by Violet Paige
“This isn’t a game. Our clients are worth billions. That’s with a B. You take the assignment, carry it out like last time, and everyone wins. Mrs. Auclair has access to her husband’s private safe. We need you to get us that code.”
I blinked. “Are you crazy?”
She cut into the chicken breast on her plate and dipped it in a sauce. “No. Do I seem like an impulsive person to you? We need the code. You have the appropriate cover to get access to their flat.”
“Well, I’m not going to do it.” I folded the napkin in my lap and pushed back, ready to leave the table. After the last time, I wasn’t going to do Eloise’s bidding again. I had promised Vaughn. I had promised myself.
It wasn’t worth pleasing her only to have to turn around and try to put us back together. I knew he could handle anything and everything Blackwing threw at him. He didn’t need me to do this. If Vaughn needed the code, he’d find a way.
“Sit down,” she hissed, gritting her teeth through a smile. “I have more to say.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You’re not going to say it to me. I don’t work for you, Eloise. I don’t appreciate the drop by visits, or the lunch. Leave me alone.”
I moved away from the table, but her hand clasped my wrist, gripping against my watch.
“Ow,” I whined.
“You can’t walk away like that.”
I shook her off my arm and rubbed my wrist. “I’m not a recruit. I don’t care how much you threaten me. Vaughn can handle what you need him to do. He’s very good at his job. Leave me out of it. I won’t get that code for you.”
I ran out of the café before she could stop me with another assault of lies or manipulation. Before she broke through the thin wall I had built. Before she used my love for Vaughn against me.
Chapter Twelve
I poured two glasses of wine. The wine fridge was stocked with expensive delicious bottles. It wasn’t the kind of small cooler that looked as if it would fit in a dorm. No. This was a full-sized fridge, taller than I was.
I ran my finger along the counter. My eyes darted to the door every few seconds, watching the keyhole. Waiting for Vaughn to turn the lock and walk through the door.
Not long after six I heard the familiar click-click. The handle twisted and the door opened.
I took a sip of the red wine.
My gorgeous boyfriend walked into the kitchen. I offered him a glass.
“Hi, honey. I’m home.” He grinned.
“Hi.” It was hard not to smile, even when I was tense. Even when I was coursing with fear.
He kissed the side of my neck before accepting the glass. He eased onto the stool across from me.
“Something is going on.”
I nodded. “Something is.”
He took a swig of wine. “Fuck. I haven’t even been home five minutes.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
His fingers dug into my thigh, firm and reassuring. “Tell me what it is.”
“I want to know what your arrangement is with Blackwing.”
He drank another full gulp. “I don’t have an arrangement. I have a contract. Is that what you mean?”
I shook my head. “No. I want to know about me. What do they have on you?”
He blinked. “Where is this coming from?” His hand fell from my leg.
“Can you just answer? Be honest with me. That’s the agreement you and I have, isn’t it?”
“Of course it is, but where is this coming from?”
I sighed. I didn’t want to tell him about Eloise before I had the facts. I saw this happen in deposition after deposition. Revealing the source of the information first, often made the cause seem unimportant. I needed the cause.
I pressed him with my eyes. “What did you have to negotiate in order to bring me with you to Paris? I’ve always known there was something. I should have asked before now.”
Vaughn rubbed the side of his jaw. His wedding band caught the light. “I had to extend my contract with them. That’s all.”
“What kind of an extension?” There was no way it was that simple. I thought I was starting to understand more how Blackwing operated. It wasn’t the kind of organization that focused on family first. There weren’t any families.
Vaughn placed the glass on the counter. “Does it matter?”
“It does. How long is the commitment? What did they make you sign?”
He chuckled. “There aren’t signatures in this kind of work.”
“Ok. Then what?”
He pushed off the bar stool. “I sat in back-to-back meetings at Mertech today. I had one plan on the way home. Want to hear it?”
“What was it?”
“I want to take a hot shower with you, finish this bottle of wine over dinner, and then take you to bed.” He winked.
It would be easy to fall into his arms. Let him strip me bare and get lost under a rain shower of steaming water. But the problem was that when the shower was over—when the bottle of wine was empty and he was asleep next to me on his pillow—Eloise would still be in the background. She would be back. I had no doubt.
“I would love all of those things,” I admitted. “But we have a situation.”
He nodded. “Ok. Let’s hear it. The real reason you want to know about my negotiation.”
“Yes. And her name is Eloise.”
“Fuck,” he growled. “What is it this time?”
“She tried to give me another assignment today.”
Vaughn’s eyes were wild. “She did what?”
I bit my lip. “I refused it. But I don’t think she believed me.”
He gripped my arms. “What was the assignment?”
I swallowed. “She wants me to steal the code for Paul’s personal safe from Aubrey.”
Vaughn stepped backward. “I’m going to kill her.”
I gasped. “No. No.”
“I’m not actually going to kill her.”
“Oh.” I let out an anxious breath. “Ok. Good.”
“What else did she tell you?” he asked.
