In Too Deep by R.W. Shannon Page A

kept his mouth shut and just got his damn law degree on the sly.
    “Have you thought about what you’re going to do when this all ends?” Blake asked Duncan.
    “Every day. I’d go somewhere with a beach and build a shack. You?”
    “It’s crossed my mind on occasion, but I never really planned for it.”
    “You really didn’t need to. Until now, your reason for living was finding Ian Halliday and gutting him like a fish.”
    Ian Halliday was a rogue agent who the agency had been targeting for years. He was responsible for Sarah’s death. It had been a trap. Ian had been after Blake. And it was Blake who was supposed to go on that mission, but he’d been reassigned at the last minute so Sarah had gone in his stead. Ian had been doing the same thing that Blake was doing now. Living in plain sight in the hopes that his enemy would come after him. And once Ian did, all bets were off.
    “Can I bring a date?” Duncan asked, his voice piercing Blake’s thoughts.
    Blake raised his eyebrow. “Brooklyn?”
    He nodded. “I don’t want to be a third wheel. Anyway, she wanted to meet your girl. She keeps asking me about her.”
    “What exactly is going on between you two?”
    Duncan sighed. “There’s not enough minutes in that.”
    When he offered nothing more, Blake decided not to push him. He understood all too well the state his best friend was in. What kind of life could he give Analeigh? Maybe it was better to end things before they got too invested. Silence filled the jeep as it sliced through the desert sand toward an uncertain future.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Eleven
     
    Washington D.C.…The next day
     
    Analeigh finally looked up from her textbooks. With a yawn, she stood and stretched to release the knot in her back. When her stomach rumbled with hunger, she realized that she hadn’t eaten. She’d spent much of that Saturday preparing her lesson plans for the week. But instead of making a beeline to her kitchen, she strolled to the window. The sky was beginning to turn dark and the warm air gave way to a cool breeze. It was on nights like this that she missed Blake. It was Labor Day weekend and she had hoped to spend some of it with him. She turned away from the window and wandered into her small kitchen to fix herself a snack.
    Suddenly, she began to question if Blake was telling her the truth. Really, there was no basis for her to doubt him. Only his sudden and long trips away seemed odd. Other than that, he was always honest with her. Perhaps she’d been watching the ID channel too much where almost every show featured a man who was lying and cheating on his spouse. She laughed as she carried her sandwich and drink back to her dining room table that was now her makeshift office. The thought to Google him popped into her head but she shook it off. Her fear was that the search might reveal something she didn’t like or proof that he’d been lying to her.
    All the more reason to do it.
    Analeigh wiped her hands on her napkin, then reached for her laptop. After accessing the Internet, she entered his name in the home page’s search bar. A website for his law firm was listed along with a company that would send her his contact information for a fee. She clicked on the link for his law firm, and pulled up a basic page that listed a history of the firm. The site explained that Blake specialized in cases no one else would touch. A listing of his credentials included a degree from American University law school. There were no pictures, but an address and contact information was listed. On a whim, she picked up her phone and dialed the number on the site. After three rings, the voice mail clicked on.
    “Thank you for calling Callahan and Associates.” A woman greeted callers in a British accent. “Please leave your name, number, and nature of this call at the beep. Someone will return your call shortly.”
    Analeigh disconnected. Blake never mentioned that he had a secretary. Nor