Retribution (21 page)

Kat searched his eyes, saw
the emotion there. Here he was again. The man she knew. She pursed
her lips and nodded. “I don’t think I can trust you
Ryan.”

He released her.
“Everything about your life has been a lie. I’m the only real
person you have.”

“You lied to me, too. Oh my
God, Ryan! You have no idea the kind of life I’ve had! It’s like
I’ve been kept in a cage my whole life! Do you think you did any
better?”

“No, I didn’t know, and
yes, I did lie, but not to hurt you. I had to keep my identity
secret. And I only lied about the female assassin. There was no
such assignment. I made that up to get you to trust me. I just
didn’t tell you anything else. I didn’t think I could trust you,
Katya. You are part of a family that tore mine apart. I’m asking
you to trust me now.”

“Trust you? After what you
just told me!” She felt so betrayed. “We’ve been together! You
could have told me then.”

“That was unexpected—us.
You need to know that it was you that had me look at everything in
a different light and want to just leave, taking you with
me.”

She just stared at him in
disbelief.

“It’s true. But then I see
my brother’s corpse on a cold steel slab, and I get driven by anger
and grief. It’s at that moment that I don’t care who I hurt to get
retribution my brother and the family he left behind.”

“Oh God!” How awful to be
controlled by such emotions and lose sight of who you really are.
Yet, she knew she could relate over the loss of her sister. She
wanted those men dead. She even felt a sense of satisfaction that
some of them were.

He could clearly see the
devastation on her face. He did his best to return some emotion to
his expression and show that he was sincere. He softened his voice.
“Listen, I will just walk away with, or without you. Just say the
word. Before you do, though, you need to realize something—my
vengeance aside. Your father will go on killing, selling drugs,
exploiting women and destroying lives. I’m here to stop him so no
one else will suffer my brother’s fate. It’s not just that. There’s
more at stake here than you know. It’s not just about my brother.
Your father has money and political connections that have him
gaining power in circles he shouldn’t be in. Some very particular
members of the government are getting jumpy about it. My superiors
want him stopped.”

She buried her face in her
hands and sobbed.

“My brother had a family.
He left behind a widow and two children.”

She wretched again. “I’m
sorry.”

Here was this woman,
instead of feeling sorry for herself, was empathetic towards him
even though she was angry. “It’s not your fault,” he said gently.
He felt his chest constrict. They were both suffering great losses,
and just escaped for their lives. Yet through it all, she still had
strength in her to fight. She could not be more beautiful to him at
that moment. He was sure about one thing now; he didn’t want to
lose her.

She lifted her head and
stared at him.

He reached over and brushed
a tendril of hair off her wet cheek again. Her green eyes glistened
with tears, sadness and anger, but unbelievably stunning. “I’m
willing to do anything you want. I will leave with you now, or go
back and finish what I’ve started.”

She swallowed and looked
past him out the window. “Would you trust me with the decision I
make?”

He hesitated slightly.
“Yes.”

“No matter what it was?”
Her eyes met his again.

It was his turn to swallow
hard. “Yes. You have my word.”

That right there meant a
lot to her. She had to know how much she meant to him.

“Before you decide, there’s
two more things. You’re not going to like it, but you have to know.
Like you said, no more secrets.”

She was definitely
apprehensive given what he’d just told her. What could be worse
than that? God, she didn’t want to know, but she’d asked for this
so she nodded for him to go ahead and tell her.

He told her about her
mother and her sister. Then he waited. She turned and looked out of
the shattered front windshield. Steam was rising out of the grill
and he knew there wasn’t much life left in the vehicle. They had to
get going, but she needed this time to sort things out. So he kept
silent.

She wasn’t crying now. She
just sat there and stared for about twenty minutes. Then she slowly
turned and looked at him. There was clear anger and betrayal in her
eyes. “We go back, and you finish it. I don’t want anyone else to
suffer at the hands of my twisted family.”

“As you wish.” He started
the engine.

CHAPTER FIVE

They drove in silence.
Katya needed it. He must’ve known because he never said another
word and gave her that grace. Like she thought before, he could
read her like no one else she ever knew. Anger and hate mixed in
her gut like a toxic stew. Her father was responsible for murdering
the only person that ever loved her, and her sister put her through
hell.

Yes, she was struggling
with the decision she made, but she was going to stand by it. She
didn’t have a family. She knew now, she never did. No one loved
her, except maybe her mother, but it was so long ago she could
barely remember her. Her sister! All the grief and betrayal twisted
in her gut and it hurt. How could she do that to her? Terrorize
her? Who would do that to family? She grieved for her! The sibling
she’d thought she lost, but all along she was just like her father!
Oh, she could really shoot someone right now!

Her attention went to Ryan.
Despite everything he was the only person that was honest with her.
Well, that she could tell so far. She didn’t know if she could
trust him, but God, she cared about him so much! Right now, he was
the only person that knew and understood what she was going
through, and she needed him. In all honesty, he opened her eyes to
the truth about everything.

She checked his wound a
couple of more times while he concentrated on driving. It was still
bleeding but not as bad. What man could take a bullet and barely
grunt?

The rest of him looked
pretty beat up too. She had some cuts and bruises from the
accident, but nothing like he did. He was a big man and the impact
was harder on him. It was on his side. Granted the car had side
impact air bags, but still, it was flipped into the ditch. She had
a suspicion that this wasn’t the first time his body experienced
this hell. She was surprised he was still able to walk. Yet, he was
acting as if there was no pain, and managed to stealth through a
house that he’d never been in before, rescue her, and still
function. He was a machine.

