“Not target Kara. Owen Cooper is the client.”
“Potato, Po-ta-to,” I retort, leaning back on my chair. “Never heard of the dude,” I continue as I shrug, leaning forward and grabbing a sweet from the small tray that’s on his meticulously clean desk.
“Just don’t get confused that you’re trying to protect Owen, not kill him.”
“I haven’t agreed to shit, Andrews. Why me?”
“All information is in here. Read it. I need an answer in the next five minutes.”
I clear my throat as he pulls open a drawer in his desk and pulls out a file.
“Five minutes? Jesus, Andrews.” I lean forward, opening the file, and I’m immediately faced with a picture of a man I’d recognise a mile away.
Something strange washes over me.
Memories, and…and something that I’d gotten so good at hiding that I barely know what to do with it…the emotion.
Emotion that I thought I’d buried so deep that I didn’t even know I could still feel it.
But here it is, wrapping its tendrils around my heart and stomach, along with my past that threatens to overwhelm me.
I drop my head and lean forward, elbows resting on my knees as I cover my face with my hands. My hands run down my face, and I flinch whilst my expression is hidden from sight.
“Cooper, he changed his name,” I whisper. “The target is Owen King. Fuck!” I puff out a breath and shake my head.
I’m hot.
I’m clammy.
I feel…fuck I feel everything.
My heart rate increases to a canter, my neck’s red-hot, and I want to pace.
Instead, I take a breath. I try to plant a neutral expression on my face, tucking the stray, loose piece of dark hair behind my ear, even though my brain is screaming at me to run a mile.
Screaming at me to say no.
That arsehole abandoned me. Why should I help him?
But—and I saybut—there is also a part of me…that scared little girl that I used to be is busy remembering, reminding me of all the times he protected me.
I owe that little girl and that little boy enough to at least listen and read the file.
I’m tense but desperately trying to tell myself to relax. Andrews watches, pressing his lips together in a grimace. He knows he’s asking a lot of me and at least has the decency to look conflicted about it.
“Now you see why it has to be you, Kara. You are already embedded in his past,” he says softly.
I pull my eyes away from the picture and meet his. “I’m not in his past. Lucy was, and she’s long gone, Andrews. You helped bury her, remember?” I interrupt, looking back down at the picture.
“I remember.” He looks at me with sympathy. “It will be easy to slot Lucy back into his life. You can be reintroduced without drawing attention. You can bump into each other. Old flames ignited.”
“Logical.” I tilt my head, sucking the sweet. “But I’m in OwenKing’spast, not Owen Cooper. How are you going to spin that?”
“Let me worry about the details,” Andrews answers, and I raise an eyebrow.
“What exactly has Owen got himself into that he needs protecting from? You said he has something?”
“He’s somehow tied up with what happened with the Covenant.”
