Kayla couldn’t stop shaking. How many times had they put her in that freezing cold water? A hundred? It fucking felt like it. Her lungs hurt from how many times she’d had to cough up water from them.
It had happened over and over. Morales would ask her the same questions. She would tell him to fuck off and they would put her under. She would watch for a moment, seeing the oddly monstrous face distorted by the water, and then the burn would begin. Her lungs would ache and panic would set in as she began to drown. They would haul her out and she would shiver and shake on the cold marble.
She was going to die here. They would hold her under one too many times and she wouldn’t come back.
Would her sister kill Josh? Or would she simply walk away and Josh would be left thinking she didn’t love him, that she’d been everything he’d feared she was. Cold. Manipulative. Unloving.
It was funny. That was what hurt most. Josh wouldn’t know she loved him with all her heart. She would be buried somewhere in a shallow grave and he wouldn’t know she’d gone there loving him, wishing things had been different, praying he one day found someone he could love the way she loved him.
“Hey, sweetheart.” A hand swept her wet hair back.
Warm. She finally had some hope of warmth, and in that moment, she could feel Joshua’s arms around her, his big body sheltering her. Had he found her? Had he brought Shane and called Declan and Riley back? Had they stormed the mansion and saved her, and now she was safe and warm?
So weak. That last session had been a doozy. They typically dropped her on the hard floor when they were done with their torture for the moment, but now she was being held tenderly. She cuddled closer, trying to get that feeling of safety Josh always gave her. Maybe all wasn’t lost.
“That’s right,” a voice that wasn’t Joshua’s said. “Stay close to me. I’ll take care of you.”
She winced when she realized where she was. She was wrapped in a big fluffy towel, the warmth starting to penetrate her skin, and there were masculine arms around her, but they weren’t her lover’s arms.
“It’s all right. The bad man is taking a little break so we’re going to rest for a bit,” a deep voice promised her. She was sitting on his lap, her hands still bound. Levi Green might have been a good-looking man if he wasn’t such a righteous dung heap of a human. He was practically cooing at her like she was some baby bird he was trying to draw back to life. “Sweetheart, stop being stubborn. No one wants to hurt you. Well, I don’t want to hurt you. If I’d had my way, this would have gone differently. I vastly prefer seduction to strong-arm tactics. Let’s get you some hot chocolate and warm you up and you and I can talk. Give me what I want and you don’t have to get back in that tub.”
Such sweet words.
She pulled away from him. It would be smarter to play into his obviously obsessive fantasies about her, but she hated him too much to even pretend. They were going to kill her. Levi might think he would get to keep her as a pet, but she knew the truth. If they got the information they wanted out of her, she would be dead two minutes later. They couldn’t risk her getting out, and she suspected only Levi was certain of the extent of his sexual prowess when it came to getting women to talk.
Still, she wasn’t above using him to try to figure a few things out. “My sister’s alive? How is that possible when I saw her die? I was there.”
He looked down at her and then back up as though trying to figure out who would be listening in. “You saw a carefully crafted drama played out by a master. That scene was set up just for you. You understand what Bishop did to you?”
He’d betrayed her utterly. He’d tricked her, and the spy in her understood why he’d done it. It didn’t make her heart hurt less, but on an intellectual level she could see why he’d played it the way he did. “He wanted MSS to keep their plans on track. Couldn’t do that if they thought the Agency was on to them. Besides, with me on the inside, he got a twofer.”
“He should have told you.” Levi took a deep breath, cradling her close. “I would have told you.”
Sure he would have. “So when Bishop died…left the Agency…you became my sister’s handler?”
“I did, and we found we were better suited than she and Bishop. Bishop attempted to keep her more violent tendencies in check. He thought he could let her assassinate the odd dictator once a year or so and that would feed her. I knew what she needed. Bishop’s faked death also had the added effect of setting off a war between the cartels. Jalisco came out on top and Hector, Kun, and I formed our partnership. Hector thinks Kun is going to marry him, but I’m fairly certain at some point she’ll take his head off and start running the cartel herself. She likes to come up with new ways to make money.”
