the devil wears a suit and tie • billy russo

chapter 15

Isabella tapped her fingernails on Agent Madani's desk boredly as she sipped her decaf latte.

"So, what have you got for me?" Dinah asked impatiently.

"Nothing," Iz sighed, "radio silence. According to all my sources, he's dead. If he's alive, then he wants everyone to think he's still dead, and he's doing a damn good job of it."

"I know he's alive," she insisted.

"How do you know?" Iz folded her hands in her lap as she waited for an answer. She was genuinely curious to figure out how the agent could be so sure.

Dinah explained the evidence she found of the firefight in Kentucky. That made sense.

"Do know you know who he was fighting?"

"No idea," good.

"Well, if Billy and I manage to track him down, you'll be the first to know," she got up from
her chair and put her purse over her shoulder, "I ought to get going now, I have other appointments this morning."

"What are you doing tonight?"

By that point Iz had turned toward the door and the agent couldn't see her facial expression. She just smirked. She enjoyed the control she had over Dinah. "I'm going out for dinner with my husband tonight, but I'm free tomorrow night. Billy's supposed to be out on some team training thing for a couple days."

"What's the special occasion? For dinner?"

Iz couldn't decide whether or not she wanted to break the baby news or not, and eventually she opted to wait a bit longer. "It's no special occasion, we just like to go out for dinner."

She could just feel Dinah's annoyance, "That's fun."

"It is. I'll give you a call tomorrow," Iz stepped out of the office and made sure to wink at the agent eyeing her up as she walked down the hall.

Agent Stein watched as Iz walked with such confidence out of the Homeland office, her fur coat billowing out behind her. She was certainly a force to be reckoned with.

•••

"Promise me you'll be careful," Iz insisted as Billy packed his bags.

"It's just a routine training exercise," he lied, "I'll be fine." The truth was, him and Agent Orange were planning to set a trap for Frank, but he didn't want Iz to know that. He didn't want to worry her.

"I know, but anything could happen. I mean, there's any number of ways you could hurt yourself... You certainly aren't in the same condition as when you were active duty."

He chuckled softly, "Izzy, are you trying to say I'm getting old?"

She rolled her eyes, "That isn't what I'm saying. All I'm saying is that you should be careful. I don't need you slipping a disk or something and then being useless when the baby comes."

"That won't happen," he assured her and stopped packing his bag for a moment so he could pull her into a long kiss, "I promise everything will be okay. I know what I'm doing." He felt terrible lying to her, but he told himself it was for the best. He knew she wouldn't be able to sleep knowing he was going after Frank.

"Don't you have people who can do trainings for you? Do you really need to go?"

"I need to do stuff with my teams every now and then, it's good management."

"Why can't you just be a bad manager for once?" she traced small circles on the back of his neck and pursed her lips, "It's just that you leaving for these things feels like you're deploying all over again, even if it is just for a couple days. I know it's stupid, but that fear of you leaving and getting hurt has stuck with me."