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

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.

Emma stared at the drive in his palm. It could be a trap. It could be the truth. In her world, they were often the same thing. -MyFamilyPies- Emma Hix - Secret Agent Step Dad...

Behind her, she heard the soft thump of the stairwell door opening, and her stepfather’s voice, calm and steady: She almost smiled

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. It could be a trap

“Because you’re my stepdaughter,” he said, as if reading her thoughts. “And because six years ago, when I married your mother, I wasn’t assigned to watch you. I was assigned to retire. You were the first person in twenty years who made me want to keep the fake name.”

“I can’t,” Emma whispered back. “He’s not here for the drive. He’s here for me.”

But the lobby doors downstairs clattered open.