With a Pull of a Trigger

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Greg looked at the three pieces of paper on his desk. “Miss Chase? I think we have a problem.”

“You know, it is far too good a morning for you to drag me out here.”

Gil regarded the man beside him coolly before returning his gaze to the park before them. “There are no good mornings or good days in an agent’s life.”

Everett shook his head, his crooked smile showing. “You’re too jaded, Gil. One can almost say that you have a cynical outlook on life. Live a little. Perhaps if you did, you wouldn’t be so sad about it all.”

Gil scoffed, leaning back into the hard bench. “I asked you to come here because I need your help.”

An eyebrow rose. “Oh?” asked Everett, surprise evident in his features.

Gil shook his head, knowing that Everett was acting. “Don’t act so surprised. I wouldn’t be calling you here just to chat and make merry.”

Everett chuckled. “Indeed, you would not. And what, pray tell, can I help you with?”

Gil sighed. “I need all the details you can give me about The Alliance.”

Everett regarded him with a cool look, not looking surprised at all. “And what do I get in return?”

Gil tilted his head, looking at Everett with utter seriousness. “Nothing. Although I do know that you’ve planted one of your agents in my division, so would you rather I tell my superiors about your agent’s disloyalty to our agency?”

Everett smiled at Gil. “You wouldn’t.”

Gil’s eyebrow rose. “And how exactly would you know that?”

Everett shook his head, looking at the park. “Agent Aspen has told me about you, you know. Told me about Gilbert Baxendale, the man who left her with a letter.”

Surprise made its way on Gil’s face. “And…?”

“And I think you were an idiot for letting her go,” said Everett, shaking his head. “A woman like that is hard to find, Gil.”

Gil closed his eyes, counted to ten, and opened them. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Everett sighed, looking at Gil. “To be someone who had Catherine—and yes, you heard right, I used past tense—you must be someone who has a sense of morality. Catherine is a gentle soul, and she wouldn’t be with someone who doesn’t have a sense of what is right and what is wrong. You wouldn’t knowingly give up one of my agents without learning the whole truth. And that’s what you’ve come for, isn’t it? The truth?”

Gil blinked once, twice, three times, before sitting up straight.

“I’m here because you want to know the truth. Am I right, Gil?”

Gil sighed. “You know fully well that you’re right. So what, you’re not going to help me?”

Everett shook his head. “You haven’t been asking the right questions, Gil. You don’t have a thing you can do to me. You don’t have a threat. You don’t have a bribe. You can’t blackmail me. I could have just stayed at the office and finished the paperwork on my desk instead of sitting here on a bench in some park. Why do you think I came here?”

A beat.

“You came here because you want to help me.”

Everett smiled. “Correct.”