Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Adam disconnects. “We’re set. I’ve got the address. Blake already had one of our own picking us up. A guy named Bruno. I’ve met him. He’s an asset. Let’s go.” He backs out of the doorway and moves into the plane. Ana and I join him outside the door, right along with Kurt.
The minute Ana sees him, she shoves him. “Are you crazy?”
“We need to be on our own territory. He can’t touch us out there. I’ve reinforced everything behind the scenes when you didn’t know I was there.”
“I didn’t know,” she says. “That sums up everything wrong with all of this.”
I catch Ana’s arm and hand her the coat I’ve retrieved for her. She turns away from Kurt and slides it into place, I don’t look at him or I’ll hurt him. I bundle up and arm myself and her. Adam opens the door and leans out before updating us on his view.
“Bruno is out there, waiting in our ride. Let’s go.” He shoves the door all the way open and exits first.
I pull Ana back and force Kurt to exit next. He moves forward and heads outside. Ana is next and I have her rear. The cold is shocking, the wind fierce, the night dark. We’re in a line walking toward the SUV when my senses start to buzz. I pull Ana to the left of me, sensing something from the distance, and I don’t know what.
Adrenaline surges and it happens. Instinct has me stepping around and in front of Ana right as a bullet hits Kurt. He buckles forward. Adam is closer to the vehicle and he grabs Ana, pulling her with him. I’m aware of her entering the vehicle and all I can think is I can’t let Kurt die on her. I throw myself over him, shooting toward the line of trees where this bastard must be hiding. Ana appears again, kneeling next to me, trying to get to Kurt.
“Go back to the truck, Ana!” I shout, but she’s not listening.
I have to kill this bastard before he kills her, and that’s when I see the tiniest light, a small reflection behind a certain tree. “Cover left!” I shout.
Adam throws himself in front of Ana and Kurt, shooting at the target, while I go right, away from him, where he won’t be looking. It works. I blast through the trees and before he knows what’s happened, I’m behind him. He turns just as I arrive, almost as if he senses me as I did him, and I put a bullet through his head.
I don’t wait to see him fall. Savage isn’t with us. We need to get Kurt to a hospital and now, if it’s not already too late.
Chapter Forty-Five
Luke
Three days later...
Kurt lives, but for the rest of my life, I will remember Ana trembling in my arms, as she watched Bruno try to save his life. Turns out Bruno has a good deal of medical training and might be the only reason Kurt survived. Well, David survives. That’s the new name Kurt had on his fake ID and the one he chooses to keep.
Today he gets out of the hospital with plans to live in Italy in some spot he bought years before. I’m flying him there, because I’m damn sure not letting him hide out somewhere Ana can’t find him. For now, I sit in the hospital room, and watch him act like a cranky old man to the nurse, when she suggests he stay another day. Ana intervenes, a perfect daughter in every way. Kurt knows it. Or he better or I’ll still beat his ass for putting us in that situation with the former Invisible Assassin who is now the dead assassin.
I plan to keep him on a leash.
He will not leave Ana again until God takes him.
Or he pisses me off again.
***
Ana
Two weeks later...
I have mixed feelings about the fact that Kurt has been living in a beachfront property in the stunningly beautiful city of Amalfi, Italy while I thought he was dead. But I also have learned a lesson this past year, about letting go of what can do nothing but harm. And after a week of being here, living in the villa off the property—yes, it’s a magnificent place—I’ve come to peace in a way I didn’t think possible.
It’s on a warm October day—because yes, it actually gets quite balmy in October in Italy—that Luke and I walk the beach. I’ve officially resigned from the agency and reported what I believe to be criminal activity to the right people who can do something about it through Walker Security. I’ve been offered pay and a job, that no agent would ever dream of receiving. And I have fallen more in love with Luke than ever before.
With the sand under our toes, we stop to watch the waves crash against the rocks, the crystal blue sea a vicious queen overtaking the shores. It’s then that Luke goes down on his knee in front of me. “I know you said yes, but you need another ring.”