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In her feeble retreat, she stumbled. Grant reached out to catcher but she slapped at his hands, screaming and kicking like an animal for him to release her.What the hell is wrong with her?He’d heard her tormented screams over the cell line. Had they pushed her over the edge? Had she finally been driven mad? “Fossa, don’t fight. You’re okay. I’ve got you. I swear, baby, I’ll fix this. You don’t have to be afraid of me. You knowthat.”
“Don’t touch me you bastard!” She was so weak he barely felt the slap to hisface.
It was his heart that ached to the point of breaking as Daniel ripped her from his arms and pushed him away. “Get away from her, Grant. I can’t take seeing her likethis.”
She clung to Daniel, a ferocious hatred flaring in her eyes as she watched him through the strands of matted hair that covered her face.No. This is not happening.“Thalia, please. I don’tunderstand.”
“Did you think I would not tell her?” Jauhar chuckled, a sadistic tone of satisfaction lacing his words. Grant turned to see a matching superior smirk on his face as he stood from his seat. Guards quickly surrounded him, their guns at theready.
“Tell her what?” His head whipped back around to where Thalia stood, barely able to hold her own weight as she leaned into Daniel’s protective embrace. He’d never seen her so broken. “What lies did he tell you,Thalia?”
“It’s not a lie!” She coughed on a sob and it took every ounce of strength he had left to hold himself back from her. “You’re amurderer!”
Grant’s world dropped out from beneath his feet. What was left of his heart exploded inside his chest, shattering into tiny shards and cutting away at his insides like a million razor-sharp blades. She knew. She knew about Issa and the look of disgust on her face was exactly as he imagined it would be. She was right. He was a murderer; a heartless monster. He had no right, no moral ground to stand on, but he needed her to understand. “Thalia, I…I was a coward. I should have told you, but I knew I’d lose you. I didn’t know. Not until I found his grave. I only left because I know how much you loved him. I knew you would never understand why I had to kill him. You have every rightto—”
“Lies!” Christ, he didn’t know if he could take this much longer. Every second that ticked by the pain and hatred in her eyes grew that much deeper. “I meant nothing to you! You hear me?Nothing!” Each of her words hit him square in his soul with enough force to make him stumble back several steps. “The only thing you ever wanted was that thumbdrive!”
“That’s not true!”How could she believe that?“Is that what he told you? That I killed Issa for the thumb drive?” No longer able to stand under the weight of her accusations he fell to his knees, for the first time in his life prepared to beg. He didn’t give a rat’s ass who saw him. He would do whatever it took to make the torment in her eyes disappear. “Thalia, please. You don’t have to forgive me, because I don’t deserve it. But please, please believe me. I swear to you. I didnotknow about the thumb drive until I met you! I would never betray your trust thatway.”
In a move so quick no one saw it coming, Thalia snatched Keller’s gun from his holster and leveled it at Grant. The room erupted in chaos, guns being drawn as curses flew from every direction. He didn’t so much as flinch when she stared down the barrel at him, raw and naked fury blazing in her eyes. He closed his eyes, no longer able to battle the sorrow that filled her soul. If sending him to hell would end her torment then he would gladly let her. She, more than anyone, deserved her revenge. She deserved to live a life free of pain and regret. She deserved someone who could heal the wounds left behind by so, so many; his mark the deepest of themall.
“Why else would you killIssa?”
He was struck by the tone of doubt in her voice, giving him little hope she would ever believe him. As significant as it would be to some, it wouldn’t matter to her. He didn’t give a damn about his oath of complete secrecy. It was all bullshit. Secrets had destroyed her life. After nearly dying in that explosion, he’d decided to tell her everything. There were going to be no secrets between them, ever. She deserved to know his enemies. Above all else she deserved thetruth.
He raised his head, opening his eyes to see her standing on her own, her shoulders squared back, the strength of a warrior shining through her pain as she stared down at him. At that moment he was in complete awe of her. No matter what this miserable world threw at her, she would never quit fighting. She would never lose the woman he’d come to love beyond all reason. Closing his eyes, he took a deep, satisfied breath. He wanted that image of her to be the last he wouldsee.
“Senator Collins lobbied for and sanctioned the hit on Issa. He signed the request and the executive office approved it. My orders were to kill onsight.”
