Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
“Do what you need to.”
It was like swallowing razorblades getting those words out. He stared at her, unblinking until he moved close and slipped his hand around the nape of her neck and pressed a slow, lingering kiss to her lips. She couldn’t help it, sinking into him was natural and perfect.
“Thank you for understanding,” he murmured as he drew back. “I’ll see you out there.” He grabbed his shirt on the way out of the room.
Swiftly braiding her hair, she tied it off and swiped her go-bag from the closet. This place was burned. She wouldn’t ever feel comfortable resting her head at a place that Robert knew existed.
Years of being on her own while hiding from the company that had betrayed her wasn’t about to be wiped away because the man she was fucking wanted to trust him. Dropping to her knee, she cast one look to the door before reaching under the simple end table and depressing the panel there. It slid away and she dipped her hand in and pulled out the mini folio then shoved it into her bag. Another peek to the door and she replaced the panel.
Bringing her bag with her on the way out of the room, she ducked into the bathroom. She knew her shit and had an exit in there. As she shimmied out the window and jumped to the fire escape, she cast one last look over her shoulder as if she could peer through the walls and actually lay eyes on Lance.
“Goodbye, Lance.” Her words fell barely above a whisper.
Slipping away into the people on the sidewalk, she ignored the tears that threatened and didn’t look back.
Chapter Fifteen
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
~ Sun Tzu
“I’m going to kill you myself if this ends up being a trap.” Lance didn’t even look over to the man who was beside him at the window of an empty apartment building as they overlooked the building across the street.
“How many times do I have to tell you, I didn’t betray you. I didn’t betray your woman either.”
Lance scowled and pulled his gaze from the scene before him to glare over to the man with him. “Fuck you.”
“Don’t blame me. She decided to leave. I didn’t make her do that.”
“Not this time anyway.”
Robert snorted, eyes never wavering from the window. “I had my own orders.”
“Whatever.” Readjusting, Lance took up his position once more and watched the faded red brick building. It was showing signs of age, a few bricks missing sporadically around the front and the side he could see. The windows were a mixture of covered by different threadbare curtains and shades to having none or being open.
He assumed the rooms there were like they were here—small with low and water-stained ceilings. Dirty, smudged and grimy windows. A few windows across the way had precariously balanced air conditioning units with jerry-rigged support.
Lance knew the lights above him would flicker when it got dark, a fact they’d noticed happening when they first arrived.
“Look. I know you don’t want to be with me. Don’t trust me like you should and I get it. There’s a lot that happened which shouldn’t have. But you were smart and didn’t trust that woman you were fucking—”
“Shut your fucking mouth, Robert”—his entire body tensed—“or I’ll fucking shut it for you.”
“You have to know she left for a reason. She could have stayed and helped us. Okay, you. But she didn’t. She ran. Fuck, for all I know she was in on the—”
Lance slammed him up against the wall, not in the window even though it was closer. Hand closing around his windpipe, Robert sputtered and tried to fight Lance off but he couldn’t get a foothold. Too many years of watching from a desk had weakened him, softened him. And his most recent injuries didn’t help.
On the other hand, Lance had a level of rage he’d never experienced before on his side. Nostrils flaring, he pushed his face right in that of Robert, aware his expression was a feral snarl. The man stammered and spittle formed at the corners of his mouth. Lance squeezed harder.
“That woman isn’t here because I betrayed her by choosing to go against my gut and her to help you. She is the victim, don’t fucking try to pretend you are. I know about orders, I lived them too. Military. Law enforcement. But what we didn’t do in the military that I see all you FBI dicks, CIA asshats, whatever group, are happy to do, is leave a man behind. Let one take the blame. Sacrifice one to save the many, and that’s not fucking okay with me.” Tighter yet. “Especially when it’s my woman you did it to.”
He couldn’t rid himself of the pounding in his ears, his adrenaline rush or the pulse that had kicked up more than a few notches. With a snarl, Lance stepped back from Robert, not giving a damn when he sank to the floor in a heap, gasping and rubbing at his neck as he was allowed air once more. Red tinged his vision. He needed this to wrap the fuck up so he could hunt Jasmine down.