by Chloe Barlow
“You hate me?” she taunted. “Then you hate yourself, because you did this to me. You ruined me, and you’ll ruin her. It’s all you know how to do. Killing me won’t fix you. Nothing will. You’re poison, Trey, and you always will be.”
Shame raced through him for a moment, but he shoved it away. This wasn’t a woman to be helped or pitied. She wasn’t the girl he had loved. A.J. had become Lexis, and she needed to be stopped.
“You wanted me to learn something? Well I did. You were right. We do have to make a choice in life. And this is mine.”
Trey pulled back the hammer and squeezed the trigger. The gun was pointed squarely at A.J.‘s cruel face, but just as it fired, a strong hand grabbed him, moving his arm so the shot went through A.J.‘s shoulder. She passed out quickly, but her life was spared.
He turned, pointing the gun at Louis.
“Why’d you do that? She needed to die! I have to stop her!”
Louis placed his hand on the gun, moving it, so its nose pointed at the floor.
“You’re not a killer,” Louis answered smoothly. “And if you do this, you will never be the same. Trust me…” He then held out his right hand to Trey. It contained a vial of fast-acting insulin, an individually-wrapped alcohol swab, and a syringe. “Besides, you have something much more important to worry about. You need to save your girl.”
“Why are you helping us? What do you want from me?”
“I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror and know this is where I drew the line.”
Trey turned to Claudia and his humanity slowly started to return. He replaced the safety on the handgun and slipped it into his waistband, before grabbing the items from Louis.
He then pulled the keys out of his pocket. Removing the Mercedes key, he handed it to Louis. “The Mercedes is yours. A chopper will be here any minute. Are you able to get out of here fast?”
“Yes, I collected what I need before I visited Agent McCoy one last time.”
“Good, then you’d better go, but if you ever need anything, you find me.”
“Take care of her,” Louis responded, before shaking Trey’s hand. He ran out of the room, disappearing from sight.
As soon as Trey restrained A.J., he sat beside Claudia on the bed. Filling the syringe with insulin, he moved the sheet covering her. He’d watched YouTube videos on how to do this when he learned of her condition, but he’d never actually done it. Swallowing hard, he opened her robe to reveal her legs.
She didn’t respond to his touch and he feared the worst. He didn’t know what a coma looked like, but he really hoped this wasn’t it.
“Please just be asleep. Then you can wake up. I love you. I love you,” he repeated over and over again, as he swiped the alcohol swab over her skin, inserted the needle into the subcutaneous layer of her thigh.
Once the injection was complete, he replaced the cover on the syringe and laid it beside her bed. Placing one arm behind her neck, and the other under her knees, he rose. Carrying her out of the room, he made it to the front door, unlocked it, and walked outside.
It was such a mundane and routine task — leaving a home, but nothing was simple anymore, at least not for them.
The sound of an approaching helicopter filled the air, but Claudia did not awaken. Its force caused the trees around him to shake, and filled his nostrils with the cleansing sensation of fresh mountain air.
The sound of the chopper’s blades slicing through the air grew to a crescendo. It was a sound more beautiful than a choir of angels, but Trey couldn’t feel peace.
His heart was breaking with every moment Claudia remained asleep. Several drops of water fell on her face, and it took a moment for him to realize it was his own tears.
Squeezing her frail form to his front, Trey buried his face in her hair as the helicopter touched down.
“Come back, little one. Please, come back,” he pleaded. “I’ll never let you be hurt again. Never. I’m so sorry.”
A soft humming sound whirred into Claudia’s ears, gently spurring her awake. She willed her eyes to open, though her eyelids felt as heavy as cement. The stark white of an unfamiliar room greeted her. She tried to move her hand and rub her face, but the sting of a needle in her hand and the attached tube stopped her.
“Careful, you don’t want to pull out your IV,” a man’s voice said, sending a jolt of panic through her.
Claudia sat up quickly, but immediately became woozy and leaned back against a pillow.
