Contrition, p.15
Contrition, page 15
“Of course.”
“Stay safe. Before you had family watching your back, now you’re on your own.”
A statement mimicking her own fear. But that wasn’t something she was going to let her Grams know. She and the boys had a pact not to worry the woman who had taken them in when they all lost their parents.
“They’ll take good care of me, Grams. But I will be extra cautious and careful.”
They shared another hug and she gathered her quilt and left. Back at her house, her brother and cousin were there, waiting for her on the front porch.
No one said anything. Beau held up a bottle of whiskey and, together, they all went in to celebrate and say their farewells.
* * * *
Masters turned up the music, sending it blaring through his place. Music was his solace. Always had been.
But right now, it wasn’t soothing him as it should have been. In fact, nothing did. Not since she’d left.
“Fucking CIA.”
He closed his fingers around the longneck he’d yanked from the fridge earlier. Four months since she’d smacked him and left his office. Two months of trying to get in touch with her after allowing a cooling-off time. None of his attempts had been successful and she’d not once gotten back to him to answer any of the messages he’d left.
The doorbell chimed and he went to answer it. Ethan stood there, his laptop in hand. He didn’t ask if he could come in, just brushed by and let himself through the door.
“Come on in,” Masters remarked.
“I will.”
He took a long drag of his drink. “What brings you here? I thought you were out of the country on family business.”
“Came back. I’ve been unable to get in touch with my sister.”
Unease churned in his gut. “Not my business. She doesn’t work for me anymore.”
“No, she doesn’t, but she is my family and I’m going in to help her out. The fucking CIA is disavowing her.”
“Already? What the fuck did she do?”
“She did her job and what they sent her to do. One of their supposed top agents died, but not before he betrayed her.”
He placed the bottle on his table. “Take what you need and go. I’ll be in ops. Pull Beau and take him with you.”
“Where are you going?”
“To have a chat with the CIA.”
“You’re not coming with us?”
“No. I will be by after you bring her back, but right now, I have someone I need to have a conversation with.” He used the remote to shut off the music and got his shoes. He and Ethan went down together and as they parted, he grabbed Ethan’s shoulder.
His man turned to him.
“Yes?” Both his eyebrows had ridden so far up they were beneath his hair.
“Whatever it takes, you bring her back. I’ll sign off on it.”
“You know you should just tell her you love her. It would make everything so much easier.”
Masters pointed off down the road. “Go.” He was going to take it as Ethan’s blessing, but again, something to think about for later. At that moment, he had to get to Langley.
He climbed into his vehicle and called his pilot on the way. He would fly up and have a vehicle waiting to take him to their building. There wasn’t any point in changing prior, given he had more suits on his jet.
The plans had already been filed and all was ready by the time he got to the private airstrip. Jogging up the stairs, he didn’t wait for the pilot to shut the door and he took care of it.
“Let’s get going,” he called out.
“Roger that, sir. Just waiting for clearance.”
“As soon as possible.” He claimed a seat near the front and stared out of the window at the waiting runway.
It didn’t take them long and they taxied down, turned and took off. Once they were airborne, he left his seat and changed into one of his dark gray suits. The flight was short and the town car waited for him as he disembarked. The driver didn’t speak to him, just held the door and closed it behind him.
The same when they arrived, no words were spoken. He just walked up to the building and entered, crossing the huge CIA crest on their floor. Flashing his badge, he got through security and was in the elevator for Shady’s office.
The journey down the hall didn’t do anything to calm the anger pulsing through his veins with each pump of his heart. Shady’s office door sat open and Masters knocked on the frame before entering and kicking it shut.
“Masters.” The man leaned back in his chair, the smile on his face just begging to be punched off.
“Tell me it’s a lie.” Those five words were dragged up from his gut, laced with danger and raw fury.
The man threaded his fingers and gave him a look Masters had no doubt meant ‘I barely know you, don’t ask me for any favor’.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He took another two steps toward him. “Don’t bullshit me. We both know what this is about. And by your sorry-ass attempt at a deflection, I’m going to assume you did this and it’s not a lie.”
The gaze became calculating and colder than he’d ever seen on Shady. “You need to keep out of CIA business.”
“Fuck you. You recruit her, send her into a shit situation and when one of your own, older members betrays her before his death, you disavow her? Seriously?”
“She knew what she was getting into. She accepted the danger.”
“She didn’t know you were sending her into a volatile situation with traitors. And now you have her labeled as one?”
“We didn’t label her as a traitor.”
Seriously, this fuck wants to argue semantics with me? Fine. “True, you just yanked all her options away for getting any help from the ones who dropped her in this situation.”
“Again, she had advanced knowledge what she was going up against. Besides, you had her on your team so you must have thought she was capable enough.”
“She’s more than capable and she will make it back. Now when she comes after you because of the shit you handed her, don’t blame me. You brought it on yourself. You should have known better. You should have offered her support.”
