18
FIONA
I gazed at Zeke,feeling the weight of his question. When he’d set out to distract me, I’d never have guessed that we’d end up here. I liked it, though—his willingness to trust me. It made me feel as though I wasn’t alone in the fondness I was developing for him, and while I desperately wanted to know what secrets he was keeping, I also didn’t want him to feel pressured or as if I prioritized my own curiosity over his needs.
“If you want to tell me, I’d be honored to listen,” I said. “Nothing you say now will ever be repeated to anyone else. I promise.”
His eyes softened. “I trust you.” He kissed my forehead and his chest expanded as he inhaled deeply. “You asked once about where I worked before I started King’s Security with Ronan and Kade.”
“I did.”
“I was employed by a government agency right out of college. This particular agency is always on the lookout foryoung recruits with useful skill sets, and because of my specialization—I won’t bore you with the details—and my position on the college gymnastics team, they offered me a job.”
“You were a college gymnast?” Perhaps that wasn’t the detail I ought to have focused on but it had certainly come out of left field.
He grinned. “What? You can’t picture me on the high bar?”
I shook my head. He was fit, there was no denying that, but I would have picked him as more of a motocross rider than a gymnast. “So, what happened after they hired you?”
He looked up at the ceiling. “They put me through all kinds of training, and then I started assignments. At first, I was primarily in the office, handling logistics and the cyber side of things, but I gradually began to work in the field too. My last mission… it didn’t end well.”
His body was tense, and I smoothed my hand over his chest. He was still looking at the ceiling. Maybe that made it easier for him to speak. I got the feeling he rarely opened up to anyone about anything, let alone this.
“I went undercover in a cyber-terrorist cell with another operative, Ernesto. For the first few weeks, it was fine, but then Ernesto began behaving strangely. I didn’t mention it to our boss. Being undercover can do things to a person, and I thought he was just having a hard time.”
“But?” I asked warily.
He sighed. “Ernesto had turned. He set me up and made it look like I was the one who’d gone rogue.”
I stiffened, my heart going out to him. I understood all too well how that kind of betrayal felt. Especially from someone he’d trusted.
“My own team captured me and brought me in for ‘questioning.’ Let me tell you, the agency makes police interrogation tactics seem like a chat with friends.”
“But surely you explained?” I asked.
“Ernesto had done an excellent job of making me look guilty. They assumed I was lying, and they didn’t bother doing a polygraph because we’d all been taught how to beat them.”
I raised an eyebrow. That would be a helpful skill. No wonder he lied so easily.
“They asked me for answers, and when I couldn’t give them, they tortured me. They thought if they tried hard enough, they’d break me.” His voice was matter-of-fact, but I flinched.
“They tortured you?” I whispered, my stomach sinking. “Was it bad?”
“Yeah.” He nodded stiffly. “They’re really good at making you want to die without risking it actually happening.”
“I’m so sorry.” The words couldn’t possibly make up for everything he’d been through, but he deserved to hear them. I kissed his chest and held him tight, hoping he’d take comfort from the embrace.
“Thank you.” He kissed the top of my head. “Eventually, the group attacked the water supply system in Washington D.C. The agency headed it off before too much damage could be done, but only because a member of the cell had a crisis of conscience at the last minute.” He was quiet for a moment, then added, “That’s also how they found out that Ernesto had been the turncoat, not me.”
I couldn’t imagine how that must have gone down. “What did they do?”
His mouth twitched. “Stopped torturing me.”
“But they set you free and issued an apology, right?” In these times, people couldn’t get away with doing that kind of crap.
He laughed bitterly. “Hardly. I can’t be certain, but I think they intended to get rid of me.”
My chest seized. “What?”
