“Ready?” I ask.
The woman nods but doesn’t look at me. Instead, she stares out the window into the dark forest. How muchdoesshe know, and how badly has it ruined her life?
I can’t help the deep-seated rage that I often feel when I learn of the crimes of my targets, how they can get away with so many things and destroy so many lives and get away unscathed. Even worse, walk away with more power. More money.
It’s nothing like the way I feel with Owen, and that has me both terrified and conflicted.
Chapter 15
When I regain consciousness, I’m somewhere dark. I’m shaking, but I’m not sure it's from the cold or the blood loss. My mouth feels like sandpaper, and my voice croaks.
“Where am I?”
It's Gray’s voice that breaks the silence and darkness, though I can’t see him. “A safehouse outside the city.”
“How’d I get here?”
“When you didn’t show up at the rendezvous spot, I went looking for you. Found you passed out and bleeding.”
“You didn’t call backup? Why’d you break protocol?”
“I knew you were close.”
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
“I was supposed to let you die?”
Suddenly, I realize how much of an ass I am. “Shit. Sorry, Gray. I should be thanking you, not grilling you.”
He chuckles. “I’m used to it by now, though I don’t know how Dec lived with it for so long.” His voice is teasing.
“I’d punch you if I could see anything, and if my shoulder didn’t feel like it has a knife in it.”
“Rest, Nova. I’m going out to get some supplies. Our transport will be here in a few hours.”
“Why is it taking so long? We should be on a plane by now.”
He doesn’t say anything right away. “It was a bloodbath, Nova. A lot of civilian deaths. The CIA is trying to prevent a bigger political problem.”
I wake with a start. After the late-night situation with the whistleblower, I didn’t get home until 6 am Saturday and spent the rest of the day in and out of sleep. Eventually, I passed out for the night, but my sleep wasn’t good. The dream proved that.
There’s something about the timeframe from when I hit my head to when I woke up in a safe house with Gray. He went against protocol to get me out. He didn’t call for backup. But didn’t he say they were too busy handling the fallout?
I push the sweat-soaked hair out of my eyes and roll over to find that it’s still only 4 am on a Sunday. I reach for my phone and find a handful of drunk texts from Jax and Evan. Seems they continued partying after I left them last night. Evan also sent some shirtless photos of Owen from magazine shoots he found online.
I roll my eyes and click out of the group text, only to find a few messages from Owen.
I open the chat and suddenly my heart rate kicks up.
“Ridiculous,” I mumble to my beating chest.
Owen:You awake?
That text was sent at 2 am.
Owen:I don’t mean to keep bugging you, but when you wake, will you text?
That was sent at 3 am.
