Kill Shot

by Amber Malloy

  “I’m fine!” Ashe’d had to undergo extensive therapy to cope with her trauma. Hypnosis and medicinal marijuana worked wonders. Her time on the Cape had been fairly easy to manage, but now that things were ramping up…

  “Take this.” Eden dug into her purse and brought out an opal-and-sterling silver cigarette case. “Vann is funding a new medicinal farm, and… Well, here.”

  Grateful, Ashe accepted the gift. In the last few weeks she’d had a hard time fighting back the memories. She needed a nudge to keep the world from spinning out of control. After finally finishing the remodel of Walker’s house, the part-time job at the adoption agency had helped keep her mind busy, but it hadn’t been enough.

  It had become the perfect cover to track the Karhi Algharb movements on a different Wi-Fi network. However, if she didn’t keep working, the past pain would creep to the forefront of her mind, crippling her.

  “What’s my window to tell Walker about Sierra Leone?”

  “Not long. We think his partners are going to show their hand soon. You might want all of your cards on the table first,” Eden advised her before the two beauties stood and headed for the door.

  “Or what?” Ashe asked, saddened that her dishonesty might cost her the best relationship she’d ever had.

  “Let’s save the negativity for a later day.” Lola threw a cheeky wink in her direction.

  “I love the hair, by the way,” Eden said. “Very low budget 1960s cinema. Nice.”

  “Pinup chic,” Lola corrected.

  “Oh, you know the term ‘pinup girl’ but not POC? What the hell, Lola?” Eden blew Ashe a kiss. “Be good, sweet pea—or at least good enough for you.” The spies laughed before they left her alone.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Walker drove them from the airport to the Cape house in relative silence. After the spies had rushed her out of sight, Tank had found him at the bar. As he was certain the partners hadn’t handed the big man an invitation to the swanky gala, Walker knew this visit wouldn’t be good.

  Tank had suggested Walker dig into Ashe’s background. It needled Walker to think the big man knew something about her but wouldn’t give up the goods. A warning maybe, but Walker couldn’t be sure.

  Lights from the highway blurred past the car’s windshield. Walker glanced at the stunning woman. He attempted to beat back the mushy feeling that overcame him every time he laid eyes on her. Holding his hand palm up, he waited for her to accept it. For a moment, she only stared before she placed her hand into his.

  “Eden is the head of the agency who sent me to extract you,” he told her.

  “Okay,” she muttered. Ashe hadn’t said much since the spies had released her back at the gala.

  “What did you think of her?” he pressed.

  “She wasn’t the boogey man, if that’s what you’re asking,” she replied in a somber tone he didn’t care for.

  “Get to know her first before you come to that conclusion.” Determined to get the details about Raven’s disappearance first, he refused to allow J8 the benefit of the doubt. “She wasn’t too hard on you, was she?”

  “No, she wanted to know how I liked the Cape.”

  Ashe hadn’t said much since they’d left the gala. She was obviously distracted by something. “And?” he asked.

  “Huh?”

  “How is the Cape?” He hoped she would share with him what Tank had already mentioned.

  “Oh, quiet…peaceful,” she muttered.

  “Is that a good thing?”

  A slight smile graced her soft lips that begged to be kissed. Surprisingly, she lifted his hand to her mouth and pecked his knuckle. Distracted by her affection, he decided Ashe must have been one hell of an attorney.

  There had to be more than a part-time side hustle going on with Ashe’s secret adoption agency job. Since Tank wouldn’t tell him everything all at once, he resisted the urge to interrogate Ashe to find out how it all tied together.

  “I promised the guys we’ll meet them in Santa Barbara,” he stated, offering her the easy way out. Unfortunately, all lawyers were the same. They believed in manipulating any and all situations.

  “Oh, okay,” she muttered. “When?”

  “Not sure yet, but soon.”

