37
LIAM
MARGARET IS IN her room packing a bag of essentials to take with us. It’s the second time she’s had to leave her home in order to save her life and one of the many times she’s had to hide because of me.
“You should have told her,” James says, twirling her wine glass on the table.
“I fucking know, okay?” I snap back. I don’t want to be a dick, but as my handler with the FBI, it’s her job to deal with my mood swings, and right now, my mood is black.
“I didn’t know she didn’t know. You said you had her handled, so I showed up assuming you would already be here and she would be in the loop.”
I sigh and run a hand over my head, looking toward the hallway Margaret went down. She stayed composed when she heard the gist of what was happening and asked what she needed to do, not once questioning us but just wondering how she could help.
I didn’t ask her to do anything. I just wanted her to tell me she didn’t hate my fucking guts.
“Things haven’t been easy since I got here,” I admit to James. She doesn’t care much for empathy, a strict It’s just a job type of person. She never gets attached to anyone or anything, and it’s what makes her a shoo-in for the director position.
“What happened?”
“I just… Things got crazy after everything that went down, and I haven’t really…” Fuck. I am going to have to tell her. “I haven’t really been in contact with her since.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because…I thought I’d be done. I thought I could put it all behind me and move on, with Margaret, here.”
“But since you got assigned here, you were forced to see her and could no longer keep her in the dark.” I nod in affirmation, and she replies with, “You’re an idiot.”
“Thanks,” I mutter sarcastically.
“What?” She laughs loudly, something I don’t see often. “You left her in Vegas with nothing but a plane ticket and then didn’t talk to her for what, two years? And you expect a ‘Welcome back, honey’?” Her voice is annoyingly high in a poor imitation of Margaret.
I pause in my response because I know there’s nothing I can do to make myself sound better. I know I screwed up by not talking to her, by not truly communicating with her, but after everything that already happened to her, all the things that were done to her because of me, I couldn’t bring myself to drag her into it all over again.
Margaret chooses this moment to walk out wearing her leather jacket. It fits snugly around her breasts, and I suck in a slow breath to calm myself down. She looks like a badass, a black backpack over her shoulder and her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “So, where to?”
We go to a safe house the FBI sets up for us, and Gemma tags along for the time being to make sure Margaret is up for sticking with me. If I know anything about her, it’s that she doesn’t back down from a fight, and she sure as hell isn’t going to hide out while I take care of things for us.
I’m checking my guns for the hundredth time while Gemma gives her a rundown. I would do it, but now she doesn’t trust that I’ll give her all the details.
“So basically, Anton was a tiny piece of this, and this other guy, Alexander, is the one who started the whole thing?” Margaret asks. Her tone is formal, and I watch her slip into cop mode. I haven’t been able to tell her how truly amazing I think it is that she turned herself around the way she did. Watching her in action in her new job, it’s crystal clear that this is where Margaret was meant to be.
“Yes, and he’s here, but we’re not a hundred percent certain where.”
“Which is where Stokes came in,” Margaret finishes, and I sigh at her use of my last name. She hasn’t talked to me since we left her apartment, and whenever she refers to me, she uses my last name. It’s what all the officers and agents do, except she and I aren’t just colleagues, and I’ll be damned if she thinks she can build that wall back up between us.
“And the other agent, Perk? He was in on it from the beginning?”
“Yes.” James sighs, and I can tell she hates admitting that because technically he was working under her at the time. “But we’ve got him now, which is why we know all about Alexander.”
“Okay.” Margaret bites her lip, her face in deep thought. “And my job?”
“I’ll contact your precinct and let your chief know what’s going on, to an extent, and once this is over, you can go back to work. For now, are you capable of being Stokes’ partner in this?” It’s not protocol, but I know why Gemma is helping me here, and I’ll forever be in her debt. I don’t work with partners, and I wouldn’t work with a partner on this if it were anyone other than Margaret.
Giving Margaret a job with me…well, it’s a sure-fire way for me to get a hell of a lot closer to her.
Yeah, I owe Gemma a few bottles of wine for that.
“Of course,” Margaret confirms. “Whatever I have to do.”