Outlaw's Promise(74)

I felt that big chest twist as he shook his head. “There isn’t. Not even you can come up with another way. Even with your big brain. This is the way it has to be.” He bent over me, putting his lips to my ear. “All the pieces have fallen into place, Annabelle. Like one of your machines. This wouldn’t work if I hadn’t killed that agent. I’d have nothing to offer them. I’ve been living with this for years. You helped me deal with it and now it can finally do some good.”

I thumped him on the chest. “No! It’s Briggs who should answer for it, not you! He used you!” I looked up at him, panting and desperate. “You promised you’d never leave me!” I sobbed.

I’d changed him too much. The world didn’t need men like him in jail. I had to make him see that before—

He leaned down and kissed me. At first, I tried to fight it because I knew what this kiss would mean. I tried to pull away but he put one big hand on the back of my neck and held me in place. And as soon as those hard Irish lips parted mine, I just crumpled. This was it. This was goodbye.

I slumped against him and gave myself up to it, tears rolling down my cheeks. My lips opened under his and I kissed him back, one last desperate attempt to make him see sense, to see what he was going to lose—#p#分页标题#e#

But it was no good trying to make him love me. He already did. That’s why he was doing this.

So it became about us, about remembering, about drinking in as much of the other one as we possibly could because this was the last time we’d ever see each other. Every perfect press of his lips, every touch of his tongue, all of it had to be stored away forever.

He broke the kiss and when I opened my eyes I was looking up into clear blue, no sign of torment. He’d finally made peace with himself. My heart twisted. I was the one who’d told him people could redeem themselves, but I’d never wanted it to be like this.

He looked down at me as if there was so much he wanted to say. But in the end, he just put his palm against my cheek, kissed my lips one last time and said, “You’re my love.” And before the beautiful, Irish silver of it had fully faded from my ears, he was turning from me and presenting his hands behind his back, and one of the guys in suits snapped on a pair of handcuffs.

The other guy opened the rear door of the SUV. Agent Trent scooched over to make room for me and gave me a reassuring smile. He looked nice...normal. I knew he was only doing his job. But the thought of starting a whole new life, without Carrick, made my insides contract down to a hard little ball.

I climbed in and the guy in a suit slammed the door, then stepped back to stand with his buddy and Carrick.

Agent Trent took a deep breath and then let out a long sigh of satisfaction. He turned to me and spoke for the first time. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m going to take very good care of you.”

I recognized that voice. For a moment, I was in the back of another car. Outside a bar. With a man in a mask.

I started to scream.

And Volos threw back his head and laughed and laughed and laughed.





47





Carrick





It was her scream. The look in her eyes as she turned to me. Only one man in the world could scare her that much.

Trent is Volos.

I didn’t even have time to process the how or the why. I just knew that I’d put Annabelle in a car with that psycho. I had time to lunge towards the SUV’s door...and then the back of my head exploded in pain and I fell to my knees in the dirt.

Before the world had even stopped spinning, I was trying to struggle up to standing. But my hands were cuffed behind my back and the guys in suits leaned on my shoulders, putting all their weight into pinning me in place. I was bigger than them but without my hands I had no traction.

When I looked up at the SUV’s window, Agent Trent—Volos—was leaning over Annabelle to gaze out of the window at me. That meant he must be pressed right up against her. The thought made my skin crawl. She was pressed back in her seat, face deathly pale, absolutely frozen with fear.

This can’t be happening. This isn’t possible. But...Annabelle had never heard Trent’s voice, until just now. And she’d never seen Volos’s face at the auction. And I’d never met Volos at all, only Trent.

“Are you even FBI?” I croaked. I thought at first that he’d lied about that. All I’d seen was a badge and badges could be faked.

But no. It was much, much worse.

“Oh, I’m the golden fucking boy of the FBI,” said Volos. “They love me. Do you know how many people I’ve brought down?”

It all started to make horrible sense. Everyone had said that Volos was connected. Protected. Of course he was. Anybody who pissed him off went straight onto the FBI’s most wanted list, courtesy of his alter-ego, Marcus Trent.#p#分页标题#e#