“Is my sister the one blackmailing Josh?” It wasn’t a huge leap. Hector had the information. If her sister thought she could use it, apparently she would. All that crap about wanting a sister had been about wanting out. Her sister had found MSS too constrictive, and she hadn’t minded sending baby sis in to take over her unwanted life.
“Yes, though Josh isn’t the only one,” he admitted. “We’ve got dirt on a bunch of people. Hollywood stars, a couple of athletes, a few politicians. I find giving Kun something to do keeps her out of trouble. Well, something criminal to do. Your sister isn’t like you. She lives to hurt other people. And she hates you most of all.”
Her sister hated her? She was starting to understand that, but it made no sense. They’d never spent real time together. They’d only known each other through letters, and Kay had been over the moon to get to write to her sister. “Why?”
The door opened and there she was. Her sister.
“Aww, what a tender scene,” her sister said with a nasty twist to her lips. “You don’t want to miss this, Hunt. Look at the almighty spy cuddling with the enemy.”
Her heart nearly stopped as Josh was hauled in.
“Get your fucking hands off her,” he snarled. His hair was mussed, a trickle of blood on his lower lip. He’d obviously taken some persuasion to get here.
Josh, who’d gone through so much. Josh was going to be tortured yet again. She didn’t know if she could watch it happen, but she might have to. God, she was going to be sick.
Levi’s arms tightened slightly around her. “You want to explain what happened? You’re supposed to be fucking him not beating the shit out of him.”
“He figured it out,” her sister admitted. “It didn’t take him long either. Turns out I’m not good at being little miss sunshine. Bring her into the bedroom. This is a massive clusterfuck but maybe we can still get something out of it.”
Josh looked at the tub and the water on the floor, his eyes going wide as his mind likely made all the correct connections.
She had to calm him down. They needed time because someone would figure out the op had gone wrong. She wasn’t sure who that someone was since Ezra was dead, Riley and Declan were halfway to Mexico City, and Shane was likely getting some sleep before they left in the morning. But she had to hold out some hope because she couldn’t watch Josh die. “It was just a little bath, babe. It’s okay. I’m still here and kicking. Well, I’m going to kick this asshole’s ass when I get my energy back. How did you know it wasn’t me?”
“She doesn’t glow the way you do,” he replied even as Morales’s men started to haul him back. “When she smiles I don’t feel it in my soul. I knew she wasn’t you very quickly, pet. All that shit I said earlier, god, I didn’t mean a bit of it. I love you, Kayla. I won’t give you up.”
Ah, such sweet words, but there was a problem. They were probably going to die and soon. “Josh, I love you, too.”
Levi stood up, his face going cold. If her weight bothered him, he didn’t show it at all. “You’re not playing the game as well as I thought you would. Of course, your sister didn’t play it at all. Three hours? You managed to get through three whole hours of being Kayla? You fucked up, Kun.” He followed her sister and Josh out into the large bedroom where someone had nicely laid out a tarp and two chairs. “You know she managed years as you. Years pretending to be you in a nest of spies and people who know how to size a woman up. You couldn’t even fool some dumbass who gets by on his looks.”
Oh, but they were wrong. Josh was smart, too. He could pick things up very quickly.
Morales stood near the large bay windows, his arms over his chest and a fierce frown on his face. If she remembered correctly they were on the third floor and those windows separated them from a big balcony that overlooked Morales’s zoo. He’d pointed out to her that he liked to be able to look down into his tiger’s pen and know he was the king of his own personal jungle.
Kun shot Levi a look that could freeze fire. “You might want to rethink your worship of my baby sister. She got lucky. I’m the one who’s worked with you for years. I’m the one who’s made you money and kept up your appearances as the Agency’s golden boy. She’s weak. I’m shocked you haven’t gotten what we needed yet, but then I’m also not since you seem to think you can stroke her into telling you what we need.”
“I’m not some animal who thinks the only way to win is to slit everyone’s throat,” Levi shot back. “You watch yourself. Just because I don’t like to get my hands bloody doesn’t mean I won’t. You would be nothing without me.”
