Chapter Fifteen
They’d spoken for hours and neither of them had made any headway in their positions despite each other’s efforts.
If Olivia pretended to see eye to eye with Sean too quickly, too easily, he wouldn’t buy it.
“You must be famished.” Sean stood from the chair. “We should eat. You’ve got to keep up your strength now that you’re pregnant. I suppose congratulations are in order,” he said, no hint of happiness in his voice.
She tried to recall how much of her conversation with Eli had been inside the motel room, where Sean had been watching and listening. She drew a blank.
He opened the door and poked his head out. “Can you bring us two bowls of stew, a jug of water, and a cup of juice?” Turning, Sean glanced at her. “It’s beef. I trust you still eat meat.”
“Yes.”
Sean leaned against the doorframe and stared at her. “Are you excited about the baby?”
She wrapped a protective arm around her stomach. “I am.”
“You probably never thought you’d be a mother.” A statement, not a question. “I think you’ll make a great one.” His eyes shone with affection. “The best.”
“Will I live long enough to find out?”
“That’s the goal, Dove. I’m working very hard to make sure that you do.” He smiled, and it was warm and sincere, and she almost believed him. “How far along are you?”
“Two months.”
Brandon came into the room, carrying a tray.
Straightening, Sean stepped out. He went into the other room directly across the hall.
She spotted a desk inside, with a large, printed document on top, possibly a map or a blueprint.
Various pictures were pinned on the wall, but she couldn’t get a good look at them from her vantage point.
Sean poured scotch into a glass. Shutting the door again, he came back. “Thank you,” he said, and the other man left them. Sean sat and held up his glass. “Let’s toast to the baby.”
She grabbed the jug and a paper cup.
“It’s bad luck to toast with water.”
Olivia set the jug down and eyed the orange juice. The sweetness could hide any number of sedatives.
Sean took the cup from her and swallowed half the juice. “It’s fine. I wouldn’t drug you,” he said, and she tilted her head, scrutinizing him. “Not while you’re pregnant.”
He handed her the cup and raised his glass again, his green eyes beaming. “To a smooth pregnancy, a healthy child, and your heart’s desire,” he said, his earnest tone warming her.
After telling Eli about the baby, Sean would’ve been the next person. Even before her parents.
Smiling, she tapped her paper cup against his glass and sipped the juice.
“I mean it.” He took a swallow of his drink. “I only wish your heart’s desire wasn’t Eli. You deserve so much better. How long have you two been together?”
The question was a taunt. He knew exactly how long.
“Five years? And he’s still stringing you along. I bet he doesn’t even want to be a father.”
Her tiny spark of joy turned to ash in her mouth. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Had she pleaded with Eli in the room, to tell her how he felt, with her bleeding heart on her sleeve, with Sean listening? “He wants to marry me.”
“Of course he does. Eli is nothing if not predictable.” Sean crossed his legs. “Tell me about the proposal. Was it a grand romantic gesture? Eli down on bent knee holding a ring?” His tone was laced with sarcasm. “Did he tell you he couldn’t imagine his life without you? That he loved you?”
Stiffening, she pursed her lips. Trying to drive a wedge between her and Eli only made sense. It’d make it easier for him to recruit her. She couldn’t blame Sean for the effort.
But the blow was perfectly aimed, hitting its mark, and it stung.
Sean chuckled. “From your expression, I doubt it. Let me guess how it really unfolded. In bed. Postcoital. In a rather clumsy, perfunctory manner. No declarations of love. No ring. Because he only proposed out of a sense of obligation.” Another scathing laugh.
“I’m glad you didn’t say yes and instead hung on to your dignity. ”
She wanted to squirm from humiliation but resisted. Sean had overheard the most embarrassing part of her conversation with Eli.
Now Sean’s words echoed in her head, chipping away at her heart. Precisely as he had intended.
During their time as partners, she’d shared too much with him. He knew her too well, understood her vulnerabilities, her one weakness, and stabbed her right in the soft underbelly.
“At the motel, why did you make the bed?” Anything to change the subject. “Instead of simply leaving the note.”
“To see if being with Lover Boy dulled your edge. A keen eye is essential to survival in our world.”
True. It was also true that she’d been distracted because of Eli. She should’ve noticed the made bed as soon as she walked in the room.
“I need to share something with you.” He eyed her carefully. “Something I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time.”
“You’re back from the dead. If not now, then when?”
