Page 26 of Destroyed With You

But first he wanted to know the truth. No, he needed to know it. And he was happy to keep her strapped down on this bed for as long as it took to get the story out of her lying, betraying little mouth.

“Talk,” he said, but she only met his gaze, looking back with an intensity that matched his own. Her boldness infuriated him.

Even so, damn him, he couldn’t help but notice how lovely she was. She’d always had a glow about her, a vibrancy. Making love to her had been like losing himself in a lightning bolt. Wild and stunning and shocking and beautiful, and often times so very unexpected.

The irony wasn’t lost on him. He’d liked that about her—the surprises she gave him in bed and in their marriage. But he’d never seen this biggest surprise of all coming.

“Talk,” he repeated, his voice tight. “And in case you’re even the slightest bit unclear on the point, keep in mind that you’re talking for your life. Bullshit me, and you’ll be dead all over again, only this time it will be for real.”

She said nothing.

A blinding wave of fury cut through him, and he crossed to the dresser in three long strides and grabbed his gun. He was back at her side in seconds, the muzzle pressed against her temple.

“You won’t hurt me.”

He held her gaze for a full three seconds. It felt like forever. But he saw the way she shrank into herself. For a moment, just a moment, he hated the hardness within him that made him say the words. But he said them anyway. “Yes. I will. Now talk.”

She closed her eyes, but whether to gather her thoughts or to block him from her vision, he didn’t know. He almost thought he was going to have to prod her again, but then she began to speak, her eyes still closed.

“I was in college—really struggling to pay rent and tuition—and a friend dragged me to one of those career fairs on a lark. The NSC and the CIA were there, along with all the branches of the military and the FBI too, everybody offering a chance at a paid higher education, exciting opportunity, yada, yada. No one knows how to sell like the government does.”

She shifted on the bed, wincing a bit as the cable ties bit into the flesh of her wrists. He expected her to beg for release again and had to admit that he was impressed when she didn’t.

“Go on.”

“I thought being an agent would be the height of coolness. I told you about my childhood. None of that was a lie. My mom died when I was young, my dad in an explosion. And the aunt who was supposed to raise me was useless, so I bolted. I pretty much grew up on the streets. Had to make my own way. It was not what I’d call an ideal life.”

He nodded, remembering the one conversation they’d had in which she talked about her past. They’d made love afterwards slowly and sweetly, and before they’d fallen asleep, she turned to him and whispered one thing. “Please,” she’d said. “I don’t ever want to talk about that again.”

He’d honored that wish, and he was struck now by the fact that she was bringing it up again. He was making her bring it up again. Despite himself, he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to dredge that up.”

The corner of her mouth turned up in the smallest of smiles. “Thank you for that,” she shifted on the bed and started over again. “It’s not even that relevant, but I think that my background made me a good candidate for deep cover work, because I came up through the ranks pretty quickly.”

“Did you?”

She must have noticed the edge in his voice, because she smiled a bit before answering. “I enjoyed the work. And I sailed through training. I was like a prodigy. All modesty aside, I really was good at my job.”

He thought about the efficiency with which she’d killed the man on the roof, and he crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh, I believe you.”

Something in his tone must have made her ill at ease, because she stumbled for a bit before catching her rhythm again. “At any rate, I went through training quickly, and about a year before I met you, I was made a full-time agent. Believe me, you can learn a lot in a year in a place like that. I traveled the world. Saw exciting and exotic locations, and had my life put in danger more times than I’d like to count.”

“Well, look at you. Might as well be your own movie star. Must’ve been disappointing to end up assigned to marry the likes of me.”

“That was no assignment,” she snapped, the fury in her voice seeming real enough that it made him take a step back. He looked at her face to find her looking right back at him, her eyes filled with both anger and sadness. Maybe even regret. “Please tell me you don’t really believe that.”

“I don’t know what to believe,” he said. “I really don’t.”

“Me,” she said. “Maybe you should just believe me.”

He wanted to laugh. “Because you’ve given me so much cause for trust.”

She drew in a breath. “I don’t blame you for that, but you need to know that I always loved you. That was never an act. Never part of my training.”

He forced his face to stay expressionless as he leaned back in the chair, his feet extended out in front of him. “Wouldn’t that be nice to believe?”

“Believe what you want, but the truth is that we both got hurt.”

He barked out a laugh. “Trust me, sugar. I’m not feeling too much sympathy for you at the moment.”