Chapter 1 #2
“And nothing. Just keep him alive for three months.”
“Why does he need keeping alive?”
“He has something that is of interest to multiple parties. Including Number 10. This is big Kara.”
“If this is big, let the National Crime Agency deal with it. Stick him in protected custody if Number 10 is involved. Why come to us?”
“I said they were interested, not involved. Come on Kara. Whatever this guy has, it’s got some powerful people worried. It’s got him worried. So much so, he’s willing to hire us.”
“And how did he know about us?”
“That’s for you to find out. I need my best person on this, which, little one, is you. With his profile, he can’t go into hiding. He has to continue as normal. Which is where you come in.”
“How so?” I ask as I drop my bag and take back my seat opposite his huge desk again.
“Now I want you to listen carefully. Five million pounds and think with your head, not your heart. If you have one that is.”
I cock my head to the side and raise a middle finger, scratching my eyebrow.
Andrews grins.
“Who’s the target Andrews?”
“Not target Kara. Owen Cooper is the client.”
“Potato, Po-ta-to,” I retort, leaning back on my chair. “Never heard of the dude,” I continue as I shrug, leaning forward and grabbing a sweet from the small tray that’s on his meticulously clean desk.
“Just don’t get confused that you’re trying to protect Owen, not kill him.”
“I haven’t agreed to shit, Andrews. Why me?”
“All information is in here. Read it. I need an answer in the next five minutes.”
I clear my throat as he pulls open a drawer in his desk and pulls out a file.
“Five minutes? Jesus, Andrews.” I lean forward, opening the file, and I’m immediately faced with a picture of a man I’d recognise a mile away.
Something strange washes over me.
Memories, and…and something that I’d gotten so good at hiding that I barely know what to do with it…the emotion.
Emotion that I thought I’d buried so deep that I didn’t even know I could still feel it.
But here it is, wrapping its tendrils around my heart and stomach, along with my past that threatens to overwhelm me.
I drop my head and lean forward, elbows resting on my knees as I cover my face with my hands. My hands run down my face, and I flinch whilst my expression is hidden from sight.
“Cooper, he changed his name,” I whisper. “The target is Owen King. Fuck!” I puff out a breath and shake my head.
I’m hot.
I’m clammy.
I feel…fuck I feel everything.
My heart rate increases to a canter, my neck’s red-hot, and I want to pace.
Instead, I take a breath. I try to plant a neutral expression on my face, tucking the stray, loose piece of dark hair behind my ear, even though my brain is screaming at me to run a mile.
Screaming at me to say no.
That arsehole abandoned me. Why should I help him?
But—and I say but—there is also a part of me…that scared little girl that I used to be is busy remembering, reminding me of all the times he protected me.
I owe that little girl and that little boy enough to at least listen and read the file.
I’m tense but desperately trying to tell myself to relax. Andrews watches, pressing his lips together in a grimace. He knows he’s asking a lot of me and at least has the decency to look conflicted about it.
“Now you see why it has to be you, Kara. You are already embedded in his past,” he says softly.
I pull my eyes away from the picture and meet his. “I’m not in his past. Lucy was, and she’s long gone, Andrews. You helped bury her, remember?” I interrupt, looking back down at the picture.
“I remember.” He looks at me with sympathy. “It will be easy to slot Lucy back into his life. You can be reintroduced without drawing attention. You can bump into each other. Old flames ignited.”
“Logical.” I tilt my head, sucking the sweet. “But I’m in Owen King’s past, not Owen Cooper. How are you going to spin that?”
“Let me worry about the details,” Andrews answers, and I raise an eyebrow.
“What exactly has Owen got himself into that he needs protecting from? You said he has something?”
“He’s somehow tied up with what happened with the Covenant.”
Ah, the Covenant. London’s attempt at an organised crime syndicate. Four families in London split into four territories—North, South, East and West—with an agreement that goes back to the 1900s.
They’d been losing their footing to the Albanians, desperately trying to claw back control and power. But, it all imploded thanks to Luca Knight.
Who saw the opportunity to make his own move and well…I may have helped, just a teeny tiny bit.
Not that Andrews knows that. Nor does he need to.
“The Covenant is dead. We witnessed the aftermath.” Hell, I’m still living it.
“Come on, they won’t die easily. They are like cockroaches. And somehow, Owen King, aka Cooper, finds himself on their radar.”
“Well, that’s foolish,” I retort, trying to keep my voice level. I knew helping Luca Knight would come back and bite me.
“And since John Weston’s death, not to mention the Black family imploding, the remaining members are even more of a loose cannon, desperately clawing to hold onto their thread of power.
The leaders may be keeping a low profile, but I can assure you, the Covenant and its members are still very much in operation—and just as dangerous and poisonous as ever.
They will also do anything to stop whatever Owen has from getting into the public eye. ”
“You don’t even know what he’s got…I’m going in blind?”
“He has confirmed he will brief the assigned detail when they have been selected.”
“Hmmm,” I reply, mulling it over.
Owen Cooper, a politician. Looks like I wasn’t the only one who buried a part of themselves when they changed their name.
“Three months, five million pounds, no more me, and you don’t even need to kill anyone. This will be a walk in the park little one.”
It would be for a target who was anyone else other than Owen King.
I run my thumb over the picture.
He’s handsome, he’s filled out. He’s grown up. Gone is the little boy who I spent my childhood in the foster system with. Gone is the little boy who used to hide me in the cupboard from our foster father.
But also gone is the little scared, pale girl with dark hair who used to hide in the darkness until it was safe to come out.
Except sometimes I’d come out too early—and one day Owen stopped protecting me.
Lucy vowed to never be a victim ever again, and I had said goodbye to her fifteen years ago.
Now she is Kara Snow. I am Kara Snow.
I scan the file reading the information Apex has gathered on him so far.
Trust Owen to try and make a better life for others.
I wasn’t convinced that being a politician would be the way to do that, but at least he’s trying to make a difference.
He always said he would change the system for kids like us.
If anyone could do it, it’s him.
“Three months, five million, and we’re even?” I glance up and he nods, watching me as I glance back down at the picture. I lean down and open my bag, throwing the file in as it rests on top of the sniper rifle that has just claimed a man’s life.
“Okay, I’m in. Tell the target I’m in.”
“Client. He’s a client. Keep him alive, Kara. That’s your job. He so much as gets a splinter, and it’s our heads on the chopping block.”
I stand and grab my bag. “Don’t be so dramatic. I want all the information, though, none of this classified bullshit. If I’m going to protect him, I need to know why the Covenant wants him. Set up the meeting. I’m off for my bubbly bath.”
“Three months little one. Three months, and you can say goodbye to Lucy permanently.
I thought I already had.
Seems the past always has a way of catching up with you.