Chapter 21 #2
“He had her killed, Delaney. He ordered the hit right in front of me. My mother’s photo—her name, her address—they were right in the file.
I checked online for news happening in her city.
It was there—her death. Her death showed within hours on the local news outlets in her area.
He had her killed because I wouldn’t follow his orders. ”
Horror twisted inside of her. “I’m so sorry.” She let him go. How can he touch me? Nash has to hate me.
“You have nothing to be sorry for! You didn’t do it!
That bastard did! I went to the police. I stormed to the local PD, and he was there.
Waiting for me. Smirking. He put me in the back of a limo, and, as he sipped champagne, Carmello told me that he could wipe out everyone I ever loved.
My biological father was still out there—he could eliminate him with a phone call.
He could take out Ryan. Agnes. Everyone in my family.
The family that had taken me in and loved me for years.
The family that had given me a home. He was threatening to kill them all.
Told me that he’d kill every single one of them, and then he’d kill me.
Because one way or another, he was going to get you back.
He wasn’t going to lose you the way he’d lost your mother. ”
That little shed was as silent as a grave after those words. Grief and rage battled inside of her.
“Carmello promised me that he would give you the world. And that he’d give me death.
If I tried to stay with you, if I didn’t send you away, then he would leave a trail of bodies around me.
I didn’t know what the hell to do. I was in way over my head, and I just knew that when I stared into his eyes, I was staring straight at evil. ”
Her grandfather had always been so cold. So withdrawn. She’d known that her mother feared him but…
I never knew this. How could she have possibly known this?
“Carmello swore that you would be safe. Told me that you would have an army around you. That you’d want for nothing.
He could give you everything. I could give you—well, he said I would be dead before I could give you anything at all but pain and grief.
” Anger rolled in Nash’s words. “I asked him why the hell he didn’t just kill me right then and there. Death would be easier than losing you.”
Death would be easier than losing you.
She shook her head, frantic. It felt as if her heart had been ripped from her chest.
“Carmello sipped his champagne and said he’d killed the man his daughter loved, and that every time she looked at him, he could see the pain in her eyes.
” Delaney caught the faint click of Nash’s swallow.
“Carmello didn’t want you looking at him that way.
He didn’t want you to ever see a monster.
So he was giving me a way out. You were never supposed to know.
I was never supposed to reach out to you again.
I would get my life, along with the cash to pay for the rest of medical school and to cover the training for surgery and the start-up of my practice, and you’d get a life with him. ”
The pain in her heart would not stop. “You didn’t become a doctor.”
“No, sweetheart, I didn’t.”
“But you walked away from me.” Because what other choice had there been?
“I couldn’t protect you back then. I didn’t have the means. Or the skills. So I found a way to change.”
Every word battered at her. They didn’t have time for this. They should be looking for a way to escape. But maybe…maybe he couldn’t escape. Maybe he was too weak from his wounds and trying not to show her how desperate things were. Spoiler, she knew it was bad.
The blow to the head. The blood on his shoulder and his thigh. Maybe Nash knew death was coming, and the idea gutted her.
“Jezebel Jenkins,” he whispered.
She wished Jezebel would come rushing to the scene.
“She found me the day after Carmello left. The day after I lost you.” A press of his lips to her temple. “She’d been following him. Not like she could say too much because it was classified and I was a civilian, but I saw an opportunity with her. A chance to become the man you needed.”
He’d always been what she needed.
“I traded in doctor’s scrubs for spy school.
I became the most lethal predator that I knew how to be.
And, in return for taking the most dangerous operations out there, I had eyes put on you.
Jezebel knew your protection was what mattered to me.
Agents would check in on you. I would check in on you.
We kept tabs on you to make sure you were safe over the years.
” A careful brush of his lips against her cheek.
“Full confession? I didn’t need Agnes to call me and tell me to stop your wedding. I was already on my way to you.”
She grabbed for the front of his shirt. Her fingers fisted around the material. “We are going to die.”
“No, baby, I am going to kill. When that door opens, I am going to kill for you. We are going to make it out of here, and you are going to tell me all about the second time that you fell in love with me.”
Delaney wished she could see his face clearly.
“I’m sorry that I left you before.” Emotion scraped in the words. “I will never do it again. I only wanted to protect you. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“All I wanted was for you to love me.”
“I do. I have. I will. Always.”
She could hear voices outside. The men who’d taken them, coming back. Or maybe even Kurt, coming to finish them off. The CIA had wanted to catch him in the act. They’d wanted to have enough evidence to bury him.
Instead, it looked as if she and Nash would be buried.
“The second time,” Delaney began as she heard the squeak of the door begin to open.
“It was when you gave me daisies at our wedding.” In the faint light from that opening door, her mouth found his.
Her lips pressed lightly to his. Softly. Sadly.
A male voice snarled, “Stand the hell up!”
She wasn’t sure Nash could stand.
But what she was sure of…Delaney was sure that when she took her last breath, she’d still be loving him.