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"Do you ever regret leaving the Agency?" she asked, sipping her wine

"Not once in two years," he said, but she didn’t htness of his voice "I had soency and by the tihed and tapped his fingers on the table, as if dru leaving the agency, Blake lost his fiancée in an undercover ATF ood in that I needed so to distract him, a way to keep him under thumb, and Walker Security was born Truth be told, I suspect Blake’s walk through hell was the real reason Luke went civilian Otherwise, I think he would have been a career Navy, like our father was career Army"

"Did they ever catch the person who killed Blake’s fiancée?"

"No," he said "That particular Mexican drug cartel leader is still alive and well, and deep underground, but not ever out of Blake’s o after him I never kid myself about that"

She studied hiave a sharp nod "Making sure he doesn’t end up dead or in a jail cell for taking the guy out"

Heaviness settled in her chest "And your father?"

"What a lifetime of combat couldn’t do, cancer did We buried hio My mother lives in Jersey and is thrilled to have her boys nearby She was yet another reason Walker Security er when breast cancer tookher voice "Seventeen when my father married Sharon"

He didn’t say he was sorry or ‘oh how horrible’ like most people and she knehy He knew it didn’t help; he knew froed to open a raw nerve "And Sharon has been like the Energizer Bunny She just keeps on staying"

She sizer Bunny"

John appeared at the table with a cordless phone in his hand "There’s a call for Lauren" Her gaze went to Royce’s, her sto the few bites of bread and the wine she’d just enjoyed "No one knows I’ot here"

John arched a brow and covered the receiver "Muffled voice, and car horns in the background Sounds like a payphone to hed "It’s probably a reporter" She reached for the phone "They’ll just keep calling if I don’t take it"

John handed her the receiver and she immediately put it to her ear "Hello, this is Lauren"