A bad one.
When she came into the room, he put his phone down on the nightstand, and dropped his arms behind his head. Now, he had to figure this one out.
Only, Axelle went there.
“So who sent you?” she asked, getting back into bed. “Because I didn’t put out the bat signal.”
He laughed.
Oh, well, never let it be said that Axelle wasn’t a CIA spook to her core. She could read a room.
“Your bestie, and mine.”
She wasn’t shocked.
After the conversation she had with Duke, there was no doubt in her mind that he went to his sister. Had they not been related, she would have called Elizabeth to help her work through this.
Only, she knew whose side she’d be on.
Her.
Brother’s.
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” she admitted.
He lifted an eyebrow.
“What specifically?” he asked.
Axelle knew what she did, and she wasn’t upset about it. That told her that she knew it was over. She and Duke…this journey between them had run its lifespan.
Like with Jack, she knew when it was time to abort the mission. The last year, she’d been feeling it to her core, and just afraid to tell Duke.
With Lewis showing up, she took that as a sign from the universe to do something about it.
She pointed at her floor.
“This.”
He wanted her to say the words, because he didn’t plan on being accused of planting ideas in her mind. He was already in a whole shitstorm because of what he didn’t stop.
“The house?”
Axelle shook her head, and cuddled against his side. Instinctually, Lewis put his arm around her because it was like old times, and apparently, that feeling never went away.
“I don’t want to do this life anymore. You know, being a wife and mother. My job. Dealing with people. I miss my life before this. I miss my freedom. I haven’t been happy for a long time, Lewis. A very long time.”
He said nothing.
“The last time I was genuinely happy, it was when you and I were a couple, and we came and went for work, and met back in the middle.”
Well, shit.
That sucked.
Because that was the last time he’d been happy, too. Only, he was willing to swallow his loneliness and misery if Axelle was genuinely happy.
That she wasn’t, made him want to jump back in.
