Chapter Ten
Ana
Believe or you will not achieve.
Kurt didn’t tell me this. My high school dance instructor did when I did a solo dance for regionals and was terrified because Kurt was going to be in the audience. Yes, I was on the dance team. A lot of people find that hard to believe, including Kurt. But I wanted to be a girl. I wanted to feel normal, but I learned that everyone’s version of normal is different. Normal really just has to mean happy. And I’m happy when I’m sharing my life with Luke.
So, I focus on how I find my version of happy again. I focus not on how any of this might divide me and Luke, but on how ending it brings us back together. Kurt is a manipulator, I think again. Of all the weapons he handles with masterful skill, it’s the one he uses to inflict the most damage.
“We can’t let him use us against us. He’s reading us like books and he’ll use it all against us. That’s the bottom line. We have to shift that narrative.”
“I believe that to be a valid assessment,” Adam replies. “Which is why I’m going to point out that we’re in his house which we all know is a booby-trapped nightmare for those who are his enemies. Right now, we’re his enemies. For all we know he’s been here, living here, under your nose, Ana. This place is huge.”
Luke casts me a questioning glance. I give a short nod. “It’s possible,” I agree. “I’m rarely here.”
“Then he could have set us up for an attack,” Adam continues. “Even if that’s not the case, he has the upper hand here. We need to get him out of his comfort zone. We need to get off this ranch.”
“The security system is state of the art,” I reply. “And I made sure it’s on.”
“He was here when we got here,” he reminds us. “Who else was here, meaning on the property, before we got here?”
“There are motion sensors for every region of the property,” I reply. “I set it up on the highest alert. Right now, if there is movement in any region an entire house alarm alerts us. If I had my phone, it would be sent to my phone.”
“Alarm or no alarm,” Luke chimes in, “if there were enough men, positioned at the right places and they all moved at once, we’d be screwed. Adam’s right. We’re in his house, Ana, on his land. No one knows this place better than him. And if he’s been living here, which is possible, who knows what kind of overrides he set-up to that security that could bite us in the ass. We need to get off this property.”
“What if the trigger for an attack is us leaving?” I ask.
Adam scrubs his jaw and settles his hands on his hips. “She makes a point. I need to call Blake. He needs to take a look at the satellite images and the security system.”
My mind races, filling with one moment, after another with Kurt, all of which guide me to my next conclusion. “He wouldn’t allow himself to be tied up if we were about to be attacked. He could get caught in the crossfire.”
“He didn’t exactly allow it to happen,” Adam replies.
“We didn’t surprise him,” I argue. “He was waiting for us.”
“We don’t know that,” Adam counters.
“I do,” I say. “He was waiting for us.”
“In that realm of thinking,” Adam presses, “are we really saying we didn’t surprise him but Parker did?”
“Unless he didn’t,” Luke contemplates. “I’m guessing here, but somehow Kurt found out about our meeting, probably because Parker told his people, whoever they are. And Kurt had an inside man who leaked it to him.”
“It makes sense,” I agree. “He expected Parker. Parker didn’t expect him. Parker was a problem he knew he’d end. Which he did. And we can speculate all day long on all of this but it’s just that—speculation. I need to talk to Kurt.” I hold up a hand to both of their impending objections. “I’m always the soldier he made me, more so now than when I was downstairs, reeling from his appearance and the gun he held to my head. And I strongly believe that before we make a move, I need to feel him out in a way only I can do. I’m ready to do that now.”
Luke steps closer and in doing so lends his support for my decision. “I’ll go with you.”
I rotate and press my hand to his chest, holding him in place. “It needs to be me and him.”
“I’ll stay in the kitchen, Ana, within arm’s reach, but I won’t leave you alone with him.”
“I can live with that.” I try to pull my hand away.
His long fingers curl around my forearm and he steps into me. “He wants something, Ana.” His voice is low, a foreboding hum beneath a tight band of perfectly punched words. “Maybe it’s to protect you. Maybe it’s the package, but if it’s the latter—”
“Then he wants to disappear again and he can’t do that if we’re alive. I’m aware of how this plays out and that we won’t know his true colors until we’re at the end of this story, whatever this story truly is. But we also need the package. It’s the ticket to ending all of this. And if we have to use each other—him us and us him—to find it, we have to do what we have to. We need this to just be over. Weneed this over.”
“And if he wants us dead?”
“We make sure we kill him before he kills us.”