Chapter 4-Rogue P2

Joe was the FBI’s director for a while now. When I had my debut at the bureau and I was just a trainee, he was Asociate Deputy Director and, during his commendable activity at the agency he was promoted to Director. He told me once I was one of his favourite agents because of my good instinct and one of the few people he was actually able to trust with his life. I went into his office and found him looking out the window and sipping coffee from his mug that had written the message “For the best grandpa”.

“Joe, I heard you wished to talk to me.”

“Will” he said and turned to face me.” Please, sit down” and he made a sign to the chair in front of me. I complied and he continued.

“We have a new lead in the Ivanov case. Apparently, the guy he killed was Viktor Mikhailov's father. The man was innocent but he paid with his life for his sons’ mistakes.” Saying that we both bowed our heads as we knew that an innocents’ death was not something to be taken lightly. "I understood that Misha, the girl you found was accommodated in the safe house.” he uttered looking into my eyes. He then added “Our agents found out that she has a cousin that lives close to your house.” he added watching me attentively. "I believe that was the coincidence that made you two bump into each other that day.” he said forcing a light smile.

“I didn’t know that.” I said monotonously then added “That’s great news, then we should go talk to her and offer her protection as well until the trial is over”.

“Yes, I believe we should.” Joe stated and sat on the chair in front of me.” Now” he said appearing like he was busy looking through some files “returning to the present matter, why did you asked someone else to be her handler? Since you two have been inseparable until 2 days ago, I can figure something happened. Would you like to clarify it for me?” he demanded. In the years I have been working with and for him, I distinguished his voice tonality when he was simply asking something and when he demanded for answers, the second one being much worse than the first.

I tried to keep my calm although in my head there were now glimpses of Misha's face full of disappointment and her weird attitude towards my current relationship. Trying to find a good answer to the question, I initially bypassed the response with another question:

“Why is Brian her new handler?”

“Why does that concern you when Brian said she specifically asked not to see you until the trial is over?” he asked blocking me completely.

“Shit!” I muttered while deflecting his gaze.

“Son, I’ve been in the force for more than 20 years and what I have learned in this line of work is to never create connections with the people we are helping, no matter who they are or what they did”. I knew he was right...a part of me wanted to forget about her but the other wished we could have just run away together and leave everyone and everything behind.

“Joe, it’s complicated. I tried to get close to her because I saw how broken and scared she was but I think that gave her the wrong impression and she became attached to me in a certain way...”. I know that was not the entire truth, but I couldn’t tell him about my feelings and where I was standing in my relationship with her at this point.

“You know that Brian is in charge of her safety at the moment and he actually became quite fond of miss Kralenka” he added. Unintentionally my neck muscles contracted and Joe saw that he struck a chord. He smiled looking at my neck waiting for me to crack.

“Yes, Chris told me. I would like to become her handler again. I know there were misunderstandings between miss Kralenka and I but I can assure you....” but before I finished telling him about my good intentions, he stopped me.

“No need to assure me of anything...You got emotionally involved with that girl and I believe it’s safer for her to have Brian around.” he added.

“Fine” I said grunting.” But I believe it’s only fair to go to her and apologize for my behavior.” I said justifying my desire to see her again.

“Ok, but don’t do any shenanigans and stop making Brian’s job difficult. I can see you have her file...” saying that he pointed the index finger to the file in my hand with her name on it.

“Yes, that it’s true. I hoped you will be understanding regarding my situation with her.” I said and sighed.

“Please take her file to Brian.” He said making me a sign with his hand to leave.” I have a meeting in 5 minutes. I’ll wait for your update regarding Ivanov's prosecution”.

“Sure.” I answered and left the room.

After I got home, I was so tired and upset I could not even see clearly. Those past few days were so tiring and I barely had time to sleep since I took over the Ivanov case. Rosa was already on the couch watching TV so I didn’t want to bother her, instead I gave her a simple “Hi” and went to my office. After a couple of minutes spent looking over some photos with Ivanov’s potential partners, I see the door opening and Rosa standing furiously at the entrance.

“Will, we need to talk” she said irritated.

“About what?” I asked still looking at the photos.

“About us”. Saying that she entered the room and leaned on the desk in front of me with both her hands. I put down the photos to look at her and saw the suffering in her eyes as she noticed the indifference in mine. I could not feel anything anymore for that woman except some sort of respect accumulated over the years for the fact she stood up with my shit for so long.

“Will, I love you and I get that you are busy at work but this affects our relationship and we didn’t even set the date for our wedding.” she said harshly looking straight into my eyes. I didn’t say anything. I actually didn’t know what to say. I didn’t love Rosa anymore but I didn’t want to hurt her either. Then she continued:

“I want us to make wedding plans, think about a family, having kids together...” I just stood there like a statue incapable of giving her any response.

“Will, say something. I don’t get you anymore...”. When she said those last words, I realized there’s no hope anymore for our relationship.

“Rosa, we need to break up!”