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Kayden shot me a cautious glance. “We hope that the bruises will sell his story.”
“What if they don’t?”
“Then the knife wound will help.”
“The what now?” I scrambled to stand. “He was stabbed?”
Kayden stood as well. “I had to make it look good.”
“Wait.Youstabbed him?”
“Here,” Kayden patted his upper arm, “where it bleeds a lot, so that he looks—”
“You stabbed him,” I repeated. Somehow punching him had seemed okay, a cover, but stabbing him? What if he got an infection? What if he bled to death? What if…
Kayden winced and patted my shoulder, and I don’t know what came over me, but I flipped him like he’d shown me how to do and restrained him. My success was short-lived because within seconds he had me pinned instead with one of his knives at my throat, but still, I felt triumphant, and despite all my fears, I got a burst of energy and even punched the air.
He rolled off me, laughing, lying on his back.
“Nicely done,” he said, and then reached over to pat my belly. “He’ll be okay, you know. He’s good at what he does.”
My smile slipped, I didn’t doubt for a single moment that Ethan was good, I wished he was here. “What about the rest of it? Danvers? Rouxier? That Mitchell guy?”
Nik appeared at our side, just as much a ninja as Kayden, and scared the hell out of me. “Okay, update,” He began, and I sat up. “We have enough on Danvers, and Rouxier to ruin them both.”
I wanted to be happy, but Nik stared at me, and I knew things weren’t right. Call it instinct or fear but my stomach churned.
“What Ethan accomplished gave us a lot of what we needed and we’re sending what we have to the Director of National Intelligence.”
I scrambled to stand. “So, Ethan comes home? It’s done?”
Nik was quiet. “We should probably talk.”
A sudden blackness consumed me. Why did Nik go quiet? What was wrong?
“Tell me.” I demanded, aware that Kayden had moved closer to me. What did he think was going to happen? Did he expect me to crumble? If it was bad news then I wanted to know—I deserved to know.
“Ethan’s tracker isn’t working.”
“Did he turn it off? Is it broken? Did they find it?
“No one would find it,” Nik reassured me as I blurted out my list of questions.
“Then what happened?”
“We don’t know.”
I gripped Nik’s shirt, sensing Kayden step closer to separate us, but at least he didn’t try pulling me away. “What. Happened?” I added a shake, desperate for information.
This time Kayden placed a hand on my arm to stop me, but I shook him off and give him his due, he didn’t fight me. I wasn’t a threat, I wasn’t dangerous, I wanted to know where Ethan was.
“We’ve lost track of him,” Nik admitted.
I dropped my hold of his shirt. “I don’t understand,” I moved away, deciding what to do next. They weren’t supposed to lose Ethan, they were supposed to work as a team on a foolproof plan, then bring him back so we could…
What?
So, we could have a tomorrow? The three of us? Me, him, Ben. All my daydreams faded away as I saw the awful truth in Nik’s eyes.
