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There was a yelp, and then Lou was running onto the scene. The soldier who’d told Chet off smiled and settled his big gun to the side so he could catch her.
Everyone knew each other. Everyone except him. Lou was wrapped around the soldier guy, hugging him like she hadn’t seen him in years, and Cooper had joined Kara.
He was so slow right now. It felt like his brain was moving through molasses. Tasha wasn’t who she said she was.
What had that man said? He’d declared he was CIA and then…
I suspect I’m going to get called out for ruining whatever play she’s running on you.
Tasha was a spy, and he was her target. He turned the words over in his brain, trying to make sense of them.
“Sorry, Tash. I think Colin called them,” Nate was saying.
“Could you put on some pants?” the big guy asked her, his head shaking. “Did you forget everything I taught you?”
“Eto ne to, chto ty dumayesh,” Tasha said to the guy, who was obviously the boss.
Was that Russian? Tasha spoke Russian?
“Tak ty ne prosto perespala s obyektom svoyego nablyudeniya, dochka?” the man replied.
“Ian,” his partner said, his name an obvious threat.
The big guy shrugged. “It’s all fucked up anyway, baby, and I seriously doubt Mr. Nash speaks Russian. Do you speak Russian, Mr. Nash?”
“I don’t think I speak English right now,” he admitted. He felt so out of place. “I also don’t think I’m needed here any longer. I’ll let you people have your reunion.”
This wasn’t about him. Someone had lost an operative and somehow that had brought these people in to screw over Tasha’s plans. What the hell were Tasha’s plans?
Pain threatened. He could feel the bitter edge of it, like the knife point pressed against him but it hadn’t broken the skin yet. It would gut him if he let it in. Her betrayal would end him in a way nothing else could. Not his father. Not his mother’s death. Tasha would be the one who forever taught him he was worth nothing.
“Dare, we have to talk.” Tasha stood there, her eyes wide and pleading.
Not five minutes before it would have worked on him. He would have given her anything, moved heaven and earth to get her to smile. She’d had him around her finger so tightly he’d been willing to risk everything for her.
It had all been a lie. She didn’t love him. She’d been using him. Like everyone used him.
“We have nothing to talk about…” It occurred to him that he didn’t know her real name. “What should I call you?”
“Tasha. My name is really Tasha,” she said, tears shining in her eyes. “I didn’t know who you were when we met.”
Sure she hadn’t.
“I’m going to tell you everything I can, but I have to talk to my team because something’s going on here,” she explained. “I promise, I’ll tell you everything and I’ll make you understand.”
The key was in that first night. That was when her play had begun. She’d wanted Brian at first. That had been obvious. When had she figured out he was the actual target? All questions he would play through his head probably for the rest of his life.
Shame ripped through him, curdling up like bile in his gut. He was such a fucking fool. He should have listened to Brian. Brian was the only person in the whole fucking world who looked out for him. Brian was his only friend, and he hadn’t listened to a word the man had said. Brian had known something was wrong.
A thought occurred to him. She’d been so willing to bring him here. Had that been part of the plan, too? “Did you take photos? Run some film of us playing?”
She knew his background, knew this part of his life was utterly unacceptable to his father. It would be an excellent way to control him.
Tasha looked startled at the suggestion. “No. Dare, why would I do that?”
“He thinks you maneuvered him into this position so you can blackmail him,” Kara said quietly. Except this time her Australian accent was gone. She said the words with a flat American accent.
One more lie.
Tasha reached up and clutched his arms. “I would never do that to you. Never. This was for us. Only for…” She bit her bottom lip. “I’m not going to lie to you anymore. I won’t ever lie to you again. There was something going on tonight. I have to talk to my bosses before I reveal that to you, but no one else will ever know you were in this club.”
Except for all the people who already did, including the asshole who’d obviously had a relationship with Tasha. He stepped out of her grasp, not able to handle having her hands on him. That was when he realized what had happened. “Who downloaded my laptop?”
