Chapter 10 #2
I'd been an agent for over a decade. I was one of their best teachers, and I'd only just been offered a place at the table.
But Ellington was arrogant and mercurial.
He wanted power, and when The Unseen refused to give it to him, he found another way.
These kinds of games were more like Ellington than I liked to admit.
"I'm here now. We can find him together," I said, my neck stinging when Lara's gaze shifted over my shoulder to the guard.
Had Lara replaced me so easily? My fingers shook so much I didn't trust myself to pick up my drink.
"What should I do?"
"Keep your eyes on me for a start."
Lara covered her surprise with a cough.
"If those messages were from Ellington, you're in bigger trouble than you think. I'll take an apology any time."
"An apology? For what?" Lara jerked her head back.
"How long have we known each other, and you believed I would say those things to you? You should get on your knees and beg my forgiveness."
Lara didn't soften. There was no flicker of fear in her guarded glare.
"I ceased to know who you were when you cut me off after fucking me." A wrinkle deepened between her eyes, the only sign of her displeasure.
I knew them all. I'd memorized everything there was to know about my Little Liar. Long before we fell into bed together. Lara was my obsession, and her taste ran through my veins. In my stomach, a sharp twist. The memory of her soft and pliant filled my mind.
When you touched heaven, it stole your breath, shook your foundations.
Lara scrambled me more than I wanted to admit, and I'd been egotistical enough to claw some of my cool detachment back after we'd slept together. It was a mistake. I knew it as soon as she said she was going to Greenich Bay. I cared about my work, but not as much as Lara.
"I don't process emotions the way you do—"
"Yes." She waved me off, stiff with stored hurt. "You don't need to say it. I was the stupid fool chasing after you for years, remember?"
"I don't feel, period. It's what makes me such an effective agent. I held you at arm's length for years, Lara. Not because I didn't want you. But I wanted you too much. Now, someone has been pretending to be me."
Lara stared down at the table, and I ground my teeth, knowing she didn't understand the scope of what I was saying.
"I know. I know." Some of her bitterness faded as she added. "I am sorry for ignoring you. I should have known better, but I was hurt."
The Unseen planned for instances like this. The eleven oversaw every order that went out, and this wasn't one of them. Which meant someone was playing a dangerous game. I reached over and cupped her hand, shivering at the warmth of her skin.
I tossed my head toward the guard, who watched us with an obsessive glint in his eye.
"What are you going to do about that? Tell the truth?"
Lara had built a life here. It was clear on the porcelain of her face. She was happy in a way she never would have been with me. But I refused to let her go.
Panic choked my throat. I would jam myself in the cracks of her new life until I became a part of it. I'd chosen my Little Liar years ago, and I was a patient man.
"They care about me, and I don't want to hurt them."
Them.
I sucked in a sharp breath, surprised by how much the slip of her tongue hurt. Like the oxygen had hidden barbs. I stroked my thumb over her soft skin, forcing the surge of jealousy simmering in my veins to hold. My missing piece was back, and I felt right for the first time in a long time.
Lara didn't know it, but I would burn the universe down for her if she asked me.
"Do you remember when I told you I would always take care of you? Something tells me things have changed." My grip on her hand tightened like a shackle, and she snatched it away with a grimace.
"You spent almost a decade drumming into my head how little you cared.
How could I have known you felt any different?
Since I've been here, I feel like I've found a family.
Adelaide is intelligent, ruthless, and I respect her.
She treats me like I fucking matter to her, and I won't lose our friendship.
You want to protect me, but I want to protect them. "
"Where does that leave me?" I laughed, a little hollow.
Lara belonged to me.
No matter what she might think. She'd had her time away, made a new family and connections.
She could love whoever she wanted, but she would always be mine first. I'd prove it to her in time.
She might be afraid of what was inside the organ in my chest, but I could still feel, even if the emotions twisted like jagged edges.
My love for her was leather gloves around the soft silk of a neck. My brand of love squeezed until there was nothing but death. There was no room for her denial. Lara would learn I was the best person for her. I would give her everything her heart desired except freedom.
"Where do you want to be?" She leaned forward but stiffened as the guard ran up to the table, chest heaving.
