Page 25 of Shadow Lies

And then he’d been brought up on charges for killing the wrong man. They’d pinned the mistake on him. Made it look like he’d gone rogue.

“I don’t know if I was right or not,” she said. “I was fired right after.”

He spun to frown at her. “Explain.”

“I was stupid. I was running late. I forgot my cell phone was in my bag. We were in a meeting. It was supposed to be powered down and left outside of the meeting room, but I forgot. I got a text and everyone heard the notification. My team leader wrote me up for it. I thought that was it. But a week later, I was terminated. I broke the rules, so…” She shrugged.

He shook his head. “No. They used that as an excuse to get rid of you because you were right, Lexi. The CIA did screw up. They had pegged the wrong guy as the leader. My SEAL team was sent to kill the wrong man.Ikilled the wrong man. And that’s why you were fired. To cover up their mistake.”

“Do you think?”

“I don’t think. I know.” He’d been singled out as the team fuck up.

Her mouth dropped open. “I guess you could be right. I was written up and then almost a week passed and no one said another word about it. Then I brought what I found to my boss. And when I arrived at work the next day, security was there to escort me to clean out my desk.”

He threw up his hands. “See.”

Her mouth opened as her eyes seemed to lose focus. “You have to be right. That’s why they fired me.”

“Yes.” Just like how when he refused to roll over, refused to accept the black mark on his record and admit, falsely, that he’dmade a mistakeand hit the wrong target, they’d gotten rid of him too.

“Is that why you left the SEALs?” she asked. “Because you were ordered to kill the wrong guy?”

“Oh, I didn’t leave. I was kicked out. Dishonorable discharge.”

“Because the CIA made a mistake?” she asked.

“They’ll never admit that. The CIA doesn’t make mistakes. Everyone else does. They said I made the mistake.”

Superior officers didn’t like when you had evidence proving they were lying. And they really didn’t like when you ran it up the chain of command.

In the end it was his word against theirs when what little proof he had—namely the photo he’d been given of the target—conveniently went missing from evidence.

“Oh, Kane. I’m so sorry.” She stepped around the table and grabbed his hands. “A dishonorable discharge. That must have killed you. And your parents—”

“I didn’t tell my parents. I said it was my decision to get out of the Navy.”

Her lids closed briefly as she shook her head. He didn’t want her pity. He hated fucking being pitied.

Finally, she opened her eyes and focused back on him. “I didn’t tell my parents either. They think I graduated college and went off to get a great job with a fake company I made up. They don’t know about the agency. They don’t know I was fired. And they don’t know I never got my degree and can’t find another decent job to save my life without a degree, references and an explanation for where I’ve been working for the past four years. I was washing floors at the bar where I work when Charley called.”

Now it was his turn to feel bad for her.

“I’m sorry.” He squeezed her hands and then let them drop.

Getting closer with her now was only going to make saying goodbye harder. He’d had enough hard. He didn’t need to go looking for more.

He let out a laugh. “Quite the pair we make. A couple of losers and liars.”

She frowned. “No. We were both abused by the institutions we were dedicated to. The people we lived for. Were willing to die for. People we trusted. And this is the thanks we get. When they fuck up, we get punished.”

Her eyes widened.

“Oh, shit. Oh, sorry.” She must have realized she’d just cussed again and didn’t trust herself anymore. She slapped both hands over her mouth and just stared at him.

“It’s okay. Really. I accidentally let out a few choice words during training when I first arrived. It’s a tough habit to break.” He drew in a breath and let it out, missing his watch again. “And speaking of training...”

“You don’t have to go yet, do you?” she asked.

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