The Seduction of Lucy

by Kris Rafferty

  Lucy was finding it hard to swallow because she was so nervous. Outgunned and outmaneuvered, she nevertheless remained at the ready, searching for an opening so they could escape and act on the intel Troy had found, whatever that was. She glanced at him and saw he was handling the situation better than she was. He looked like an executive running a meeting and it was his turn to talk.

  He shoved his gun off the portfolio he’d been flipping through and held the folder up. “I know you’re running a fund-raiser, and I know how you’re cutting the budget.”

  Barrett shrugged. “I had to make up the difference somehow.”

  “By killing off competent, highly trained agents? How is that cost-effective? How is that in the interest of the Agency?”

  “I am the Agency. It’s time people start noticing that. Should I be expected to take a cut in pay because some suit doesn’t want to fund our bottom line?” Barrett glared. “Have you any idea how much money it costs to feed these agents? Why should I have to take the hit?”

  Troy slapped the portfolio on the desk and sat back in the chair. “I’ve got to hand it to you. You had me running in circles. The fake Cayman Island account, the shooter not evidenced on the stolen satellite feed, and then the most confusing bit, you not ordering Lucy’s cancellation despite the evidence against her. Instead you interrogated her. It was all a show for my benefit.”

  “It kept you busy and out of my hair. In fact, I had hoped to drag this drama out another week or two to finish the agent cleansing, get them at a sustainable head count, but you’re quicker than I gave you credit for. Having you and Lucy running around desperately trying to cover your asses was amusing to watch, but a necessary distraction.”

  Troy looked as though he wanted to throttle Barrett. “That’s why you didn’t cancel Lucy when you had the chance.”

  “I would have had to frame someone else, and that was too much work. Lucy had the added benefit of being important to you. Someone you wouldn’t rubber-stamp cancellation orders for.”

  Lucy felt sick to her stomach. So many deaths, days and nights filled with terror, loss and panic, all designed to pad Barrett’s paycheck.

  “For a man who breathes strategy,” Barrett said, “this week you thought with something other than your head.” She turned her attention to Lucy. “It’s hard to watch you standing next to Troy, like the wife of a disgraced politician. Troy, do us all a favor and tell her the truth before you die. Look at her.” Barrett adopted her schoolmarm persona. “She thinks you love her. You must have been working hard between the sheets to get her all starry-eyed despite your many sins. At least tell the girl the truth before she dies.”

  Lucy was shaking, waiting for Barrett to give the guards the signal to riddle their bodies with bullets. Their assault rifles at the ready, their composure calm, the guards would find it impossible to miss them. She was about to die. Barrett’s greed had taken hundreds of lives this week, Raven’s being only one of them, and she and Troy wouldn’t be the last. But unlike all the other dead, Lucy knew who her enemy was, and she’d be damned if she died in vain.

  Lucy grabbed the gun off the desk and aimed it at Troy’s head. Both rifles aimed at Lucy, but Barrett lifted a hand, stopping them from shooting her.

  “Have you been playing me?” Lucy didn’t recognize her voice. It was shaking, higher in pitch because her throat was closing. She swallowed hard, desperate to live this last moment with as much dignity as she could scrape together. Her heart beat furiously. It was hard for her to hear over it. She had to time this perfectly, or her efforts would be wasted. “For once, Troy, tell me the truth.” Her hand was slick against the gun grip, but she didn’t falter; she kept the muzzle pressed to his head.

  “Which truth?” Troy met her gaze, his expression sad. She realized he didn’t think she’d believe him no matter what he said. He was probably right.

  Barrett’s derisive laughter grated. Lucy felt her body go numb and realized she was going into shock. Her hands trembled and her vision clouded. This was it. The moment of her death. She wanted to tell him she loved him again but knew that would cancel out this last gambit. She’d told him once. It would have to be enough.

  Lucy swung the gun toward Barrett and fired. The Agency’s administrator fell to the floor with a bullet hole between her eyes, hair mussed, white suit soiled as blood pooled around her head.

  “That’s for Raven.” She dropped the gun on the desk and waited for a bullet to shoot her dead.

  The guards looked at Troy, their rifles aimed. He must have been holding his breath, because a burst of air came out of his mouth as his body slumped with relief. He pressed an intercom button and said, “Barrett is dead and I’m in charge. Did you hear enough to be satisfied?” Silence dragged on as everyone listened for a response.

  “We did,” said the unidentified man over the intercom’s mic. “We want a report by the end of this week. Good job, Garrison.” The line disconnected.

  Troy nodded to the guards. “Dispose of her body.”

  “Yes, sir.” They dragged Barrett from the room.

  Troy stood. “Janice?”

  Janice popped her head in and recoiled when she saw the blood spatter. “What can I do for you, Mr. Garrison?”

  Only the administrator got a last name in the Agency. It was less a status symbol than a reminder to all Agency personnel how disposable they were. Well, in the end, even Barrett was disposable.

  “I need maintenance,” he said. “I want her personal effects gone when I come back. Supervise. I don’t want anyone near the paperwork until I’ve had a chance to look through everything.”

  “Sir.” Janice stepped out of view.

  All of the pieces fell into place and Lucy no longer had questions.

  She’d been right. Troy had planned and executed a coup. That it had been in response to Barrett going round the bend made it understandable. Troy—or rather, Garrison—really was a Boy Scout at heart. She hadn’t seen that coming.

  Lucy wondered how much of his behavior with her over the last week had been strategy. He’d been up front with her, said she was their best agent and he needed her help. Well, he’d gotten it. Was he done with her?

  “If I’m not dying today, I’m going to get drunk,” she said.

