Chapter 3 #2
I forget what it’s like when you touch me.
Yeah, they would be revisiting that statement.
First, though, he cleaned the wound. He could see exactly where the tip of a knife had sliced into her skin, but, thankfully, the wound wasn’t that deep.
His jaw locked as he tenderly cleaned the cut and applied the antibiotic ointment that had also been inside his new kit.
She was statue-still during his administrations, and when he finally pressed a bandage over her wound, Delaney released a slow breath.
His fingers lingered against her skin. “Why were you marrying him?” Him. Him and not me. You should have been marrying me. But he’d screwed that dream up long ago.
“Because Kurt said he loved me.”
But did you love him? She must have, right? To become engaged to the man in the first place?
“Kurt said all the right things. He did all the right things. He charmed and he lied and he had me believing that we could have a wonderful life together.” A shake of her head that sent her hair sliding over her shoulders.
“But he wasn’t the right man. I knew it deep inside.
I just didn’t realize how much of a nightmare he was until… ” Delaney stopped.
He waited.
She didn’t say more. Just stood there, in her underwear, breaking his self-control breath by breath. Heartbeat by heartbeat.
“Delaney.” A growl of her name. “Don’t leave me in suspense.
” If she wasn’t gonna talk, then he’d have to do it.
But, damn, how was he going to break the news that he suspected her asshole fiancé was an international criminal?
After what the man had done to her, Delaney should believe him, but then, once he started spilling about Kurt’s crimes, Nash would have to tell her his own secrets and that was going to get extra messy.
“I saw Kurt kill a man.”
“What?”
“I tried to stop him.” Another shake of her head. “I couldn’t. He just—he did it and he didn’t blink, and I was screaming and lunging for Kurt’s weapon, and I tried to help the man but blood was everywhere.” She peered down at her own body. “That was when he locked me in the closet.”
He tossed away the used medical supplies. Put the first aid kit near the TV. And he went back to Delaney.
The woman needs clothes.
He jerked off his shirt. Extended it toward her.
A frown pulled at her brows. “Why are you handing me your shirt?”
“Because if you keep standing in front of me just wearing your underwear, we’re gonna have a problem,” he rasped. Actually, they already had a problem. That would be the giant dick that was shoving toward her.
Her gaze darted down his body. Her stare widened, and then whipped right back up to his face. “You—”
“Have a hard-on for you? Always. Especially when you’re practically naked in front of me. So how about you help us both out and you put on the damn shirt?”
She snatched the shirt from him, but when she did, his hand twisted, flipped, and caught her fingers.
“Nash?”
He could see the red marks around her wrist. Rope burns. “Bastard.”
“I…” The tip of her tongue darted to touch her bottom lip. “I need to put on the shirt, remember?”
He brought her wrist to his mouth. Pressed a kiss to the red marks on her delicate skin. “I will kill him for you.”
A nervous laugh. “Doctors take an oath to do no harm, don’t they? I hardly expect you to start fighting for me.”
Oh, she had no idea. He’d fight for her until his very last breath.
He let her go. Watched as she pulled the dark t-shirt over her head. It fell down her body, swallowing her.
“Better?” Delaney asked him.
No, now she just looked like she was…his. Then again, hadn’t he always thought of her that way? Didn’t he still think she belonged to him?
“I’m sorry, but curiosity compels me to ask this. How are you even bigger now?” Delaney questioned him.
His dick was bigger because she was there, right in front of him. His dick always got bigger when she was close.
“Your chest—your shoulders, your—” Her hand gestured toward him. “Do you work out every single moment or what?”
Before he could say anything, she turned and scampered toward the bed on the left. She dove under the covers and pulled them up to her chin.
“Forget I said anything,” Delaney mumbled. “So the wrong time for me to say anything.”
Nash figured that was his cue to stop the questions. Fair enough. They both needed to crash but, first, he took out his phone. Fired off a quick text. Short and sweet.
