Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“What do you want from me, Carter?”
I sucked in a breath. My friends were watching. I had to keep it together. “The truth.”
“That’s the one thing I can’t give you.”
“I’m not backing down. I’m going to see these men brought down, all of them.”
“Then you’re right. You need my help,” Matteo said.
Miles shook his head. “I have the power to end it.”
Ford glanced at him, not looking as certain.
“If we combine our efforts with our friends’ resources then—”
“What friends?” Matteo asked.
“Leo, X, and whoever else he wants to bring in on this.”
“See. We don’t need you,” Miles said. “Let’s lock this son of a bitch up and make some plans.”
Matteo locked his gaze with mine. There was so much there that I couldn’t read.
“Are you going to run?” I asked.
Seconds passed as he seemed to consider the question. “No.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You’re not safe until this is over. I didn’t let you get killed in the jungle. I’m not going to let it happen now.”
“If you’re not here when I get back, I will track you down, and I won’t go as easy on you as I did earlier.”
Matteo snorted. “That was easy?”
I smirked at him. “Yes.”
“You’re just going to leave him here?” Ford said.
I nodded. “Yeah, I am. He’s right. If we lock him up, he’ll escape.”
“We have ways to—”
“No. He stays here.” I was crazy. I had to be. Why else would I let this man who, no matter the cause, had betrayed me, our unit, and everything he supposedly stood for, be alone in my house? And why did I actually expect him and my possessions to be here when I came back?
Because you saw the look in his eyes, and you held him while he cried earlier. And because there’s something tying us together, even if it’s fucked up as hell.
Miles looked ready to protest again, but Worth laid a hand on his arm. “Trust Carter. He knows what he’s doing.”
“Fine,” Miles said, anger still sizzling the air around him.
Worth turned his attention to Matteo. “Whatever he might do to you, what we’ll do will be ten times worse.”
Damn. I’d never seen Worth so serious.
“He’s not kidding,” I said.
Matteo grinned, the fucking bastard. “I never thought he was.”
11
MATTEO
The second the door closed behind Carter and his friends, I went looking for Carter’s go bag. It never occurred to me that he wouldn’t have one—or possibly more—stashed here or that the bag wouldn’t include a burner phone and a weapon. I didn’t know what he’d done with the phone I’d had on me when he drugged me, but I doubted I was going to get it back. That was fine. The last thing I needed was anyone trying to trace me with it.
It didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for. Carter was predictable, because we thought the same way, like the SEALs we were trained to be. When I was there in the jungle with Carter and the others from our team and we’d had a mission we were working toward together, life was so much easier. I would never have thought I’d long for those days again, but sometimes I did. When the CIA stepped in, they convoluted and corrupted it all. Fuckers. They were nearly as bad as the damn cartel; they just had a different agenda.
But asshole or not, I needed to check in with my current handler. He was far from the worst of the bunch. I set up the phone and texted him using an agreed upon code to let him know it was me. Then I stuck the gun I’d taken in my waistband and wandered around Carter’s cabin while I waited for a response.
There wasn’t much in the cabin to indicate who it belonged to. I knew Carter had an apartment in Manhattan. Was it just as sparse? I wanted to believe it wasn’t. I hated thinking of Carter only having something temporary. He deserved a full, happy life, but I doubted he was going to have that until he could work through the shit with his family and come to terms with what happened in the jungle.
I knew his friends had helped him. I might resent putting up with Miles and his bullshit, but he was an amazing friend to Carter. Giving him a job had been exactly the right thing to do. It didn’t matter if Carter didn’t need money. He needed a purpose.
I’d never been as focused as Carter. I’d joined the navy to get out of a shitty home life and pay for college. I’d intended to spend a few years in the SEALs, then get out and find a cushy security job. I’d wanted time to relax and have fun.
I’d sure fucked that up. I didn’t deserve better, but Carter did.