Smiling, he leaned toward her and put a hand on her knee. “When I was trapped in the OmniSight server room and I swore I was going to die, do you know the hardest part? What made it excruciating?” Staring into her eyes, he paused. “It was the thought of never seeing you again.”
Her gut clenched.
Was he serious?
Was Eli right about him, that Sean’s feelings for her weren’t platonic or familial in nature? Or was this part of the game to lure her to his side?
“I love you,” Sean said. “I have since our first mission.”
She held his gaze, searching for any flicker of deceit, any sign that those words were merely a calculated maneuver. But the raw emotion etched on his face was undeniable.
“Don’t,” she breathed, her voice barely a whisper. “Don’t do this.” She moved her leg from his grasp. “I love you, too, but not like that.”
He looked vulnerable, almost heartbroken. “Because Eli met you first. By only a few months.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Do you know what is simple? The fact he’ll never give you what you need, what you deserve. Or that baby. But I would give you both everything.”
“Please, stop.” She lowered her head. “For over two years, you’ve pretended to be dead. Now, I find out that not only are you alive, but you’ve become a terrorist. A murderer capable of crossing any line. No matter how wrong it is. That terrifies me.”
He got up and strode to the window. Looked outside. “A strong part of me doesn’t care if what I’m doing is right. It only cares about what I can bear to do for the right reasons. To stop the corruption. To stop Aegis and its clients. One at a time.”
“Could you bear to kill Eli if he got in your way? And me, if I did the same?”
She loved Sean, once considered him a brother.
A guardian angel, the way he insisted on handling the most dangerous part of their missions, like planting the bomb in the server room.
He was smart, compassionate, strong. And ruthless, sometimes, but that wasn’t bad.
Justice, even nature, could be ruthless, too.
But hurting Eli, hurting her, that would put him past the point of no return.
“Could you?” she repeated.
“If I have no other option.” His gaze slid back to her, and she saw a flicker of pain in his eyes, a fleeting shadow. “But there is almost always another choice. That’s why I brought you here.” He came closer and knelt in front of her.
“I don’t understand.”
In a blink, Sean whipped out handcuffs and restrained one of her wrists to the bed frame.
The sensation of the cold metal against her skin made her adrenaline spike. “What are you doing?”
“What I have to do in order to keep you safe.”
“You promised to let me go.”
“And I will. Once I’m finished in Montana. If I released you now, it would be war between us. Casualties you care for. Do you want that?”
A cold dread crept up her spine. They wouldn’t win a war. Not against Sean. “No.”
“Neither do I.” He removed her belt, checked the buckle for a weapon, found it, and grinned.
Then he probed in her hair for pins or anything else she might’ve had tucked in her bun that she could use.
His touch was clinical, devoid of affection, and it made her skin crawl.
“I gave Eli a task. Something he needs to do if he wants to get you back quickly.”
He was holding her here to keep her safe. The possibility of quickly wasn’t a factor in the equation. It was part of the game.
“What task?”
“Go to Aegis and get the NOC list.”
Stunned, she reeled back. “Lauren will never give it to him.”
“Certainly, not. I’d love to get my hands on the list, but it’s a fool’s errand.”
“You always underestimated Eli.” Never gave him enough credit. “He’d move heaven and earth to get me back.”
“I’m counting on the fact he’ll try. Eli is a damaged soul, but he cares about you.”
Everyone had some degree of damage. Who was the homicidal terrorist to judge?
Sitting down, Sean picked up one of the wooden bowls and spoons and began to eat.
“I’ve removed the queen from the board. The IPS pieces will scramble around, solely focused on getting you back, instead of what I’m planning to do next.
Which will allow me to eliminate the final target here without your interference.
Then I’ll disappear until I’m ready for phase two in a different state. Or perhaps a different country.”
Aegis had clients worldwide, but this all felt like it was personal to him. She had a hunch he would remain in the Northwest region, the same sector of the country they were both from and loved and had been assigned to work for Aegis.
“Who’s the final target?”
He grinned. “Someone whose death will make a statement.”
“You promised to answer any question.”
“I have. I didn’t promise you’d like the answer.”
She smothered a useless sigh. “How long will you keep me here?”
“Tuesday, you’ll be released.”
Trapped for three days.
“I hope by then,” he added, “I can get you to see reason. To join this cause.” His gaze raked over her. “To join me.”
That was never going to happen. “If I don’t, why would you let me live, since I take it I’m the only one who knows your real identity?”