  Ashe glanced out of the window, away from him, causing a heavy ball of pain to hit his stomach. For Walker, those warm, fuzzy feelings had never come easy. Maybe his high-school sweetheart bore remembering. Nevertheless, the high body count he’d racked up after Raven now barely registered. Once his fiancée had gone off the radar—or died, according to J8—he’d lost all connections to matters of his heart. For the first time in years, Ashe Marcille had reminded him that he had a pulse.

  * * * *

  A slow drizzle of rain pelted his suit jacket. Walker stood across the street from the adoption agency with his phone to his ear. Two weeks had gone by without Ashe uttering a single word about her extracurricular activities. The women’s shelter occupied the corner lot and a couple of doors down stood the adoption agency. For months she had split her time between the two places. What is she hiding? he wondered. The more Walker thought about it, the more he realized that he knew very little about the attorney. Bedazzled every time he laid eyes on the beauty, he’d never dug deeper.

  “There’s nothing about Ashe before her college acceptance, no pictures. I think she was the target the night you saved her, or—”

  “The case against the UN was the reason she was targeted,” Walker had finished for Tank.

  “Yeah, she has no electronic fingerprint and we both know there’s got to be a reason for that.”

  As a couple left the adoption agency, he wondered why all the secrecy.

  “Did you tell her about the partner meeting in California?” Tank asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you tell her anything about your plans for the weekend?”

  “That I hope to catch my partners in a lie or uncover hers?” Walker crossed the street and stood outside the store’s front window. He saw her immediately. Ashe was propped on the edge of a desk with the phone to her ear, her eyebrows knitted together in stern concentration. “No to both.” Simple Spy 101…never get personal. He’d screwed the pooch on this one.

  “This should be fun,” Tank said with a chuckle. “Let me know how it turns out.”

  After Walker hung up, he headed into the agency. The smell of pumpkin-spiced candles scented the room. From outside, he’d counted six women total in the building.

  “Hello, sir, may I help you?” He put his finger to his lips and pointed at Ashe’s back with a wink. Turned away from him, she played with the phone cord, twisting it around her finger. Close enough to grab her by the waist, he disconnected her call.

  “The phones are being bugged, and I’m almost positive it has nothing to do with the nice ladies in this office,” he whispered in her ear. “Now smile, luvie.”

  “It’s okay, everyone. This is my fiancé, Walker,” Ashe announced to the room, grabbing her coat off the back of the chair. She didn’t appear bothered in the least by his presence.

  “I just wanted to surprise her. We have a trip to Santa Barbara this weekend.” Feeling Ashe stiffen against the palm of his hand, Walker nudged her forward.

  “How romantic,” an older woman cooed on their way past.

  “So lucky,” another one said.

  While he soaked in all the office adulation, he led Ashe away from her desk.

  “Don’t worry about the Lester adoption,” an older woman gushed on their way out of the door. “We’ll find someone for that sweet girl. You just have fun.”

  They walked across the street. “Sweet girl?” he asked.

  “Foreign adoption. A little girl was returned.” Ashe got into the car.

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, seriously,” Ashe snapped. “People ain’t shit.” She reached for the door handle. Not waiting for his reply, Ashe shut the door in his face.

  * * * *

  With nothi
ng more than stilted conversation for a whole flight to California, Ashe and Walker arrived in the coastal town that afternoon. As they had been greeted by the bell hop, Ashe had popped a ‘special’ gummy into her mouth from the case Eden had given her to take the edge off her mounting anxiety. Ready for action, she strolled into the elegant hotel lobby, chewing on the drug-laden treat.

  “Hey, you…you there.”

  As she sailed past the lodge-sized fireplace, two women tried to get her attention. Walker had mentioned a late lunch with the wives but she’d made other plans in her head. Maybe an Uber somewhere else, anywhere else.

  “Ashe?” When the brunette touched her arm, she fought back the urge to knock her flat. “Hi, I’m Veronica, and this is—”

  “Let me guess…Betty?” Ashe chuckled, unable to resist the Archie comic joke. She suddenly felt the full weight of her candy treat kicking into action.

