Tell Me No Lies: The Black Orchid, Book 1 (30 page)

“You’re out of your mind if you think they’re not.”

I shook my head. “It’s compartmentalized. My life is a series of compartments. Work. Sex. Love.”

“Listen to yourself. You sound insane. And you actually thought we could have a relationship with you and all of your
compartments
.”

“Well, when you say it like that, it does sound ridiculous.” She was trembling. I reached for her hand but she moved away from me.

“Don’t touch me,” she spat out. She shook her head and covered her face with her hands. “Asa was right about you.”

Asa? Who the hell is Asa?

When she removed them, I saw tears streaming from her eyes.

“Rain, please don’t cry. I would never hurt you. I would never let anyone hurt you.”

She glared at me. “You’ve done nothing but hurt me. Charlotte was right too. I know nothing about you.” She gazed at me for a moment, her pupils dilated with fear.

Fuck.
She looked scared.

“Where are you from? Where did you grow up?”

My heart pounded against my chest. I was scared. For the first time I felt acute fear. I was about to lose her.

I couldn’t lose her. Not again. Not a-fucking-gain.

But on the outside, I looked calm. I took a deep breath. I could still fix this. We could be salvaged. I’d just be honest.

“Look, from here on out, I promise you, I will tell you no lies.”
When possible.

I swallowed hard, tried to push down the panic I felt at losing her. “I’m from everywhere. My dad was in the Army, so we lived in California, Japan, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina.”

“So your dad was a soldier, and your mother?”

“A teacher. English. High school. They live in western Canada.”

“Do you have brothers and sisters?”

I shook my head. This wasn’t going well. The truth was not setting me free. I was answering all of her questions, but she still looked afraid. Was still upset. Her voice was high-pitched, her face tense with worry.

“Where’s your home? Where do you live?”

“I live out of a suitcase mostly. But I do own properties in Virginia, the Outer Banks. I told you about my farmhouse in France.”

“College?”

“John Hopkins. I have a degree in History. And a masters in political science.”

“Is Kael Brady your real name?”

“Yes, Rain.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Great, now I know the basics and yet I still know nothing about the real you.” Anguish paled her face.

“You do know the real me.
Remember?
I showed you. I’ve bared my soul to you. There’s nothing you don’t know about me now.”

She just stared at me, a look of horror constricting her features.

“This can still work.” I grabbed her hand. “Please, you’re the only thing that’s normal and sane in my life. You don’t lie, scheme, strategize. I don’t have to read between your lines, second-guess your actions. You’re sweet, honest, pure.” I lowered my voice. “You could be my rock, my little island of home in a sea of—”

“Lies? You want to drag me under, right? You want me to live in your gutter of death and lies, am I right?”

She tried to jerk her hand away but I held it gently yet firmly. “I know I’ve lied and I’m sorry for it. But it was necessary for many reasons. What you didn’t know couldn’t hurt you. When I’ve been with you, I didn’t have to talk about my work, think about my work. I could just be the
me
I used to be before…before I did this for a living. Not a government operative, just Kael.”

She snatched her hand away again and this time I let go. “You’re probably working me right now. What’s your end game? Am I part of some strategic solution to a problem? Why me? Why not some other sucker?”

“Don’t talk like that. I have so much respect for you. So much adoration, so much love.”

“Don’t you dare say you love me. I thought you couldn’t possibly break my heart a second time.” She picked up a napkin and gently blotted her face. She sniffed, her nose turning a delicate pink. “I thought I was being smart this go around. Trying to guard my heart.”

“You are smart. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I let you in. I believed you, I believed
in
you. I trusted you. I’ve been such an idiot. Again.”

“I’ve been keeping you safe. Look, I’ll leave my current employer. I’ll find a new job.”

“Doing what, exactly? What does an assassin do for a follow up job?”

“I have degrees. I could go work for the State Department or teach at Duke or Carolina. I love history.”

She suddenly looked past me and her face creased into a frown. I followed her gaze. I saw nothing amiss. Several patrons were in line ordering coffee and the chairs around us were filled with coffee drinkers, book readers and a few people on laptops and tablets.

