Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“Aaron’s woman.”
“His fuck buddy,” Kara corrects, setting a cup of coffee in front of Blake. “There’s a difference. He’s human and a man, Ashley. Blake was all about a fast fuck when he met me, which is why I drugged his ass and left him in a hotel room after our fast fuck.”
“Translation,” Blake says, “She was afraid I’d steal her heart. And I did.”
“I thought he was working for the drug cartel that kidnapped my sister,” Kara explains. “I drugged him because I thought he was an asshole.”
“Right now,” I say, unable to keep up with their emotional history because I just don’t want to. “I think,” I add, “I just want to know about Nicole. How was his ex involved in all of this?”
“His fuck buddy,” Kara corrects again. “Nothing more. Proven by the fact that she took a million-dollar payout to frame Aaron for selling secrets to foreign governments. The heat was coming down on Mick; Aaron became his target.”
Well, at least he won’t be pining for her heart. Not that I feel overly comforted by that fact right now, considering I’d not heard about her until now. “Why Aaron?” I ask.
“He got too close,” Blake says. “I’ll spare you my detailed research, but the bottom line is this: the government sent him hunting for a spy. He was a stone’s throw from finding out Mick was that spy.”
“And Nicole?” I ask, just saying her name turns my stomach. “Where does she fit in?”
“Not with Aaron,” Kara says. “Like we said. Mick paid her a million dollars to set him up.”
I want to ask for more, especially since that’s twice now that statement has been made, but Blake is already moving on. “I found security footage of Nicole with Mick at a bank where Mick used a fake ID that identified him as Aaron. Nicole used the name Susie. Together, they opened an offshore account in Aaron’s name and had Russia and China each wire five hundred thousand dollars into the account. An alert was sent to the right targets at the CIA, which sent the CIA hunting. Later, that million dollars was withdrawn by Nicole, as her payment.”
“Is the video at the bank enough to end this?” I ask.
“Maybe,” Kara says. “But maybe isn’t enough. This is the CIA we’re talking about. Aaron needs more to secure a clearance from this.”
“Nicole can get him what he needs,” Blake adds, and the flash of a gorgeous woman pressed to a wall with Aaron all over her comes a bit too easily for comfort.
“No,” Kara says, tapping the table.
I blanch. “No?”
“No, he will not fuck her, kiss her, or do anything resembling those things. Ask Blake. He wouldn’t do that, not after meeting me. Meeting me changed how he did things.”
“She’s right,” Blake says. “She changed me, and while I can’t pretend to know what’s in Aaron’s head, I’ve seen him with you and talked to him about you enough to believe he feels the same as I do and did. One woman can change everything.”
“He loves you,” Kara says. “That’s crystal clear.”
She’s right. He does. He’s proven this to me. He loves me. I did change him. He’s declared that many times over. I’m letting the unknowns of his career and past have too much of a role in the present. We are the present. Nicole is his past.
Present.
I control the present.
I control how I respond to the past and the present.
I pick up the gun. “Let me know when you know something, please,” I say, turning back to the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Blake calls after me.
I pause and turn to face him and Kara, but my mind is answering his question. Nicole betrayed Aaron by setting him up. I betrayed him with jealousy, which is indeed the green-eyed monster, a dangerous green-eyed monster.
“Before he left, I made him think I might not stay,” I say. “I made him think that I didn’t trust him. Now, I’m going upstairs to practice shooting. I’m making sure he knows that I’m not going anywhere. At least, not without him.”
And with that, I head upstairs, where I plan to start training. No one is taking my gun from me ever again. And no bitch named Nicole is taking my man. He’s mine. I’m going to make sure he knows that I know it when he returns.
Safely.
When he returns safely.
Chapter forty-three
Aaron
“Who is this bitch to you?” Savage asks as we step to the hotel across from Nicole’s row house in Greenwich Village.
“Nothing but a fuck and a distraction I clearly couldn’t afford.”
“Good luck proving the ‘nothing but a fuck’ to your woman.”
I shouldn’t have to explain, I think. I love the hell out of Ashley. I’d die for her. The only thing I want to do with Nicole, at this point, is kill the bitch. But with all the lies I told Ashley, I can’t expect her to see anything but another, and I don’t know where that leads us.