet voice. “I gave you warning after warning.”
    Here it comes . “I know.”
    “I let you leave the scene when the DEA agent passed out.”
    Margaux nodded, giving Sabrina the floor, because repeating “I know” or saying “I’m sorry” while she spoke would only make things worse.
    If that were possible.
    “I spent the last three hours pulling out every trick I could think of to keep my people out of jail and to convince the DEA that we had solid intel that those two were meeting to discuss a terrorist plot. Thankfully, White Hawk made it to Ryder’s van before the APD showed, because the minute that agent wakes up in the hospital tomorrow, he’s going to start screaming for the head of the woman who cracked his skull.”
    More head nodding. How could Margaux possibly make this up to Sabrina and the team?
    Sabrina crossed her arms. “I understand about Nanci’s death, but we all lose people. Especially in this business.”
    “Wait a damn minute,” Margaux snarled. “I would never, and I mean never ,  put the team in jeopardy for my own benefit or for anything less than solid intel. I told you everything I knew about that meeting. I was not chasing the Banker.”
    “But you thought he’d be there.”
    “Snake Eyes had a hunch and told me so, but I shut that down because it had no bearing on going after a terrorist with plans to kill people in Atlanta.”
    “There was a time that I’d have taken that at face value, but what happened eight months ago changed you.”
    Margaux started to argue, but Sabrina wasn’t finished. “I know what it is to lose someone that feels like losing a part of your body. I tried to get you to take some time to grieve, because you can’t help what it does to you. But you don’t have anyone besides this team. I made the mistake of allowing you to stay at work the entire time, and I told myself it was okay for you to spend time searching for a terrorist instead of climbing into a bottle or drugs. But you went too far this time for vengeance.”
    No matter what Margaux said, no one was going to believe that tonight hadn’t been about retribution for Nanci’s death. And, to be honest, that was her own fault for not talking to Sabrina and letting her know that she’d let it go.
    Margaux had actually never been after vengeance so much as trying to quiet the voice in her head that accused her of doing nothing as Nanci died alone. She had to explain to Sabrina. “Nanci transferred here to help on our case. I don’t regret asking her, because we saved Ryder from a murder rap, but I pushed her to do things that went against her oath as an FBI agent. She did all that because—”  Because she loved me like a sister. She took a breath. She never let her emotions show. Ever. In a firmer voice, she said, “Nanci did everything I asked, even when it reached the gray area of her job and all because I asked her to. She got a bullet between the eyes for it and I’m having a hard time getting past the helpless feeling of doing nothing.”
    “I haven’t forgotten her sacrifice and neither has the team.”
    Margaux heard the compassion, but also a hard line in Sabrina’s voice. “I know you’ve been patient and given me space, Sabrina. I’m telling you the truth that I let it all go earlier this past week. I swear to you I did not mislead you tonight.”
    Sabrina shook her head with disbelief. “But you didn’t tell me that you suspected the Banker would be at this meeting, did you? Then we break up a drug operation and there isn’t the first terrorist involved.”
    Margaux had no idea how this could have happened. She’d gone over it in her mind a hundred times already. She’d also tried calling and texting Snake Eyes, but he