“She said the client moved up the time table. And she needed my help in order to move things along. Not much else. It got a little heated when I refused.”
“I bet.” He closed his eyes. “She’s not used to hearing no.”
“It doesn’t seem like anyone ever tells her no.”
“They don’t.”
I grabbed the bottle to refill our glasses. “Last time when I agreed to help her, I just did it. She scared me. And I thought I was helping you.” I placed the cork back in the top of the opening. “There was something else I never mentioned to you.”
His eyebrows raised. He was focused on me.
I had kept this confession inside for months. “I wanted to try it. I wanted to know what it felt like to do what you do. I wanted to see how easy it was to lie. I wanted to understand it.”
“And did you?” he asked. “Did it do all of that for you? Did it answer all your questions, babe?”
I shook my head. “I thought it did, but the adrenaline didn’t last long. It certainly didn’t last long enough to want to do it again.” My eyes lifted to his. “I don’t want to do it again. I don’t want to be Eloise’s puppet.”
He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. “You won’t. You aren’t going to be anyone’s puppet.”
I inhaled the scent of his faded cologne on his shirt, somehow still crisp after a full day at the office. My hands slid to his back.
“I’ll leave the assignments to you. That works for us, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it does. It works.”
I couldn’t help the lack of control I felt. The creeping fear that everything around us was bigger than we were. That we could be swallowed up whole and no one would even notice.
“What do we do? Eloise is going to keep popping up. I was in the flower shop this time. The furniture boutique last time. I never know when I’m going to see her.”
I could hear the hammer
ing of his heart. Feel the heat of his chest. I wanted to stay here in this place of complete protection. The place where Vaughn kept his arms around me and the rest of the world couldn’t break through.
Vaughn peeled me off him. I didn’t like the break in contact. I’d rather be tangled with him the rest of the night.
He took my hand. “Get your coat. We should enjoy the night down by the Seine. It’s been weeks since we’ve taken a walk together.”
“Wh-what?” I stuttered.
We weren’t even half drunk yet, but had he lost his mind? The last thing I wanted to do was distract from this discussion with a change of location. “We’re in the middle of something here.”
He eyed me. “I want to get some fresh air. Get your coat. Let’s go out.”
I grumbled and walked past him. It wasn’t until we were outside the apartment that I realized something was different. Vaughn’s stride was faster than usual. He led me down a set of steps that emptied at the walkway along the river.
“I think we need to change our topics in the flat,” he explained.
I shoved my hands into my leather gloves. It was freezing out here. “What are you talking about?”
“If Eloise needs you, there is a good chance the apartment is bugged. It didn’t occur to me until we were too deep into that conversation.”
“What?” I didn’t know if I could keep moving. Vaughn pushed his fingers through mine and locked our palms together.
“Keep walking,” he whispered.
“I-I don’t want to go back if it’s bugged. They are listening to us? Spying on us?” I wondered what they heard. What kinds of things had we said to each other? Did they hear me sing while I prepared dinner? Did they hear us have sex?
“No,” I whispered. “No.”
“I don’t think it was a problem before today. It’s the type of thing Eloise does when she’s upset—she looks for ways to find leverage.”
My eyes flared. “Leverage to use against me. You mean to make me work for Blackwing?”
“Yes. She’s searching for something.”
“Well, she’s not going to get it. I’m not going back in there.” I wasn’t supposed to be attached to the flat, but I was. It felt violated and tainted now. The idea that someone had broken into the apartment and planted a bug made me want to throw up. How could I ever pretend that was ok?
“We’re going back. But I need to talk to you out here. I want to tell you what I’ve been thinking. Today confirms it. It just came a lot sooner than I was expecting.”
“What?” I almost whined. “What’s happening?”
He pulled me next to him on an empty bench. We watched a riverboat pass, carrying tourists on a dinner cruise.
“It’s time to leave Blackwing.”
Chapter Thirteen
Of all the things Vaughn could have said, that wasn’t remotely close to anything on the list of options.
“What did you say?” I stared in bewilderment.
Even through the bulkiness of our coats, I felt his warmth when he tucked me close to his body. It made me feel more grounded. Even though we were shivering from the cold, we were still connected, keeping each other warm.
“I said I think it’s time to leave,” he repeated.
“But why? What happened? You’ve never wanted to leave. Never.” God, I had asked so many times. Too many to count. I wanted him to quit before I left DC. I wanted it on our island vacation. When the nightmares started. Even when they stopped. But somewhere along the way I had stopped asking. Stopped believing there could be a life without Blackwing. I didn’t know if I lived in denial or acceptance.
His voice remained low. “They did the one thing they swore they wouldn’t do.” There was an iciness in his voice that was chilling, even though I knew it wasn’t directed at me.
“What was that?” I asked.
“They brought you in. You were off limits.” His jaw moved sharply when he spoke. “You were always off limits, babe. I can’t trust them anymore. If they’ll go after you, then there are no limits. No lines they won’t cross.”