Wedding stopped.
“Who are you texting?” Delaney asked, voice husky.
“Agnes.”
“Oh, good! Kurt destroyed my phone…”
His teeth could not clench harder.
“So I didn’t have a way to contact her again. Thank you for letting her know that I’m all right.”
Three dots appeared on the screen of his phone as Nash waited for his sister to respond.
Then…
What happened? From Agnes.
How to explain the situation? This was way more than they’d anticipated. This was—
Did she realize you still love her? Another text from Agnes.
Jeez. Could his sister not rip that particular wound open immediately? His fingers flew over the screen. Her dick fiancé tried to kill her. This is a five-alarm situation. Will brief you in the morning.
Three dots. And…
WHAT???
Then his phone was ringing because, of course, it was. Not like Agnes would ever wait for the morning to come. Sighing, Nash tapped the screen and put the phone to his ear. “I’ve got her.” His eyes were on Delaney right then as she huddled under the covers.
“What did you mean he tried to kill her? Why? When? How?” A rapid firing of questions from his sister.
“Don’t have all the details yet. I’m working on them.”
“Working on them? Working on them?” Her voice rose several octaves. “What does that even mean?”
“It means I stopped the wedding. I stole the bride. And I have her in a safe location.” Safe enough, anyway.
The no-tell motel was hardly his dream destination.
He’d be calling in some favors and getting a major security upgrade ready for them at the first opportunity.
“The details on the dick groom will be forthcoming.”
“Can’t you get those details now? Because it’s rather important, don’t you think? Know what? Forget it. Just let me talk to Delaney. I’ll get the details.”
“No can do. She’s in bed.”
A pause. A long one. Then… “In your bed? Is Delaney in your bed, Nash?”
“It’s not a one-bed situation,” he informed her, remembering Delaney’s words. “She’s been through hell, and she needs her rest. You’ll get an update tomorrow.”
“We lost touch,” Agnes said, voice sad. “After you and Delaney and…” Her words trailed away. “I don’t think she could be around me without thinking about you, so I wasn’t surprised when she left town, too.”
His jaw locked as his gaze drifted to the bedside clock. “I’m tired. It’s been one long-ass day. I have to go.” He didn’t want to take a walk down memory lane right then. “Delaney is safe,” he assured his sister. “I have her.”
“And are you going to keep her?” Agnes asked. Typical Agnes. No BS. Just cutting right to the chase. “Or are you going to let her slip through your fingers again?”
He could feel Delaney’s eyes on him. “I don’t like to repeat mistakes. I tend to be a one and done kind of guy.”
His head turned, and he caught Delaney’s flinch.
Shit. Baby, no, I didn’t mean I was done with you. He could never be done with her. He’d tried. That hadn’t worked, and he’d basically wound up doing a long-distance stalking routine with her.
“I don’t even have the groom’s full name!” A cry from Agnes that shrieked in his ear. “Tell me his name, and I’ll rip his life apart.”
Nash knew the dick’s name. He knew far more about the man than he should, and, until he got around to revealing that intel, he needed to play things very carefully. Lowering the phone, he tilted his head toward Delaney. “Agnes wants the full name of your groom.”
“Kurt Henry Wellington,” Delaney muttered. “The third.”
Nash repeated the jerk’s name.
“But I’m pretty sure he has a ton of aliases,” Delaney added with a yawn. “Right before Kurt shot that man in the warehouse…”
What freaking warehouse? He would have to do a full interrogation on her soon. Something he never imagined he’d do with Delaney.
“I heard the guy yelling, ‘Typhon, I won’t turn on you!’ and begging him to stop.
He kept calling Kurt this Typhon name over and over and then…
” A ragged breath. “Bang. I thought it was a firecracker, and I wondered why there was a firecracker in the building. I ran toward the sound, and Kurt was firing again. I jumped in front of him—”
The fuck she had.
