Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Yet, we have.
Collapsing onto the bed, I’m not defeated, but problem-solving, thinking back to the beginning, or trying to figure out where the beginning of all of this really even started. When I was eighteen, I graduated college, and I did so knowing the FBI was in my future. It was the iron fist of law enforcement to me, protectors that were not corruptible. Of course, I was young and naïve, as all human beings are corruptible. In some people’s books, I might be considered a fool for ever believing such things, but in my defense, they’d started their recruitment efforts when I was about fifteen. It all started with George, one of the highest-ranking members of the agency who ever spent time at The Ranch.
George had been a teddy bear and a warrior, which would only make sense to those who knew George. He’s gregarious and warm, but somehow no less lethal for it. He praised me as I worked out with him and his team, and later sat by the fire with me, and ate s’mores while telling me his old war stories, as he recalled his past with the FBI. He reminded me of my father, or at least the man, the child I was when I lost him, remembered. Or maybe George gave me a way to remember him.
He wasn’t like George, the FBI agent, at all.
My father was a soldier, but even as my mother told it, a gentle man who took orders and stood for his country.
George became a perfect cross between Kurt and my father, the man I’d secretly wished was my father, and alternatively felt anguish and guilt for that betrayal of Kurt.
Maybe I deserve his betrayal now.
He knew he knows, that George personally recruited me and pushed hard to ensure I became one of them. I used to be proud of that fact. Now I’m thinking about who I need to kill inside the agency to stay alive. I can’t think further enough into the future to contemplate what that means for me when this is over.
The door opens and instinct kicks in. I’m on my feet, gun in my hand, and aimed at the door, even as Luke appears. The sight of him, knowing he’s alive and well, is exactly what I need right now. I breathe out and I swear the relief I feel permeates every pore in my body. I set the gun down on the dresser and hurry toward him, even as he flips the lock into place.
“Well?” I press, praying for an answer that will allow us all to survive this and start over.
He drops his backpack on the floor, his handsome face grim, a short shake of his head before he says, “Nothing. Cleaned out. I even talked to the front desk. No luck. I think it’s safe to assume that there was evidence against your boss in that locker, that made him a liability. Maybe on Newman, too, which would explain why he was dead when we got to him.”
I press my hand to my head and then drop it. “I don’t even know what to say anymore. We have what might as well be two days now until we meet up with these people and we have nothing. Not one little answer.”
“The people we’re meeting are hired hands, not the real boss. We just need to bypass them and go to that person.”
“No one knows who he is, Luke,” I remind him.
“Someone knows,” he insists. “Probably Kurt.”
“He doesn’t know. I don’t even know. He’s trying to get answers from us, not the other way around. That’s my take.” I shake my head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but maybe it’s time we disappear until we figure this out.”
“No,” Luke says. “Once you run, you’re always running. Look at Kurt.”
“Isn’t that what we’re doing anyway?” I challenge. “Running? We need to disappear until we can figure out what comes next.”
His hands come down on my arms and he drags me to him. “No more waiting Ana.”
“It’s not waiting. It’s planning.”
“That’s all I did when we were together before. I planned. I wanted to buy you a ranch and horses, therefore I kept taking jobs. I wouldn’t have been overseas if I wouldn’t have kept saying to wait to retire. Just one more job. No more waiting, Ana.”
“It’s not the same thing,” I argue. “We’re not waiting. We’re planning.”
“I’m over planning, Ana. I’ve already decided how we handle this. I’m going to kill whoever I need to kill, and I won’t stop until everyone who can hurt you is dead.”
“Luke—”
“Ana,” he says, his mouth lowering to mine. “You know what I want right now?”
“Apparently to kill people.”
“I do, but not as much as I want us both naked right now. I need to be inside you. I need to be fucking you. I need you wanting me to fuck you.”