Finally, I found him on one of the cameras installed on a tree.
He was slumped on the ground, clutching at his stomach.
Silver had shot the other guy.
“Good girl,” I murmured, proud and terrified. “Now stay put.”
I could see Ian moving swiftly, constantly on alert, toward the gunshot. I had to get there first. Before he spotted Silver.
I hurried as quietly as possible around the barn and across the clearing toward the woods on the west side and saw Ian find his man. He lifted his gun, pointing it as he scanned the trees beyond.
Just stay hidden. Just stay hidden.
I slowed as I approached and unholstered my SIG Sauer P266. It was the same weapon Ian held. The same weapon we’d both trained on. Back when we were still on the same side.
My night vision was good, but nothing compared to what Ian’s was with those goggles. I tried to watch where I put my feet as he came into sight. Gun trained on him, I approached. “Lower your weapon.”
Ian spun, not lowering his weapon. He pointed it at me one-handed.
He surprised me by pushing the goggles up onto his forehead. Then he clasped both hands on his gun and held it as steady as I did, despite the wrath that emanated from him. All his training went up in smoke, overtaken by his emotions. By his monstrous grief.
“Why now?” I asked, hoping like hell James’s team was already on the island. I merely had to keep Ian talking long enough for them to get to Silver.
“Why do you think?”
“I didn’t kill her,” I reminded him. “I cared about her.”
“Do you think I didn’t know you wanted to fuck my wife?” Ian scoffed. “Everyone knew. She knew. She felt sorry for you.”
Maybe once upon a time his words would have hurt. But no longer. “I’m sorry I failed her.”
“Not as sorry as me. Do you know what the past six years have been like for me while you hid away on this fucking island?”
I didn’t answer.
“You don’t know …” His words released with a harsh grief that felt as fresh as the day Natalya died. For him it was. He hadn’t moved on or even tried to. “There was no point in killing you. It wouldn’t bring her back. It wouldn’t give her the justice she deserved. A quick end is more than you deserve.”
I was afraid to ask again.
Because I knew.
I knew why he was here.
“But it’s different now. Now you can feel what I’ve felt.” He laughed sharply. “To everyone’s disbelief, the great Logan Ferguson has fallen in love.”
“Don’t.” The word escaped me before I could stop it.
“Oh, make this sweeter for me, please. Beg a little more.”
“You’ll ruin your life. The agency. Everything. Gone.”
“What life?” he shouted, the question careening through the trees. “I have no life without her. Because of your fucking ineptitude. And they still act as if you’re this legendary agent and all the while you screwed up! You screwed up, and Natalya paid for it! Why can’t they see that?”
“Ian …” For Silver’s sake, I had to pretend like I didn’t agree with every single word. “You need help.”
“I don’t need help,” he replied calmly, his gun hand never wavering. “They would have discharged me from the agency if I required help.”
They should have.