But the hairs on the backs of my arms were raised. She was lying and I felt it in my gut. “What’s wrong?”

She made a face.

“Besides the obvious?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. I’m fine.”

But something was wrong. Something besides the fact that she knew about Jamaica. Her body language was all wrong, tight, angry. And I mean tighter and angrier than she was with me.

She looked up as a man walked by. He smiled and nodded at her. It was him that was causing her the problem. “Hello, Asa,” she said in a clipped tone. “Fancy meeting you here.”

The ass who told her to stay away from me. Asa, the bastard who was right about me.
Right about what?

He paused in front of us as if he expected to have a conversation with her. I made eye contact with him.

“Hello, Rain. Who’s your friend?”

“Kael, meet Asa. Asa, meet Kael.”

I nodded at him, my senses on alert. For some reason, I wanted to put my fist in his pretty boy face, but instead I forced my lips to form the correct words.

“Nice to meet you.” Smiling, I put out my hand for a handshake. And when he extended his own, I fucking crushed it.

“Wow, that’s quite the grip you got there, buddy.” He looked at Rain with a smirk. “Is this the boyfriend?”

That smirk. He looked familiar. I glowered at him. And then something inside of me sparked like a flame on a stick of dynamite.
The analyst.
He was the fucking analyst tracking Il Morte.

What the hell was he doing with Rain in this coffee shop in this city and this state? What the hell was he doing with my girlfriend?

“We’re having a private conversation.” She looked away, effectively, coldly dismissing him with her shoulder.

But this guy didn’t take the hint. Instead he turned to Rain, taking a step toward her. “You okay?”

I read between his lies.
Is this guy bothering you? Want me to do something about it?

Yeah, right. The only
something
that could happen would be me picking his bloody, broken teeth out of my knuckles.

She took a deep breath. “I’ve just learned some disconcerting news, but I’ll be fine.”

He nodded. “Do you still have my number?”

Really?
He was that bold to ask my girl that in front of me?

She looked surprised for a moment and then nodded.

He smiled at pointedly at me before turning to Rain. “Call me if you need to talk. Remember, I can be a great listener.”

Rain watched him as he found a seat across the coffee shop and out of our view.

I looked at her, trying to keep my anger for the guy at a roiling boil. “Who is he to you? And what was that about?”

She shrugged, seemingly oblivious to my emotions. Good. I didn’t want her to know what I was feeling.

“That’s Asa, the guy I said was stalking me.
Joked
about stalking me.” She picked up her purse and plucked out a scrap of paper. “He gave me his number when I first met him. I thought I threw it away.”

I took the paper from her hand and looked at it. His name and number were scrawled across it in red ink. He
was
stalking her. Using her as bait, lurking in the shadows, waiting for Il Morte to show up and maybe kill her before he took him down.

I tossed the sliver of paper into my coffee cup. “What do you know about him?”

She shrugged. “Not much.” She eyed me curiously. “Don’t you want to know if I’m sleeping with him?”

No. But that’s only because I had her under surveillance and I knew the answer.

“You’re not jealous?” She pressed. “You don’t care if I call him? If I see him?”

I wanted to ask her,
Do you want to call him? Do you want to see him?
And then I wanted to wipe that smirk off his face with my fists. Instead, I shrugged. “Jealous of him? Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know. At this point, any guy who tells the truth at least half the time and doesn’t kill for a living is looking pretty good right now.”

That went straight to my heart, scalpel sharp. I nodded though, smile still fixed on my face. “I don’t want anything to change between us, Rain. What I do has no bearing on my feelings for you.”

She laughed. “That’s a good one.” She set her coffee cup down and stood.

“I am sorry for one thing, for not believing you when you said you wrote me, tried to contact me.” She dabbed at her eyes with a napkin. “I found out Charlotte destroyed the letters. She wrote you?”

I nodded, remembering the crushing pain I felt reading the letter, learning that she’d moved on. That she wouldn’t wait for me. It had all been lies.

“Maybe it was for the best considering.”

“Considering what? I couldn’t tell you what I did.”

