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“Yes, you.”
I felt Easton’s hand on my shoulder tense.
“Care to elaborate?”
Amani’s gaze shifted to Easton when he answered.
“I’d like to understand why Mr. Lewis has entered the game,” Amani demanded, though his easy posture suggested it was a request when in reality it was anything but.
“That’s not up for discussion,” Easton bit out.
Amani’s eyes dropped back to me. A brow rose and his fingers drummed on the cracked wood of the chair arm.
“Maddon needs chaos,” I rejoined. “He sent me to Zane to offer him assurances Bridget Keller was in no danger. As a show of good faith, I was to give Zane the news the sale of the drone plans had gone through and you were in possession of the prototypes and had a team of engineers working through the glitches.”
“Dirty work,” Amani muttered.
“Yes. Maddon has GB team at the ready to take you out if Zane didn’t bite.”
Amani didn’t flinch at the news. Neither that Maddon had a team of highly trained CIA trigger pullers at the ready to kill him, nor that I was sent to enlist Zane to take him out.
Such was the life of a man who was essentially a terrorist.
“This meeting is what?” he prompted.
“A warning,” I went on. “You are the last person alive who can connect Peter Brady as Maddon Judd. The rest of the men he had face-to-face meetings with have been taken out.”
At that Amani cracked a smile.
“For a man as arrogant and prideful as Maddon is, it is ridiculous he uses a name from a poorly written television show.”
It was ridiculous, but if you knew Maddon the way I did, the absurdity made sense. He believed he was clever. He liked knowing he could run powerful men using a name that was associated with the not-so-smart middle-child.
“Undervaluing Maddon’s reach would be a miscalculation, Mr. Carver. He’s becoming impatient. He has other plans he wants to set in motion but cannot until he ties up the loose ends and you are the last of those tethers he needs to dissolve. As you’re aware, desperate men are unpredictable. Impulsive and arrogant is a dangerous combination.”
Amani relaxed in his chair.
He also didn’t shift his stare even though I knew he was addressing Easton.
“You’ll keep Dove safe?”
Easton’s fingertips curled tighter and dug into my shoulder.
“Yes.”
Three letters strung into one word that he vowed through gritted teeth.
I don’t know why my belly did a strange flip-flop and my chest grew warm. I’d never had anyone make an oath such as Easton had. And make no mistake; that one word in that tone was a promise. I shouldn’t have felt the flip-flop or the warmth, but I did, and try as I might not to acknowledge it I could not. It was there. I felt it, along with his strong hand anchoring me, claiming me in front of a man whom he’d viewed as a threat to my safety.
Interesting.
No, not interesting, alarming.
I couldn’t allow myself to get involved with Easton or any man.
My life was not mine.
Plus it was dangerous.
