“See?” She stands and paces, her hand on her chest. “It didn’t even make sense. None of the intel I’d gathered pointedto anything about them. They weren’t even on my radar because I didn’t meet them until the wedding. It was too convoluted to leave it to chance. My only option was to handle it, to use the inside glimpse I had to get information, and to figure out who was after them and end it.”
I’m about to flip out because the loyalty test would have nothing to do with her not being able to protect Gage and Leigh, but then I realize she doesn’t know that Wells and Ivy are KORT chairs or that the other three men in Rena’s family—Ty, Liam, and Gage—are high-ranking members.
“You’ve been gone for weeks because Gage and Leigh were threatened? You barely know them.”
“What’s to know?” She halts ten feet from me, and with the silvery moonlight blanketing her face, the stress she’s been harboring is suddenly apparent. “Rena loves them. You trust them and care about them. The entire family embraces them. They are part of your inner circle. They have a baby. And your honorary grandchildren adore them.”
All the time she was missing, I thought about how I loved her despite her leaving me. But right now, I love her more because of it, and I wouldn’t have believed that was possible.
Still, I can’t help but protest. “Yes, but … you risked your life for them, and I didn’t even know what the fuck you were doing.”
“No,” she insists, strutting over to me with that defiance that ignites every yearning inside me. She crosses her arms beneath her chest, her breasts practically tumbling out of the cropped tank top she’s wearing. “I used my skill to keep them safe. To preserve your peace. I might wish I’d taken a different path in life, and maybe, some days, it’s hard to look at myself in the mirror, but I was built for this. One stone.” She bites her lip, a veil of guilt and remorse falling upon her. “I’m sorry it scared you, Axel. That’s why I left you my bracelet, the stone, and the quote.”
I glance at the tables strewn with pictures and notes, but I want to hear it from her first. “What have you found?”
“A lot.” She plops down beside me, still stressed but obviously eager to unload. “I warned Gage. I gave him a tracking device and told him to keep his family at La Lune Noire for several days. That was so they didn’t leave before I got extracted from Greece. Then he was supposed to have someone take the tracker to an address I gave him for the downtown area and plant it.”
My jaw locks with a fresh jolt of irritation. “You told him all this at the wedding?”
“Yes.”
“Goddammit, Zara.” I push off the couch and scrub my hands over my face. “I asked you repeatedly to trust me, to turn to me if something fucked up happened. We’re supposed to be a team. If you told him, why didn’t you talk to me?”
Her lips quiver, battling a frown as she peers out to the Singapore skyline. “At that point, I needed you to behave naturally. I couldn’t risk you doing anything out of the ordinary to tip off my client. I planned to let Tripp pull me so I could figure out what the hell was going on. We set the rendezvous point at the church. There wasn’t supposed to be an ambush, just a diversion and …”
She rubs her hand over her sternum. “That sounds horrible. I know that. I think I might’ve broken down and told you, but then Beck was killed, and I … I worried my client was onto me. So, I decided to take Tripp’s help—money, a ride, resources—and evade him too. And on the honeymoon, there were guards watching us all the time. Yours, yes, but I wasn’t certain who to trust. Your reaction to the extraction had to be authentic so no one believed you were part of my disappearance, or I was afraid I’d lose you.”
I can’t fault her for ensuring I reacted appropriately. I’d concealed the prospect of her loyalty test for the same purpose. Jax even followed that reasoning after she contacted him, letting me unravel in my closet while holding the map to her location.
“Okay.” Surrendering to my need to have her in my arms while I get answers, I sit on the couch again and drag her onto my lap so she’s straddling me. My eyes dance all over her gorgeous face. I cradle her jaw, plant a chaste kiss on her mouth, and rest my forehead against hers. “I’m sorry, darling. I just … I’m hurt. It feels like failing if you don’t believe I can take care of you.”
“But I do believe that. You take care of me better than anyone ever has. I just … this time, I needed to take care of you.” A tear rolls down her cheek. “You wanted me to be a Noire first. I promise that’s what I was doing.”
I thumb the drop of her pain away and give her room to breathe. “Walk me through it.”
“After I got the order, I realized I wasn’t working for KORT and that it was probably whoever was after Rena’s family. I reviewed everything to see if I could figure out who my client was. The biggest clue from my time at La Lune Noire was Shep. He knew I was on assignment, but not that I was translating for you. And while I was certain he’d warned me, that meant he also didn’t know I couldn’t leave La Lune Noire. My client should’ve known those things because my father and Tripp told me they’d informed them of my translation job and your suspicions, and I assumed my dad had relayed that you had me locked in because that was a vital detail affecting the scope of what I could do.”
I string my fingers through her wild mahogany mane and massage her scalp, gratified that she leans into my touch. “You think Shep was there for you on behalf of someone else?”
“Possibly. Our conversation was strange, so I immediately jumped to him being there for my client, dismissing everythingelse. But he also mentioned Kratos and Claudia—another agent who had taken my spot in that Kazakhstan mission I told you about. She was the common denominator. My father mentioned that our missions were connected. She was supposed to be the asset at La Lune Noire, so she probably knew how to access the data I was reporting. She was involved with Shep. And she knew I’d used Beck for my entrance. My father wouldn’t have killed him as a warning or stood for the client doing so, but …”
“Kratos?” I repeat, understanding the gravity of what she’s only begun to explain.
For as unknown as they are, they seem to be on everyone’s lips lately.
“I’m getting there.” She blows out a breath. “After Greece, when I showed up in New Orleans to see which agent had been sent to neutralize Gage, it was Claudia. Like I’d suspected. Right before I killed her, she mentioned avenging Shep. It confirmed everything.Shehad sent Shep to kill me, though I’m not sure why, but I have theories.Shehad killed Beck to hurt me. She thought our marriage was part of the job, which was why you weren’t the primary target in Greece—that washerdoing. That move was part vengeance, which threw me off because she’d been working two agendas. Kratos and revenge.”
“One of the men shot in the church admitted to being there for Kratos before he died, so I’m not sure that part was revenge,” I argue.
Her eyes light up. “I’m glad you got that proof. I suspected she’d utilized their resources. All she would’ve had to do was paint us as an imminent threat, which was probably how she got Shep assigned to neutralize me. But Kratos would’ve been threatened by both of us equally. And I could tell by how those guys were fighting in Greece that they’d been instructed to take me out first. That had to be her direction.”
I process that for a beat, still piecing things together because she mentioned that the missions were connected. “Was Claudia a double agent, or were you working for Kratos?”
Her shoulders slump. “That’s where things get messy. If I worked for Kratos, then Shep showing up was probably because I hadn’t secured enough intel and I seemed too chummy with you. It was after the Underground incident, where you went all caveman.” She arches her brows, but when I give her nothing, she goes on, “But, again, his intel was limited. If Claudia was a double agent and I wasnotworking for Kratos, then Shep was likely there because Kratos thought I’d be in the way of their mission.”
“That might check out.” I glide my fingers up her bare thighs and beneath the hem of her practically nonexistent shorts, distracted by the goose bumps sprouting there. “The people you eliminated for Keller ten years ago were the original members of Kratos.”
“Really? I thought that was a possibility. I hope to hell it is because if I was working for Kratos, that will negatively impact how things go between me and my father.” She shakes her head, eyes hooded as she drinks in our proximity, but she pushes on. “Let’s not dwell there. I have more. I went through Claudia’s phone—phones. Did you know Leigh’s real name was Ainsley Morelli-Vittori?”