He snorted. “We weren’t even supposed to be in the country. You would have done the same.”
“The fuck I would have. I don’t leave my assets without backup. I wouldn’t ever yank help from one behind enemy lines. But then, that’s the difference between Theta Corps and the useless CIA. We take care of our own.”
“Had you taken care of her she wouldn’t have come to us.”
No disguising the meaning there.
Masters counted to ten and strode to the desk, bent over and snatched Shady from his seat. “Listen to me and listen well. She’s going to get out of there and she’s coming back to work with us, but you will send her whatever compensation she may need because of the stress you put her under. And I suggest you make it a damn good one. Remove the ‘disavowed’ tag and make her disappear from your files. She didn’t work for you. Give her the money and forget she exists.”
He clawed at Masters’ grip. “Why are you here?”
“I told you, I don’t like one of my people being treated this way.”
“She left your company.” He pounded on Masters’ arm and he dropped him, unceremoniously back to the chair.
“No matter where she goes,” he said, heading for the door, “she’s still one of mine.”
“You make it sound like she’s your woman.”
Masters looked over his shoulder, shot him a look, and walked away after two departing words. “She is.” He knew his warning had been heard.
For the longest time, Theta Corps had been off the radars of other agencies. Now, they knew of them and since then things had been getting difficult. People in congress wanted oversight and to have their fingers in the pie. He wasn’t about to hand over control to some fatass who spent his days in sessions and screwing his assistant behind his wife’s back. Not going to happen.
Now, all he had to do was track Anabelle Lee down and convince her to come back to Theta Corps and him.
Chapter Fourteen
#xa0;
Kissing the stock of her MP-5, Anabelle Lee slung it over her shoulder and jogged to the end of the plane’s ramp. It was pretty impressive feat considering she’d had to have the medic put in ten stitches on the outside of her thigh.
“Would you like a moment alone with that?” Ethan moved into her peripheral vision.
“I’ve had plenty of moments alone with this baby. That’s why I survived and why I’m keeping it.” She touched the healing bruise on her face and pasted a smile there as her brother neared.
“And here I thought we would have to rescue you.”
“For a few moments, I thought you might as well. I’m happy to say you didn’t, but I can’t thank you enough for being there just in case I would have needed it.”
He draped an arm around her and kissed her uninjured cheek. “I wasn’t about to go tell Grams something happened to you. Maybe now you’ll stick with the ones you know have your back.”
“Can we not talk about my shitty track record with trusting men in either personal or work-related situations?” Though she tried to keep her tone light, she could hear the hint of pain that gave her away.
It sucked. Carlos then the fucking CIA.
“There’s one that worked.”
That voice. Hell, that man. She glanced ahead away from her brother and spied Masters standing there, dressed in a suit, the light gray shirt unbuttoned around his neck. The shimmering deep blue suit coat and pants fit him in ways that should have been illegal.
Damn it all. She had missed him.
To be honest, she’d not expected to see him again. Ever. Not after the night in his office. Sure, there were things she wished she could have said and told him, but time hadn’t been on her side. Especially not when she had been fighting for her life to get out of the shithole country she’d been left in.
Now here he stood, right before her. You can tell him everything you wanted to say beforehand. Well, some things were easier than others. Her mouth clammed up and she could only swallow as she looked at him and drank in his vision.
She propped a hand against her hip and stared as he approached. His stride was a sure, confident, masculine one she was happy to watch year-round. She brushed some hair away from her face as the wind whipped it.
“I don’t know. There’s been issues with them all.”
He slowed before her. “Aren’t there issues with all relationships?”
“All mine.” She adjusted the strap on her MP-5 and watched his eyes light up.
“There’s one that would like another shot.”
She shook her head, too exhausted to go down that road yet again. Her brain screamed at her that this was the chance she’d just finished saying she wished she’d been able to have.
“What for?”
He reached out and stroked a hand down her bruise, his touch as tender as any ever had the right to be. She leaned into his touch before she recovered and drew away.
“Because I realized I don’t want to do this without you.”
She crossed her arms. “This something you want to do in front of my brother?”
Masters never looked away from her. “I don’t give a damn who I do it in front of. This has nothing to do with them. This is our business, Annie. Yours and mine. No one else’s.”
Damn him for calling me Annie. I don’t need to be swayed any more in his favor.
“So talk.”
What difference did it make if they were on a large tarmac with planes coming and going? So what if there were men going up into the belly of the transport that had just brought her home and taking off skid loads with forklifts?
The Masters she knew kept everything contained, tight and to the chest.
“Fine.” He stepped flush to her, close enough if she took a deep breath her chest would brush his, yet he left space between them. As if to taunt her. It worked. “When I heard what the CIA did, I was pissed. I’d been trying to get in touch with you for months, no way of knowing where you were or if you were even okay. Then I learn you were disavowed.”
