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10
Weston
I found Aspen curled up on the couch, her feet up and her head resting on her bent knees. Her shoulders were shaking lightly and when I heard a quiet sniff, my heart nearly split in two. My eyes darted to the coffee table and I spied an open folder, no doubt stamped confidential on the outside.
“Aspen,” I called to her so I wouldn’t scare the fuck out of her. She froze, then lifted her head and frantically wiped at her eyes.
“Don’t you think I deserved to hear about it from you, Weston?” she whispered raggedly. “Or to be at least consulted before you ditch your kid and his mother for six freaking months.”
I sighed and sat down next to her on the couch, irritated when she scooted farther away from me. My brows furrowed and all of my plans to do this with patience must have been lost in the wind during my ride home. Gripping her arms, I lifted her and slammed her sexy little bottom onto my lap. She gasped and tried to wiggle away, but I banded my arms around her and kept her locked in place.
“Aspen Kennedy, calm your ass down and let me fucking explain,” I barked. She stilled but lifted her eyes and glared at me.
“Explain what? Your ‘Kat’ called to tell you about your assignment. Oh, and by the way, she’s picking you up at the airport. Should I assume you’ll have separate beds?” She almost shrieked the last words, but tears were pouring down her face and the hiccups ruined the effect. I decided not to dignify the comment about separate beds with an answer.
“It’s a good thing she called too, or I might never have known. You certainly didn’t tell me and foolishly, I trusted you. I wouldn’t have even thought to open the package if she hadn’t spilled your secret.”
I thought about what she’d said for a second. “Wait, you found out from Kat? Kat Petrov? My handler?”
Aspen nodded and sniffed again. My arms tightened, in case she attempted to wiggle away again.
I was going to kill that bitch. I’d overlooked so much bullshit with that woman and I was done. This incident was bringing a lot of her inappropriate behavior into glaring focus.
Carefully keeping Aspen in place with one arm, I grasped her chin and forced her to look at me. “My signature was forged, beautiful. My paperwork for termination of fieldwork should already have gone into effect.”
She rolled her eyes. “Forged? You work for the damn CIA, Weston!”
I opened my mouth to respond when I was cut off by the sound of my phone. Normally, I would completely ignore it, but it could be Martin or Alex. Giving Aspen a severe look, I released her chin and dug in my pocket. I cursed in relief when I saw it was Alex.
“Tell me you’ve fucking got something for me,” I snarled.
“Martin got into the email server and all of the messages were successfully delivered and read, then deleted. But, they didn’t know how to completely wipe the evidence, not against someone like Martin.”
“Who?” I roared, my grip on the phone practically crushing. I kept my other arm firm, but gentle, so I wouldn’t hurt Aspen.
“It was only accessed by one person and Martin traced the encrypted IP to another agent in D.C. It was Kat.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Something in his tone was needling me and really pissing me the fuck off. I moved Aspen gently off of my lap before jumping to my feet. I stalked across the room, wanting to be far away from her if I lost control of my tightly leashed temper.
“You knew, didn’t you?” I seethed.
He blew out a breath. “Not for sure. Kat has moved departments a few times. No one has complained on the record, but her file has some subtle notations.”
I glanced back at Aspen, who was watching me pace, her mocha eyes wide and confused. I tried to soften what I knew must be a frightening expression on my face.
“Justice, I don’t have time for bullshit games. Spell it out.” I started pacing, one hand diving into my hair and yanking on the strands.
“They are all small things that point to obsessive tendencies, adding that to a common notation about being overly-friendly…” he trailed off, his conclusion implied.
“How the hell is she still with the agency, Justice? What fucking idiot would clear her on her psych eval?”
“I’m going to look into that. But, she never crossed the line until you, Weston. Several of her transfers were by her own request or because of seemingly unrelated incidents. Until you sit down and look at the whole puzzle.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and inhaled slowly. “Why do I sense that you are going somewhere with this explanation? Because I don’t really care why it happened. She better be done with the CIA or you can be sure I’ll be out the door without another thought.”
“You’re right, I’ve got a point. When Martin dug into her life, he found some pretty disturbing things and they all had to do with you.”
I stopped pacing and stared at the ceiling. “Excuse me?”
“Every move she made was in your direction. Until finally, she was assigned as your handler. She googled you over 40,000 times in the last year. Your agency records are all stored on her hard drive. Work and personal.”
“All of them?” I croaked. Those records would contain information about all of my assignments, things that, if they were leaked, would get me and my family killed.
“Yes,” he answered gravely. “But, we’ve already sent cleaners to her apartment, confiscated all of her electronics, except her cell phone, and Martin is sure she has no backups.”
Why wouldn’t they take her—motherfucker! “You don’t have her in custody?” I bellowed. Aspen flinched, and I immediately lowered my tone. I was scaring her. Shit.
“You had better find her before I do, Justice. Because if I get there first, there is no telling what I’ll do to her.”
“I’m going to pretend I wasn’t just a witness to you threatening someone,” he griped. “And, I’m not done, so shut the fuck up and listen.”
I pressed my lips together in a ruler straight line, holding back any further comment.
“She had pictures of Aspen, Weston. From over the last year. Pictures of Carter, clippings of his birth announcement. A fake hospital ID for obstetrics at the hospital where he was born. There are even transcripts of phone calls . . . Aspen’s phone was tapped.”
Worlds could have collided causing mass destruction and I didn’t think it would have put the fear of God into me any more than kno
wing this psycho had been anywhere near my woman and our son.
“I think you need to watch your family like a hawk right now, Weston,” Alex warned. “You know we’ll find her, but until we do—” The doorbell started ringing incessantly, and I barely noticed until Aspen stood to answer it.
“No! Aspen, don’t!” She looked at me, completely lost as to what the hell was going on. “Just wait, beautiful. Let me see who it is.”
I stalked to the front door and looked out the peep hole. It was Jenna. She was holding Carter tight against her and shifting restlessly. I swung the door open and she shoved Carter at me, keeping his blanket and holding the bunched material to her chest. “Jenna, what is—”
Someone stepped around the corner of the house and edged slowly in our direction. The sun glinted off the round barrel of the pistol she was aiming at my sister. I felt Aspen’s presence behind me and with Kat’s focus on my sister, particularly the lump of fabric in her hands, I took a chance and quickly turned. I handed Carter to his mother, thankfully the boy was sleeping hard.
“Take Carter, go to our room and stay there until I come and get you, okay? No one but me.”
She hesitated, trying to peek around me. “Aspen, I know I’m on shaky ground with you, but I need you to trust me. More than ever. Can you please do this for me?”
Her eyes were big and round as she stared into mine, then she nodded and hurried away. I took a deep breath and faced the situation outside. Kat was still creeping closer and hadn’t seemed to take stock of the situation yet. I put the phone to my ear and whispered, “Justice, you better get your people here ASAP before I kill her.” Then I hung up and looked down at my baby sister.
“Jenna, why don’t you come inside—”
“I think she should stay right there.” Kat stepped out of the shadows looking smug, as if she thought I hadn’t seen her until that moment.
“She’s going to take care of our baby like a good aunt, while I get rid of that whore who had our little Weston Jr. She just couldn’t leave you alone, could she?” Kat finally met my eyes, her own dilated and wild. Shit. This woman had lost her fucking mind. “Message after fucking message! She wouldn’t SHUT UP!” Kat screamed and her left hand shook, her finger vibrating precariously close to the trigger of her gun.
