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“I…” She couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Arrieta’s still form. “I thought I was dead. I thought for sure he’d shoot me and kill me, just like he had Nick killed.” Natalie shook her head. “I don’t know what to think. How did you guys get here so quickly?”
Two more ATVs pulled up alongside Kyle’s, and the rest of his guys climbed off. Kyle shrugged. “Brighton sent me Arrieta’s satellite coordinates, plus the schematics for the place. Finding these ATVs was just a bonus.”
“Right.” Natalie forced herself to look away from the body and holstered her gun. “Thanks for stopping him. And for saving my life.”
“Yeah.” Kyle narrowed his gaze on her and stepped aside as an ambulance approached. “Doubt he’ll be any use to you guys for a while, though. It looked like he smacked his head pretty hard on the pavement. Too bad. A bullet between the eyes would’ve been quicker and cleaner.”
Two beefy EMTs got out and loaded Arrieta into the back of the rig. “I hope you feel like you got justice out of all this. For Nick.”
He watched her for a moment, arms crossed. “When I was driving that ATV, I wasn’t thinking about Nick, Natalie. I was thinking about you.” He cleared his throat and looked away.
Hope flared bright inside her over his words, but she couldn’t delude herself. She had a job to do, agents to oversee, a case to close. He had a mission to complete and a team to run. He wasn’t here as her knight in shining armor. Kyle was here to do his job. They’d had a partnership, and he’d fulfilled his end of the bargain. No more, no less. “We’ll have to take you and the guys back to the Agency to debrief.”
“No good deed goes unpunished with the CIA around, huh?” Kyle sighed, then stared into the distance as the ambulance pulled away, sirens wailing. “I’m sorry about your job.”
Natalie frowned. “Why my job?”
“If Arrieta dies, I’m assuming you’ll take the brunt of the Agency’s ire, since bringing him in alive was your assignment, right?”
“Then let’s hope he doesn’t die.”
She headed to her SUV. Before getting in, she stopped and looked back at Kyle. “You and your team can ride back to headquarters with Doug and everyone else. I need to go to the hospital and make sure Arrieta is officially taken into custody.”
“Seriously?” Kyle glanced over at Doug and then back to her. “You expect me to ride with that guy?”
She climbed behind the wheel and started the engine, fighting back unwanted tears. She refused to cry in front of him, dammit. Refused to let him see how badly she was hurting, how every fiber of her being longed to collapse into his strong arms and never let him go. He’d obviously moved on from their night together, and so should she. She took a deep breath and forced words past her constricted throat. “Goodbye, Kyle.”
“Bye, Duchess.”
Chest aching and eyes stinging, Natalie took off fast.
* * *
“I believe that’s all the information we need, Lieutenant Commander Matthews.” The agent who’d taken Kyle’s statement stood and extended his hand. “Thanks again for your cooperation.”
Kyle shook the guy’s hand, then sat back. “Will Natalie be coming in soon?”
“Oh.” The man frowned, flipping open the folder in his hands. “Um, I believe Agent Matthews is off site at present. I’d be happy to give her a message for you, if you’d like.”
“Nah.” Kyle shook his head, then stared at his clasped hands. “I’ll just wait here until the rest of my guys are finished, if that’s okay.”
“Of course.” The man nodded and headed for the exit. “Thanks again for your help.”
Alone, Kyle exhaled slowly. Now that everything was over, emptiness settled inside him. It felt like he and the team had been going 24-7 since Nick’s murder. They’d spent virtually every waking hour together—searching, fighting, strategizing. Now, with Arrieta caught and Coran Williams in prison, Kyle wasn’t sure what he was going to do with all his free time. He could return to active service, now that his record had been cleared, but the thought didn’t hold as much appeal as it had in the past. He could maybe talk to some of his buddies who worked for private security firms, see if they needed an extra pair of capable hands.
Or maybe he’d settle down, buy a house in Virginia Beach, start a family.
Trouble was, the only woman who even remotely fit the bill for what he wanted in a wife, a life partner, wanted nothing more to do with him.
Making love to Natalie had been the single most incredible experience of his life. They’d seemed so in tune to one another, so right, so perfect for each other. He sighed. Maybe it was for the best for them to just have that one, perfect night and then go their separate ways. He wasn’t the easiest guy to live with, and Natalie had already been through so much. She deserved some peace and happiness. He cared for her enough to step aside and let her go find that, if he wasn’t the right man for the job.
Kyle stared up at the ceiling, his emotions tumbling like a dryer on high. Natalie’s words from their car ride to Atlanta resurfaced in his mind.
He wanted you to find your own way…find your own bliss.
Was there some deeper meaning in Nick choosing to tellNataliethat? Had his brother realized the feelings that Kyle harbored for his sister-in-law in spite of himself?
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Inside was a picture of him and Nick, taken just a few days before Nick had been shot. They were both laughing and joking around, shirtless beneath the blazing Afghanistan sun. He hadn’t looked at the photo since the day Nick had died, because it hurt too much.
