Authors: Kim Baldwin,Xenia Alexiou
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Suspense, #Lesbian
“There’s been a development you need to know about.” The call came from Wasp, the operative Pierce had assigned to follow Domino.
“Go on,” Pierce replied.
“Two men entered Strike’s motel room. Domino followed, in a hurry. Not long after, she carried Strike out—who wasn’t moving—and they’re headed south, toward DC. The two guys never came out of the room, but I got their photos as they went in. One’s been ID’ed. Local muscle, no known connections.”
“Has your assistance arrived yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“All right,” Pierce said. “Stick with your target and I’ll have him check out the situation at the motel before he rendezvouses with you.” Wasp’s teammate might be able to extract some information from the two men about who had hired them. But more likely they were just petty losers contracted for the day, who’d be long gone before anyone got there, if they were still alive.
Pierce had long ago accepted that his life could include no emotional attachments. He’d had to order a rogue operative taken out only once before. In both that case and this one, he had experienced deep remorse—this time in particular. For he’d become quite fond of Luka Madison, and Domino was one of the best operatives they’d ever had.
Such a damn shame it had to come to this.
Hayley was still unconscious when Domino pulled into the underground parking garage. She bypassed her usual slot in favor of an empty space near the freight elevator, which she used to transport Hayley up to her condo.
She laid Hayley on her couch, knowing she had to figure out what she could tell her. She’d be coming to any minute.
She was running out of options.
You made your choice when you started lying to Pierce. It’s time she learned the truth.
Or at least as much of the truth as she could risk. More than anything, she wanted Hayley to understand her bloody business had a noble purpose. And that she would keep Hayley safe, at any cost.
But she was still terrified Hayley would want nothing more to do with her when she realized the woman she’d made love to, and the woman she’d seen kill in cold blood, were the same person.
Hayley moaned and her eyelids fluttered.
Domino’s courage faltered. She jerked on the ski mask again, just before Hayley opened her eyes.
ayley blinked awake, groggy and totally disoriented, with a bitch of a headache and a queasy stomach. And this foul taste in her mouth, acrid, like she…
Oh, fuck.
It hit her, the memory of those last seconds. The two men, coming toward her.
She tried to sit up, alarmed, shaking off the remnants of the chloroform, and looked to her left. She was in someone’s living room. Sparsely furnished. The hardwood floor was half-filled with dominos, arranged in an elaborate pattern and ready to be toppled.
An icy chill ran up her back and she froze, listening intently. Though no sound alerted her, she sensed someone standing behind her, watching her, but she was too terrified to look around.
Several seconds passed. Her heart fluttered wildly against the walls of her chest. Almost against her will, she turned her head farther, slowly, and in the big picture window saw the reflection of her captor. A woman, from the shape of the silhouette, dressed in black, with a ski mask hiding her face.
A sudden flash of memory told her it was the same figure that had overpowered her in Manny’s apartment.
Then the rest hit her, like a brick to the side of the head. The scar. The domino she’d found in her couch. Luka’s hyperalertness and quick reflexes.
The figure began to move and Hayley closed her eyes. Her throat felt constricted, and bile roiled in her stomach. She was certain it was true, but her heart wouldn’t let her believe it. And she didn’t know which was more terrifying, being wrong or being right.
She had to face what was there, she couldn’t sit like this forever. Gathering her courage, she opened her eyes and was startled to find the figure kneeling before her.
They stared at each other for several seconds, not speaking. Hayley put her hand on the mask, reluctant, but her captor nodded yes, and slowly she pulled it off to gaze into familiar blue-gray eyes. The saddest eyes she had ever seen. “Domino?”
When she said the name, Luka bowed her head, looking at the floor as if in defeat.
“Or is it Luka, or neither?” Hayley sat up straighter. “Who are you?
What
are you?” When Luka didn’t reply, she demanded, “So that is you on the tape, isn’t it? The tape that was sent to me, the damn thing I’ve been working on all this time. It’s all true? This secret organization. This school for…you…you’re an assas—”
“Please stop,” Luka finally interrupted. “Yes, it’s me on the tape, okay?”
It can’t be true. Please, no. It just can’t.
