35. Nash
35
NASH
I ’ve been going crazy, pacing my home, waiting for Elena to get back from whatever depraved party Manuel’s dragged her to. I haven’t been able to eat, drink, or do anything except pound the punching bag in my gym for hours on end, envisioning every single person who dares touch my Elena. The sound of a car pulling up outside the house stills me and I quickly duck into my bedroom and peer through the blinds. That’s not Manuel’s car, but a man gets out and opens the door for Elena. I watch as her long, tanned leg touches the ground, the thigh split exposing her peachy ass. She smiles, laughs, and waves goodbye to whoever is in the car and watches it drive away. She looks fine. Her clothes aren’t ripped and her makeup is still in place, as is her hair, as she slowly walks toward the front door.
“You’re home,” I exclaim as I open the front door.
She stares at me for the briefest of moments as I catch her off-guard, and the next thing I know, she launches herself into my arms and hugs me tightly.
“Are you okay?” I ask, placing her feet back on the ground as I look over every inch of her.
The brilliant smile I get back from her eases my tension. “Check this out,” she says, grabbing a large red bag—not the one she went out with—and placing it on the kitchen counter. Then she tips out the contents—a pile of diamond jewelry.
“Please tell me you didn’t rob the cartel?” I question her because that is fucking stupid if she did.
She smirks and shakes her head. “I’ve been told it’s about twenty million dollars’ worth of jewels.”
“Shit, you need to take it back and hope nobody notices it’s missing.”
“No one is going to know it’s missing because the owner gave it to me.”
I’m so confused, what is she saying? Did someone give her all this for her services? “Who’s the owner?”
“Anna.”
I still. Elena bounces up and down. “You saw Anna.” She nods enthusiastically. “You spoke to Anna.” Elena nods again and I can see how ecstatic she is. “How?” I don’t understand. Elena wraps her hand in mine, walks me over to my sofa, and asks me to sit. She snuggles up into my side as I wrap my arms around her.
“No one touched me tonight,” she starts off. Oh, thank goodness. “Manuel did ask Pedro if he could keep me, though.” My eyes bug out. “Pedro said he could, but I needed to fuck him first.”
“Wait, what?”
“And if I did, he would grant Manuel a divorce from his wife to marry me.”
“He said that?”
Elena nods. “I was then escorted into a room where Pedro Dominguez was, and he basically interrogated me, asking if I am okay with this life. You know, all that stuff.”
“No, I don’t but continue.”
“Anyway, Anna came barreling in with a gun and threatened to shoot me because she thought I was a whore.”
“She didn’t recognize you?” I ask.
“Not at first but then it was all a ruse,” she explains. Right, of course. “Then Pedro told her that she needed to get to know me because I was going to be Manuel’s wife. I’m not, by the way, going to be his wife,” Elena reassures me. Like hell, she will be. “When I got up to her room that’s when she dropped her role as Annika.”
“And then what?”
“We cried and hugged. It was fantastic. Apparently, she was never missing, it’s just what the agency told me so I wouldn’t go looking for her. They told her the same thing,” she explains.
“Why would they do that?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know, but that’s what Anna told me.”
“She didn’t try to look for you?” I ask.
“She did but couldn’t find me just like I couldn’t find her.”
“You think you can trust her?”
“Yes, it’s Anna!”
“Is she still the Anna you know?” I question her.
Elena is quiet for a moment. “Some aspects she is.”
“What do you mean?” I push.
“She’s sleeping with Domingo.”
“She’s doing what?”
“Pedro knows about it. Apparently, he had testicular cancer last year and to secure his line every month she sleeps with Domingo to try and get pregnant.”
“That’s messed up.”
“It is rather weird, but I’ve seen people do worse stuff to secure their legacy. But she’s been sleeping with Domingo since she arrived.”
“And Pedro is okay with that?”
Elena shrugs. “He doesn’t know the full extent, I guess, but she says he is. Guess he’s desperate to secure his legacy.” I shake my head in disgust. “She said she slept with Manuel, too.”
“What?” Does this girl have a death wish? Does Manuel have a death wish?
“She said she forced him to. She enjoyed the power being Pedro’s wife afforded her so much so that she was lonely one night and crept into his room while Pedro was away, and he must have been staying there and told him he needed to sleep with her.”
“He could have said no.”
“She said she would tell her husband he touched her even if he didn’t.” I stare at her in shock. “I know, it’s not right. It’s just not something I would ever expect from her. Before we were stolen, she’d only slept with one person in college. She was more interested in getting to know someone before doing anything with them. She was shy sexually. Unlike me who was a little wild in college.”
“Who wasn’t,” I say, giving her a wink.
“I’m surprised you can remember all the way back to then,” she teases. Then her face falls. “Do you think the CIA knew this about us?”
“What do you mean?”
“About what we got up to with guys in college?” she asks.
“If they had been watching you for as long as they had been, then yeah, they would have.”
“Shit,” she says, jumping off the sofa to pace around the room. “That’s why they sent me to where I needed to be and why they sent Anna to where she needed to go. She was better suited to being a wife and I was better suited to being a whore.”
“Wait. No. That’s not it at all,” I try to reassure her.
“Did you know Anna has been going to fashion week all these years? Her closet is filled with designer clothes. I have twenty million dollars’ worth of jewelry she gave me in the kitchen. I hate that Anna got to live a cushy life, while I had to struggle to survive in the gutter every minute of the day.” The tears roll down her cheeks. “Why am I so angry over this? I should be happy that I found her. That she’s alive. But … I’m also pissed off that she seems to be living her best life all this time. I’m a bad person for thinking this, aren’t I?”