Kay liked the violent vibe happening between her sister and Levi. That could definitely work in their favor. Hers and Josh’s.
Was there any way to get out? She needed to get some strength back. Where was Shane? Was he sleeping, not knowing what was happening? Would he wake up in the morning and realize Ezra was dead and she and Josh captured? Or had her sister already put a bullet in him?
“I think I should take over baby sister’s interrogation,” her sister said. “Bring Hunt over here. I think fucking around with her boyfriend could yield some positive results. What do you say, sis? If I pull off a couple of Joshua’s pretty fingers, do you think you would tell me what I need to know?”
The thought sent her into a near panic. She looked at Josh as they dragged him back, and his eyes were steady on her.
“Don’t you give them a thing,” he said. “I didn’t like my fingers anyway. Anything they cut off, we’ll just make that part of me bionic.”
“Oh, but I think little sister would miss parts of you a whole lot,” Kun crooned. “You’re an amazing kisser, Josh. Do you like how he kisses, little sis? Do you like the way he uses that skilled tongue of his?”
“Is that how you knew, babe?” Kayla asked. “You knew because her kiss left you cold. You see, I’m the only one outside of his work that Josh has kissed in a long time. You’ll have to do better, big sis. You can’t pull mean-girl tricks on me. You can’t make me feel bad about myself.”
“We’ll see how you feel when he starts bleeding,” Kun promised.
Levi set her in a chair across from Josh. She noted that both chairs were well within the tarp. Yep, one of the first things Bishop had taught her was when there was tarp underfoot, that was a bad sign.
She needed to keep her sister talking. Every minute Kun’s mouth was working, she wasn’t hacking off parts of Joshua’s body. And honestly, she wanted some answers. “Why the hell do you hate me? What did I do to you?”
“What did you do?” Her sister moved in front of her, locking eyes with her, and she could see what Josh had likely seen. Yes, her sister looked exactly like her, but there was a deadness to her eyes, a coldness that wouldn’t be banished with a simple smile. “You took my life. It should have been me.”
Was she serious? “Our mother chose you. She kept you.”
“And she sent you to fucking paradise. Do you have any idea what my childhood was like?”
“I know you had a mother who loved you,” Kay replied.
“Love?” Kun scoffed at the word. “She loved me enough to keep me like some fucking doll she needed to hold on to. She couldn’t feed me. She couldn’t clothe me in anything but rags. She finally found a man who would take us in and he beat the shit out of her and then me. I guess he prepped me for the spy life, eh, sis?”
Kayla shook her head, unwilling to take on that particular guilt. “That wasn’t my fault. If I hadn’t been born, it could have turned out the same way.”
Her sister’s eyes rolled. “But you were born. She told me she decided to keep me because it was fate. Her firstborn. She gave up the second. You were one too many and yet you were the one who got all the treats. Imagine my surprise when I realized you were still alive and happy and healthy. You were a smart girl. I got your testing scores. Near genius level, and you’d been a gymnastics prodigy until you wimped out.”
Another time her fathers had saved her. “My dads pulled me out when they realized how unhealthy an obsession it was for me. I was starving myself. I listened to coaches who told me I was only worth the medals I could bring in. My dads taught me differently.”
“You were a quitter,” Kun said with a triumphant smirk.
“Oh, baby, is that how you do that thing with your thighs?” Josh asked. “I know it must have been rough as a child, but you are still so fucking limber it makes me crazy.”
She knew what he was doing. He was using humor to tell her that he was here with her. Always here with her. This was what they did when it got bad. They found the humor because they knew it would be okay in the end. He accepted her weirdness and she eased him out of his natural broodiness, and if they managed to not get murdered they were going to be such an awesome team.
“I love you a lot, Joshua Hunt,” she said.
“You’re going to love his corpse in a minute, sister.” Kun let Kayla get a good look at the gun in her hand.
“You want to explain how we’re going to deal with the dead body of a Hollywood star?” Morales asked, biting off his words. “I only agreed to this because you said we wouldn’t have to kill anyone but the girl, and no one would realize she was dead.”
