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“They…” Mason looked around and lowered his voice. “They are part of a terrorist group, Emma. Or at least they’re closely associated with them. This isn’t a game. We got lucky today.” He shook his head, and his fingers grazed the cut on my chest. “Despite everything, we got really, really lucky. That won’t happen again.” He stood up. “We’re disposable. Don’t make it easier for them to do.”
I chewed my lip, debating if I should reveal what I had discovered earlier, that I knew someone who went by The Viper was attached to the string of attacks. I didn’t know how much I could get out of Mason, but it was a start, and knowing, even if he wouldn’t outright admit it, that we worked for the same organization, the same agency, the same division, it made me feel a lot less alone.
16
MASON
“Leave it alone, Emma.”I gripped the edge of my kitchen sink back home as she continued to dig.
“If you would just share some information with me, maybe I could figure this out.” She huffed.
I spun around. “Don’t you get it? I don’t want you anywhere near any of this. It’s bad enough that I got you a job here, but you just need to keep your head down and do the work. Stop digging, stop prying into everything. Please.” I begged her.
“Why won’t you tell me anything?” She pointed her finger at me. “I’m on to you Mason, I know you know far more than you’re letting on.” She shifted in her seat, her voice more soft. “Who was that terrorist organization, and what did they want to do with me and you? How did they know we were?”
“I’m not at liberty to share.”
“Why won’t you help me?” She pleaded right back, “Why won’t you help me get out of this?”
“What?”
“The agency. I want out.”
“Emma.”
“If I could just figure out who's behind this, maybe I can deliver Viktor a big win. Maybe he’ll renegotiate my contract. Let me leave. I don’t know, I’m desperate. I’d do anything to get out.”
“Oh, Emma.” My heart sank when I realized her main motives for why she was going after this like a hound. I closed the gap between us and hesitated before stopping in front of her. I nearly took her face in my hands, but after that night in Iran, I’d found my resolve and I hadn’t slept with her again, but the tension between us remained taut and my desire to reach and touch her nearly broke my resolve. “There is no getting out. I’m so sorry about that. I wish… I wish I hadn’t helped recruit you in the first place.”
“Don’t say that. If you hadn’t, I’d be in prison. We both know that… but that doesn’t mean I want to be trapped by Viktor and by this damn agency for the rest of my life. I want out.”
“What would you even do?”
“I don’t know. Anything. Everything. Just exist, have a life, have friends.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Find time for a lover, maybe.” She turned away from me and went back to working at her computer on the table.
“I care about you, Emma, deeply. But we can’t be together like that. We just… we can’t.” The amount of guilt I carried for not only what had happened to us in Iran in that cell, but then that I’d fucked her on every surface in that little room, whispering things I shouldn’t have to her, trying to wipe away the pain we’d both endured in those moments.
I shuddered and tried to ignore the shiver that ran down my spine at the memory of those little whimpers and sounds she had made under my touch. The ones that made me hard just thinking about them. The only resolve I had was to try to make all of this right by never sleeping with her again.
She sat there silently typing, and then her shoulders slouched. She leaned on her hand. And then cautiously, “What do you know about The Viper?”
I ran a hand over my face. “For Christ's sake, how do you know about that?” This girl, this woman, she just couldn’t help it. Over and over, she was flirting with danger.
“I know that he’s linked to what happened to me at the house. I know that he’s attached to nearly every security breach we’ve had in the past three years. And I’m almost positive that someone on this inside is working with him.AndI know you have heard this name before by the look in your eyes.”
This time, I did take her face in my hands. She stilled at my touch. Her eyes became softer, more hooded. “Emma, you’re the smartest woman I know, but sometimes you can be a real dumbass.” I couldn’t help the corners of my mouth from twitching up, and hers did as well. And then I became more serious. “I mean it, I’m not going to tell you what you’re saying is wrong, because you know better, but I am going to tell you that you’re in way too deep. You shouldn’t even know names like that. It’s… it’s not safe. Do you understand? Do you get what I’m trying to tell you?” She chewed her lip and her eyes drifted to my lips. “I’ve been trained, trained to deal with and handle what we went through in Iran, and worse. You haven’t–”
“How do you know I haven’t been trained?” She taunted, “I could be higher up in the organization than you.” She raised her brows, and I chuckled. I had to be careful how I broached this subject with her. She still didn’t know I was her team leader. “I just know.” I responded. “You’re not cut out for those kinds of situations, nor would I expect you to be.”
She got quiet for a moment. “Mason, whydidyou bring me with you?”
“I didn’t want to leave you alone here.” And I hadn't. I didn't know if she was safe. I didn’t know if Viktor would get any bright ideas and take things further with scaring Emma, or worse.
“Why not? You don’t think I’m safe?” She spoke evenly, but her eyes were combing over my face, searching, trying to decode all the answers she could tell that I wouldn’t give her.
I sighed, “I don’t know. I don’t know if you’re safe here alone. That’s why I brought you.” She nodded and left it at that.
I went back to doing dishes, and we were both quiet for the rest of the night. Emma stayed furiously working away on her laptop and I didn’t bother to ask what she was working on, and I had my own follow up to do after the mission went sideways in Iran. I had to figure out who had killed Armeen, and why, and who the man who had taken Emma was. It could have been a random abduction, but I seriously doubted it. He knew too much about Emma and I for that to be the case. But I didn’t bring any of that up with Emma.
