When they were clear, Mercer yanked open the main door. “I’m in a private meeting, what do you want?”
Cooper stood to the side. Two FBI agents—decked out in pressed suits—stared at Mercer with wide eyes. “The prisoner is seizing, sir. We’ve called medical personnel but—”
“It could be a trick,” Mercer snarled as he rushed past them.
Tina was right on his heels. There was only one “prisoner” who would have sparked this kind of reaction from Mercer.
They zigged and zagged through the halls. Then they were entering a small room that she hadn’t seen before. No windows. Only one narrow door to gain entry into that place.
Anton Devast lay slumped on a narrow cot in the room. Two agents were with him, trying to turn his head so that he could breathe.
Anton’s eyes widened when he caught sight of her. “Dead...”
No, she wasn’t.
Tina fell to her knees next to him. His breath was jerking out, his heart—beating too slowly.
She stared at his skin, noting the blue tinges and the sunken lines around his eyes and mouth.
He tried to lift his hand to reach for her.
But he didn’t have the strength.
His eyes flared. His lips trembled as he tried to speak.
Only, he couldn’t talk anymore. It was too late.
Anton Devast was still staring at Tina when he died.
* * *
IT WAS BACK to business as usual at the EOD.
Tina stepped into her lab, the white lab coat she wore a familiar comfort to her. After Devast’s death, she’d been caught up in a whirlwind. A whirlwind controlled by Mercer. Before she’d barely blinked, she’d found herself back in D.C.
With, of course, Agent Cooper Marshall at her side.
She hadn’t seen Drew again. Hadn’t heard from him.
His sisters were safe, alive— She carried the image of them embracing him in her mind.
But Drew...he just seemed to be gone.
Had he already taken another mission? Gone out on another undercover assignment? Was he in the U.S.? Already halfway around the world?
She didn’t know.
But Tina would find out.
Her hair was twisted into a small bun and her steps were sure as she searched around her lab. Less than a week. How could one life change so quickly?
Hers had, irrevocably, and there was no going back now.
She realized the full meaning of Drew’s warning to her. When he’d said there would be no going back, she should have paid more attention. Her old life had vanished, destroyed in the heat of their passion.
Her new life seemed too cold. Too sterile and stark, without him.
I miss him.