“What was I supposed to do?” Her sister paced. “He figured it out. He was going to tell the bodyguard and we’d have even more trouble. Because that fucking bodyguard killed a bunch of your guards and he took off in his car. He’s gotta be calling the authorities.”
“Shane Landon ran?” Levi asked, his eyes narrowing.
“Like a scared baby,” Kun replied. “I’m not worried about the local authorities. We own them, but the minute he calls Taggart in we’re all fucked. I don’t know how much Landon knows. Also, where did you stash the Agency asshole? Levi’s got to get his story in before Taggart does.”
“My men are dealing with it,” Morales explained. “No one will find Fain’s body.”
“Landon wouldn’t run,” Levi was saying. He stood in front of Josh. “He knows something, but leave Taggart to me. Ezra won’t be a problem. He wasn’t supposed to be down here. I might be able to pin a lot of this on him now that I think about it. Someone get me something I can tie this asshole down with. We need to know everything he knows and what he told Landon.”
“You don’t have to tie me down. I’m not going anywhere without her,” Josh replied, his shoulders straight.
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you,” Levi shot back. One of the guards held out a set of handcuffs, but Levi ignored him. He pulled a nasty-looking knife out of his pocket. “Who was in that car?”
“Shane Landon and Ezra Fain,” Josh replied, his voice as calm as if he was talking about the weather.
Levi’s hand tangled in Josh’s hair and pulled his head back, the knife straining at Josh’s throat. “I want the truth.”
Josh smiled fiercely, the skin of his throat taut and vulnerable. “As one of my favorite movies will tell you, you can’t handle the truth.”
Oh, god. She could already see a hint of blood. Panic threatened. She couldn’t lose Josh. This was it. She had to get out of this game because she suddenly had way too much to lose. This was why Big Tag and Damon didn’t do undercover anymore. Their lives, seemingly easy to trade before, were suddenly precious because of the years they could spend with the person they loved. The idea of having a family slammed into her brain. Josh, walking the beach with a small hand in his. Her dads spoiling their grandbabies rotten. Her friends coming out with their own children to visit. None of it would happen if they died here. Her normal calm was utterly blown by the need to protect their future.
“Please, Levi. Please don’t kill him. I’ll be a good girl. I’ll do whatever you want. Let Josh go. You’ve got more than enough on him to keep him from talking. Hector’s right. You can’t explain Josh’s death or disappearance. Well, Hector can’t. The heat will come down on him hard. You wouldn’t treat your partner that way.”
She had to get Morales to see that killing Josh would be on him. Hurting Josh would be on him. Her sister and Levi would go back to the shadows, but everyone knew where Josh had been and if he wasn’t seen again, the heat would come down squarely on Morales.
“There is nothing you have on me that will make me back down,” Josh vowed. “You hurt her again and I’ll tell everyone in the fucking world. Or I’ll let my corpse do the talking.”
Levi’s face was set in ferocious lines as he held that knife against Josh’s jugular. “You ready to die for her? Because don’t think I won’t do this. I already killed her friend right in front of her face.”
“Ezra Fain was wearing a vest. Go check on those guards of yours,” Josh replied. “They’re the dead ones.”
Morales looked at his men and nodded, sending two of them out.
Ezra was alive? Or was that Josh’s play to get those men out of here so they would have a better chance. Josh wasn’t bad at this. She managed to sit up a little straighter. He’d gotten two of them out of the way. They were down to Levi, her sister, Hector, and the men on the door.
She needed out of these damn bindings.
“Levi, please don’t do this,” she pleaded. “Let’s go. If Josh is right, Shane won’t call in the locals, he’ll call in the feds, and more importantly, Ian Taggart will be down here with a group of men the likes of which you haven’t dealt with, and they won’t stop. Take me with you. Let Josh go. He won’t talk because you’ll hold me over his head.”
“Are you trying to make this hard on me,” Josh complained.
“I’m trying to get the knife off your throat,” she shot back. And closer to her, so he might cut her free and she could walk out with him. “I would do anything to get that knife off your throat, baby.”
