I grinned into the water as I bent my head and drenched my hair.
I felt Mina's small hand slip around my belly and reach for the faucet.
///
She cranked it to hot and shimmied her tiny butt in between me and the wall.
The water was pouring down my chest and landing on her face, but she didn't move. Only stayed exactly where she was as the water warmed up.
Grabbing the shampoo, I poured a generous amount into my hand and then started to work the soap into Mina's hair.
She closed her eyes and leaned her head back.
"I'm scared," she whispered.
I started to massage her scalp.
"I know."
"Tell me it's going to be okay," she ordered.
I hesitated. I didn't want to lie to her.
This, more than likely, would turn out to be okay.
But there was also a possibility that this could turn ugly. That I might be forced to do something in front of witnesses, and have to answer a few harsh questions. Or there was a possibility that I might get caught in the crossfire if things got out of hand.
There were literally no guarantees in life, so I couldn't very well make a promise to the one woman who always seemed to see straight through my lies.
"I can't." I pulled her forward and placed her underneath the spray, working my fingers through the thick strands as I rinsed the huge mass.
She was silent for the rest of the shower, and when she finally got out, along with me, ten minutes later, I wasn't sure that she was very happy with me.
But I never lied to my woman and never would.
If I could give her anything in this life, it was my honesty.
"You gonna give me the silent treatment?" I asked her bluntly.
She turned only her face to me but didn't say a word.
"Okay then."
Stepping into my underwear, still wet as hell from my shower, I grabbed my jeans and stepped into them, too.
"I love you, Mina."
She looked down at her feet, and before she could say anything else, I heard a knock at the door.
Fender was here.
Grabbing a t-shirt up before I left, I made my way down the hallway, turning on lights as I went.
The moment I got into the living room and turned on the light, I saw the figure.
Fender knocked again, and I grinned through the stained glass of the solid oak door.
I'd just gotten it all the way open, my shirt in my hand still, when the gunshots rang out.
Fender jerked.
Glass shattered.
I reached forward and hauled the body that was rapidly falling to the ground in front of me inside before slamming the door shut behind him.
Fender's limp body hit the floor with a solid thump, and I quickly locked the door, and then hefted the dead weight onto my shoulder before hauling ass to the panic room.
Slamming my hand onto the scanner that barricaded the room from anyone that wasn't approved, I tossed Fender's body inside and went back down the hall at a full sprint.
The next thirty seconds were spent snatching a still sleeping Sienna from her bed, and taking her down the hall to where Fender was finally sitting up and looking incredibly ill. Blood was pouring down his neck despite his hands clutching his throat.
Sienna was on the floor, looking dazed and confused.
"Mina!" I bellowed.
The door cracked open with such force that I looked up.
Audrey was in the hallway, dressed in nothing but a t-shirt.
Mina was in the hallway as well, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.
Her wet hair was down around her breasts, staining the gray t-shirt with its wetness.
Both of their eyes were on me, and they were scared.
Footsteps echoed in the house on the laminate flooring.
Then I made the hardest decision of my life.
I closed the fucking door on Sienna and Fender … without my wife and sister inside.
Chapter 26
It's okay if you don't like me. Not everyone has good taste.
-Fact of Life
Lynn
I walked into the room, no longer caring that I was about to blow my operation to smithereens.
This day, along with that day, twenty-seven years ago, had been the worst of my life.
I was a special agent with the FBI. I'd done so much undercover work that I couldn't even begin to tell you the multiple aliases that I'd used throughout my career. I'd investigated murder. Rape. Kidnapping. You name it, and I'd been there to witness it. All the while having to stand around and watch so I didn't blow my cover or the operation that I happened to be working on at the time.
But this case … this was personal. It was one I'd been working on for a very long time, and no one knew my true motivation.
No one but a dead woman.
I'd made a promise to that dead woman that I'd keep her safe, and I'd broken it.