“You heard the conversation. He denied knowing anything about the money. I had my gun pointed straight at his heart and he didn’t waver in his claim. Not once.”
“If not him”—Coop pondered—“then who?”
Mac raised a brow. “That’s the two-million-dollar question.”
* * *
Mac wiped the steam from the bathroom mirror and stared at her reflection.
She’d run a brush through her damp hair, the long strands hanging over one shoulder. The blood she hadn’t been able to clean off before leaving her uncle’s house had finally been washed away. Other than the slight bruising on her forehead and neck, and a slight bump on the back of her head, there were no outward indications she’d fought a man twice her size today.
A man who, minutes later, was dead.
I wanted to be the one to kill him.
She should be disgusted with herself for having such a thought, but like her uncle had taught her long ago…some people deserved to die.
Before she turned sixteen, the idea of taking another human life had been utterly appalling. No matter what a person did, it wasn’t her place to serve as judge, jury, and executioner.
She’d believed that, too. Straight down to her core. Until her uncle put a gun to her head and she saw Luca pull that trigger.
After that, she knew her father’s brother had spoken the truth. Later that same night, those words were locked inside her memory forever.
So much changed for Mac that day. In an instant, she’d grown stronger. Much wiser than her sixteen years. She’d also realized the only person she could rely on was herself.
Until she met Sean Cooper.
The scene where he’d ripped Luca off her and began beating him to a pulp had been playing through her mind since they left her uncle’s house. Over and over again, she saw him in her mind’s eye, racing into that room with the sole purpose of saving her. And he had.
Coop saved her, but then he’d left because he couldn’t stand to look at her any longer.
Sure, he’d made eye contact later, after he’d come back from looking for the shooter. But that was only because they’d been discussing the situation and debating their next step and where they’d go from here.
It was the way he’d looked while they’d still been in her uncle’s office that was burned into her soul. She’d watched him shut down, could see it happen right before her very eyes.
Everything about him changed after hearing her conversation with Luca. His voice went flat and the light in his eyes had grown dark. He could barely look at her, and she didn’t have to wonder why.
He knows everything now.
They all did.
After they left her uncle’s home, Coop had insisted she ride with Trevor back to the hotel. He claimed he needed to get gas and wanted her to get to the safety of the hotel without stopping.
As far as excuses went, it was plausible, but Mac knew the truth. He didn’t want to be alone with her. Not in the car, probably not ever again.
A tear escaped, the silver streak falling over the rise of her cheekbone. Mac did nothing to stop it. Nor did she wipe away the others that followed.
I’ve ruined everything.
In spite of her desperation to escape her family’s evil ways, the second she made the choice to run away from her uncle, to take his money and become someone else, she’d sealed her fate.
Coop was always too good for someone like her. Always would be. Like her uncle once told her, killing was in her blood.
Sure, the killing she’d done in the Army and with R.I.S.C. was different. It was government-sanctioned, justified in the eyes of the law.
But today, when she’d been pointing her gun at Luca, it had takeneverythingin her not to pull that trigger. Not because she felt her life was threatened. Not because he was some terrorist on Homeland’s Most-Wanted list.
Because she believed in her heart, he deserved to die for all he’d done.
