Page 43 of Emerald

“How do I know she’s telling the truth? I don’t even know if you guys are making up shit because you need me for something.”

“When have I ever lied to you?” Brooks asks.

“Never. But you have omitted things when on a mission,” I answer.

“Exactly.”

Fuck. “I asked you if you were on a mission and you denied it.”

“We didn’t want to involve you,” he explains.

“Having me set her up with the cartel wasn’t involving me?” I question him.

“I asked them not to say anything, and in hindsight, I played those cards wrong,” Ellie confesses. “I truly mean it. Whatever you want to know I’ll tell you. I need your help, Nash.” I still at her words. That sounded almost genuine.

“This is fucked up. No matter what, I’m going to lose in this scenario. You’ve ruined my slice of paradise. You didn’t give me a choice,” I explain to them all. Of course, I still would have helped, but at least it would have been my choice.

“We’re sorry, Nash,” Brooks says.

I get up from the sofa and walk out. I suck in a deep breath of the ocean air and head straight to the beach to clear my mind.

“Nash, wait,” I hear Ellie call after me.

“Just give me a fucking moment, will ya?” I groan as I continue to kick the sand through my feet as I walk across the beach.

“Please don’t blame Brooks and Sophie, they wanted to tell you, but I asked them not to. I don’t trust people easily. I’m used to doing things on my own. The only person I can trust in my life is me and even sometimes I don’t know if I can trust that,” Ellie confesses. “I promise, I’ll tell you anything you need to know.”

I stop and she bumps into me. “Does it matter? I think nothing but bullshit is going to come out of your mouth. You will say whatever you need to say to appease me to get what you want.”

Ellie swallows, and I can see the war waging across her face, she’s let her mask fall for me to see. “I’m CIA.”

Of all the things I thought she was going to say that sure as hell was not one of them.

“What the fuck, Ellie. You can’t blurt that out in the open like that.” I hiss.

“No one knows. Not even my family. You said you couldn’t trust me and I’m showing you, you can.” I stare at her in shock. “Sophie has an inkling but isn’t one hundred percent sure. Brooks knows up to certain points due to his security clearance. Grace knows because we worked together and because she married my brother.” It's like now that I’ve opened Pandora’s box everything is coming out.

“Maybe we should discuss this in a secure area.”

Ellie nods. “If we move closer to the water, the sound of the waves will muffle our conversation.”

We head toward the shore, Ellie then continues to walk into the breaking waves. I follow, and then out of nowhere, my arm reaches out and pushes her into the water. She goes flying, splat, which makes me feel a little better, watching her go under and come up spluttering. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“Neither can I.”

She looks like a damn mermaid with her wet hair, the white dress she is wearing completely see-through, showing off every ounce of her body.

“Guess I deserved that,” she says.

“You did.” I smirk, which earns me an unimpressed side-eye. We head further into the water until it is up over our waists, well and truly away from anything that could listen to us. “So,” I say to her.

“So,” she answers back, looking slightly uncomfortable for the first time. “Right. Yeah, well, just so you know, I’m supposed to be dead. Everyone thinks my brother and I are dead. We onlyjust came back from the dead a month ago.” Again, didn’t think she could shock me.

“The CIA think you’re dead?”

She shakes her head. “The CIA killed us. The Bratva thinks I’m dead. And they need to keep thinking I’m dead.” I knew she was Russian, but her accents when she switches are undetectable.

“Why? Did you see something you shouldn’t have? Did you sell their secrets to the CIA?”

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