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“You were military. You weren’t even CIA.”
“I was a lot of things you don’t know or understand.” He scrubs his jaw. “Want a beer? I damn sure need one.”
He was a lot of things I don’t know? Smith doesn’t wait for my reply. He turns and walks away. I sit back down and start to replay those moments with Aaron before he left. He doesn’t want me near Smith and yet he called him. I don’t understand. What is this man, Aaron, not Smith, doing to me?
Smith returns and sits down next to me, offering me a cold beer. I take it from him. “What don’t I know?”
“Too much,” he says, slugging back his beer. “And that’s the problem.” He motions to my bottle. “Drink.”
I do. I’m confused and tired, and I just want Aaron to come back. “What if he doesn’t come back? What if that’s why he called you?” I ask, voicing my fears.
“Then he’s a better man than I expect him to be.”
I set my bottle down and turn on him. “Stop. Stop already. I love him. Either tell me why I shouldn’t or stop attacking him.”
He takes another long drink and then sets his beer down and faces me. “You’re being hunted because of him. He should have called me when he knew you were in danger, not come to hell to get you himself.”
“He didn’t trust you to protect me.”
“And yet, here I am, protecting you. And here we are with you living in hell because of him.”
“Obviously, you’ve never been in love, because hell was being without him.”
He inhales and stands up, downing his beer in several long swallows. “I need another.” He glances at me. “You need another yet?” He rounds the island and walks back to the kitchen.
Clearly, I hit a nerve with the love stuff. I pick up my bottle, and I can feel the biting sensation of fear inside me, and it’s not fear for me. It’s fear for Aaron. It’s fear he’ll never come back. I shouldn’t have let him leave. And what about Cole and Lori? What if Mick tries to use my old boss and his wife to get to me.
“Smith?!” I call out, twisting around as he exits the kitchen with another bottle in his hand. “Are we sure Cole and Lori are safe? Is someone watching them to be sure?” I stand up as he steps to the opposite side of the island again. “I have a bad feeling about this,” I add.
“We have a man watching them, but they don’t know it,” he says. “We don’t want to freak them out for nothing.”
His cellphone rings, and he grimaces, setting down his beer, snaking the phone from the front of his jeans, and answering the call immediately. He listens for two seconds and then points at me. “Get down. On your knees.”
I blink, confused, and he’s already around the table, pulling me to the ground with him. “Where?” he asks. “Fuck. Got it.” He disconnects.
“Someone is lurking outside the house, but Blake and Aaron lost visual. We need to stay down while they clear the house.”
My heart is now pounding, and I start to think about the bomb that blew up Mick’s house and killed his family. “Bomb. Aaron used a bomb to try to kill Mick. Could there be a bomb?”
He curses and grabs his phone. “Blake,” he says, and that’s when something blasts through the window, glass flying everywhere. A man in black is standing in front of us, and to my shock, Smith somehow has a gun in his hand and shoots him dead. There’s movement behind us, and we whirl around as another man in black points a gun at us.
There’s another gunshot and the second man in black collapses. Aaron stands there behind him, a gun in his hand. He just saved our lives, but more glass shatters in what feels like all directions and flames erupt everywhere.
Part Three
Chapter thirty-one
Ashley
Isuck in the smoke billowing around me, flames already encroaching on the place where Smith and I stand in the Airbnb’s living room. Smith grabs me and pulls me close. “Use your shirt to cover your face.” I’ve barely done as he says when he’s moving, pulling me around the couch.
Aaron intercepts us, snatching me from Smith’s grip. “Blake and Savage are outside covering us,” he says, eyeing Smith. “Back left window per Blake’s direction.” Smoke expands, and the flames grow closer. He leans in and whispers, “Keep your face covered, baby.”
We’re running down a hallway then, flames licking through a door to our left, but we make it to the end of the hallway to the bedroom. Even before we enter, I can feel the air rushing into the room. It’s with great relief that I spy Blake, leaning inside an open window while sirens lift in the air. The next few minutes are a whirlwind. Aaron lifts me and hands me over to Blake, and the minute I’m on the ground, I’m aware of Savage in front of me, his back to me, as he fires into the distance that I can’t see. I can’t do anything but gasp for air, and then suddenly, I’m coughing and choking, it feels like I’m going to suffocate.
Aaron lands on the ground next to me, and just that fast, he has my hand, running with me, giving me no chance to do anything but suck in good air and force myself to just breathe. I have no idea how he knows where to go to avoid danger, but Savage is there, and he’s still shooting at someone somewhere behind us. My heart thunders in my chest, adrenaline surging through me when Aaron cuts right and leads me down an alleyway where a black SUV is parked. We charge toward it, and in a matter of minutes, we’re inside the back of the vehicle with Savage on one side of me and Aaron on the other. “Where’s Smith and Blake?” I ask, as the driver, who I really can’t even see at this point, guns the engine.
“Covering our pretty little arses,” Savage says, as Aaron turns me to him, cupping my face. “Are you okay? Tell me you’re okay.”