“It’s not just that. It’s the lies. So many lies. Pretending like you didn’t know Charlotte when you first met. You and her both keeping secrets from me. How can I ever trust you?” She lowered her voice. “The things I let you do to me…And I
liked
it. I feel sick.”

I couldn’t think of a thing to say. It was true. It was all true.

I finally found the words. “I love you.” My chest ached. The pressure in my throat was impossible. I could barely get the words out. I would not fucking cry in this coffee shop with that analyst watching.

“I love you, Rain. Desperately.
Please.
”

She shook her head. “I think it’s best if we just end this now.”

Her amber eyes were suddenly bright with tears, and then they were streaming down her face.
“Rain, please don’t cry. I would never hurt you. I would never let anyone else hurt you.” I stood. “Don’t punish me because of my work. Please.”

“Punish you? This isn’t about you. It’s about me my heart and my self-respect. I can’t be with someone who lies to me. I can’t be with someone who has no regard for human life.”

She lowered her voice. “You actually kill people for a living!” Her eyes filled with tears again. “I just can’t.” She grabbed her purse and fled.

I stood in the middle of the coffee shop and watched through the glass windows as she jumped into her Lexus, gunned the engine and peeled out of the parking lot.

I looked around and saw Asa. He’d come out of his seat and was watching her too. Gave me the fucking
thumbs up
sign. I locked eyes with him until he broke contact and returned to his seat.

I watched him settle in, get nice and cozy with a coffee cup to his mouth. And then I went over, sat directly across from him and leaned in so close he could smell my breath.

I bared my teeth into the meanest grin I could conjure and lowered my voice so only he could hear me. “Pack up your shit and leave town.”

He returned my smile with one of his own. “Can’t. Il Morte should be showing up any minute now. I want to be here when he does.”

I continued as if I didn’t see his shit-eating grin. “Stay away from Rain.” He smirk turned into a laugh. “Or I will tear your arms from your sockets and watch you bleed out.”

“That is a stunning visual, Agent Brady. However, someone needs to be close to the lovely Ms. Howard when Il Morte shows up. And since you’ve fucked that relationship up so completely, it obviously can’t be you.” He set his cup down. “And so it will be me.”

“Does Mark know you’re here watching her?”

“He knows I’m in town waiting.” He licked his lips. “And if I happen to take Rain from you so you can do your fucking job, all the better.”

Something like an earthquake rocked my chest.
Mark.
“He assigned you to her?”

He couldn’t even hide his happiness. “He said that if I could take her from you, I could keep her. My little prize.”

“She’s not a fucking prize.”

“Oh but she is. I’ve come to really admire our little beignet maker. And what’s not to love? She’s beautiful, smart, creative and classy. Have you noticed? Or are you too busy trying to turn her into one of your pain whores?”

My lungs almost exploded. “You better not touch her.”

“Oh I can’t wait to touch her. Softly, gently in the manner she deserves. I can’t wait to get her in my bed and make love to her. Only I won’t make the mistake of falling for her and lose my focus. I’ll just enjoy that tight little body of hers.”

I wanted to kill him. I wanted to fucking kill him. But it wouldn’t help me to get arrested for assault, no make that murder. Agents were supposed to stay under the radar and he knew that. He was purposely goading me into fucking up.

I gritted my teeth so hard I thought I’d chipped a tooth. “One day we’re going to meet in the right place at the right time and I’m going to hurt you, son.”

“I bet taking Rain from you will hurt, won’t it?” He grinned at me. “Right here,” he thumped the left side of his chest, “in the heart.”

“You don’t care about her. You’re professionally and personally jealous of me and you want what I have. Nothing more.”

“Nope.” Amusement lit up his face. “Not even. One day I will surpass anything you’ve ever done as an agent.”

“Sorry, kid, you’re just an analyst. Oh, I’m sorry. Did I say
just an analyst
? You’re special too,” I said, condescendingly as shit. “Your job is just as important as— Oh hell, who am I kidding? You’re a desk jockey without the guts to work in the field.”

That stupid smirk of his appeared as if on cue. “I’m on track to be an agent. Mark promised me. Bring in Il Morte and I can be an agent.”