“Easy there. It’s okay. I’m Trey’s friend, Stephen. You’re in a hospital in Pittsburgh. You arrived by chopper about twenty-four hours ago.”
“Oh no, that means… Oh God, what did they do to Johnny? Tea and Griffen?”
“Don’t worry, they’re okay. Trey took care of all of that. He saved them. I suspect he had a little help, but you know how he loves his secrets.”
Claudia laughed dryly, taking a moment to register the many machines surrounding her, as well as to examine the shockingly good-looking Asian man in front of her.
He appeared to be about thirty-five, and of Chinese heritage, although he had an American accent. Despite being shorter than Trey, he was clearly lean and muscular under his black cashmere sweater, and expensive slacks. His eyes were nearly black, and appeared to be almost unnervingly perceptive.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Agent McCoy,” he continued, a small smile on his lips.
“You can call me Claudia.”
“You’re one lucky lady, Claudia. The doctors assure us you won’t have any permanent damage.”
“I guess my Irish half is worth something, after all,” Claudia joked.
Stephen laughed, and she noticed he had a killer smile.
“Trey got you out just in time, but you will need to rest and take a short leave from work,” Stephen said.
“What about Trey, is he okay?”
“Physically and legally. When we captured Lexis and her two thugs, we were able to clear him of David’s murder.”
Claudia raised her eyebrows at his reference to only “two” henchmen, but she kept her mouth shut. If Trey needed to protect Louis, then she would, too.
“The FBI wasn’t too threatened by a CIA man poking into their case?”
“I’m not really into labels, and besides, I don’t let those jokers at the Bureau bother me. No offense.”
“None taken. I’m pretty disillusioned with them myself. Seeing as I may not have a job with them anymore… What did you mean when you said Trey is ‘physically’ okay?”
Stephen opened his mouth to answer, when a voice interrupted him from the door.
“You’re up!” Trey exclaimed, and her heart almost exploded in her chest.
“I’ll let you see for yourself,” Stephen answered. He placed a business card under the edge of her sheet. “I believe we’re going to need to talk again…soon.”
Claudia knitted her brow in confusion, but the sight of Trey walking to her transformed her face into a broad smile.
Trey put down a bottle of iced tea beside her bed and simply stared at her for several moments. His hands were in his pockets and the pain in his eyes was palpable. A few times, he started to speak, but seemed to think better of it. Finally, Claudia broke the silence.
“Thank you for saving me, Trey.”
“Anytime,” he answered, his voice sounding strange and tight. “How are you feeling?” he continued.
“Pretty sore, like I ran a marathon.”
“Your body kind of did,” he muttered, still standing stiffly beside her bed.
She moved to touch him, but he grabbed the iced tea bottle again, busying his hands with opening it. “I remembered you like this stuff. I wanted you to have some when you woke up. It’s sugar free. Now that you have your glucose all fixed, I want you to make sure to be careful and…”
“Trey…you’re rambling,” she blurted out, laughing a little, but his frown never budged. He placed the iced tea down again and crossed his arms. “Trey, what’s wrong?”
<
br /> “I was waiting for you to wake up. I wanted to tell you myself that I’m leaving today with Stephen.”
“Why? To go where?”
“We’re going to hunt down the rest of A.J.‘s team. You won’t be safe until they’re all captured.”
“That was A.J.‘s mission, they won’t want me now. And what about your safety?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Bullshit. If you won’t stay for you, then stay for me. I want you here with me. I need you with me.”
“I can’t be with you. Not now. Not ever.”
“What?” she questioned, knowing the word sounded silly, but it was all she could force out of her mouth.
“You need to stay as far away from me as possible.”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“I destroyed your life, and I almost got you killed.”
“You saved my life. You are my life.”
“I can’t be. I’ll never put you at risk like that again. Some people are just meant to be alone. My dad was, and I am, too. I get that now.”
