Page 50 of Deadly Alliance

“We aren’t sure yet. Will and I are going to go through the footage to see if we can identify her and find out everything we can about this bitch,” Dee replied.

“You have our full support,” Zack said as he strode in, Will and Zin behind him. “Consider Fortis and Zenobi at your full disposal until this bitch is caught. This happened on my turf, and I considered Bea a friend and will do everything in my power to bring this person to justice—whatever that may be.”

Emme could see the barely concealed fury on his face as he spoke and the meaning behind his words was clear. If the woman was brought in alive or dead, he didn’t care.

“Thank you,” Lance spoke from the door. The big man looked cold, as if a heavy weight had fallen on his shoulders. It made her shiver to see the ordinarily happy man look so deadly. It was a glimpse of the true operative he was.

“I think what we all need now is a few hours’ sleep. Then we come at it fresh in the morning.”

“Will and I are going to crash here so that we can be here if the facial recognition gets a hit,” Lucy said

“I’ll speak with the local police so that the investigation they do doesn’t muddy what we have here,” responded Zack.

“Okay, there is nothing more we can do so let’s get some sleep, and then we catch the bitch that dared to hurt one of our own,” Lance said with gritted teeth.

Emme could see what the words cost him. From what she could see Purgatory was like Fortis. They were more than colleagues, they were family.

“Where’s Shane?” Lance asked.

“Getting a shower,” Emme replied just as the man himself walked in.

His gaze instantly landed on hers, the searing look in his gorgeous eyes flared with heat, then he banked it, and his gaze dropped away. She tried not to let it hurt, but it did.

“What do we have?” Shane asked addressing his question to Lance as he stood as far away from her as he could.

“As of right now, not a lot.” He explained the plan to him as Shane did everything in his power to ignore her.

“What about Emme?” he asked without looking at her.

“Emme could still be a target, but it’s unlikely. We’ll make sure she’s covered, but the undercover operation is blown now,” Zack replied as he stood with his hands on his hips.

“Fine, I’ll go back to the Estate with my team. Can Fortis handle security for Emme?”

“Of course,” Zack replied as Emme watched.

What the hell was he doing? Why won’t he look at me?

“I’ll come with you!” she said knowing that challenging him was probably the wrong thing to do. She walked to him, stopping just short of his personal space.

“No, there’s no need. The op is over and so was what we had. It was fun and you’re a nice kid but let’s be grown up about this. We had a fling, and now it’s done. Time to move on.” He said it all so clinically, but she knew him, she could see by the way he wouldn’t look at her he didn’t mean it.

“Why are you doing this? I know what happened is an awful shock and a blow to you and everyone,” she said sweeping her hand around the room, “but I know we had more and so do you.”

She moved closer, and he stepped back as if he didn’t want her anywhere near him. It stung, but she didn’t stop until there was only a wisp of space between them.

“We didn’t have more, Emme. It was just sex. Good sex but just that.”

Emme thought she heard a growl in the room but her sole focus was Shane. “Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t love me!” she demanded not caring that she was humiliating herself in front of everyone.

Shane closed his eyes, and for a second, she thought she had won but then he looked up and looking her dead in the eye said the words that tore out her heart and stamped it into the ground. “I don’t love you, Emme. Satisfied?”

Pain worse than anything she had ever felt pierced her heart and she tried to choke it back and hang onto the last shred of dignity she had. “Shame on you, Shane. You wasted my time and hurt someone that cared about you deeply. I’m not scared to say I had fallen head over heels for you, but now I see you were not worth my time. I hope that when you wake up and see what you let walk away, you have no regrets.” With her head held high Emme walked past a visibly furious Zack. She opened the door and moved through as tears bit into the backs of her eyes. She just needed to get away, so she could fall apart properly.

* * *

“Don’t fucking start!”Shane said holding up a hand as every person in the room glared at him.

“That was a prick move, buddy,” Lance said with a shake of his head.