Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
“ W hat the ? —?”
Ghost staggered backward, trying to process what she'd just said.
“Alek Markov is your father?”
Becca nodded, her expression pained, misery etched into every line of her face. “I’d love to help you, I really would, but how can I betray my own father?”
Ghost’s brain stuttered. It wasn’t often he was left speechless, but standing there, staring at her, his thoughts collided like a freight train.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered into the thick silence. “I should’ve told you before, but no one knows. Not even Ramirez. I hadn’t seen Alek for ten years, not until he showed up at the embassy and… convinced me to work for him. It was an olive branch, you know? A way to reconnect after being estranged. I thought maybe… maybe he deserved a second chance.”
He exhaled hard, the air rushing from his lungs like he’d been punched in the gut. It all started to make sense now—the way Markov watched her, how she deferred to him, called him Alek instead of the cold detachment she had with everyone else. She was his blood.
And he hadn’t seen it.
Fuck .
He’d compromised himself. Two years of undercover work, blown to shit in a single night because he couldn’t keep it in his pants.
Because of her .
The heat between them, that wild, mind-shattering sex… it had fucked with his brain. This was more than lust, more than the mission. She’d burrowed under his skin, made him reckless.
Pat would kill him. He’d blown his cover for what? A moment of connection? Of need? What the hell was he thinking?
He started pacing the patio, frustration churning inside him. His mind raced with a dozen thoughts, each more damning than the last. How could he fix this? How could he possibly salvage what he’d destroyed?
Becca watched him warily, like a deer staring down a lion that had just tasted blood. “I won’t tell,” she whispered, her voice thin and trembling. Fear flickered in her eyes, a spark of uncertainty that gutted him.
Damn it. He hated himself for putting it there.
“It’s not that,” he lied, his voice gruff. “I just can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.” Some undercover agent he was.
“How could you have?” She sank into one of the patio chairs, shoulders slumped. “Alek didn’t want anyone to know. He said his enemies would use me to get to him.”
Ghost clenched his fists. He was right. Markov had plenty of enemies, and she’d be the perfect pawn. A prime target.
“I never would’ve asked you to help me if I’d known,” Ghost muttered. Guilt crashed over him like the waves in front of his cabin.
She glanced up, her eyes filled with questions he couldn’t answer. “And you wouldn’t have told me who you really were, either. Would you?”
He didn’t respond. They both knew the truth.
“And just now…” Her voice wavered, barely holding steady. “Was that all a part of your plan? Did you come here to seduce me into helping you spy on him?”
“Of course not.” He tried to meet her gaze but couldn’t. It was more complicated than that. He didn’t know how to explain it, how to separate his feelings from the mission.
She dropped her head, a bitter laugh escaping her lips. “I see.”
“Becca, it’s not like that. What happened… that was real. It meant something.”
“Please, Dom, don’t make this worse. I’d like to keep what’s left of my dignity.”
His throat tightened. What could he say? He had come here to ask her to help him, but he hadn’t expected the flood of emotions, the connection that had sparked between them. It had all gotten tangled up in a way he hadn’t seen coming.
“I’d like you to leave now.”
“Becca, please. We need to talk this through.”
She shook her head. “There’s nothing else to say.”
He hesitated, rooted to the spot, unwilling to move.
Her face hardened, her voice sharp. “What did you expect, Dom? A happily ever after? You know there’s no such thing.”
Fuck, he felt like such a jerk.
“It was just sex.” She turned away from him and walked inside, her voice softening in resignation. “You know the way out.”
And just like that, she dismissed him.
He stood there like an idiot, staring after her.
Well done, Ghost. Way to screw everything up.
Eventually, he followed her inside, bending to grab his shirt from the lounge floor. He pulled it on, the scent of her still clinging to the fabric like a cruel reminder of what they’d just shared.
She was in the kitchen, her back stiff, her hands gripping the counter. Her whole body was rigid, vibrating with tension.
“He’s a bad man, Becca,” he said softly. “There are things he’s done that shouldn’t go unpunished.”
“I know.” Her voice broke on a whisper. “But he’s still my dad. And I’ve only just gotten him back.”
Ghost clenched his jaw, frustration biting at him. “He doesn’t deserve your loyalty. If things go south, he’ll throw you to the wolves without a second thought.”
“You don’t know that.” She swung around to face him, her eyes blazing with anger and fear.
“Yeah, I do. He’s a psychopath, Becca. He only cares about one thing—himself.”
For a moment, her expression faltered. He could see the doubt, the fear of what she already knew but wouldn’t admit.
“If you want to take him down, fine,” she spat. “But don’t use me to do it.”
“I won’t.” His voice was rough with emotion. “I just hope you don’t get caught in the crossfire. This deal is happening, whether you like it or not. The authorities are out for blood. We couldn’t arrest him in the U.S., but he’s going down, one way or another.”
Her shoulders slumped, the fight draining out of her. “He’s all I’ve got, Dom.”
He didn’t correct her, but she was wrong. She had him too, she just didn’t know it yet.