“Then you, my friend, can wave goodbye to freedom. And don’t think for one moment we wouldn’t send the boys after her too,” Dick warned, a smug grin creeping across his face.
That did it. Anger surged through my veins, urging me to lash out. But I held my ground. “I’ll do it. But you need to guarantee her safety. If she gets a fucking scratch because you’ve got your paw prints all over this, I’ll expose everything I fucking know. Do you understand?”
A glimmer of respect momentarily flickered in Dick’s expression as if he had underestimated me. “Noted,” he said with a nod.
I braced myself for what I was about to commit to, feeling a knot tighten in my chest. The brewing storms didn’t seem near their end. “So what do I need to do first?”
“Get her to trust you more. Move in closer. We need her to confide in you. And, Kellin—be careful. This is a game of chess, and if you play it wrong, it might just be checkmate before you know it.”
I sat back, the weight of the world crashing onto my shoulders a little heavier than before. I’d become a pawn, but I’d be damned if I became an expendable one. The FBI, Scarlett, her father—I was stepping into a world that felt more catastrophic by the second, and every decision I made now could shift the tide towards my salvation—or my destruction.
And as the agents continued to buzz about my apartment, I took a deep breath, resolved to step deeper into the chaos. Time to become the ultimate player in this treacherous game.
"Her father is who we really want, and we think she's helping him in some way with something," he adds, making this all make more sense to me now.
“Great,” I muttered, rubbing my temples. “Just what I needed—drama with a side of familial crime.”
Dick leaned back, his posture relaxed but his eyes serious. “This isn’t just drama, Kellin. This is serious. We think the good doctor might be involved in something much bigger than we originally thought. You need to dig deep; find connections and help us understand what her father was really running before he got locked up.”
I stared at him, the coffee now cold and forgotten. “You’re telling me to spy on her, infiltrate her life, all while she thinks I’m just her patient? Do you have any idea how fucking reckless that is?”
He shrugged, casual indifference laced with menace. “You signed up for this when you decided playing the field with us was a good idea.”
“Right, because being a felon trying to live a normal life in a world of criminality was on my bucket list,” I spat back. “Why not throw in the fact that I’m now infiltrating the life of a woman I genuinely care about?”
“Our goal is the priority, Kellin. If she gets hurt, that’s on you. You could save yourself and her. But only if you play this right.”
“If I play this right,” I echoed, the weight of it all clawing at my chest. “What if things spiral out of control? What if she finds out? What if—?”
Dick leaned in closer, silencing me with a sharp stare. “Then you’ll have to deal with the consequences. But I believe you have what it takes to pull this off.” He paused to let the meaning of his words sink in, the impending pressure weighing heavily in the air. “You’re good with people; you know how to read them and manipulate situations to your advantage. But you need to move carefully. Keep your feelings out of it. Just another mission.”
I exhaled sharply, running a hand through my hair. Scarred memories of my previous dealings with the agency merged with the fresh anxiety of using Scarlett as a means to an end. She didn’t deserve to be tangled in my illicit dealings or—it made me nauseous just to think about it—my past sins.
“Yeah, because nothing bad ever comes from manipulating someone you care about, right?” I replied with a bitter edge to my voice.
“Focus, Kellin,” Dick snapped, tapping a finger against the table, his patience thinning. “Your emotions are your enemy here. Remember that. Get close; make her believe you’re in this for real. If she trusts you, she’ll let her guard down. That’s when you can start gathering the intel we need.”
I was staring at the table now, tracing the uneven wood grain with a finger. “What if she confides something dangerous? What if I can’t—even if I wanted to—bring it back to you? Can this really be kept under wraps?”
Dick shrugged, an unsettling confidence radiating from him. “You’re smart. Figure it out. You can handle it. Just don’t forget that our eyes are everywhere. You pull this off, you gain entry into a world where your past doesn't have to hunt you down anymore.”
I felt the reality dump down like an anchor in the pit of my stomach. This was it. I could back out, play it safe and potentially lose everything I’d rushed towards without realizing it, or I could dive headfirst into the chaos that Dick was orchestrating.
“If I do this, I need full protection for her. No games—if she’s in any danger because of me, you’re going to answer for it,” I asserted, hoping my conviction would at least soften the edges of the grim agreement we’d just reached.
Dick nodded, the slightest hint of appreciation flickering behind those calculating eyes of his. “Understood. We’ll protect her, as long as you keep your end of the bargain.”
“Not just for you, Dick,” I said, straightening my back, my resolve hardening. “This is for Scarlett.”
The agents projected an unnerving normalcy, nestling my life away into uncharted territory as I sank further into this whirlwind. I needed a plan, some semblance of a strategy to keep Scarlett safe while unraveling the truth about her twisted lineage that I had inadvertently become part of.
“Let’s get started,” I said, my heart hammering with a savage urgency as I braced for the dual lives I was about to navigate. It was a dangerous line I was walking, but I couldn’t ignore the stakes. For Scarlett.
As I looked back at Dick, one thought lodged itself deep within my mind: If I was playing chess now, I had to learn from my mistakes. The game had evolved into something sinister, and I’d be damned if I let anyone treat me or the people I cared about like a mere pawn.
It was time to take control.
13