Hayley stared numbly into space. “Who were those men at the motel? Are they from the same organization?”
“No. I don’t know them. I had nothing to do with them, but it’s obvious someone out there wants to hurt you.”
Hayley snapped out of her trance. “Someone else besides you, you mean?” She stood and faced Luka, and when their eyes met, she suddenly remembered the feeling of the gun—hard, cold, pressed into her back. She panicked and glanced about for an escape. The door was twenty feet to her right.
Luka stood a split second before she did, anticipating her next move.
Hayley backed away. “It was you in Manny’s apartment. You who came at me—” She stopped. “Did
you
kill Manny?”
“No, Hayley. It wasn’t me…us, who killed him. Yes, I was the one in his apartment,
after
we found out he was dead, and I’m sorry for scaring you. I never meant to.” Luka’s voice was pleading and apologetic. “I was following orders because of the tape.” She took another step toward Hayley.
“Stay away from me. I’ll give you the tape and everything else I have. Just let me go.”
Anguish washed across Luka’s face. “Please stop looking at me like that,” she said quietly. “I’m not going to hurt you. I couldn’t. I’d never have brought you here in the first place if that was my intention.”
Hayley looked around, really taking in the entirety of the room for the first time. “Where is here?”
“This is where I live.”
“This is your house? Where
is
everything?” No one lived like this—in a room with no furniture, except a couch and a bunch of bookcases. There were no pictures on the walls, no TV, no souvenir keepsakes lying about, nothing personal except the dominos.
Luka shrugged. “I don’t need much.”
“That’s an understatement,” Hayley answered matter-of-factly. “So why
did
you bring me here?”
“I’m not sure. But I know you aren’t safe out there. We’re not the threat, Hayley. Someone else has been following you and sent the two men to the motel to get you. Probably the same people who killed Manny.”
Hayley digested this information. “So my best chance of survival is in the company of an assassin? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I wish you’d stop calling me that,” Luka said. “I’m not—”
“Oh yeah, that’s right, you’re just an art restorer. Jesus! All the bullshit. The art restorer, the dates, the…everything. All a damn lie.”
“I
am
an art restorer,” Luka asserted. “But I also…I…I—”
“You also kill, deceive, and seduce.”
Luka glared at her with torment in her eyes, and Hayley could see she’d hit a nerve.
“I never planned this,” Luka said. “I never intended to hurt you.”
“So…what does that mean? You just happened to run into me? You just happened to be at the benefit? None of this was set up? None of this happened because I have this damn tape?”
“Yes, I was at the benefit because the Organization knew you had the tape. I was on assignment. But it wasn’t how you think. I never counted on—”
“On
what?
” Hayley spat. “Having to seduce me, fuck me to get your tape, and then do God-knows-what with me once you had it?”
“Please let me explain.” Luka threw up her hands as if in surrender. “When we met that night, I didn’t know who you were or why I was really there. They simply told me I was to meet someone. Later that evening they informed me that you were the one I was there to see— that you had the tape of the Miami incident, and they wanted to know if you could recognize me from it.”
Luka’s voice softened. “It was because we clicked, had chemistry, that you became my ta...assignment. I hated that. But I had no choice. I was ordered to stick with you, find out what you knew and who you were talking to, see if you were going to work on this alone.”
“But I don’t know anything
,
” Hayley shouted. “I have no idea who sent me this tape, and I haven’t told anyone but Manny about it.”
“I’m aware of all that.”
“How?”
“Because your house is bugged, your phone is tapped, and I’ve been listening in on and shadowing you the whole time. I’ve been staying at an apartment across the street from you.”
That certainly explained Luka’s unannounced arrival, without a car, at her apartment the night before. Just as she was going through Manny’s box, listening to the tapes about the EOO.
“Jesus Christ! I’ve had my head so far up my ass with this damn story and you, I didn’t notice a damn thing. What an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot, Hayley. I’d be doing a bad job if you’d noticed me.”
“Yes, of course—you being a pro and all. So tell me, Luka…or Domino, or whatever it is you go by. What were you planning to do with me after you got whatever you needed?”
