A Risk Worth Taking Read Online Free PDF Page B

clomping of his boots echoed through the heavy fog. The danger that awaited him down every darkened alleyway and hidden recess was as familiar as if he’d been born here. Sometimes he felt as if he had. He’d lived in this environ since Freddie had been killed. He’d spent as many hours here as he had in even less respectable parts of London, searching for the sniper who had shot Freddie. This was the most likely place to hide for someone who didn’t want to be found. The easiest place from which to make an escape.
    Griff walked a few feet farther down the boardwalk and stopped to lean against a wooden railing between the moored
Angela Bay
and
Caribbean Lady
. By design, he was not early. Fitzhugh was probably here, undoubtedly waiting for him in the shadows. He enjoyed knowing that the colonel’s wait hadn’t been comfortable.
    “I’m glad you finally showed up,” Fitzhugh said, appearing from nowhere. He stopped when he reached Griff and leaned against the wooden railing. “This isn’t my favorite place to stroll after dark.”
    Griff didn’t turn to face the man who had been his commanding officer during the war, but kept his gaze focused out into the dense fog that seemed to grow heavier by the second. “I didn’t think you would feel too out of place mixing with the rats and vermin that only come out when no one can see them.”
    “Is there a point to your comment, Captain Blackmoor?”
    Griff spun to face his former commanding officer. The threat he presented forced Fitzhugh to step back.
    “Why the bloody hell didn’t you tell me there were still loose ends from our last mission during the war?”
    Fitzhugh stiffened. “We thought we’d taken care of them.”
    “Damn you, Fitzhugh! You’re the head of British Intelligence! You’re the one who sees the reports first. Why the hell didn’t you warn me that we hadn’t eliminated all of them?”
    “We thought we had. The last
loose end
, as you call it, was eliminated after Fespoint was killed.”
    “Who took care of it?”
    “Hawkins.”
    “Then there must have been someone else.”
    “There couldn’t have been.”
    Griff took a step closer to Fitzhugh. “If you don’t think there is a possibility of another agent out there, then why the hell are Hawkins and Johnston and Turner still following surveillance procedures? I’ve tailed them for nearly a month. They’re hunting for someone.”
    “They’re following my orders. I’m simply making sure we didn’t overlook anything.”
    Griff slammed his fist on the wooden railing and glared at Fitzhugh. “Now is a hell of a time to think you may have overlooked a stray killer.”
    Several long, uncomfortable seconds of silence hung between them. Fitzhugh was the first to speak. “I’m going to credit your rudeness to the fact that you lost a dear friend, Blackmoor. And your accusations to the liquoryou’ve consumed. But don’t push me too far. I’m warning you. We’ve done everything possible and can’t find any evidence that anyone followed you to England.”
    “Tell that to the late Marquess of Brentwood’s family. I’m sure it will be a great comfort to them.”
    Fitzhugh reached into his pocket to pull out some papers. “These are Hawkins’s reports. Everything is included in them.”
    Griff snatched the papers out of his former commander’s hand. It was too dark to read them here. But he didn’t want to wait to find out what they contained. “Humor me. What do they say?”
    “Only what you already know. We discovered one more member of the spy ring. He was the one who killed Fespoint. We thought he was the last. We assumed that when Hawkins eliminated him, any threat to you was over.”
    “Well, it wasn’t. Or the Marquess of Brentwood wouldn’t be dead.”
    “You can’t be sure his death is related to what happened over there, Captain. There’s no proof.”
    “What other reason can there be?”
    “Maybe Brentwood had enemies and it was just your bad luck to be with