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“That makes Stuart Kwon Rafiq Shadid’s uncle. Were the siblings close?”
“Don’t know yet.”
“Who would know?”
Viktor stared at Marissa for a few moments. His woman was going to gloat. He knew it even before he said the name. “Jiro Matsuda.”
A triumphant gleam wiped away the anger in her eyes.Marissa linked her hands primly on her lap. “Are you saying you’re contacting Mr. Matsuda now?”
“I have no choice.”
“There’s always a choice, Viktor,” Marissa replied. “You just have to make the right one.”
“The last one I made for Matsuda got his wife and daughter killed.”
“You didn’t know she had them at that time, Viktor,” Yeager said. “And the lives of hundreds were at stake. Matsuda never blamed you.”
“Daliyah had Matsuda’s wife and daughter abducted to keep him from talking to the CIA. Matsuda had evidence that the NKUF supplied the chemical weapons to Daliyah,” Viktor answered the question in Marissa’s eyes. “She was the only one who knew where they were. When Daliyah failed to check in with her men at the appointed time, they killed Matsuda’s family.”
“You shot her to get her husband—Mustafa Shadid—to tell you where the chemical weapons were,” Marissa said quietly. “You never had plans on shooting Rafiq, did you?”
“Had I known he would’ve turned into this murderous bastard, I probably would have.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
“I never look back at would haves or should haves, Marissa,” Viktor stated flatly. “I make decisions, and hope to hell I could live with the consequences.”
It waslate in the afternoon when they returned to Viktor’s house. Marissa had gotten dizzy after the meeting with Yeager and had to lie down for a bit at the medical bay. She wasn’t sure if it was due to her concussion, or due to the information overload from Viktor’s impressive report. Two parallel ops: Smokescreen and Shadowland. Both coming back to bitethem in the ass. Was it simply a thirst for revenge or was there a bigger threat they had yet to identify?
“You okay, kitten?” Viktor whispered in her ear, leading her to the bed and slowly undressing her. His eyes darkened with a strange emotion as he took in the bruises on her body. Her right shoulder was still throbbing and her back was agonizingly sore. Henderson said she was lucky that she rolled off the hood of a car; otherwise, she would be faced with broken bones.
“I’m craving a hot bath.”
He helped her into her robe. “Wait here. I was going to run you one anyway.”
“Viktor,” Marissa grabbed his hand and his eyes shifted to hers questioningly. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?”
“All those years ago, I accused you of having no heart. Of being a monster.”
His jaw clenched. “You didn’t have all the facts. I get it.”
“Couldn’t you have told me afterward? I checked my clearance. You could’ve told me after Shadowland went down.”
“The damage was done, Marissa. Bottom line, you didn’t give me the benefit of the doubt.”
“How could I give you the benefit of the doubt when I didn’t know that I didn’t have all the facts?” Her voice pitched higher.
“Should’ve trusted me, maybe?” Viktor shot back. “When you threw me out of your house, I was beyond pissed. But it didn’t matter, don’t you see? You had this idealistic view of what was right and wrong. How long did it take you to figure out that there are shades of gray, huh? I busted your bubble prematurely, sweetheart. You hadn’t even had your first kill when we were together, Marissa. While I—” he jabbed a thumb to his chest “—I’ve lost tracked of how many people I’ve shot, blown up, or torn apart with my bare hands.”
“Stop it!” Marissa hissed.
“Why? Can’t hear the truth? I kill people, Marissa. And now, so do you. Collateral damage. Know what that is? Are you familiar with it now? That not all people who die are guilty, that some of them are innocent, but they have to die to save others.”
“We try to protect the innocent,” Marissa started.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake—”