  “Who’s Betty? I’m Mickey.” The blonde stepped closer. She seemed genuinely confused, but her face appeared frozen—Botox?—so Ashe couldn’t be sure.

  “It’s an old comic,” she muttered, suddenly in the mood for something crunchy. “I think they based Riverdale on it.”

  “I love that show,” Robot-Face said.

  “Dylan Mckay,” Veronica squealed. “He’s my absolute favorite.”

  “Of course, that Brandon Walsh wasn’t a bad looker either.”

  “Who?” Ashe asked, confused by Mickey’s muted expression since it didn’t translate very well on her wrinkle-free face. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “90210. I mean, you just said Riverdale. Why else would you watch Riverdale if not for Dylan Mckay?”

  “Mark Consuelos,” Veronica offered with a snort of a laugh.

  “Ah, Walker is the dark, silent type, so you must have a taste for that sort of thing?”

  Feeling the conversation spinning out of control, Ashe muttered, “What sort of— I don’t watch… I simply said … Oh God, this is torture.”

  “Ladies, how are you?” Walker interrupted them. “I see you met Ashe.”

  “Yes, we were just talking about her favorite show.”

  “I’ve never even seen one episode of— Oh hell!” Ashe wandered to the front desk in search of a peppermint—or at the very least an Andes candy.

  “The guys are about to hit the course. Will you be joining them?” Veronica asked Walker.

  “We just arrived, and I was hoping to get a quick shower. But Ashe—”

  “No, go. Be bored hitting a ball with a stick,” she sang loudly. The effects of the gummy candy zipped through her veins. It was much stronger than her usual stash.

  “Are you okay?” he whispered close to her ear.

  “Don’t worry about your fiancée. We’re going to take good care of her,” Veronica assured them.

  “We’re finally going shopping,” Mickey cheered.

  “My favorite,” Ashe answered the idiots with a little too much enthusiasm.

  “Will you ladies excuse us?” Walked asked sweetly.

  Ashe tried to dodge his hand but he managed to grab her anyway. She was still annoyed by his surprise appearance at the adoption agency.

  “Sure,” Veronica told him. “I have to get the new credit card from Chad.”

  “And I need to go tell Dan we’re leaving.”

  While they walked to the elevators, Mickey laughed at Veronica—either at a joke or the paralyzed expression on her face, Ashe couldn’t tell.

  “We’ll meet you back here in fifteen minutes, okay?”

  Ashe smiled until they were out of sight, then she tried to make a run for it. Faster and not stoned, Walker held tight to her arm.

  “Are you high?” he whispered under his breath.

  “Yes.” She matched his tone. “And it’s a good thing, because those two just served up the dumbest conversation I’ve ever had in my entire fucking life.”

  “First off, you’re a lawyer—not to mention the million other reasons this is a bad idea.”

  Ashe shrugged. “For the past few months I haven’t been a lawyer, and if you think I’m going shopping with those two dim bulbs sober, blah,” she said, hoping the edible effects worked the whole night.

  “Cancel it. Tell them you’re jetlagged and you need to rest. Dammit, Ashe! I just want you to be—” Walker pulled her closer and took her lips against his. She laid her hands on his face before he pulled away. “Safe, I just want you to be safe.”

  Ashe searched his eyes and found no ulterior motives. Unsure how to process his sincerity, she gave him one of her sunniest smiles. “Shopping with the girls… What could possibly go wrong?” Bored, she caught sight of the hotel arrows that led the way to the spa and restaurant. “You brought me here to mingle.” Shrugging out of his grip, she slapped his ass on her way to where she hoped there would be an awesome plate of greasy fries. “Go have fun with your partners and I’ll go have stupidity with the BDBs you’re leaving me with.”

  “What’s a BDB?” he called out.

  “Brain-dead Barbies. Come on, Walker.” She shot him a genuine smile over her shoulder. “That was an easy one.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  As Dan waited for his turn on the green, Chad fussed with his next putt. Miles away from the wet and rainy shores of Cape Cod, Walker swiped the sweat from his brow.

