Backlash

Old Town Alexandria. Maybe she was being paranoid, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being followed. Again.
She’d kept that fact to herself last night. Cass had already seemed way too unsteady. But Layla wondered if there was something going on involving their joint mission. Could her suspected tail be connected to Cass’s thief?
She glanced over her shoulder and didn’t see anyone, but she kept moving as briskly as she could without running. Had working at the CIA made her this jumpy?
When she finally saw the smiling face of one of her best friends, Vivian Steele, she let out a breath.
“Why are you so flushed?” Viv asked.
“Walk with me.” Layla grabbed her friend’s arm.
“What’s wrong?”
“I feel like I have a tail.”
Viv frowned. “Are you working right now?”
Layla shook her head. “It could be that I’m just on edge, but all my instincts are telling me otherwise.”
Viv was one of the few people who knew that Layla worked at the Agency. To the rest of the world, Layla was a State Department analyst.
Viv touched her shoulder. “I trust your instincts completely. Do you want to get out of here?”
Layla shook her head again. “There’s no reason to be silly about this.”
“Do you think you’re under some type of surveillance?” Viv’s hazel eyes widened.
Layla couldn’t say for sure. “I don’t know.”
“Have you noticed anything before today?”
That was the thing. She had. “Lately I’ve felt like someone is watching me, but I haven’t been able to substantiate that concern. And then, when I got off the Metro and started walking over, I thought I might have a tail.”
Viv stopped and looked around for a minute, her eyes scanning the crowded streets. “I don’t notice anything out of the ordinary, but it’s pretty packed down here today.”
Layla sighed. “I’m sorry. Forget I said anything. Let’s eat. Izzy wanted to join us, too, but she’ll be a little late. She said to go ahead and order hers.” If their schedules allowed, they met for lunch each Saturday at their favorite restaurant, the Old Town Grille. They’d met Izzy Cole, an NCIS agent, a few months ago and had welcomed her into their friend group.
“You know you never have to apologize to me,” Viv said. “Given the nature of what you do, you have every right to be concerned. Have you told anyone at work about this?”
“No.” And she wouldn’t. She was going to hold this tight to the vest. Viv only knew a piece of what Layla worked on because they’d been on a task force together, but there was a lot that Viv was in the dark about.
They entered Old Town Grille and met Ginny, the friendly hostess who greeted them every week. The short, older brunette smiled at them. “Girls, I’m so sorry. I know your favorite table is in the back right by the window, but a group of tourists came in, and they were insistent that they sit at that table. I’ve got you a great table on the other side of the restaurant, if that’s okay?”
Viv gave Ginny a warm smile. “Of course. We understand that you can’t hold our table for us. We’ll have a great time regardless.”
“That’s right,” Layla added. “You all are extra busy today.”
Ginny led them to a table on the left side of the restaurant. “That’s because we have the festival traffic, but I won’t complain about being busy. I assume you don’t need menus, but let me know if you want them.”
Layla laughed. “You’re right. We’re way too predictable for menus.”
“I’ll send your server over.”
Once they had placed their orders, Viv looked right at Layla. “I know you too well. Something is definitely up. Are you going to tell me what’s really going on?”
“That’s the thing, Viv. I don’t know. I really don’t. All I have is this sinking suspicion that someone is following me.”
“I guess this goes without saying, but could it be connected to whatever you’re working on right now?”
Layla had been asking herself the same thing. “I’m not sure.”
“You can’t talk to me about details, but is there anything you can share?”
Layla considered her options. Viv worked as an attorney at the State Department, and the two of them had worked together before on highly sensitive classified projects. She knew she could trust Viv with her life, so she decided to open up in a high-level way. “I worked with DEA on a mission last month. One of the DEA agents came to see me in the middle of the night. A man had ransacked her house.”
Viv twirled her straw in her soda. “So there could be a connection between someone watching you and what happened to her?”
Layla nodded. “Yeah. Or it’s completely possible that I’m just being paranoid, or that there are two separate things going on.”
“You need to be careful.” Viv’s tone had turned serious.
“I will, I promise, but let’s stop talking about it and enjoy lunch. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
Viv shifted in her seat. “Then is it safe to bring up the reunion and your last-minute excuse not to go?”
This topic was almost worse than the other. “My excuse was legit. I really did have a work emergency come up yesterday.”
“Well, once you bailed, Bailey and I decided not to go either.”
“You shouldn’t have let me stop you.”
Viv leaned forward. “You might have dodged the reunion, but that still doesn’t resolve the larger issues you have with Hunter.”
Layla groaned at her ex’s name.
“Maybe it would be good to talk to him and finally get some closure.”
“Closure,” Layla muttered. “How much closure can you get from the love of your life cheating on you?” Her heart had been shattered into a million little pieces her third year of law school when she’d found out Hunter McCoy had been unfaithful.
“It’s not just that he cheated on you. It’s how it all went down.”
“Are you talking about the fact that he chose a college girl who couldn’t have been more different than me? Or the fact that