“That’s why you wanted the thumb drive delivered to him.” Keller’s booming voice echoed above the quiet chaos in him mind. “Because he ordered the hit, you suspected he was working with Jauhar and would move to inform him. If the Senator was clean, the intel would be classified and dealt with using standard intel protocol.” His eyes remained closed, confirming Keller’s assumption only with a nod. “Jauhar ordered his death and Collins used you and the Federal Government to do hisbidding.”
Grant swallowed hard, knowing he could be speaking his last words. He didn’t want them to be about politics or death, but he needed Thalia to know the complete truth. “I don’t regret killing him, Thalia. Not then and certainly not now. Not when I know the truth of what he’s done to you and so many others. I only regret the painI’ve—”
The sound of a single gunshot was quickly followed by two more. The air burst from Grant’s lungs in a rush as shock and adrenaline poisoned the depleted blood supply left in his veins. He toppled forward into a heap on the floor, an unfamiliar, icy sensation creeping into his limbs. He heard shouts and curses, felt the vibration of the crush of people as they rushed the room, but he felt strangely disconnected from all the madness. Almost as if he was weightless and somehow floating above themall.
Thalia’s sobs finally broke through the haze of his confusion. Grant opened his eyes to see Jauhar lying on the floor across from him, his cold, lifeless eyes ironically accentuated by a single bullet hole between them.She killed him.She’d spared his life and killed the monster that had started itall.
Darkness flirted with his vision as he teetered on the edge of consciousness. His hooded gaze darted to Thalia, her unbearable sobs filling his ears as she lay collapsed over Daniel’s motionlessbody.
Twenty-Eight
Grant satin a rented sedan and watched the sun burn away the morning fog. In a strange sort of way he missed this place, but he didn’t think he could ever live on the mainland. As sprawling as the Montana Mountains were, it still felt too crowded, especially in small towns such as this one, with everyone knowing your every move the moment you made it. No thanks. He’d lived in the shadows too long to appreciate that kind of intimacy in hislife.
He’d promised himself a million times he wouldn’t come here. He’d spent thousands of dollars on plane tickets he never used. Normally he wouldn’t get beyond the packing stage before he talked himself out of it and cancelled the flight. Other times he’d sat at the terminal and watched as the other passengers boarded the plane, ignoring the flight attendant’s calls for him to board until they finally gave up and closed the boarding ramp. Those were the worst. He would sit and watch the plane take off, wondering what it would feel like to be on it, knowing he was that much closer to the woman who owned his heart andsoul.
He didn’t know if she was even here or if she would see him if she was. He’d spoken to Daniel only once, a few weeks after he’d been released from the hospital. One of Keller’s men had taken his orders to keep Jauhar alive quite seriously and tried to take out Thalia before she fired that fatal shot. Daniel saw it coming and stepped in front of the bullet, a dedicated father protecting his onlydaughter.
When he spoke to Daniel he’d said she hadn’t spoken a word since he’d brought her home from Navi; to Daniel or anyone else. She’d locked herself away in her mind, closing herself off from the world around her. Grant understood the need. Sometimes the only way to figure things out was to silence all the other voices that were shouting the answers so loud you couldn’t make sense of any of them. Unlike Daniel, he wasn’t worried. His girl was a fighter. He’d seen it that day, and every day since. Any time he closed his eyes she was there, standing over him with the strength of the world at herback.
Nearly six months had passed since that day in Navi. He’d told himself time and again that she didn’t deserve him traipsing back into her life, but he needed to know. He couldn’t crush the burning need to see for himself that she was alive and happy. To know that, above all else, she knew he loved her. It astonished him that he could feel it so deeply, so definitely, when before he’d met her he had mocked love’s existence. He was resigned to the fact it may never be returned. Love, as it turned out, is a more fickle bitch than fate. It haunts your dreams and plays games with your mind, using sleight of hand tricks to make you see the person you love in everything; on every crowded street, in every passing car, beside you in your empty bed. It was enough to make him go mad until he simply couldn’t take it anymore and got on that damnplane.
Now he was sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, staring at a quiet country house where he hoped he would find the answers he sought. A flash of light in his rear view mirror caught his attention. The large, blue pick-up truck slowed as it approached, the tinted passenger window lowering as it came to a stop beside hiscar.
“Are you going to go in? Or sit out here all day and bake in the sun like a cowpie?”
“Hey, Cade. Nice to see you again. I think.” He should have known Cade would make him. He was nothing if not a spook. He might be reaching the start of his golden years, but there was no such thing as a retired spy. If he ever did decide to move here, he would definitely have to buy an English-to-Spook-Hickdictionary.
“Followme.”