“That’s just A.J. talking. It’s not true.”
“Isn’t it? Look at how much I messed up your life. I almost ruined your career.”
“Everyone knows you didn’t kill David.”
“Now they do. Stephen and I were able to convince your boss you never knew I was a murder suspect, but that’ll be a hard lie to keep up if I stay here with you.”
“I don’t even know if I want that career anymore, especially not if I have to lose you.”
“You don’t really mean that. You dreamed of this your whole life. I won’t take that from you.”
“So you’ll take everything else?”
“I need to be responsible for what I caused, and that was putting you in danger.”
“I love you too much, Trey. I’m not letting go.”
“That’s why I have to be the one to let go. I’ll only hurt you again. Trust that what I am doing is right.”
“No! I don’t trust you know what is right at all, because there is nothing right about us being apart, you stupid son of a bitch,” Claudia pleaded. “I lived twenty-three years in the dark, waiting for you. I didn’t even know it was you I was waiting for. Maybe it was the idea of you, but I can’t go back to who I was before. She doesn’t exist anymore. I lived to find you and love you. And now you want to kill what we can become.”
“It’s because I love you too much that I have to let you go. I’m poison for you, your career, your dreams.”
“You’re my dream now, you idiot!”
Trey stroked his hand across her face and the slight touch twisted at her insides like a knife.
“You believed in me. Nothing will ever match that for me in my life. But you deserve better…someone who can take care of you. Someone who won’t let you get hurt.”
Claudia softened her tone, trying to take another tack with him.
“We’ve both been through a lot over the last few days, Trey. Let’s just take a couple days and revisit this then…”
“No. If I do that I’ll fall right back into the delusion a life here with you is something I can have. I’ve been thinking about how strong you are, but your weakness may be me.”
“My only weakness is a pancreas, which can’t effectively produce insulin,” she countered, and Trey’s small chuckle in spite of himself gave her a brief moment of hope. “What about Griffen? Johnny? Tea? Jenna?” she added. “They’ve treated you like family. You can’t just leave them.”
“Yes. I put them all in danger, too. If I’d been able to open my eyes and see A.J. for who she was years ago, this would never have happened.”
Whatever optimism Claudia had experienced in the last minute quickly dissipated. Trey seemed to be both defeated and obstinate, all at once, and the sight of it was infuriating.
“Screw you, Trey. Maybe you’re intent on destroying the world you’ve built here. But we’re real people. Not just ones and zeroes. And the only thing you’re really going to lose is yourself.”
“Maybe, but that’s a risk I have to take.”
“I guess you’re just going to let A.J. win. That woman controlled your life all these years and you’re letting her do it all over again. You know what you are? You’re a damn coward.”
“Even if I am, it’s still going to be the best thing that ever happened to you. I need to let you go.”
He turned and walked away. At the sight of him leaving, Claudia released a torrent of Spanish curse words and threw the plastic bottle of iced tea as powerfully as she could, in spite of the tube restraining her. It hit the wall nowhere near him, spraying liquid everywhere.
Trey looked at her one last time, his eyes glistening slightly.
“You hate me now, but soon you’ll realize I’m doing this because I love you. It has to be this way.”
He left, and in his place Claudia heard the approaching sounds of her mother speaking to someone in quick and worried Spanish.
Once again, Claudia was alone in a hospital bed with her mother outside the door in a tizzy. But this time she wasn’t a child — she was a grown woman with an aching body and pulverized heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Abeja, where do you want me to put the oatmeal?”
“With the cereal, Mama,” Claudia responded, wincing a little at her mother’s use of her nickname.
Her mind wandered back to Trey’s cabin, and the sweet moment when he’d watched her save a bumblebee. At the time, she’d been sure the brute force of her own determination would be enough to keep him with her. Yet, she’d been wrong.
That had been over three weeks ago. The empty reminders of her time with Trey continued to plague her, and each of them triggered different forms of melancholy.
