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She runs her tongue over her lips. “I know just how you like it, too.”
No. No, she really doesn’t. “How I like you is dead. Give me what I want or that fantasy will be realized. I don’t know why you ever thought I was the guy to fuck over.”
“A million dollars and I’ll give you everything you need to destroy Mick.”
“Give me what I want, and I’ll let you live,” I counter.
“That’s not how you work. We both know it. Release me. Let me clean up my mess, or better yet, help me clean up. Then we’ll—”
I snap her neck and let her fall to the ground as Savage comes in through the window. “Alright then. I guess she gave you what you wanted?”
“I know where she keeps her treasures,” I say. “She just didn’t know I knew.”
“Then why’d you even mess with her?”
“I wanted a read on her,” I say, bending down to grab her cellphone, which I scan for calls. There’s one to an unknown number that I’m guessing was Mick.
“And I guess you got it?” Savage asks.
“She was buying time,” I say. “She called in help, which means she planned to go to Mick and fuck me over again, and that we’re about to have company.”
I walk to her bathroom, stepping up on the toilet seat. I hit a button that looks like a screw by the vent above me, and it opens. Inside, I find a box, which I pull out and then hop down. “Let’s go,” I say. “Before Mick’s men get here.”
“Mick is on his way personally, per our team.”
My lips quirk. “Interesting.” The front door bursts open with what is clearly a forced entry. My eyes meet Savage’s, and my message is clear. He can stay and fight with me or leave through the window. He smirks and draws his weapon. I shove the box in my hand under the bed.
Thirty seconds later, we’re battling a half dozen men. Another sixty seconds after that and Savage and I are the only two standing. “Fun and love, man,” he says. “Fun and love. I love this shit, and love is fun. But where the hell is Mick?”
“I’m right here.”
I turn to find the big brawny man, I used to consider a friend, standing in the doorway. “I turned everyone you trusted against you,” he says. “Even your beloved mentor. He fell for a woman, just like you have. I threatened her. I protected her. He died to save her. Now, you can do the same. Kill yourself, and she lives.”
That’s all I need to hear. I know how big this is. I know how dangerous this is. I know he means what he’s saying. So I do just what he wants: I pull my gun, and I shoot him dead.
Savage steps to my side. “Look, man. I’m glad he’s dead, but that was kind of anti-climactic. I wanted the assassins’ battle, two warriors beating each other’s asses. Lights. Cameras. Action.”
I ignore him and walk to Mick, squatting down to search his body, finding nothing, not even a wallet. Savage calls his team and says, “Move in,” allowing a search and seizure of the house where Mick has been operating. But they won’t find anything. Mick is too smart for that. But Nicole is too smart to have nothing on Mick. I walk back into the bedroom, grab the box I’d found in her ceiling and open it. There, I find photos and documents that prove Mick to be the spy that he was. I also find a passport with my name on it and Mick’s photo.
I will soon be free of all charges.
Ashley will soon be free, too. Free to stay or to go. Free to leave me. Free to live the life she’d chosen before I chose her.
Chapter forty-four
Ashley
Aaron doesn’t return that night. I practice shooting. I pace. I practice some more. It’s midnight when there’s a knock on my door at Savage’s place, and I yank it open to find the man himself. “He’s safe. Nicole’s dead. Mick’s dead. Aaron was flown to CIA headquarters for debriefings. It happened suddenly. They stripped his communication devices. He’s safe, though, and so are you.”
“How do you know he’s safe?” I ask, a nervous wreck all over again. “The CIA believed he was a traitor. They kill people. What if they kill him?”
“We got the proof needed to clear his name.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
“When will he be back?”
