-myfamilypies- Emma Hix - Secret Agent Step Dad... ◆

“No,” Mark agreed. “And she never will. That’s the only reason I’m not using the tranquilizer dart in my coat pocket. You walk away from this, Emma. You leave the drive, you tell Control you never found me here, and we go back to pretending I’m just the boring stepdad who over-grills the steaks.”

“Because, Emma,” he said, pressing the drive into her hand and closing her fingers around it, “I’ve been a liar, a thief, and a ghost for three decades. But I have never, not once, been late for your mother’s book club. That has to count for something.”

Emma’s finger hovered over the panic button sewn into her jacket seam. Inside the apartment, on a mahogany desk, sat an unassuming USB drive. Inside that drive were the schematics for a next-generation drone guidance system. Her mission: extract, exfiltrate, disappear. Standard fare for a field agent of her caliber. -MyFamilyPies- Emma Hix - Secret Agent Step Dad...

“Target is in the lobby,” a clipped voice said. It was her handler, a man she’d only ever known as “Control.” “He’s early. Abort.”

A heavy boot sounded on the stairs below. Two floors down. Syndicate cleaners. “No,” Mark agreed

She almost smiled. Then she vanished into the gray Vienna rain, a fake drive in her boot, a real one in her heart, and the strangest, most dangerous ally she’d ever known covering her escape.

But the lobby doors downstairs clattered open. You walk away from this, Emma

“Mom doesn’t know anything,” Emma said. It wasn’t a question.

His voice was calm, almost gentle, as he emerged from the stairwell. No gun drawn. Just a faint, sad smile.

Emma’s blood chilled. Mom. The safe house in Bethesda. The whole cover—the suburban house, the awkward holiday dinners, the framed photo of him shaking hands with a senator—it was all supposed to be a shield.

He wasn’t just early. He was looking directly up at her window.