Claudia sighed and placed a tote full of groceries on her kitchen table. She attempted to take a bag from her abuela, but received a slap on her hand for her troubles.
“No,” the elderly woman added, setting the bag on the kitchen counter. She removed a whole raw chicken, holding it up like a plastic-wrapped trophy. “I will make this for you tomorrow. This will make you feel better,” she declared, ending the discussion.
“Thank you,” Claudia answered, knowing a battle over food with these two women was one she would never win.
“We’ll have this all put away in no time, but then we do have to leave. Go and rest in the living room. You did a lot today,” her mother stated, concentrating intently on Claudia’s half-empty pantry.
Claudia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Mama, I’ve been resting for weeks now. At some point, I’m going to need to put my own food away.”
“Maybe, but that day is not today,” her abuela intervened, shuffling Claudia out of the kitchen.
Knowing it was easier to just give in, Claudia complied, overhearing her abuela clucking her tongue from behind her and lamenting, “Ay, Sofia, why does your daughter have so much cereal? It is not food… Pass me the rice…”
Claudia smiled, in spite of her desolate mood. This trip to the store had been one of the few times she’d left the house, other than to meet with the FBI post-trauma counselor, since returning from the hospital.
That didn’t mean she was alone, though. Between her mother and abuela’s constant visits, and Stephen assigning his beautiful agent, Feng Huang, to check on her daily, Claudia’s town house had more foot traffic than a bus depot.
Feng was a Shanghai pop star, which, according to Feng, worked as the perfect cover for her activities as a secret agent on Stephen’s task force.
She was certainly skilled at subterfuge, somehow managing to convince Claudia’s mama and abuela, they’d become friends through a long distance language partner program the FBI put together. The story was farfetched enough to make it believable — especially when delivered with the force of Feng’s seemingly straightforward, guileless charm.
What was true was how close a relationship she was developing with the young talented beauty. Feng u
nderstood how complicated it was to want success and excitement, but also love, and a future with someone. The way she described her work with Stephen’s team, also made Claudia yearn for these same types of challenges, which she’d only found while working with Trey.
Taking advantage of the fleeting moment of privacy, Claudia snuck over to her laptop. Two weeks ago she’d snatched Feng’s encrypted phone while she was in the bathroom, and implanted a worm virus she’d created to monitor the private network Stephen had developed for his team.
It had been effectively collecting information relating to Stephen and Trey’s efforts to capture the rest of A.J.‘s team. Perhaps Trey had kicked her out of his life, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t use all at her disposal to monitor his safety.
Claudia gritted her teeth at the data she’d recovered over the last twenty-four hours. For two weeks she’d tracked Trey and Stephen as they zigzagged around the world. Yet, over the last few days, she’d been unable to find any indicators of Trey’s whereabouts. She couldn’t help but fear for the worst.
Claudia proceeded to manipulate the code on her end to expand the bandwidth of data she would collect directly from Stephen’s devices, hoping the resulting information would give her some peace of mind.
Her front doorbell rang, and Claudia completed the modifications swiftly, desperate to avoid any snooping eyes.
“Claudia…” she heard her mother call after a few minutes, spurring her to quickly put her computer to sleep.
“Yes, Mama,” she answered, moving to stand beside the sofa.
Her mother looked at her with a large smile and flushed cheeks, which highlighted her already lovely face.
“Are you all right, Mama?”
“Your friend, Feng Huang, is here,” she answered, skittering around the room to fluff pillows and straighten the magazines on the coffee table.
“What else is new? She’s here every day,” Claudia pointed out, though her mother’s attitude had Claudia’s curiosity piqued.
“She brought someone with her, and let me just say… Ay dios mio, el hombre es muy guapo.”
“Mama!” Claudia exclaimed, laughing and wondering what man could elicit such a response from her mother. The woman was still stunning, as her successful reinvented modeling career attested, but as far as Claudia knew, her mother had lived like a nun since her father left.