  He hated golf.

  The late afternoon sun beamed down on him. Unfortunately, he managed to be better at the game than either of his partners.

  Around the first hole, Tank had emailed Walker the firm’s latest financial information. Thankfully, the ghost program Tank had created simulated funds in the account.

  For more than a year, Chad and Dan had been laundering money. Huge chunks would go missing, only to be replaced a short time later with a little skimmed off the top. He’d wanted to confront the morons right away, but Tank had convinced him to wait.

  After Chad missed his shot, Dan patted him on the back.

  “Better luck next time, buddy,” Dan said.

  Walker’s text alert went off. He shoved away his ever-growing irritation and pulled his phone out of his back pocket.

  “Uh-uh, no cell phones, Walker, my man. This is a serious game,” Chad complained.

  Ever since Ashe’s appendectomy scare, something had seemed off with her. He couldn’t exactly put his finger on it, but he’d detected a slight edge. And today she’d been high. Something was definitely going on that he had to figure out.

  “Come on, Walker, or we’re docking your score,” Chad called from the golf cart. They had three more holes to go. Walker hoped the sun would be too low for them to play any longer.

  “Go ahead. I’ll catch up.” He pulled his glove off with his teeth. Only God knows how much I hate dealing with these fools. Determined to shake off the funk his business partners generally left him in, Walker hit play on the recording Tank had titled ‘Must See’.

  Video from the program 60 Minutes opened to a blonde female reporter explaining the poverty in Sierra Leone and how missionaries were needed to rebuild communities. A picture-perfect family filled the screen. A mom and dad with two kids—a boy and a girl—stood in front of a freshly constructed home.

  Skinny, with a big smile, the pretty young girl stared straight at the camera. She couldn’t be mistaken for anybody but Ashe.

  “A devout religious man, Professor Marcille packed up his doctor-wife and kids, moving them to West Africa in an effort to help,” the reporter explained.

  A fireball of dread pitted in the middle of his stomach. Pictures of the family building the community center went across his screen. The video froze on the Marcilles’ smiling faces. “This is the last reported picture of the family before Calvin, Denise and Shawn were killed in a raid. Ashe became the only surviving member of the family. Beaten daily, the pre-teen was abducted and forced into an active role within the militia.”

  Dressed in fatigues and flanked by men, the young girl held a rifle. Stunned by the horror of what h
e was witnessing, Walker fell back into the driver’s seat of the golf cart his partners had left behind.

  “A few days away from being a child bride to Karhi Algharb leader Tariq Afia, she was saved by American armed forces.”

  Walker snorted. The U.S. military wouldn’t have issued such an order. J8’s fingerprints were all over it.

  The camera zoomed in on the reporter’s face. “Back on American soil, Ashe had to undergo rigorous rehabilitation…”

  A video played of Ashe in the hospital. While doctors stood around charting her progress, graphs were taken of the pre-teen’s demolished back. Bile rose in Walker’s throat at the abuse she’d undergone. Her skin was scarred and knotted in a crisscrossed pattern. “The orphaned girl had to piece her life together. Unfortunately, a conspiracy of the highest order pitted the damaged child against the entire scientific community.”

  Jagged pieces of Ashe’s life began to fall into place. At the time all this had happened, Walker had graduated college and gone into the military. Busy with his adult life, the story had barely registered with him at the time.

  A highly awarded scientist, Denise Marcille, had engineered a system with her husband. The invention collected rain water and redistributed it back to the drought-riddled soil.

  By the time Walker had finished the video, a twisted tale had unraveled.

  Several companies had sworn they held the patent on Denise Marcille’s device. Fingers were pointed and the competitors alleged that one of the more prestigious businesses had ordered the hit on the family. A bunch of lawsuits had ensued, and after the dust had settled, Ashe had become a ridiculously rich little girl.

  * * * *

  The premier winery of Santa Barbara offered WLK Security a tour. Since the men were running late, a guide took the women around the vast property.