The whole time she watched
him, he kept his eyes on the road. She was sure he knew she was
looking at him because, she knew now, nothing escaped him. He was
giving her that time to reflect on everything he’d told her.
Despite how hurt and angry she was with him, he did save her life,
twice. He kept his promise to protect her and he could have just
left her back at the house with those horrible men that worked with
her sister. Her sister! She would confront her about this. It
wasn’t over.

They were never really
close growing up. It wasn’t that she was mean towards her. She was
just indifferent. Anna was six years older than her, and once she
graduated, was hardly ever home. Katya felt like an only child most
times. So that night she asked her to go clubbing with her, she
accepted thinking that Anna wanted to get to know her. If only
she’d known it was a setup. That’s the night they were
kidnapped.

Ryan was right. They had to
finish this or she’d never be free. It would have been so easy just
to leave with him, but as he said, others would suffer.

He pulled into an expansive
parking lot of a mall and drove the SUV around like he was looking
for something. Suddenly he pulled into a parking spot with a quick
crank of the wheel, cut the engine which was still smoking and
opened his door. “Come.” He grabbed the weapons and got
out.

“What are we
doing?”

“Changing
vehicles.”

“Seriously?” She was
confused, but again, knew not to hesitate. She followed him out of
shot up SUV, walked around and took his outstretched hand. He led
her a few vehicles away to a silver jeep.

“Are we stealing
this?”

“Not quite.” He bent down
and felt under the front driver’s side fender, pulling out a set of
keys.

“How—?”

“Get in.” He unlocked the
doors with the fob, opened the rear door and took out what looked
like fresh clothing.

She watched as he tossed
the guns on the back seat and literally changed right
there.

He then grabbed the guns,
shut the rear door and got in the front. He was fast. Really fast.
People were in the parking lot, either leaving or approaching their
vehicles but no one even noticed.

He tucked the guns in the
middle console, started the jeep and pulled out of the parking
lot.

“Who’s jeep is
this.”

“Mine now.”

“Ryan, I asked you a
question back there and you never answered me. Who are
you?”

His jaw
clenched.

“No more secrets,” she
reminded him. “If you care about me, you need to be
honest.”

After a moment he nodded.
“I’m nobody.” He glanced at her. “And everybody.”

“That makes no
sense.”

“I work for the
government.”

“You’re a cop?”

“No, I’m an agent, soldier
or spy—however you want to look at it. I do things that need
fixing.”

“FBI?”

“No.”

“CIA?”

He shook his head.
“Something higher, more powerful. We don’t really follow rules. We
get sent in to do things others can’t. Mostly
anti-terrorist.”

“That’s really dangerous,
isn’t it?”

“Always.”

“So that’s why the threats
my father throws around doesn’t bother you and why you can kill
without hesitation, and blow up an entire house without a second
thought.”

He didn’t like where this
was going. “I didn’t blow it up.”

“Oh please, it’s not like
comparing apples to oranges. You initiated it, and that’s just the
same. You act like a psychopath, Ryan; like my father.”

“I know.”

“You don’t even deny
it.”

“I do it to protect my
country Katya. Do you have any idea of how many terrorists a year
try something?”

“No I don’t.”

“And that’s why I exist, so
the public doesn’t find out. It’s why people like my brother was
able to raise children and go to work each day without worrying
about them. I do things like this to protect the
innocents.”

Patriotism like this didn’t
exist anymore. She stared at his handsome profile. He possessed
righteousness the likes of which she’d never seen. He’d saved her
even though he had another agenda. He was also willing to walk away
from it all, for her. She was wrong, he was completely opposite of
her father. That was a true psychopath. “Why would he do that with
a family?”

“I asked myself that a
thousand times. Georgy wanted to make a difference too. He worked
undercover before he was married. Maybe it was all he knew. It runs
in our blood.”

“You offered to walk away
from this if I said the word.”

“I did.”

“I know you care about me
or you wouldn’t offer to abandon something that means so much to
you. You’re the first person to ever make that kind of sacrifice
for me.”

He didn’t look at her or
speak, but he did nod. She just kept surprising him. God they made
a twisted couple though. The emotionally traumatized fucked up
girlfriend, and psycho killer-patriot. Sounded like perfection to
him. He suppressed a smile. To do so probably would have seemed a
little disturbing in light of what had just happened.

“Thank you.” She couldn’t
remember another time in her life that someone was willing to
sacrifice so much for her.

He reached over and
squeezed her hand.

It was nightfall when he
pulled up to the gates of the estate and buzzed the
intercom.

The camera focused on him
and gates opened.

“What are you going to do?”
Katya asked. She looked at her father’s mansion and shivered. She
honestly didn’t want to go back in there after what she’d just
learned.

“We’re going to carry on as
normal until I find out who actually pulled the trigger on Georgy.
I want you just to go to your room when we stop. I don’t want your
father to know about Anna, and I don’t want you questioned by him,
so keep hushed on that.”

“Why?”

“Because it will work to my
advantage.” He pulled the jeep around to the front. Five armed men
were waiting for them on the front steps.

Her father came out of the
house at that exact moment.

His eyes flicked to the
older man through the passenger side window. “Katya, you need to
act tired and traumatized. I can’t have him dragging information
out of you when you’re vulnerable. He will want to speak with you
because he doesn’t trust me.”