“Dom, are you listening to me?” she cries out.
“At that volume, Kiera, my whole building is listening to you.”
Her eyes flash with anger. “People like us don’t have normal lives, Dom. We don’t walk off into the sunset.”
“First, this is none of your business. Second…guess what, Kiera, still none of your business.”
She lets out a bitter laugh. “So…after all the time we’ve spent together, this is…this is it?”
“Yeah. This is it.”
She shakes her head. “Don’t do this.”
“It’s done,” I say implacably. “Kiera, time for you to go and…don’t come back.”
Her composure fractures. But this is what leaving is, and she knows it.
We aren’t in the business where former colleagues meet for drinks and reminisce. The moment I lose my security clearance, the rules change. I don’t talk to them—and they don’t talk to me. Not casually. Not privately. Not at all.
That’s the cost of this life.
“Dom—”
“Goodbye.”
She takes her time like it’s an effort to walk to my door. I hear the click of it opening.
“You were the best operative we had. Now look at you. You’ve become weak.”
With that closing shot, she slams the door behind her.
My phone rings, and I groan.
Damn, but I’m popular today!
It’s my brother-in-law, and when either he or Daisy calls, I always pick up. “Kai okay?”
“Yeah, he’s dandy, using Hector like a jungle gym.”
Hector used to work for Forest’s family, but now he’s sort of retired, lives in their pool house, and is Kai’s surrogate grandfather.
“What’s up?”
“Heard you quit your job today.”
“Heard?”
“The grapevine,” he explains.
“Didn’t think I’d be juicy enough to hit the vine.”
He ignored my comment. “Daisy is on a shoot in Tibet and has shitty service, so she asked me to call you and babysit.”
I let out a laugh. “Babysit?”
“What the fuck else?” Forest is obviously enjoying himself. “She said you’re in love and need handholding.”
“Go fuck yourself, Forest.”