“I can’t talk about that. Besides it’s not—”
“What, Luka?” she pressed. “Say it, damn it. For once, be honest. What were...are you going to do with me, besides keep me safe. Isn’t that what you said? Which makes complete sense. I mean—that is what assassins do, after all, keep people safe.”
They stared at each other in silence.
“My only crime is being on the receiving end of something I never asked for,” Hayley said. “I have nothing to do with this mess. Apparently I was on a wild goose chase from the very beginning. And now, all of a sudden, I have assassins after me. What did I do to deserve this?”
“Listen to me, I know you’ve done nothing wrong, and please stop calling me that.” Luka looked hurt, and Hayley didn’t know whether she wanted to hit her or comfort her.
“Fucking collateral damage, isn’t that what they call it? That’s all I am to you. And then there’s stupid me, actually falling for you. Feeling things I’ve never felt before and hoping it was mutual. Jesus. You must have had a real good laugh with that one. Well, you can pat yourself on the back. You gave a hell of a performance.”
“Hayley, stop.” Luka sank onto the couch, shoulders hunched as though in defeat.
“No, Luka,
you
stop. Stop with the bullshit. You don’t have to pretend anymore.” She had given her heart, had risked love again, and it had all been a lie. Luka had only been feigning interest. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she wiped at them angrily. “Tell me, are you even gay, or did you have to fake that, too?”
Luka got up and took her by the shoulders. “Look at me, damn it!”
Hayley tried to resist, because Luka was too good at fooling her. She met her eyes, with the coldest expression she could manage.
“I won’t do anything to hurt you,” Luka began. “Not now, not ever. Yes, I was asked to spy on you. But we weren’t going to hurt you if you weren’t involved. We don’t hurt innocent people, nor do we believe in ‘collateral damage.’ Yes, I’ve hurt people. But they were drug lords, mobsters, smugglers, molesters, pedophiles, terrorists, skin traders, and the list of sickos goes on. I didn’t enjoy having to spy on you—”
“Yeah, but—”
“Please let me finish.” Luka released her. “I hated and loved every minute of being around you. I wanted to kiss you from the instant I saw you, but I didn’t want to do that as part of a job. I couldn’t handle using you that way. Never mind making love with you and letting you touch me. That just...well...I wanted to, so much, for the first time in my life that it ate me up inside. It terrified me and still does.”
Hayley wanted to believe her so badly she ached with the wanting. But her head was spinning from all the lies, and she needed time to absorb everything, sort out where the truth lay.
“Before you interrupted me earlier, I wanted to say I never counted on falling in love with you. But I did
.
And somewhere along the way, my priorities changed.
I
changed, because of you. I can’t alter who I am, or take back what I’ve done, but I won’t let them hurt you. I’ll talk to my employers, make them realize you know absolutely nothing. That you’re no threat, you were set up. Then I’ll find whoever is behind all this.”
Oh, is that all? Piece of cake.
Hayley felt so overwhelmed and exhausted that the tears began to fall in earnest and she started to shake. She wanted desperately to believe Luka, trust she could make this nightmare disappear. But could she?
The ringing of Luka’s cell phone startled them both.
Domino checked the display and frowned as she flipped it open. Very few people had this number. Anyone who called it should have registered with caller ID. The woman on the other end did not identify herself and spoke only three words before disconnecting.
“You’re not safe.”
Domino knew that voice so well she recognized it immediately. Joanne Grant was one of the very few people she trusted implicitly. She turned to Hayley. “We’ve got to get out of here.
Now
.”
“We’re going to my boat,” Domino replied. She didn’t think the EOO knew of
The Seawolf
, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility. Still, if they got aboard and out on the water, they should be relatively safe for a while. Long enough for her to consider their next move
.
Joanne’s call could mean only one thing. The EOO was aware she was no longer following protocol and was acting on her own. Pierce considered her a rogue operative. “That call was a warning we’re not safe at my condo.” She didn’t want to tell Hayley that now her own people were after both of them. She already had enough to deal with.
The knowledge the Organization considered her a traitor saddened her. She didn’t regret her actions, but she knew things were certainly more dangerous now than ever.