  Without another word, Lucy walked out of the office, fighting her tears. He’d used her. Again. This time she had no one to blame but herself. She’d seen it coming, and like a moth to a flame she’d gone willingly. She loved the bastard. Had told him with witnesses. Her humiliation would be spread throughout the facility within the hour.

  The Agency’s intercom system switched on and Garrison’s voice boomed in every room and corridor of the facility, chasing Lucy down the hall. “Constance Barrett is dead. I’m in charge.” The transmission ended. No need for introductions. Everyone knew his voice. The elevator doors closed and she turned her back to the security cameras.

  * * *

  Troy missed the elevator going down. He saw the doors close Lucy inside just as he left his new office. “Damn,” he said.

  Janice shook her head. “She’ll be fine.”

  “I’m not so sure.” He slammed his hand on the elevator button. He had things to tell her, prepare her for, and he was afraid what she might do before he reached her to explain. It took him five long minutes to get to her quarters, and when he opened the door, the force of his arm had it slamming against the inside wall.

  Lucy and her mother stared at him. Marcy Harrington had her arms wrapped around her daughter, and Lucy was crying.

  Marcy spoke first. “Are you responsible for this?”

  “Yes,” he said. Every damn piece of their misery in the last five years had happened because of a decision he’d made to use Lucy and Marcy against the cartel. Two innocents. Innocent no more.

  “Thank you,” Marcy said. “Thank you for giving me my daughter back.”

  He knew Lucy couldn’t have told her mother the full truth, or Marcy would be swearing at him rather tha
n thanking him. He had so much he needed to say to Lucy, and couldn’t say any of it in front of her mother.

  When Troy had seen that Lucy’s mother was marrying the target, he’d known Barrett had decided to close out Marcy Harrington’s usefulness to the Agency and nullify Lucy’s no-kill order. He couldn’t allow Barrett to rain any more heartache on these women, so Troy had arranged to have Marcy hidden away until he knew she’d be safe. What better place than the Agency?

  When Janice saw that Barrett was dead, she had a standing order to get Marcy to Lucy’s chambers. It had been Janice’s idea. She’d thought Lucy needed her mother’s support, and she’d been right. Lucy had fallen apart, and guilt clawed at Troy, because he knew he was responsible for her pain. He felt like an intruder and backed out of the room.

  “I’ll leave you two to catch up.” He saw that Lucy was avoiding his gaze. His heart sank. She’d said she loved him, but he was afraid events made that impossible now.

  He left, not noticing the frightened glances of the agents he passed, or the maintenance people peeking around corners, through windows, studying him. He was the most feared person in a facility filled with trained killers, and yet he was so upset, it didn’t occur to him to notice.

  All he could think was Lucy had every right to hate him. He hated himself.

  * * *

  An hour later, Troy stepped out of the shower and heard a noise in his living room. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he retrieved his gun duct-taped under the sink and then opened his bathroom door, looking left and right.

  Lucy sat on his couch, staring at his television. It was off.

  Troy placed his gun on a bookshelf to his left and walked to her, standing over her. She didn’t look up, not at first. When she did, he could see her eyes were red from crying and her chin was quivering.

  “I should ask you to let me go,” she said. “You’re the administrator. You could do it. I could leave here with my mum and pretend this was a nightmare. You could arrange that.”

  Troy shook his head. “The gene therapy. The Agency doesn’t control the supplies. You’d be dead in a month. Don’t ask it of me.”

  Lucy dropped her face in her hands and sobbed. Troy sat next to her and pulled her into his embrace. Her tears dampened his chest.

  “Shh,” he crooned. “I got you.” Still she sobbed. It was tearing him apart. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he said. “If I could take it back, I would.”

  She gulped, struggling to control herself. “I’m so tired of being afraid.”

  Troy dropped his forehead to hers, breathing in her scent. “You’re the only thing that matters to me, Lucy. I love you.”

  “I want to believe you.”

  “I’d die for you. You know it’s true.”

  * * *

  Lucy embraced him, pressing her face against his neck. She did know it was true. He’d destroyed her and then remade her, and Lucy had been a willing participant because she wanted to live. It was time to stop blaming him and take what he was offering her.

  A life. A life with him.

  “My mission is to run the Agency,” he said. “You will be my number-two. I don’t want you on ops anymore. I want you by my side, safe.”

  “I’ll never be safe,” she said.

  “No,” Troy said. “I guess you’re right. But you’re loved. Tell me you believe me.”

  Lucy studied the sharp lines of his face. She could see he was suffering. “Words mean nothing here, you know that. You brought me my mum. Saved her. That told me you loved me.” She could see he was nervous because his hands shook and his usual mask of indifference was gone.

  “You may never be able to forgive me,” he said, “but I know you love me. You said you did. You love me.”

  Lucy caressed his jaw as tears spilled on her cheeks. He’d been everything to her for the last five years. Love, hate, fear, pleasure—every emotion in Lucy’s repertoire described her relationship with Troy.

  “I do love you,” she said. “And I forgive you.”

  “Stay with me.” He held her close, squeezing her so tightly it was hard to breathe.

  She caressed his back, still slick from his shower. “Where else would I go?”

  Lucy pressed her face to Troy’s neck. When they’d first met, she’d been weak, vulnerable. She couldn’t see past his ferocity, thought he was a savage. She couldn’t appreciate his worth, or understand him. Now, transformed by the Agency, Lucy recognized Troy as the man she needed.

  Garrison. The man she deserved.

  She wasn’t going to let anyone or anything take him away from her again.

  GRITTY, EDGY INTRIGUE, REVVED UP ROMANCE

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  ISBN-13: 9781460380246

  THE SEDUCTION OF LUCY

  Copyright © 2015 by Kris Rafferty

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