She shrugged. “So you wanted to rush to my rescue? It happens. It was the damn CIA.”
His smile made her knees weak and her heart nearly jump out of her chest. “Of course, I did, but I know you. You don’t need me to rescue you. You don’t need anyone to rescue you.”
Somehow, he shifted closer and the wind brought his subtle masculine scent to her nose, erasing the smell of jet fuel and her own stench.
“Didn’t stop me from wanting to, but I figured I could do more for you on this end and went to make sure if for some reason you weren’t as good as I knew you are, your grandmother wouldn’t want for anything. I also told them to stay the fuck away from you.”
“You threatened the CIA?”
His shrug was lazy, showing his lack of concern. “They’re not allowed to operate on this soil. Besides, I’ll put up my company to theirs any day.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“Because I want you to know, I’ve figured it out.”
She blinked, confused. “Figured what out?”
“What my life needs.”
“And that would be?”
“It needs a feisty, redheaded woman in it who doesn’t allow me to get away with any shit. Calls me to the mat when I need it, hell, even when I don’t think I need it.”
“So buy your girlfriend a red wig.”
“Wouldn’t do me a damn bit of good for the attitude. I need that around me. I need you around me, Anabelle Lee.”
She flicked her tongue along her lips, desperate not to cave and launch into his arms, allowing him to hold her. “And, what, I’m supposed to sit at home like a dutiful wife while you continue to run Theta Corps?”
“Hell, no. I want you back. I want you at my side for business and life.”
Warmth sprang up from her toes and spilled throughout her entire body. “We butt heads.”
He nodded and pursed his kissable lips. “No argument here. But we’re good for each other. You make me want to be better, do better.”
“What happens the next time I have to wear something revealing and am in danger?”
Masters leaned closer. “I don’t promise to be cheerful about it, but I’ll keep my mouth shut and let you do what you do so fucking well. I’m sorry about my behavior, Anabelle Lee. I know I have no right to tell you what to wear or question your work ethic and how you’re going about doing a job. We can keep work, work. I want to know at the end of the day, at the end of any mission, you’re coming home with me.”
“Anything else you want to say?”
He frowned. “What else is there?”
“For fuck’s sake, man, you need to tell her you love her!”
The combined cry came from the belly of the plane and the men who were up there working.
He looked back at her and smiled wryly. “Well, yes, there is that.”
She couldn’t stop her answering grin. “There is, huh?”
Masters wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her that last bit of distance that had been between them so they now touched.
“Definitely. But they’re right. I’ve not told you. I love you, Annie. Have since soon after I met you. I will do my best to not only keep you safe, but support you in whatever you want to do. I want the chance to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Anabelle Lee pushed up on the toes of her combat boots and pressed her lips to his. He opened his mouth under her slight pressure and met her tongue with his own. They tangled and twisted with each other as she wound her arms around his neck, dragging his fingers through his hair. It didn’t matter how mad she was with him—this was the one man for her. No one else did for her as he did. And no one would.
Epilogue
#xa0;
She exhaled slowly and inched her way down the darkened hallway. Before the corner, she paused and counted, low and slow until she knew the cameras wouldn’t be on her trajectory.
Anabelle Lee slipped into her destination and made her way to the back of the room to wait. She didn’t have long before the door swung open and her target stepped in, laughing at something he’d said to someone in the hall.
She waited as he sat, opened his desk and reached into the drawer to pour himself a drink from the scotch he pulled out. She stepped up behind him and settled the muzzle of her SIG against his neck.
“I truly dislike being hung out to dry when it’s one of yours who is the traitor. Do you know what it’s like on Rendova or any of the other islands I had to swim to and try to stay alive until I was rescued?”
Shady jumped and the glass in his hand tumbling to the desk. She rolled her eyes. How the hell do the CIA operate if their men are this easy to sneak up on?
“It was nothing personal,” he said. “Work. You know how it goes.”
“Nothing personal?” She slid the muzzle back and forth along the skin. “You didn’t want someone to work for you on an even-keel basis. You wanted someone who had the training, but wasn’t on anyone’s radar for them to lure out your mole. And if, no, when shit hit the fan, you wouldn’t need to explain to anyone about your fuck up. You knew he was bad. You knew he was going to betray whomever was with him that time. Tell me I’m wrong.”
He shifted to the left and she clucked her tongue, tapping his left shoulder with a second weapon.
“Let’s not make any jumpy movements, I’d really hate to kill you so soon.”
“I’m a CIA agent. You can’t kill me and get away with it.”
She leaned closer to his ear. “Your mistake from the start was assuming you knew just what I could and couldn’t do. I could put two right here and be gone before anyone knew better. No prints, no name—remember, you haven’t ever heard of me.”
“I would just prefer you didn’t kill him, Anabelle Lee.”
She swore under her breath and cut her gaze to the right, where Masters stepped into view.
“What are you doing here?”
