Page 40 of Russian Rescue

With a shrug, I pushed down the pain as it tried to resurface. “I had a great life with them for a few years. I loved them like real parents. My mom was a big women’s rights advocate, and she even taught me karate to defend myself. They never tried to shove me in a girly box, and they let me play in the mud and beat up the boys and all that shit.” I smiled at the memory. “So, after they passed away, and I ended up in foster care with some woman who shoved me into dresses and screamed at me for being ‘unladylike,’ it didn’t go well. She gave up on me pretty quick, and I got bounced from foster home to foster home. Each one seemed worse than the one before. My attitude got worse, and the treatment got worse. Then I ended up at Kenny’s.”

My eyes narrowed as my jaw ticked. Wes waited silently for me to go on.

“I was fourteen. Kenny was my foster parent, and it wasn’t even two nights that I was there when he crept into my room.”

Wes covered his mouth with his hand.

“He tried.” I closed my eyes against the memory. “But I remembered everything my adoptive mom had taught me about defending myself. Paired with all the scraps I’d been in staving off handsy older foster brothers over the years, I was able to fight him off. I ran away that night and lived on the streets after that, making my own way.”

“I can’t imagine what you’ve been through. No one should have to go through that.”

The fire lit up inside. “No. They shouldn’t. Like what Lucia and Luca went through last year. They shouldn’t have had to live like that. And if it weren’t for Knox and our team, they still would be. They’d still be a slave to a monster of a man. It’s not right. I was lucky that I knew how to fight to save myself. Most girls don’t, and that’s exactly why I do what I do now.”

He tipped his head. “And what is that?”

Lifting my chin, I spit out my truth. “I find the men that the legal system can’t stop. The abusers, the rapists, and the pedophiles that fall through the cracks. The lowest kind of scum walking on this planet. I watch them, verify that they truly are doing what they are doing, and then... and then I kill them.”

His eyes bulged, and I waited for the shock to fill them. Instead, a soft smile pulled up the corner of his lips. “You’re like a Black Widow for pedophiles and abusers?”

I nodded. “I’ve killed twenty-two so far since I started a year ago after we saved Lucia. It felt so good helping her and Luca that I wanted to, no needed to save more people like them. So, I started hunting down the lowest of the low and taking them out. Mostly ‘accidents’ and ‘heart attacks,’ but a few of the worst ones I had to take my time with and disappear the bodies.”

“Twenty-two?” he mouthed. “That’s amazing, Piper. I can’t even begin to think how many people you’ve saved.”

Amazing? I wasn’t sure what to expect when I told Wes I’d been murdering civilians this past year, but I wasn’t exactly prepared for him calling my actions amazing.

“You’re not freaked out I’ve been murdering people? You don’t think I’m a monster?”

“You? A monster? Impossible. I know that you come off all hard ass and bad or whatever, but I see who you are, Piper. I see the pain that you’ve hidden behind to make yourself into this. But you? Piper? You’re one of the kindest, most loyal people I’ve ever met. I’ve watched you throw yourself into danger more times than I can count to save your team or innocents in the way. I saw that you didn’t want to retire from Elite Stealth Force, but when it came down to doing it to save Knox, you sacrificed your own happiness for his life. I called you when I got kidnapped because I knew you’d never give up on finding me... never leave me. It’s not who you are. You’re the woman who saves everyone but herself.” He shook his head. “No. You’re not a monster. You’re saving women and children from the monsters the legal system lets free. That’s not murder. That’s justice. I’m proud of what you’re doing. You’re saving kids and women even though no one saved you as a child. If there’d been someone like you helping your mom, she’d probably still be alive today.”

As I stared at him, my heart swelled. He understood. He accepted. He saw me. The real me underneath the façade. All those years, I’d been told I was trouble, a bad seed, hard to handle. My foster file was lit up with warnings that I had issues. But really, I’d just wanted to feel safe, and in order to feel safe, I’d had to fight to protect myself... something a lot of these kids and women couldn’t do.

“Is this the reason you don’t want things to happen between us? Because of this secret life you’re living?”

“Yes. And now do you see why this thing between us can’t happen? The life I live is too dangerous. I’m not working with the protection of the US government anymore. I’m killing civilians. If shit goes sideways, I don’t need anyone else in the blast radius. It’s best that I’m alone while I do this, and that means nothing can happen between us. I don’t plan on getting caught, but if I do, I’ll happily go down with a smile on my face knowing that what I did saved countless women and children. It will be worth it. But I won’t take you, or anyone else, down with me. So, that’s why I can’t be with you, Wes. And I can’t kiss you because I don’t think I’ll be able to stop.”

I exhaled a sigh as I admitted the depth of my feelings for him. It startled me hearing them out loud, and by the look in his eyes, I’d shocked him too.

His blue eyes lit up as they locked with mine. “This isn’t a reason for us not to be together. If anything, it’s another reason for us to be together. I’ll help you, Piper. I can find people for you, cover your tracks so you don’t get caught, and make sure you go on saving as many people as you can from the monsters who hurt them. You don’t have to do this alone.”

“What? You’d help me? Really?”

He chuckled. “Of course I would.”

“But it’s dangerous. We could get caught or thrown in jail. It’s not like the government is sanctioning this. I won’t ask you to do this with me. This is my mission. Alone. If I get caught, I’m the only one going down.”

“With me helping you, that would never happen. I’d cover your tracks.”

My heart cracked open as I saw the man staring back at me. The man who would do anything for me, be anything for me and have my back forever.

“I can’t ask you to do that, Wes.”

“You don’t have to ask.” He stepped forward, his fingertips brushing my hip. “I’m offering. Piper, when are you going to understand that I am here for you... always. You’re beautiful, sure, anyone with working eyes can see that. But that’s not why I’ve pined for you all these years. It’s because you’re the kind of woman who will do anything to save someone... even go on a murder spree killing pedophiles so no child has to suffer what you went through. That’s who you are, and that’s the woman I would do anything for. Anything, Piper.” He reached up and slid a hand along my cheek. “I would burn down the world with you if you asked me.”

I barely let him finish the sentence before I stepped forward and slid my hand behind his head and pulled him down for a kiss. The passion that had been crackling between us exploded when his lips touched mine.

His strong hands reached behind my head and pulled me in deeper, his tongue sweeping past my lips and meeting the demands of mine. Emotions crowded inside my chest, each powerful one he unleashed rushing out of me while I gave in to the need for him I could no longer contain.

Pushing hard against his chest, I sent him colliding with the refrigerator behind him. His mouth opened with the whoosh of air he expelled.