He chuckled, the knife cutting into him slightly.
“I swear Levi, if you don’t put that knife away I won’t do a thing to help you,” she promised.
The knife came away and Levi cursed. “We need to move out.” He got to his knees and sure enough, he cut through the bindings on her feet before he stood up. He made no move to get her hands out. “I’ll take Kayla with me. You take Hunt and we’ll figure out what to do with them later. Go down to the safe house and I’ll meet you there. Hector can handle law enforcement. He’s got plenty of practice.”
Hector didn’t look happy with that prospect, but he nodded anyway. “I’ll have my men make it look like Hunt left earlier.”
“I’ll drive and smile for the security cameras,” Kun said. “Having my sister’s face comes in handy sometimes. But I think we should all go together. We can dump baby sis in the trunk.”
“No,” Levi replied. “I’m taking her separately. We need to talk and you’re upsetting her. She can be reasonable. I’m going to outline all the ways this makes money and sense for her.”
Kun frowned her way. “Nice. You’ll take baby sister with you and then you have the one prize that will satisfy Taggart.”
“You shouldn’t worry about Taggart, you crazy bitch,” Josh said with a grin as he glanced toward the balcony. “He’s not the one you should be worried about. There’s a ghost coming for you. Do you remember what he told you all those years ago about betraying him? What did he promise you? He’s here tonight and he will bring hell down on your head.”
Her sister paled. “Bishop? Bishop’s here. Oh, shit. Landon didn’t kill all those guards. It was Bishop.”
“Bishop is somewhere in Colorado,” Levi said, his voice a bit shaky as if he’d just realized the boogeyman was here and looking for him.
John was here?
Josh glanced toward the balcony before looking back at her. “Kayla, he has a message for you. Remember Jakarta.”
Jakarta. She’d been captured by a group of Indonesian extremists. MSS chose to leave her behind, but Bishop and Ten had come for her. They’d stormed the warehouse she’d been at, spraying the place with bullets after she was safely on the ground. Jakarta taught her to do one thing.
“Duck!”
She threw herself to the carpet as the glass from the balcony exploded and rained down in a hail of bullets. The world above her seemed to explode.
Josh threw his body over hers.
She looked up and watched as those bullets took out one of the guards, but she saw Levi on the floor, crawling toward the door that would lead him out of the big bedroom.
Then she couldn’t see a damn thing because Josh was covering her head, keeping her down.
“He’s getting away,” she complained.
“Let him,” Josh said, not moving an inch. “We’ll take care of him later.”
She had to tell him. If she let the chance to kill the man who’d hurt Josh get away, she would never forgive herself. “Josh, you have to let me up. I need to make sure Hector is dead.”
He whispered in her ear. “Not on your life, and I know what he did to me. You’re more important than revenge. You’re more important than anything in the world to me.”
“Roll us behind the bed and cut through the bindings on my hands. I need them free.” She needed a gun, but she was completely helpless without her hands.
He didn’t hesitate. He tightened his arms around her and then the world was spinning as he maneuvered them to the relative safety of the bed. She caught a glimpse of John Bishop coming through the ruined windows. He held a gun in both hands, and his eyes were grim as he pulled the triggers.
Josh immediately went to work on her hands, deftly untying the knots. “I played a ship captain once. I’ll have you out of these in no time at all. Kay, there’s a gun in my right sock. I think if one of us is going to be armed, it should be you. I’ll follow you and I’ll listen to orders, but don’t think I’m going to leave you.”
“I wish you would.” But she knew it was futile. “Stay behind me. I have to see if I can find Levi or my sister. They’re dangerous.”
She crawled to the edge of the bed and watched as her sister tried to get a shot off at Bishop.
Kayla immediately took the shot, but Kun was on the move and it went wide. She saw her sister’s eyes go round as she realized Kay was there on the ground.
Time to move. Kun raised her gun.
“To the left, Josh.” She rolled as the bullet breezed by her head. Even rolling, she took another shot, trying to give them some cover.
