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“Smith. You mean fucking Smith.” He releases me and steps back, staring at me, anger and steel in his gaze. “I’m a fucking fool.” He scrubs the back of his neck and then reaches in his pocket, pulling out a phone as he steps to me again and presses it in my hand. “I’m taking a walk. Call Smith and let him tell you who Mick is to me, but know this, I don’t give a fuck how much you hate me when you find out. You are my responsibility. I will not walk away until you’re safe.” He tries to turn away.
My heart lurches, and I catch his arm. “What are you doing? No. You’re not leaving, and I’m not calling Smith. You tell me what you did. You trust me enough to tell me yourself.”
“All right. You want trust? You want to know who I am and why Smith hates me? I killed Mick’s family. Cold blooded killed his family. It was an assignment. I was a fucking assassin for the CIA, and when I had a target, I never missed.”
My throat constricts. “What does that even mean? Killed his family?”
“I was told my target, a very dangerous man—Mick—was at a particular address in Bermuda. He has done things you can’t imagine. I put a bomb in the house. I sat and waited for Mick to show up, and he didn’t. His wife and two kids did. I tried to stop it, but it was too late. They fucking died.”
It feels as if a clamp comes down on my chest. “You didn’t mean to kill them,” I whisper.
“A woman and two children died that day. I didn’t mean to isn’t an excuse. I should have planned better. I should have executed the kill more professionally.”
“You tried. I know you tried and—”
“Stop making excuses for me that you won’t make when you have time to really think about this. When you wake up and hate me.”
“I won’t. I don’t.”
“You will when you wake up. I won’t let you die. Mick is behind all of this. I knew the minute I heard his name. He framed me, and he plans to kill you. Which means I have to kill him first. I’ll kill him, and it won’t be gentle or fast.”
Chapter twenty-nine
Aaron
Ineed air. No. I need to kill Mick. I also need to know what it is that Ashley really wants, and I’m not sure she can figure that out right now with me in her face. I pull her to me and kiss the hell out of her, and it’s all I have in me to part our lips, but I do it.
A means to an end needs to come sooner than later. I set her away from me, pulling my phone from my pocket, dialing Smith. “We both know you’re right across the street,” I say when he answers. “Come back. Stay with her.”
“Don’t do this,” Ashley says. “Damn it, Noah.”
I pull the phone from my ear. “Noah now?”
“Smartass. Aaron. Don’t do this.”
“Where are you going?” Smith demands.
“To take care of business,” I reply, refocusing on the call. “Tell Blake I’ll find him. You come here.”
“I’m at the door.”
I disconnect and look at Ashley. “He’s at the door. Let him in.”
She shakes her head. “No. I’m not letting in a man you think I want to fuck as you leave on some suicide mission”
“Sweetheart, I don’t die easily. Mick will though. Let Smith in.”
“Please don’t do this to us.” Her voice is low, rough, desperate in a way Ashley is never desperate. I did this to her. I won’t keep doing this to her. “Nothing you told me changes anything,” she adds.
“Until you get some space to feel the brunt of that blow.”
“I don’t need space. I had space while you were gone, and I can’t do that again. I need you. Please don’t go.”
Smith knocks on the door and rings the bell. Ashley’s jaw sets and she turns around, opens the door, looks at him, and says, “Leave.”
I don’t give her a chance to turn back around. I disappear. I’m gone around the corner, disappearing into the shadows of the house. Smith’s voice lifts. “Let him go,” he says. I press myself against the wall. “Let him do what he needs to do. We need to talk.”
“Don’t tell me what I need to do with Aaron, Smith. I love him. I love him so much it hurts, and if you speak a word against him, I swear I will hurt you.”
