I whirl around, gripping the desk for support as I look at Noah.
His eyes are shut, forehead creasing as he gulps in a huge breath.
“Noah. Wh-why-why is CJ on the monitor?”
I’m staring at my husband for what feels like forever when he finally opens his eyes to meet mine. “Do you want to sit down for this?”
His voice is laced with tension, face wracked with concern.
I shake my head again, unable to stop trembling all over.
“We have a theory, based on some evidence that came to light recently…”
Noah pauses, shoving a shaky hand through his hair and looking away.
I can feel the fear emanating from him, fear he’s been trying to hide from me for days. He is no longer the composed man he was an hour ago, when he was holding our son.
Gabe takes the opening as Noah falls silent.
“We have reason to believe Sotnas is after you. That he was neverafter Noah. We think he was always after you.”
I take a step back, hitting the desk behind me with a loud thump, and I have to grit my teeth to stop from crying out from the sting on my hip and the fear radiating through my body.
“Y-you think?”
This time, Ben speaks up.
“We know he’s after you.”
Ben shoves off his desk chair and offers his seat to me, but I can’t move.
I’m paralyzed by all of this.
I feel a hand grasp my elbow as Gabe sits beside me, pulling the chair around for me to sit. I shake my head once, twice… a bunch of times, willing those last few words to go away. This can’t be real. This can’t be happening.
I don’t even knowwhothis Sotnas is.
Why me?
What does CJ have to do with this?
I’m a nobody—just a mom and wife who happens to be married to an FBI agent.
Gabe and the rest of the agents assured me repeatedly that the reason I was in witness protection was because I needed to be kept safe from the threats against my life brought on by Noah’s undercover mission going south. For over a year, I repeated that in my head like a mantra, willing myself to trust in that. Until it became my life and now, they’re telling me that this whole time, the bad guy’s been afterme?
That he’s powerful enough for the FBI to have to protect me?
What about Noah?
Oh God.What about Adrian?
“Ria.” It’s a pained whisper. My husband looks as shaken up as I am.
He’s falling apart before my very eyes.
He stands in front of me now, nodding at the seat.
I don’t look away from him as I sit and continue to process. He gets down on one knee in front of me, looking down at my hands curled around the baby monitor. He lays one hand on them to stop them from shaking and the other pulls the monitor from my grasp.