My heart went into overdrive. “Why? Why did you kill them?”
He shrugged. “I got paid. They were my first kill. A foreign nation contacted me and wanted your father’s project stopped. I was sick of working in drudgery for the CIA. There were so many fucking rules and I was so fucking invisible. Ed hadn’t pickedme for his special, little crew. Then, I killed your parents, and I found my true calling.”
My heart twisted.
“I didn’t know you were there.” He shrugged. “It would have made no difference, except if I’d known, you’d be dead too.”
“And Ed?” My voice was hollow. “Did he help you kill them.”
The man laughed. “Oh no. He was horrified, at first. But I finally got his attention. He saw something in my work. He’d never noticed me before, but he noticed me that night.” A low chuckle. “I think he was intrigued.”
“No, he was a patriot.”
“Yes, but we can be different things all at once. No one is black and white. You must know that better than anyone. When I reached out to him again, he was tired of all the sacrifices, for so little return. For a while, training Thorne, then raising you, fulfilled him. But then the emptiness took over. Do you feel the emptiness, Lark?”
“No.”
He chuckled. “I think you do. I approached Ed, and he finally joined me. Our first kill…I think it was the first time he’d truly felt alive.”
I fought the urge to vomit. Anger swelled, hard and vicious. This man had killed my parents, had corrupted Ed.
“And I feel a void now he’s gone,” Dean continued. “But I know just the thing to fill it.”
“Oh?” I prompted.
“Killing you. Killing Ed’s precious pet.”
I tightened my grip on my knife. “You can try.” I launched myself at him. I stabbed my knife through the plastic.
I felt the tip hit him, but the plastic was too thick. I hadn’t done enough damage.
He lunged to the side, then tore the plastic down. He moved faster than I’d anticipated and wrapped the sheet over my head.
I fought against it, but he was bigger and stronger. I’d committed a cardinal sin. I’d attacked in anger.
He shoved me to the floor, his weight on me. He pulled the plastic tight against my face.
Fuck. I flailed. I couldn’t breathe. I fought for air but that just forced the plastic against my lips.
“I wanted to cut you, to watch you bleed, but this will have to do.”
I fought harder.Bastian. He was all I could think about as a wave of dizziness washed over me.
I wanted his arms around me, his body close to mine. He’d showed me warmth, showed me just how good it felt to get close to someone, to feel safe.
Suddenly, Dean’s weight was yanked off me. Frantically, I pushed the plastic off my face and pulled in a lungful of air.Sweet, sweet air.
I rolled and pushed myself free, fighting back my dizziness. I looked up.
A furious Bastian was fighting with Dean.
They traded vicious punches and hard hits. As Dean grunted, Bastian hit him again. A hard knock to his jaw.
“David Thomas Dean.” Bastian’s voice a lethal blade. “We’ve been looking for you.”
“You’ll die, Thorne. Just like her. Your deaths will be my crowning achievement.”
Bastian shot him a scornful look. “Lark and I will bury you in an unmarked grave in the desert. Then we’ll forget about you. Forget you ever existed. No one will remember your name, Dean. You’ll forever be a notation in the CIA files. A washout rogue who couldn’t hack it.”
