42. Chapter 42
Chapter forty-two
Ashley
I stare at the door where Aaron just disappeared with Savage.
What just happened? What the hell did I just let happen? My lashes lower, eyes squeezing shut. I’m not an emotional or jealous person. I’m not, but Aaron isn’t just an average man either. He’s a CIA agent, even if you put “ex” before CIA. He does things to stay alive, and he does things to end other people’s lives. He lives, he has lived, a much different life than a normal human being. Is kissing an ex to free himself and me a huge deal? Yes. God, yes. It feels big. It feels like it defines us in some other way. No. What defines us is that I didn’t even know she existed.
“Ashley.”
At the sound of my name, I open my eyes. Blake steps into the living area just below me. “Unless you want to shoot me, come down and talk to me.”
“And me.”
That comment comes from his wife, Kara, the pretty brunette who joins him and waves up at me, her long brown silky hair around her shoulders. I met her six months ago, when my boss hired Walker Security to protect me from Aaron, of all people, which was how I met Smith as well. She’s pretty. She’s petite, and from what Smith told me back then, she’s a badass with a gun as well as just in general. “How are you?” she asks.
In need of advice , I think, and I need that advice from a badass woman who has a badass man like Blake by her side. I lower the gun that’s still pointed a the door where Aaron disappeared. “I need a lot of things right now.”
“He’ll be back,” Blake promises.
He’ll be back.
Aaron will be back.
Unless I distracted him emotionally and mentally, and therefore, he ends up dead. Or, unless his ex-woman, whoever she is, saves him and runs off with him. Because, of course, she really is like him, while I’m just a secretary who now knows how to shoot a gun. I back away from the railing, but I don’t retreat. That’s just not who I am. I’m not retreating. I might be having a moment of emotional jealousy and personal fear, but I’m still me. I’m still a fighter. I still need answers. And I need to know if Blake knows about this woman. I need to know that every fear bubbling up inside me right now is as lame as every time I said I wanted to be the attorney I never really wanted to become. If I had wanted that, really wanted it, I would have made it happen. The way I made shooting this gun second nature quite quickly.
Gun still in hand, I rush down the stairs, and I find that Blake and Kara are my only remaining company, which tells a story. There were other men here before. I set the gun on the island. “What’s so big that everyone is helping Aaron but you two?”
“We are helping,” Kara says, placing a cup of coffee in front of me. “That has Almond Joy creamer in it because it’s Savage’s favorite and that’s what he has in the fridge. Does that work for you, or do you want it black and hard like Savage’s soul?”
“Thank you for the coffee,” I say, “and the attempt at humor at Savage’s expense, but I can’t laugh. Though I’m fairly certain it would have been a very funny joke another time. I need to know what’s going on.”
“Mick was selling government secrets to Russia and China for large payouts,” Blake supplies, without making me push harder. “He created an offshore account in Aaron’s name with Nicole Wagner’s help. Nicole was—”
“Aaron’s woman.”
“His fuck buddy,” Kara corrects, setting a cup of coffee in front of Blake. “There’s a difference. He’s human and a man, Ashley. Blake was all about a fast fuck when he met me, which is why I drugged his ass and left him in a hotel room after our fast fuck.”
“Translation,” Blake says, “She was afraid I’d steal her heart. And I did.”
“I thought he was working for the drug cartel that kidnapped my sister,” Kara explains. “I drugged him because I thought he was an asshole.”
“Right now,” I say, unable to keep up with their emotional history because I just don’t want to. “I think,” I add, “I just want to know about Nicole. How was his ex involved in all of this?”
“His fuck buddy,” Kara corrects again. “Nothing more. Proven by the fact that she took a million-dollar payout to frame Aaron for selling secrets to foreign governments. The heat was coming down on Mick; Aaron became his target.”
Well, at least he won’t be pining for her heart. Not that I feel overly comforted by that fact right now, considering I’d not heard about her until now. “Why Aaron?” I ask.
“He got too close,” Blake says. “I’ll spare you my detailed research, but the bottom line is this: the government sent him hunting for a spy. He was a stone’s throw from finding out Mick was that spy.”
“And Nicole?” I ask, just saying her name turns my stomach. “Where does she fit in?”
“Not with Aaron,” Kara says. “Like we said. Mick paid her a million dollars to set him up.”
I want to ask for more, especially since that’s twice now that statement has been made, but Blake is already moving on. “I found security footage of Nicole with Mick at a bank where Mick used a fake ID that identified him as Aaron. Nicole used the name Susie. Together, they opened an offshore account in Aaron’s name and had Russia and China each wire five hundred thousand dollars into the account. An alert was sent to the right targets at the CIA, which sent the CIA hunting. Later, that million dollars was withdrawn by Nicole, as her payment.”
“Is the video at the bank enough to end this?” I ask.
“Maybe,” Kara says. “But maybe isn’t enough. This is the CIA we’re talking about. Aaron needs more to secure a clearance from this.”
“Nicole can get him what he needs,” Blake adds, and the flash of a gorgeous woman pressed to a wall with Aaron all over her comes a bit too easily for comfort.
“No,” Kara says, tapping the table.
I blanch. “No?”
“No, he will not fuck her, kiss her, or do anything resembling those things. Ask Blake. He wouldn’t do that, not after meeting me. Meeting me changed how he did things.”
“She’s right,” Blake says. “She changed me, and while I can’t pretend to know what’s in Aaron’s head, I’ve seen him with you and talked to him about you enough to believe he feels the same as I do and did. One woman can change everything.”
“He loves you,” Kara says. “That’s crystal clear.”
She’s right. He does. He’s proven this to me. He loves me. I did change him. He’s declared that many times over. I’m letting the unknowns of his career and past have too much of a role in the present. We are the present. Nicole is his past.
Present.
I control the present.
I control how I respond to the past and the present.
I pick up the gun. “Let me know when you know something, please,” I say, turning back to the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Blake calls after me.
I pause and turn to face him and Kara, but my mind is answering his question. Nicole betrayed Aaron by setting him up. I betrayed him with jealousy, which is indeed the green-eyed monster, a dangerous green-eyed monster.
“Before he left, I made him think I might not stay,” I say. “I made him think that I didn’t trust him. Now, I’m going upstairs to practice shooting. I’m making sure he knows that I’m not going anywhere. At least, not without him.”
And with that, I head upstairs, where I plan to start training. No one is taking my gun from me ever again. And no bitch named Nicole is taking my man. He’s mine. I’m going to make sure he knows that I know it when he returns.
Safely.
When he returns safely.