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Chapter 10
Weston
Ifound Aspen curled up on the couch, her feet up and her head resting on her bent knees. Her shoulders were shaking lightly and when I heard a quiet sniff, my heart nearly split in two. My eyes darted to the coffee table and I spied an open folder, no doubt stamped confidential on the outside.
“Aspen,” I called to her so I wouldn’t scare the fuck out of her. She froze, then lifted her head and frantically wiped at her eyes.
“Don’t you think I deserved to hear about it from you, Weston?” she whispered raggedly. “Or to be at least consulted before you ditch your kid and his mother for six freaking months.”
I sighed and sat down next to her on the couch, irritated when she scooted farther away from me. My brows furrowed and all of my plans to do this with patience must have been lost in the wind during my ride home. Gripping her arms, I lifted her and slammed her sexy little bottom onto my lap. She gasped and tried to wiggle away, but I banded my arms around her and kept her locked in place.
“Aspen Kennedy, calm your ass down and let me fucking explain,” I barked. She stilled but lifted her eyes and glared at me.
“Explain what? Your ‘Kat’ called to tell you about your assignment. Oh, and by the way, she’s picking you up at the airport. Should I assume you’ll have separate beds?” She almost shrieked the last words, but tears were pouring down her face and the hiccups ruined the effect. I decided not to dignify the comment about separate beds with an answer.
“It’s a good thing she called too, or I might never have known. You certainly didn’t tell me and foolishly, I trusted you. I wouldn’t have even thought to open the package if she hadn’t spilled your secret.”
I thought about what she’d said for a second. “Wait, you found out from Kat? Kat Petrov? My handler?”
Aspen nodded and sniffed again. My arms tightened, in case she attempted to wiggle away again.
I was going to kill that bitch. I’d overlooked so much bullshit with that woman and I was done. This incident was bringing a lot of her inappropriate behavior into glaring focus.
Carefully keeping Aspen in place with one arm, I grasped her chin and forced her to look at me. “My signature was forged, beautiful. My paperwork for termination of fieldwork should already have gone into effect.”
She rolled her eyes. “Forged? You work for the damn CIA, Weston!”
I opened my mouth to respond when I was cut off by the sound of my phone. Normally, I would completely ignore it, but it could be Martin or Alex. Giving Aspen a severe look, I released her chin and dug in my pocket. I cursed in relief when I saw it was Alex.
“Tell me you’ve fucking got something for me,” I snarled.
“Martin got into the email server and all of the messages were successfully delivered and read, then deleted. But, they didn’t know how to completely wipe the evidence, not against someone like Martin.”
“Who?” I roared, my grip on the phone practically crushing. I kept my other arm firm, but gentle, so I wouldn’t hurt Aspen.
“It was only accessed by one person and Martin traced the encrypted IP to another agent in D.C. It was Kat.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Something in his tone was needling me and really pissing me the fuck off. I moved Aspen gently off of my lap before jumping to my feet. I stalked across the room, wanting to be far away from her if I lost control of my tightly leashed temper.
“You knew, didn’t you?” I seethed.
He blew out a breath. “Not for sure. Kat has moved departments a few times. No one has complained on the record, but her file has some subtle notations.”
I glanced back at Aspen, who was watching me pace, her mocha eyes wide and confused. I tried to soften what I knew must be a frightening expression on my face.
“Justice, I don’t have time for bullshit games. Spell it out.” I started pacing, one hand diving into my hair and yanking on the strands.
“They are all small things that point to obsessive tendencies, adding that to a common notation about being overly-friendly...” he trailed off, his conclusion implied.
“How the hell is she still with the agency, Justice? What fucking idiot would clear her on her psych eval?”
“I’m going to look into that. But, she never crossed the line until you, Weston. Several of her transfers were by her own request or because of seemingly unrelated incidents. Until you sit down and look at the whole puzzle.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and inhaled slowly. “Why do I sense that you are going somewhere with this explanation? Because I don’t really care why it happened. She better be done with the CIA or you can be sure I’ll be out the door without another thought.”
“You’re right, I’ve got a point. When Martin dug into her life, he found some pretty disturbing things and they all had to do with you.”
I stopped pacing and stared at the ceiling. “Excuse me?”
