She stepped through the gate, some of the tension she’d carried these past days leaving her. She had missed this place. She knew every square foot, every garden bed, every tree, every flowering plant. She spent the next ten minutes walking the paths, taking it all in. Dormant rose and lilac bushes that would explode into blooms in early June. Patches of bare soil that hid tulip and daffodil bulbs. Dwarf conifers in the Japanese garden that brought green to the winter landscape.Bouteloua gracilis, her favorite grass, jutting out of the snow in tufts, its feathery blooms now dried and full of tinyseeds.
She made her way toward the main building, hoping the horticulture team had finished sorting through the pile of internship applications. Then again, she’d only been away for a day and ahalf.
Wishfulthinking.
“Mia!” Sharon motioned her toward the conference room. “Kevin’s waiting for you. It’s good to have youback.”
“Thanks.” Mia found Kevin sitting with Michael, the head of security and one of the two guards who had escorted her off theproperty.
The men stood, shook her hand, welcoming herback.
“Sorry about the other day,” Michaelsaid.
“Michael has just been telling me that he’s concerned about our ability to protect you while you’rehere.”
Were they going to send her homeagain?
She started to speak, but Michael cut heroff.
“I’ve talked with the Denver PD. I’ve also given an image of the suspect from our security footage to the front-gate staff. We can escort you to and from your vehicle and make you a part of our rounds, but we can’t assign someone to accompany you all day. We just don’t have the numbers. We think it’s best if you stay indoors, preferably in the non-public areas of the facility, like the greenhouses or theoffices.”
Mia let out a relieved breath. “For a moment, I thought you were going to send me homeagain.”
Kevin chuckled. “There’s always work in the greenhouses. And you can pick up where you left off withthese.”
He rested his hand on top of a stack ofpapers.
Internshipapplications.
Mia couldn’t help but laugh. “Right.”
* * *
Joaquin stoodnext to the gas pump, waiting for his tank to fill and watching while Anna disappeared inside to use the restroom. When the door closed behind her, he stepped away from the pump and calledDarcangelo.
One ring,two…
Cabrón,answer!
“Hey, Ramirez,s’up?”
Joaquin knew what he was doing could land him in a load of shit, even get him fired, but he’d made a promise to Mia. “You’ve got a seriousproblem.”
“I’mlistening.”
“This has to stay off the record. I’m risking my career by callingyou.”
“Let me close my office door.” A moment of silence. “Okay, goahead.”
“You’ve got a leak. Catherine Warner told the staff at the I-Team meeting this morning that she has a source in Irving’s office who told her what’s going on with the case. The source told Cate that Irving had spent the early morning on the phone with the Pentagon and that something big was about to break. Cate is supposed to meet this person at lunch to get files or someshit.”
“Son of abitch.”
“Tell me about it, man. I would have called you earlier, but I wasn’talone.”
Anna didn’t know her way around like Joaquin did and had asked to carpool to Brighton withhim.
“You have any idea who it mightbe?”