Page 19 of Wrecked With You

“I need advice.”

“So you said.”

“I killed Cane.”

He leans back, his eyes wide with both surprise and congratulations. “I didn’t know that was even in the works.”

“It happened fast. I got some intel on his location. You were gone, so I had to finagle different back up.”

“Not Eliza.”

“Are you insane? No.” Eliza has no part in my work. I’ve spent my whole life protecting her from that, and the only time she’s come close—when I’d gone on the run and she’d tried to find me—both she and Quince almost got killed.

“Who?”

“Quince,” I admit, and he groans.

“Water under the bridge,” I say, “and not the current problem.”

“You need to clean this up, right? In case you get caught. And now you want me to go with you to Seagrave and argue your case for a retroactive kill order.”

I shake my head. “No. It was sanctioned. Cane’s been laundering money for a bunch of folks that the intelligence community has had its eye on. So in exchange for me getting that information to them, Seagrave cleared it. I don’t think local authorities would ever trace the kill back to me—or to Quince. But even if they do, we’re covered.”

“Then why are we sitting here?”

“The Serpent,” I say. “I’ve got a bead on him.”

“Morgan’s right hand man?” Winston leans back, looking as shocked and impressed as I was when Antonio told me his story. Only Winston doesn’t have to hide his reaction like I did.

I nod. “Turns out a guy named Antonio Sanchez is after him, too. And he’s tagged me to be his partner on the mission.”

“How the hell did that happen?”

I give him the rundown, leaving out no details.

He shakes his head in awe. “Only you would tell Damien Stark to fuck off and wear a bikini.”

“That’s not exactly what I said.” I grimace. Because, of course, that’s pretty close.

“So it’s a good thing Antonio pushed. You wouldn’t have known who his ultimate target was otherwise.”

“If this is a lesson not to lose my temper and storm off before knowing all the facts, I don’t need it. Lesson learned.”

“What do you need?”

“I told you. Advice. I’m going in. I’ll have access to The Serpent’s location through the informant just like Antonio will. And as soon as we leave the island, I’m going to go take the son-of-a-bitch out. I thought Cane was the last. I’d assumed the Serpent had been killed at the same time Morgan was, or at the very least went so deep I’d never find him. Apparently, I was wrong. I want you to help me convince Seagrave to give me authorization for the kill.”

Winston shakes his head. “You can’t kill him, Em. You know that. He has too much intel locked away in that head of his.”

“That’s why I need you to help me make my case. The guy’s too dangerous. He needs to be taken out.”

“Won’t happen, and you know it. It’s personal to you, and I get that. But the SOC—hell, every covert organization on the planet—is going to want him alive.”

“Then they all have a problem, because Antonio wants him dead. And he’s the frontrunner in the chase.”

“They’re going to want you to feed them the information when he finds out where The Serpent is.”

“Screw that. This guy did a hell of a lot more than work for Morgan. He’s bumped up against my life more than once, and he’s not exactly on your favorite person list either. I want him dead, not in a cage. And certainly not being turned and used.”