“No, never,” I reassure her, standing and pulling her into my arms. “You have spent years worrying about your friend.”
“I just … I’m exhausted, Nash. I don’t want anything to do with this life anymore.”
“What you are doing right now is admirable. You are saving a girl’s life, think of Pearl. And how she is going to be able to get out of the nightmare she’s been stuck in for who knows how long. I’m sure Pearl had dreams at some point, she probably doesn’t think she will ever get to see them again.”
She hugs me tightly. “Thank you. Seeing Anna living in the lap of luxury all these years, I guess, made me jealous. And that’s surprised me.”
“No need to apologize to me, you’re human, even if you don’t think you are sometimes,” I reassure her. “Look, it’s been a long night full of surprises. How about a hot shower and a foot rub before bed?”
“Just a foot rub?” She smirks.
“I’ll rub anything you want,” I tease, squeezing her ass.
After spending the night and most of the morning in bed, we finally get up and Elena calls Sophie to tell her what happened last night. I still can’t believe it’s played out like this. I’m glad it did because fucking Manuel and his cronies didn’t get to touch Elena and never will again. I have my reservations about her friend Anna, only because I’ve been living here since her reign of terror began. Now, could she be playing the part well and trying to slowly break up the cartel from the inside? There is that possibility, but the other possibility is she’s not playing and this is really her now. Elena is excited to get her friend back, and I would be, too, but I think she needs to prepare herself that Anna isn’t Anna anymore, that being that deep undercover for all those years has altered her. Just like being Persephone has altered her. But if I’m honest, I think Elena has dealt with the life she’s been given remarkably well, especially, for someone so young. I know I didn’t cope well, being in the military at that age, and I suppressed a lot of the horror I saw. I can see Elena is fighting her demons, but she knows she can rely on me whenever the fight gets too much, I’m happy to help.
Brooks: You trust this Anna bird?
The text comes through.
Nash: Not entirely.
Brooks: Me either. But Damon can’t find anything about her, she’s like a ghost.
Nash: That’s suspicious don’t you think?
Brooks: Fuck yeah.
Nash: She’s our only chance of saving those girls though.
Brooks: I know. Plus, Sergei misses his daughter.
Brooks: But I think you and I need to keep our guards up around her. You know what it’s like.
I know what it’s like falling for the enemy he’s saying.
Nash: I know, brother.
Brooks: I didn’t mean it like that.
Nash: I know but it’s the truth. You think you know someone, but you truly don’t.
Brooks: Ain’t that the truth.
Nash: I’ve told Ellie what I know about her friend from living here. And I think she gets it.
Nash: But she is excited to have her home.
Brooks: She probably feels like the nightmare of the last four years is finally over.
Nash: You think they are going to let her go?
Brooks: Don’t know.
Brooks: Will we be seeing you on that plane?
Nash: I’ve handed the bar over to Jose. Yeah, you will.
Brooks: There’s a job waiting for you when you get here if you want it.
Nash: A job?
Brooks: Yeah. Sophie’s family has their charity that saves women from human trafficking. We need good people on our team. I miss working with you.
Wow. I wasn’t expecting that.
Brooks: Think about it. But it will be good to see you again. Sophie and I should be arriving tomorrow.
Nash: It’s been too long. I agree. Wish it was under better circumstances.
Brooks: As long as no one is shooting at us I think it’s all good.
Nash: Can’t guarantee that.
Brooks: See ya tomorrow.
“All good?” Elena asks, walking in from the bedroom where she’s been talking to Sophie.
“Yeah, just been talking with Brooks. He offered me a job,” I tell her, gauging her reaction. I don’t want to assume that when we get to Ibiza what is happening here will continue. I want it to, but I also don’t want to come off as some clingy creep. Those green eyes widen, I love it when she doesn’t wear her contacts around me.
“He did?”
“I don’t have to take it,” I quickly add.
“You wouldn’t take the job, why?” she asks, tilting her head and trying to understand.
“That is your family, I don’t want to intrude.”
Elena looks at me, her brows pinched together. “What would you do instead?”
“I’d figure it out.”
“You wouldn’t want to figure it out with me?” her question is soft and unsure.
I hate the little bubble of hope that flares in my chest. “I don’t want you to think because we are hooking up here and I’m giving up all this, that what we are doing has to continue in Ibiza,” I try to reassure her. I want her to want me not because she feels obliged.
“You don’t want to continue?” she asks.
“I never want to leave your bed, but I also don’t want to force you to want me either.” I’m not used to showing my vulnerability to people. Elena gets up and walks over to where I am sitting on the sofa and pushes my shoulders back, then she straddles me, pressing her voluptuous tits into my face.
“People like us don’t let our guards down because if we do, we’re dead. I’m only going to say this once because talking about feelings is awkward. But when I am with you, I can let my guard down and I know that I won’t end up dead because you will always have my back.” I swallow hard at her compliment. “We’ve only been together for a short while, and I don’t know what the future holds, not just between us but for us individually, but what I do know is that whatever future we have I want it with you.”
Fuck.
That hits me right in the chest. I reach out and pull her lips to mine, she comes willingly as I capture her fully. The kiss is filled with all the words I want to say but don’t know how to say them. I hope she can feel the way I feel about her in this kiss. Eventually, she pulls away from my kiss and giggles.
“I’m going to assume that means we are on the same page.” Her beautiful smile lights up her face. How the fuck did I get so lucky? This woman could have any man in the word, yet she is looking at me as if she’s the lucky one.
“We’re on the same page, kitty. You and me against the world,” I tell her.
“The world better watch out then.” She chuckles.