ISAAC
“One more job.”
My shoulders tense as Doreen studies me. This is the first time I’ve seen her since our last assignment was completed. She knows what I want. I’m just not sure my handler wants the same thing as I do.
“I said I wanted out. What part of that statement was confusing for you? Did I stutter?” I growl as my annoyance bubbles to the surface.
She grins. “Well, well, there is emotion inside of you, something other than a cold, calculating—”
“Don’t finish that fucking sentence.”
I tilt my head from one side to the other, clicking my neck and trying to release the tension that’s slithering like a vine through my muscles. I know what I am, but I also know what I want to be, and nobody is going to fuck with my forever. If they do, I’ll have to cut them off at the knees. I’ve been what they needed me to be for so long sometimes having to live in the gutter with the dregs of society. You don’t get clean by rolling around in more dirt. I might always be filth, but I crave the purity that only Via can give me. She’s unpolluted, wholesome, and I’m worried I’ll end up contaminating her. It’s one of the reasons I left in the first place, why I’ve stayed away again. Now, it’s too late, chasing her has brought me what I wanted. I know I should have waited until I was completely out. I didn’t, and it was a selfish choice. I just hope like fuck it doesn’t spell her demise. There are a lot of things I can deal with, much more than most. Losing Via in any permanent way isn’t one of those things.
“Fine,” I concede. Doreen smirks, and my fingers twitch with the need to shoot her in the head. Leaning toward me, she passes me a flash drive.
“Everything is on there. Encrypted, of course, but you have the means to retrieve the information you require. Shelly will be in play this time, too. In fact, your whole team will be needed.”
I say nothing. If the whole team’s in play, it means this is a bigger op than I was hoping. I’m not sure who I’m trying to kid. If she needs me to lead it, then it’s not going to be a small op. She has plenty of junior agents for those.
I remain silent as Doreen stands moving toward the door. Before slipping through, she turns to me. “I know you want out. It’s been granted. Paperwork is signed and sitting in your classified email account, but it had to be after this last job. Sorry, Kane, that’s just the way it goes.”
I want to growl Isaac at her, remind her of my real name, but there’s no point anymore. Even if I weren’t in the process of getting out, I’m not sure who I am these days. I certainly seem to be failing at keeping the two identities separate. There’s a blurred line where Kane stops and Isaac begins, and I’m starting to wonder if I’ve always survived as both of them. Now, I have to try and shed Kane to be Isaac, and if I can’t, then I’ll need to find a way to live in tandem with both my personalities.
The minute I hear her chauffeured car drive away, I pull out my phone and text my team telling them they need to be at my house in one hour.
“Shit.” Shelly is the first one to speak after we open and upload the documents to dissect the newest assignment.
“More like, fuck me,” Darwin mutters.
“You know what this means?” I question them, and they all nod knowingly. Shelly is the only woman on our team, and because we can’t have any identifying marks, her skin remains untainted, she’s also young enough to be our bait. Once again, the innocent look she has going on will be the lynchpin to securing our success, but it’s dangerous, like always.
“How are we going to get their attention?” she asks.
Dropping my head back against the wall, I close my eyes and think over the intel I already have. It’s not as much as I’d like, but it’s all we’ve got to work with, and it says the gang we’re going after will be carrying out their business in eight days. After that, they’ll move into another area closing down their current operation. They don’t need to remain in one place as sex sells wherever you are, and they’ll want to ravage another big city so they can kidnap a new selection of young women. The only way their business survives is with a constant stable of girls. The sex traffic trade has a quick turnover, and unfortunately, these days there are so many people forming new alliances that we can’t take them down quick enough before another one has emerged.
“Victor, Clint. I want you to go out tonight, hit up all your known contacts and try to find out as much as you can.” With a nod, they immediately move out the house.
“Dean, Brand. Go to the dive bars, see if you can find some underground fights. See who’s whispering and find out any plays or plans, especially those in flight.” Just like the first two, they nod and exit hastily to carry out my orders.
“What are you thinking?” Arlo questions and my head snaps up. He doesn’t speak very often.
“I’m thinking we have no fucking time, not enough intel, and this is one we can’t fucking lose. We need to bring these motherfuckers down. This time, there’s no second option,” I tell him, and he smirks darkly.
My gaze moves to Shelly.
“What?” she snaps folding her arms across her chest. “I know that look, and whatever you’re going to say, I’m not going to like it, am I?”
Dragging the palms of both hands up my face, I continue right over the top of my skull, running my fingers through my hair, only pausing to thread them together at the back of my neck. Then, I tell her what I need. “Get to the hairdressers and the beauty shop. Do your nails and hair and whatever it is that women do to make themselves soft and feminine.” Her eyes narrow, and her mouth opens, but I don’t let her say anything, not yet. “Go buy some new clothes. Everything has to be girly, innocent. So no bright red or black nail varnish. Instead, think light pink, sundresses, and minimal makeup. And buy a necklace… a cross.”
“What the fuck, Isaac!” she yells, and although I want to laugh, especially when I see King and Darwin grinning, Arlo’s lips definitely twitch, I manage to remain stoic.
“You need to seem younger, innocent, delicate… virgin like. I can’t help the fucked-up people who are out there or the fact that we have been saddled with this assignment. Roll with it, Shel,” I order. I can see her jaw working, but she just nods and storms out.
My eyes move from the door when I hear her leave the house and rest intently on Arlo, then King. “You two will protect her. Never let her out of your sight, starting now.” I point to the floor. “You don’t let them touch her. Nothing else matters to you except keeping Shelly safe and alive.” They move out, and we all know how dangerous this will be for Shelly. They have probably been given the most important job, and they’ll die for her if they have to.
“So what about us?” Darwin asks.
I’m looking at the floor, but I tilt my head so our eyes meet. “Are you a praying man, Darwin?” He chuckles, and I shake my head with a smile. I hope after all is said and done, we can still smile. I also wonder how the fuck I’m supposed to move forward with Via while this shit is swirling around me.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks, coming to sit at the dining table opposite me.
I glance up at him before grabbing the bottle of vodka on the table and pouring a shot. Slamming it down the back of my throat, Darwin wisely doesn’t comment even after I throw a second shot down.
I hiss as the alcohol burns through my chest. “I don’t know if I can keep her safe.”
“Shelly? She’s a fully trained killing machine—”
I cut him off. “No, Olivia.”
There’s a sudden silence, the intensity of the moment is thick as we’re swallowed by our thoughts. Darwin lost his sister. The cause of her death was indirectly linked to the life we lead. This life burns us or the ones we love at some point. Darwin was considering joining Black Ops, but his sister’s safety was holding him back. He was all she had. His connection to his first handler, Jenson, meant he was being watched. Nobody told him to be vigilant, even when it was just an option and not a firm decision. She was killed the day he signed his life away—run down at a zebra crossing by a drunk driver. However, we knew better. We always know better.
The look in his eyes as our stares collide tells me all I need to know. I shouldn’t have ever started up again with Via, but now I have, I don’t know if I can let her go again.
“I’m fucked,” I complain.
“Yep,” is all he offers in return.