Page 31 of Craved

“Because you left me, you prick. If we were still together, we’d still be a team, and I’d already be on this job.”

His whole body goes visibly stiffer. “Do we really want to compare the way we injured each other? Because I’ll win.”

I shake my head. I truly don’t have a clue what he is talking about. “How about this. I tell you what I know about you. You tell me what you know about me. Clear the air.”

For a moment, he says nothing. Then he moves across the room and leans against the wall. “You first.”

I nod, then get settled more comfortably on the bed, once again wearing the sheet like a toga. “After you abandoned me, you ended up in England. Turns out you had dual-citizenship. I never knew.”

“Neither did I,” he said. “Not back then.”

“And just like in a storybook, you went back home and ended up working for MI6. Pretty typical story, really. Happens all the time.” I am practically dripping with sarcasm.

“I was recruited,” he says. “It doesn’t happen all the time, but it did happen to me.”

“And then you decided to be a bad boy. You had a real chance to go straight after the life you and I led, but you flipped off your country and became a double-agent. I don’t know why I’m surprised considering all the scams we ran. But somehow I thought you’d have more integrity.”

A muscle in his cheek twitches. “Coming from you, that’s rich.”

I brush his words away, confident that everything I’ve said about his history is true. “You’re still in MI6. But here you are working for Killion Lambert. They think you’re gathering intel, but I know better. You’ve gone rogue, Maxim Wilder. You flipped King and country the bird. You’re pretending to be undercover for MI6. But you’re really in bed with Killion. I doubt it’s for some grand principle. Which means you signed up for the money. How am I doing so far?”

He doesn’t answer, but his eyes hold fast to mine.

“Yeah, I thought so. Nailed it straight down the line. And the ironic kicker? All I want is for you to add me to the team so I can get a nice payday. Which you should understand, since you’re only in it for the money, too.”

I watch his face, but can read nothing. So I shrug, then manage a fake pout. “Seems mean you won’t let me have a piece of that pie, too. We used to be so good at sharing.” I shift so that I’ve spread my legs under the sheet, then lower the top so he can see a bit of cleavage. “You share with me, I’ll share with you…”

I trail off, letting the words hang in the air as I watch his face.

But I can’t read a damn thing.

“Go on,” he says, after I let the pause hang a few uncomfortable moments.

“That’s pretty much it,” I say, acknowledging failure by adjusting the sheet back to where it was. “Except for the grand plan. A new weapon. I figure Killion’s planning to sell it to the highest bidder. He’s going to arrange a demonstration. Kill a few innocents, then take protection payments from those governments that want their people to stay alive.” I meet his eyes. “How am I doing?”

“Not bad,” he says. “But you forgot the part where he brings you in as a partner. Sharing in the proceeds as payment for indispensable help you gave him early in the game. Not to mention your relationship.”

“And what help would that be?”

“I know how he got access to the keystone. I know what you did. How you helped him. And I know that if he succeeds, all of those deaths will be on your traitorous shoulders.”

Since I have no idea what the fuck he’s talking about, I start to protest, but he holds up a finger as he takes a step toward me, then another, and another. When he’s just inches from me, he leans forward. “All those years you spent saying you hated him—that you fantasized about killing him—was that just your way of establishing a cover?”

“Dammit, I don’t know what—” But my words are cut off by the sharp sting of his palm against my face.

“Don’t you dare,” he says, his voice like death. “From the first day I met you, you said you despised your father, and I saw the reasons why. You got away from him. I helped you get away. You had a new life. A better life. And what did you do? You rolled over and joined him. You used your job—your clearance—to give him access to the thing he needed most. The keystone. The details of the genetic research at the heart of everything that son-of-a-bitch is doing now.”

“I don’t know what you’re—”

“People are going to die, dammit. And that’s on your head.” He looks me up and down with disgust. “I loved you. Dammit, Cami, I loved your heart. I loved who you were, good and bad. I knew you were a good liar and a good thief. So was I. But never once did I think you’d slide into mass murder. And I sure as hell never thought that you’d ever help that man. You aren’t the woman I once loved. And good job playing me for the fool.”

“Maxim, I—”

But he’s out the door. And I don’t have a single clue what he’s talking about.

* * * *

Keystone? Genetic research?