The whites of his eyes were bright as he tried to haul Lara up.
"Jonah, what are you doing?" She planted her hands and snapped at him.
He growled low under his breath, and I stood up, ready to defend her. The suit I wore hung in all the wrong places. I'd even unpicked one seam to make it look more worn than it was. My hair was deliberately shaggy, overgrown. With the gray threaded through it, I knew what the guard was thinking.
Bumbling idiot.
"Take your hand off the lady." Saliva pooled in my mouth at the hope that he would defy me.
I could shove his over-bound muscles through the table in front of us.
He stepped back, nose flaring as he let out a frustrated hiss. "Lara, we need to go. Someone tried to kill Adelaide and Ray."
Her spine sharpened, and we exchanged a charged look.
"Jonah…is she hurt? What about Ray?" Lara fumbled with her bag on the chair, and I knew her nerves were for more than her friends. Was this connected to The Unseen? Did Ellington decide to add some chaos?
Jonah's hand hovered in the air, but he didn't touch Lara again. He heeded my warning.
"They're fine. The shooter missed, but it was a close call. I need to go to them, and you need to go home. Stay safe—please." He gripped Lara then, searching her face with wild eyes.
"For me." He dragged the words from the pit of his stomach, low and heavy with meaning.
The apples of Lara's cheeks stamped red.
"I'll take her home." I told him, realizing I should probably pretend a little harder to worry about a blatant shoot out in the middle of the city.
The law didn't mean anything to me. I followed rules of a grayer kind. This was a convenient job I usurped so I could get close to Lara. Jonah didn't notice. His jaw clenched with mismatched priorities. He didn't want to leave Lara with me, but he had to go to his boss.
We all had jobs to do.
My stomach soared a little as he nodded, giving in to my offer. I would never choose anyone over Lara. She would realize that now I was here.
"I'll be fine. Go to them. Tell Ray to call me when he can, please." She toyed with the diamond necklace on her throat.
I bustled Lara out of the restaurant, tossing a pile of notes on the counter for our drinks. Her movements were jerky, so I hooked my arm around her elbow.
"Do you think this is connected to us?" Lara asked.
A group of giggling ladies wearing wedding dresses bumped into her. I pulled Lara into a side alley and pressed her against the wall. Her lips trembled as I tasted her. It was impossible to resist. She was like salvation, and it almost made me snap.
"Even if it is, we'll survive. But Lara, this has Ellington all over it. The messages, now this? He's toying with us. Ellington plays chess with people."
Her eyes glittered in the low streetlight, and a group of younger men strode past. They whistled and hollered out for us to get a room. Lara's breath puffed against my lips, and I pressed my forehead against hers.
"I've been here all this time and had barely a whiff of him." So much misery in her voice.
My chest ached.
"You ingratiated yourself with the one family he hasn't been able to infiltrate, not to the level you have. If you're serious about saving the Orazio's, you need to be strategic. Open communication with me. Yes?"
I didn't mention the offer The Unseen gave me, or what they'd said about Adelaide.
Lara didn't need anything unseating her.
She sighed and shifted against me. Her arms slipped around my neck as she sought comfort.
Her perfume settled over me—vanilla with jasmine.
The same one I'd bought her many years ago.
The scent of it followed me over the years and haunted me.
I let my nose drift into her hair and stole the warmth her body offered.
"Beck. I'm reeling a little."
"In the future, you'll lean on me, won't you? I know you've made connections." I refused to call them anything else. "But what remains to be salvaged after the lies? I'll still be here when they leave."
I couldn't help the soft prod. Lara had lived too long away from reality. She kept her head in the sand, believing the fake life she'd built. But she constructed it on lies. Her best friend didn't even know her true name. The men she was involved with didn't know her careful lies.
It was a time bomb waiting to explode.
I knew it, and so did she. Even though she didn't want to face it. When it did, I'd be there to pick up the pieces. Like I always would.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out with a sigh, turning to show Lara.
"Looks like The Unseen wants me to get to work right away. A joint mission, but you'll be the face. Can you still play pretend, Lara?"
Lara bit out a soft curse. "They want me to do what?"