Page 14 of Code Name: Ghost

I shake my head before I continue. “When Cerberus pulled me out, they weren’t finished. Some of them scattered, some burrowed deeper, but they weren’t gone. If they had known what you meant to me, they would have come for you. At best, you would have been leverage, but more likely collateral damage. You would have been killed by them, and it wouldn’t have been a painless death.”

Her eyes widen slightly. She wants to argue. I can see it in the way she presses her lips together, the way her body vibrates with the need to push back. But she doesn’t, not yet.

"That’s the real reason I stayed dead," I continue. "Not because I didn’t love you. Not because I wanted to disappear. But because if I had let you know I was alive, if I had let you in, you would have been at risk, and I wasn’t willing to take that chance."

She shakes her head, laughing without humor. "How very noble of you—not to mention convenient. You really expect me to believe that you did this for me?"

"It wasn’t just about you," I admit, my voice low. "I wanted vengeance. The men who tortured me, who slaughtered my team—I needed to make them pay, and if I had let you know I was alive, I wouldn’t have stopped hunting. I would have hesitated, but I wouldn’t have stopped, and that would have meant leaving you alone and unprotected."

She glares at me, her body vibrating with restrained emotion. "So what, you thought I’d just move on? That I’d find a nice guy and live my life in blissful ignorance?"

I say nothing.

She laughs again, sharp and bitter. "Well, congratulations, Nick. You got what you wanted, at least partially. I moved on—right into a marriage with a man who turned out to be a monster."

My blood turns to ice.

"What?" My voice is low, lethal.

She steps back, her hand going to the small leather bag at her hip. "Hector. My ex-husband." She spits the word like venom. "At first, I thought he was just the bureaucrat he pretended to be. But little by little he tried to destroy me. I was nothing more than a prop for him in social situations and somebody he could fuck whenever he liked. Over the years, I started noticing things. Inconsistencies. Conversations that didn’t add up. And then I found this."

She pulls out a small flash drive and holds it up between two fingers.

I don’t move, don’t breathe. "What’s on it?"

Her gaze hardens. "Proof. That Hector and a man named René Vallois are in business together. That certain people within Interpol aren’t just investigating Vallois, they are working with him. Or at least, Hector is."

A slow, dark fury unfurls inside me. Vallois. The man is a goddamn cancer, infecting everything he touches. And Hector—this bastard, this piece of shit—had his hands on Cherise and in Vallois’ dealings the entire time?

I reach for the flash drive, but she tries to yank it back. I’m faster. I take it from her, wrapping my fist around it.

"Give that back,” she demands.

“No.”

“I want to know what happens next."

I stare at her, seeing more than just the woman I once loved. She’s changed. She’s harder, sharper. There’s no trace of the innocent, soft-hearted woman who used to melt under my touch, and I realize I’m responsible for that. My decisions, though they were right, had started a chain of events that had destroyed that innocence.

I start to say something—something raw, something real—but I think better of it. Instead, I let out a slow breath and nod.

"You’re safe here," I say finally. "I’ll see that this gets to Fitzwallace. We’ll decide the best way to proceed. But for now, you don’t go anywhere. You don’t contact anyone. Hector is looking for you, and if he has even the slightest clue that you’re here, he’ll send men. They won’t get to you, but a lot of civilians could get caught in the crossfire."

She narrows her eyes. "And what if I don’t want to stay?"

I step forward again, backing her against the edge of the bed, my voice dropping to a low command. "Then I make you."

Her breath hitches, but she doesn’t move. She doesn’t try to shove me away. And just like that, the fire that had always burned between us reignites, scorching, impossible to ignore, but I have to ignore it… at least for now.

But first, I need to deal with Vallois. And I need to make sure that Cherise—my Cherise—stays alive long enough for me to claim what’s mine again.

I turn, the flash drive burning in my palm, and head for the door.

Behind me, Cherise watches.

5

CHERISE

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