She watched as one of Bishop’s bullets took out the guard nearest to the hall. Her sister swiveled and took her own shot and then sprinted for the door. Bishop had taken cover and Kun was gone.
That couldn’t happen. Levi she might be able to deal with. She might be able to convince the Agency to handle him, but Kun would be back. She’d seen it right there in her sister’s eyes—pure hatred. If Jiang Kun got away, she and Josh would never be safe again. The blackmail would start up and they would always be looking over their shoulders.
Her sister. Time seemed to slow as she got to her feet and braced herself. Kun’s gun was coming up, too, and it would be a matter of who was faster. An Old West gunfight, but in that moment she remembered how she’d felt to know that she had a sister, someone who shared her blood and DNA. All her life she’d been the weird one, the adopted kid who couldn’t even pretend her parents were her real parents.
Except they were. Her dads loved her beyond blood and DNA. Beyond the simple circumstances of birth. They’d chosen her. Her mother had loved her enough to risk everything so she could live. And her sister…her sisters had nothing to do with blood. Her sisters were Ariel and Penny. Her brothers were Damon and Nick and Brody and the Lost Boys.
She pulled the trigger, letting go of that dream. That shot was true. She knew it the moment she took it, but her sister’s mirrored her own. They would hit each other squarely in the chest. Identical heart shots.
Except Josh tackled her, shoving her out of the way. She watched as her sister’s shirt bloomed with blood, her eyes going wide and startled.
Kayla hit the floor with a thud, Josh landing on top of her.
The room was suddenly silent, eerily quiet after the hail of bullets.
She took her first deep breath in hours. “Are you okay?”
“No, baby,” he said, keeping his body over hers. “Don’t hurt her, Hector.”
She glanced up as much as she could and Hector was standing over them, his gun pointed their way.
What had happened? Where was John Bishop?
“What do I get if I don’t hurt her, Joshua?” Hector’s voice was silky-smooth evil. “You might not ask me for mercy if you knew some of the things I’ve done.”
“I know exactly what you’ve done,” Josh replied, his whole body covering hers as if he could magically form some cone of protection around her. “I know what you did to me. I know your group was behind it all. Think of what you could get for the tape of me now, Hector. Let her go and I’ll do anything you want. You know how good I am at it, right? You remember.”
“Josh,” she said, her whole soul aching. He could barely talk about what happened to him as a child, much less give himself back to the monster who’d profited off all of it.
“Don’t,” Josh said quietly. “I realized I would go through it all again if it brought me here to you. All of it, Kay. I’ve been half a man, walking around like a ghost, but you are worth the pain. I love you and I’m going to get you out of this. I owe you everything.”
Hector chuckled. “I might enjoy seeing how you handle one of my brothels. Tell me, Josh, do you miss the drugs? Do you miss the…”
Hector’s head kind of exploded. Josh covered her again, shoving her down and tensing over her. He was ready to do it. He was ready to take a bullet for her. Probably many.
“I owe Kay, too,” a familiar voice said. “Come on. Let’s get you two up. Joshua, we’re going to have to patch up your arm. Sorry, I got hit and fell back on the balcony. Luckily my vest held up better than Fain’s. I have to thank Stef for that. I borrowed it from the Bliss County Sheriff, but Stef paid for it. Nothing but the best.”
Bishop. She had no idea who he was talking about, but he was here and she was alive and Josh was alive. Josh got to his knees, helping her up. There was blood on his left arm and he winced when he moved it.
“He saved you from your sister,” Bishop said quietly. “I saw it happen. It was incredible. You moved like mirror images. Those shots would have been perfect.”
But she’d had a man who loved her enough to risk himself for her. Her sister’s hate had been nothing compared to Joshua Hunt’s love.
She cupped his precious face. That face had graced a thousand movie screens, but no one on the earth got to see him as open and vulnerable as he was now. No one but her. “I love you, Josh.”
“Good, because I’m never letting you go,” he said. “You get into trouble, pet. I think you need to stay with me.”
She hugged him. Staying with him was right where she wanted to be.