“I’ve killed enough people in my life to know exactly how to hurt one. I think I know the body nearly as well as a doctor does. I know how to sink a knife in to cause semi-paralysis and shock sufficient to take a victim down. If it had been my op, the minute I left is when I would’ve gone for you. Which meant, if you were still alive, and of that I was certain, then you had to be right behind me. You would know they’d have tried to take your brother out, too.”
Shock and awe filled her. He described exactly what happened. They had come for her within an hour of his departure. They’d actually caught her in the shower. Fortunately, as he said, he was an assassin. There wasn’t a room in his place that didn’t have a weapon in it.
“So, working on the theory you were right behind me, I knew exactly how much damage I could do to ward them off and give them this false sense that everything was fine. Then I had to get the hell out of there before you showed up.”
Only he hadn’t left. An accident on the thruway had held her up. “You stay… You stayed to make sure he didn’t die.”
“If you say so.”
“Sam, don’t do that. If you’re going to tell it to me, tell me all of it.” Bile burned in the back of her throat, and her stomach churned.
“Yes, I stayed. I hit him from behind, two deep knife wounds. No vital organs were pierced, but he lost enough blood and was shocked enough that it took him down. I used a light chokehold to make sure he went unconscious. I wanted them to see him fall.” Even with the change in perspective, the description left her raw.
Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply in through her nose and out through her mouth. “You waited. You waited to see my car pull in.”
He said nothing, but when she stole a look at him, he nodded.
“Of all the times for you to be late. I was just about to call for the ambulance when I saw your headlights. I removed the towels I’d been using to stanch the wounds and took them with me. I was just double checking that I hadn’t left anything out of place when you made it through the door.”
“And I tried to kill you.”
“Have I ever mentioned how fortunate I feel that, on those rare occasions when you’re a lousy shot, and it seems to have something to do with me?”
She laughed. “I wasn’t looking at you, I only saw Clark, and my mind refused to believe that person whose face I saw was you. But there you were, on the security camera, coming and going. I thought you’d stayed so long because you were trying to find something.”
“Find what?”
Addy shrugged. “I have no idea. My next thought was to get Clark the hell out of there. We would have to go dark and deep. That’s when I got the idea to fake his death. I didn’t want them coming after him again. They already knew I was out there.”
“They’d almost managed to clean up most of your mess before I got back.” Oh, when he got back to his place. She’d left two bodies there.
“But you knew I was alive.”
He nodded. “I also knew that it could only be one of three people who decided to burn you. I made it my business to find out which of the three it was. I took care of it.”
Brixton had been killed in a car wreck less than a month after Clark’s ‘fatal’ accident. “That was you?”
“At your service.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I spent the last several years telling myself it was better if you stayed away. Telling myself, if you really wanted to know, you would figure it out. Then, three years ago—”
Her heart sank. “Thailand.”
“Yes, and we’ll be in dock soon. But tell me about Thailand. Did you specifically come there to shoot me or…?”
No, she hadn’t gone to Thailand to shoot him. “I was there on an entirely different job. Then I saw you. I saw you sitting there at the bar, and a part of me was happy. The rest of me was gleeful, because I would finally be able to shoot the son of the bitch who betrayed me and tried to kill my brother. But after I fired those two shots, I couldn’t finish it. I didn’t really want you dead. That goes against all my training, so I left.”
Did she owe him another apology?
“Well, I suppose this bodes well for our future relations.”
Future relations?Her puzzlement must’ve shown, because Sam began to smile.
“Oh, you’ll get there. When you do, let me know. At least I know my life is safe in your hands when I piss you off.”
Chapter 6
Sam never imagined returning the England with Addy at his side. In fact, he never thought to return anywhere with her. More, he couldn’t believe she’d allowed him to explain what happened. It didn’t make his actions any less unforgivable, nor did it change the fact that he had indeed shoved a knife in her brother’s back, not once but twice. He could make all the excuses he wanted. He could state the obvious, that he was following orders. That he had then defied the same orders to prevent her brother’s death, but he hadn’t made it go away. He hadn’t protected her when he was standing in that office reading those files. He got along to get along, and he’d done his damn job.
Letting her down, failing her? That was the most unforgiveable act of all. His hand trembled faintly, but he ignored it. He might have felt like he’d poured himself into a bottle, but he’d never stopped working out or hydrating himself—in case she ever needed him.