Page 54 of The Games We Play

“Lima. Intel states Darius is in the area at the Gondalier Hotel.” November catches me off guard, still naked and semi-hard. I straighten, sitting my drink on the glass table beside the decanter.

“Understood. I can be there in…” I pause, glancing at the watch on the counter. “One hour.”

I quickly got sober with the reality of the situation.

“Scott was spotted at the casino downstairs, then drove off in a blacked-out SUV with license plate number RTF 987.”

It's the same SUV that’s been tailing me. “I’ll take care of it, ma’am.”

“You assured me Darius was dead, claimed you handled it yourself, yet here we are. So, tell me, how will you ensure it gets handled this time?”

I drop my chin to my chest and shove my free hand in my pocket.

The sea breeze blows mists of ocean spray across my face and wets my cheek on the cliff’s edge. Darius stands in front of me with his back to me, and I raise my gun, prepared to be a coward who shoots him in the back.

“What is this?” Darius asks without turning around. We’re trained to know when death is on our heels. To taste the change in the air around us. To know when we’re being stabbed in the back before it happens. I level my pistol.

“It’s over. Your time is up. This is—”

“Just orders,” he scoffs and wets his lips. “We’re friends, Lance. You and me against the world. You know my family, and I know yours. But one word fromher,and you’re just going to forget all that.”

I cock the hammer and ready myself to do the one thing I never thought I’d be capable of doing.

“If it’s not you, it’s me. This is the life we’re in.”

He shakes his head and steps back. “No. Not me. I’m out. And she’ll never find me.”

“And what about your family?”

His eyes narrow on me, and he wears a cynical smirk. “Seems I’d be leaving them either way. Alive or dead, so what does it matter?”

I wet my lips and scoff. “I’ll give your family my regards.”

His mouth curves into a snarl, and I prepare for him to charge. Only he doesn’t. Darius turns and charges for the cliff’s edge. I fire my gun once and race after him as he leaps into the unforgiving sea. Shielding my eyes from the water, I watch as the waves slap against the cliff, and he’s gone.

“Nobody would have survived that fall,” I state, answering her original question.

“Well,someonedid,” she remarks, and my shoulders tense. “He’s your target, Lima. The job will be sent to other agents. If you fail again, it’ll be your life in his place.”

She hangs up, and my phone chimes, signifying a message. It’s a location; I can only assume it was Darius's last known place. A pang of sadness stabs me in the chest.

Puppet.

But this is my harsh reality. That is why I’m here, hundreds of miles away from her in the first place. Distance to sever the tether I created without intending to. I never planned for my obsession tobecome more. And the fleeting thought that she is the person I want to call and confide in proves how dangerous she has become for me.

It’s about time that I use her to her full ability and be done with this whole thing.

***

I’m parked in theshadows of a dark alley, my thumb tapping against the steering wheel as I check the clock for the fifteenth time.

My nerves are shot. I never was good at stakeouts. That’s one part of this job I never had to do, but since we’re dark because of dumbass Scott, I’m back to the basics of having to hunt people down myself.

He checked into the Gondalier Hotel two days ago.

When I staked out his room earlier, it was empty, so now I’m waiting for him to make his appearance, take him out, then set the rest of my plan into motion to snuff out Darius. There hasn’t been any sign of him at the hotel yet. My instincts tell me he isn’t here, but talking to Scott is the only way to confirm.

Darius had built himself a fortress of cyber cave systems and tunnels that anyone else would get lost in if they tried to find him. I’m simply going to set a fire at every exit but one and wait while the smoke does the work.

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