“But Kurt shoved me out of the way and fired more at the bleeding man. I tried to help the victim, I swear, I did. I rushed to him. Put my fingers on his chest to stop the blood flow, but he just kept saying Typhon over and over as he died right there beneath my hands.”
Nash didn’t even blink.
“What is happening right now?” Agnes huffed. “I can’t hear Delaney’s words clearly.”
Oh, just a major clusterfuck was occurring. One that would now involve Nash having to call in some serious backup and potentially having to turn Delaney over to the CIA.
No, no, I won’t turn her over. I’ll figure this out. I’ll stay with her. But he was going to have to update his boss. Stat. Keeping his voice flat, he asked, “Delaney? Where did you meet the groom asshole?”
“Milan. I was working in Italy when our paths crossed.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
Fucking fuck. Another confirmation that was like putting nails in a coffin.
“Nash!” While his voice had been calm, his sister’s voice grated with intensity. “What is happening?”
“Classified,” he snapped back.
“What? You can’t be serious!”
Oh, unfortunately, he was.
“Nash.” Agnes’s tone told him she was on the verge of losing what little patience she possessed. Truth be told, his sister never had much patience, even on good nights. This was not a good night.
“Delaney is safe. I have her, and I will keep her.” There. Done. “Talk soon.”
“Nash!”
He hung up the phone. Tossed it on the edge of his bed but stalked toward Delaney. The floor squeaked beneath his feet, and he was aware of every single heartbeat and breath that he took.
She pulled the covers closer to her, tucking them beneath her chin. “Nash?”
He stopped right beside her bed. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but, instead, his hands fisted at his sides. “Say his alias again.”
“I…Typhon?”
Dammit. “And you met him in Milan? Six months ago?”
She nodded.
Hell. She wasn’t just a victim. She was a high priority witness.
“You know the name, don’t you?” Soft. Worried. Her question hung in the air between them. “The Typhon alias. You’ve heard it before?”
Oh, unfortunately, he did know it. And she was giving him confirmation of something the CIA had needed for a long time. “In Greek mythology, Typhon was known as the Father of All Monsters.”
Her head slid over the pillow.
“He was the worst of the monsters,” Nash continued carefully. “The deadliest.”
“Kurt isn’t some Greek myth. He’s an asshole, but just a man.”
She didn’t understand. “Typhon is an alias used by an international criminal, Delaney.”
She sat up in bed, fast, pulling that cover up with her. “What?”
“He’s a killer, a weapons’ dealer, and the leader of a very dangerous and cutthroat syndicate.
” There was no time to soften this news.
Not if she could directly testify to the fact that Typhon and Kurt Wellington were the same individual.
That she’d witnessed Typhon murder someone in cold blood.
The CIA had smoke and mirrors, they had suspicions that pointed to Kurt as being the wanted killer but Delaney…
Delaney had been there during a hit. She’d heard someone call Kurt by that infamous alias.
“Typhon is the father for them, their leader. He’s been on the CIA’s hit list for a very, very long time.
” If what she was saying was true, if she could provide direct evidence that tied Kurt to all of Typhon’s crimes…
Game changer.
She stared at him, with her mouth hanging open just a bit. “Wait…no.” A brisk shake of her head. “How would you even know this? How could you know anything about the CIA’s hit list?”
Time to put his cards on the table. He’d thought this reveal could wait, at least until dawn. As usual, fate was not on his side. “I know because I’m not a doctor, Delaney. I’m a spy. I work for the CIA, and I’ve been hunting Typhon for a very long time.”
And…
She laughed. Right in his face.
He stared at her.
Her laughter slowly died away. “Oh, crap.” A whisper. Maybe a whimper. “You’re not joking.”
No, he was not. “Get some sleep, Delaney. You’re safe with me.” A vow. One made not just from her ex. Not just from the guy who’d loved her and lost her before.
This vow was from a trained killer.
A vow…from a spy.