Page 85 of Commander

“Ashur.”

“So, you’re a Solon agent.” The anger in Ashur’s gaze gave me the urge to step back.

“For the time being I am,” I said, taking a seat across from him.

A tick pulsed on the side of his face. “Then perhaps you should tell me when you plan to stop. ’Cause I’ll be damned if I let my pregnant wife traipse around the world pointing guns at dictators.”

“I didn’t know I was pregnant. I would never have gone if I had known. I would never put our baby at risk.”

“You should never have gone in the first place,” he bellowed and then stood, moving to the window. “Now answer the question. When do you plan to stop?”

“I technically retired the day I returned from Pakistan.”

“The way Tyler spoke, you’re still his boss.” He clenched his jaw when he said Tyler’s name.

The fallout with Tyler was something I couldn’t muster the energy to worry about at the moment. All I knew was Tyler’s days as Secretary of State were probably numbered.

“So, which is it? Are you retired or active?”

“I guess active until the mess with the photos blows over.” I grimaced inside. “If it blows over.”

“When did they recruit you? The only way you go up the ranks of any military-based organization is if you worked your way up.”

“It was the summer before I started law school at Stanford.”

“So, was it Xander who recruited you?”

“Are you kidding me? Xander isn’t part of Solon. He’s…”

“MI6,” Ashur finished. “And before you ask, he’s part of a private operation I requested to help me locate a missing American ambassador to the United Nations who was kidnapped four months ago in Geneva.”

“You knew what happened to Ame.”

“Of course, I knew. Ameera Kamini is your best friend. She’s been by your side from the moment we were engaged. I knew something had happened to her when she never took her flight back to New York.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I didn’t want to scare you. I wanted to protect you. I’d hoped she’d be home before our wedding. Later I figured out you knew she was missing when you kept making excuses for her whereabouts. I suspected that you were working with one of your underground contacts to get her back.”

“You were the third buyer.”

He stayed quiet for a moment and then ran a hand down his face before he spoke. “People think I only see things in black and white. I knew what Ameera meant to you. I hoped if I could get Ameera back for you, then you’d see how much you meant to me. That you could trust me with your heart and secrets. Not just your body.”

“Ash.” I sighed and let the guilt and sadness of his words wash over me.

“Now I know it was a bullshit hope. You were never going to confide anything in me. Hell, you lived a double life.” He released a resigned breath. “The irony of this whole debacle was that we were going to use money from the same account to bid on Ameera.”

“Ashur, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s too late. What’s the point in fighting for something that never was there in the first place?”

My lips trembled. “I want this to be real.”

“What we have isn’t real. It never was. It’s better to stick to the contract. Give me my two children and I’ll never bother you again.”

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