Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“There’s a hit out on her, which is obviously about me. They wanted to lure me out of the shadows, and it worked.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Ashley believes you have the resources to help me make that happen.”
“We have the resources to help,” he says. “The question is: should we? We can take Ashley. We can protect her.”
“No,” I object. “That’s not happening. I’m staying with him, with or without your help.”
Smith narrows his eyes on me. “He lied to you.”
“He was on a mission. I was part of it. I was a way to get to a client my law firm was dealing with.”
“He used you, and you feel good about this?” Smith challenges.
“People meet with a side agenda all the time, Smith. They don’t plan to fall in love.”
“And I do love her,” Aaron says, “with all my heart.”
Smith’s gaze shoots accusations at Aaron. “Or, you’re still using her to get to the target at her firm.”
“I’m no longer CIA. They’re hunting me. I have no reason to go after that client except one: to find out why that investigation led us here, where we are now.”
Smith shifts his attention back to me. “You need to think about Cole and Lori.”
“I am thinking about them,” I argue. “Someone tried to smoke Aaron out. There’s every reason to believe they’ll do that through me and my people next. This has to end.”
“Keeping this small is important,” Aaron says. “If one person in your operation is dirty, and don’t tell me no one is, because everyone has dirty people involved, lives could be lost.”
Smith scrubs his clean-shaven jaw. “I have to talk to the Walker brothers. Who was the client you were investigating?”
Aaron shakes his head. “I need to meet your bosses before I give you anything. I’m not risking the people Ashley cares about getting hurt because I named a name to the wrong people.”
Smith scowls. “How do I reach you?”
“You don’t. We’ll reach you.” Aaron stands up and takes me with him. “You have twelve hours and then we leave the city.” Aaron pulls me around the table and doesn’t stop. He’s a bulldozer, driving me forward and through the restaurant.
We exit to the streets, and he holds me close, cutting right. “Don’t look. Man in the leather jacket by the pole. He’s a problem.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he’s not your friend’s friend.” We cut down a side street, and my heart is suddenly racing, adrenaline pumping.
“What are we doing?”
“Finding out what he wants.” Aaron turns right to a main street again and stops at a bagel shop. “Go inside. Wait on me.”
“No, I—”
He kisses me. “Do as I say. Now. This is how you stay alive. You listen. You let me do what I do.”
I swallow hard, and because I have no choice, I enter the bagel shop and pray Aaron comes back alive. I walk to the back of the shop and sit down. A few seconds later, Smith walks in. I rush to him. “Someone was following us. Please. Go help Aaron.”
“I know someone was following you,” he says. “And no. I’m not going to help Aaron.”
Chapter twenty-one
Ashley
My anger at Smith is hot and fast. “What do you mean you aren’t going after him?” I demand but hold up a hand. “Never mind. Someone was following him. If you aren’t going after him, I will.” I start to move away, feeling suffocated by the tiny bagel shop.
Smith grabs my arm and pulls me around to face him. “You will not go after him.”
“You don’t have a say in what I do.”
“You asked for my help. He asked for my help. You have it, which means you stay here.” He takes my hand and starts walking through the tiny path between tables until we’re at a stairwell leading to a lower level seating area. I all but stumble trying to keep up, and the minute we’re on the stairs winding downward, I voice my agitation. “Stop.”
He doesn’t stop. He keeps walking. I want to hit him, but I can’t even get to him to do that. We get to the lower landing with a large seating area and doors leading to the subway. A good location to escape, run, or hide. Or, a good place to be kidnapped. I dig in my heels, but it doesn’t work. Smith is big, and he rotates me into a small space between a condiment center and a big thick beam. “What the hell are you doing, Ashley?”
“Trying to get away from you and find Aaron.”
“You mean the man I helped hide you from?”
“You didn’t help hide me. I was put into protective custody, and had Aaron not come for me, I’d be dead. What part of someone on the inside spilling my location, do you not get?”
“Someone dirty like Aaron?”