There was something inside me that wanted to jump up and down. I wanted to scream and shout that this should have happened months ago. I wanted to hit him and punch him for taking so damn long to figure it out. And yet, I wanted to hold him. I wanted to get us through it. I wanted to love him for finally arriving at this place. A place that had always seemed obvious to me, but that Vaughn wasn’t willing to acknowledge until now.
“How do we walk away?” It was a frightening question. There were plenty of nights when I stared at the chandelier and imagined how it would even be possible.
“This is what I’ve been thinking about. We can’t just up and run. Too many people are already looking. Add Blackwing to that tally and we would be found quickly.” He waited while an older man walking his dog strolled past our bench. The man shuffled his feet, scattering gravel with every step. “People don’t leave Blackwing, Em. It doesn’t happen. There are no retired agents. There’s not a pension plan. The only way out is making our own exit. We have to create a door that doesn’t exist. And once it’s built, we have to run.”
“What if we run back home?” I suggested. “Asked the FBI to help us?”
He shook his head. “I’ll be behind bars the rest of my life.”
“But you could offer them something. Give them information on Blackwing in exchange for immunity.” I didn’t want to admit how many afternoons I had spent in the library, researching cases from old U.S. legal journals.
“That would be an option for you. You don’t have a criminal history. My crimes are too extensive and have gone on for too long. The FBI doesn’t want to barter with me. They want me to hang for what I’ve done.”
My skin crawled when he spoke like that. I wasn’t going to let that happen. “I’ll negotiate for you. We’re a package deal, right? Agent Kenneth would listen to me.” I twisted the leather on my gloves. “I think he would if I explained everything to him.”
“I love that you want to do this the right way. I love that you still believe the good guys are out there. It’s why I have to get out. If I don’t, they’re going to take that from you. They will wipe out every trace of goodness. I’m not going to be the reason that happens. We’re going to run. We’re going to build that exit. I swear.”
I searched his eyes. I was petrified. “How?” I whispered.
“It’s the only time I’m going to ask you to do this, but you’re going to have to lie, Em.”
I nodded. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get you away from them. To get us away.”
“We’re going to have to go on the offensive on two sides. It’s not just Blackwing. It’s going to be the FBI. Your friend Agent Kenneth too.”
I was confused. “Why is he a part of this?”
“We have to hurl Blackwing and the FBI at each other. The only way we can run is to start a fire so big between those two they won’t see us run through the smoke.”
“You think I can do this?” I wished it wasn’t as dark here. I wanted to see his eyes. I wanted to see the truth in his expression when he answered.
“There is a reason Eloise tried to recruit you. Blackwing knows you can handle it. I know you can handle it. It’s the way your mind works. That legal brain of yours, sorting through details and stacking them in categories. I’ve seen you do it a thousand times. And you never forget a date or a name or a face. You’re logical. Calculated, even though you don’t see yourself that way.”
“And now that’s a good thing? My legal brain?”
“Yes. It has always been a good thing. It’s an asset now. Rely on that to help me work through the plan.”
I nodded. “And then what?”
“And then I give you a happily ever after.” He smiled softly.
“Is that even possible?” I didn’t want to give the hope a place to live, but it was swelling in my chest. Wrapping around my heart. Making it pump faster and harder.
“We�
�re going to do this together. And I’m going to marry you. We’re going to have a house full of kids. And a dog. I’ll buy you five dogs if you want. We are going to be so damn ordinary.”
I laughed. “Really?”
He cupped the side of my face. “Really.”
He tasted like the wine. Our mouths crashed in hungry force. As if we were fighting to stay alive. Fighting for each other. Fighting for that beautiful future he promised me. His tongue twisted and turned, drawing purrs from my throat. I could see the dream he painted. Living somewhere in the European countryside. There was a garden and dogs running in the yard. And I was pregnant with Vaughn’s baby. There was even a picket fence in the yard like I had seen on so many of the houses here. We didn’t care about Blackwing anymore or running from investigators. We didn’t live with shadows overhead or around the corner. All we cared about was the family we were making and the life ahead of us.
He rubbed the side of my cheek. “Is that what you want, Em?”
“God, yes. It’s what I’ve always wanted.”
He kissed me again before offering a hand to lift me from the bench.
He pressed his lips to my temple. “I never wanted it before. But I want it now. I want it with you. I want to have the most boring ordinary life with you.”
I laughed. “Boring? I don’t see how five dogs and three babies could ever be boring.”
He tipped my chin forward, catching my mouth with his. “I’ve never wanted boring so badly.”
“Me either.” I breathed.
He slung an arm around my shoulder as we headed back to the apartment.
“Everything has to stay normal inside,” he warned. “Keep talking about everything we usually do. Don’t change your schedule or any of your habits. Eloise will notice.”
“I don’t like that she knows so much about us.”
“I don’t either.”
We waited for a car to roll past so we could cross the street to our building.
“One last thing.” He stopped in front of the giant doors.
“What’s that?”
“I think you’re going to have to get that code from Aubrey.”