Page 115 of Beautiful Betrayal

“Well, then I better have another Goodbar,” Axe says, snapping up a second candy bar.

“What’s your story, Axe?” I ask.

“Ex-CIA which means I have no story.” He downs his candy and grabs three more.

“Of course you have a story,” Mia insists. “Do you have family?”

“No,” he says.

“Where are you from?” she asks.

“All over.”

Her brow furrows. “Considering you don’t talk unless it’s about chocolate and all Adrian doesis talk, how do you put up with each other?”

He holds up a miniature Goodbar. “I eat candy so I won’t kill him.” His eyes catch on the TV before he points to the remote. “Turn that up.”

I down the chocolate in my hand and grab the remote, turning up the volume as a picture of a man flashes on the screen. “In a bizarre twist,” the newscaster is saying, “This man, Brian Johnson, was not home when his home exploded tonight, but he was later found dead in his car outside an event he attended tonight. The cause of death is yet to be determined.”

Axe grabs his phone from his pocket and dials. “Adrian,” he says. “Yeah. I just saw it on the news.” He listens a minute and hangs up. “He’s on his way to the lockdown location to try to get answers.”

“Lockdown location?” Mia asks before I get the chance.

“If our team locked down for safety reasons,” Axe explains, “that’s where they’ll go.”

The doorbell rings and my spine stiffens, my eyes narrowing on Axe. “If Adrian isn’t here, who is that?”

Axe is already on his feet, drawing his weapon.

Chapter seventy-seven

Grayson

“Grayson?” Mia asks, pushing to her feet, all doe-eyed with fear, and why wouldn’t she be? Axe has a gun in his hand, charging for the door that he knows is protected by a security system. I like the guy butdamn it.

“Not enough chocolate or whiskey clearly, baby,” I reply mildly by intent. I’m not going to add to her stress with a bombastic reaction. “Stay here just to be safe.” I kiss her temple and force myself to walk with measured steps toward the door when I’d rather fucking run.

Still, I manage a fast enough pace to be on Axe’s heels when he enters the foyer. “There’s a security camera,” I say because maybe I’m wrong and he doesn’t know.

He walks to the panel and I open the drawer to the hall table and remove the Glock I do more than keep on hand. I know how to use it and use it well.

Now that I'm armed and ready for trouble, Axe lowers his weapon. “It’s them,” he murmurs, unlocking the door.

I don’t know who “them” references, which is why I don’t return my weapon to that drawer. For just a moment though,I’m back on that golf course, when my invincible father tumbled to the ground. I’m leaning over him, and my father’s pale face and raspy breaths have me screaming for help that never comes. It never comes because he never had a chance. He’d had what they call a “widowmaker,” a massive heart attack that shreds the heart. So yes, Mia’s right about Eric being a SEAL and a genius, but I know from experience that even the good ones, even the strong ones, are not invincible.

Which is exactly why when Axe opens the door, I hold my breath, waiting for the enemy that I can’t defeat, the one that takes and takes and just keeps on taking: death.I’m not holding the gun to shoot someone. I’m holding it because I just need some damn way to feel under control. I’m waiting for bad news, and I’d welcome another enemy, one that I’d have to battle because I can fight and win any battle that isn’t death.

Axe backs up and the first person that I see walk through the door is not an enemy at all. It’s Rick Savage—one of the Walker men. A giant of a man with a scar that ripples down his cheek. “Don’t shoot,” he says, holding up his big hands. “I told Eric not to cut that wire, but you know, I’m just a surgeon, not a fucking savant, and he didn’t listen.”

“I didn’t cut a wire at all,” Eric growls, entering the foyer. “We weren’t there when the damn house exploded.” He eyes my gun and then me. “You’ve been hanging around these guyswaytoo much.”

I’m just processing that Eric’s really here and okay, relief washing over me when Mia beats me to an outward reaction.

“Eric!” she exclaims, rushing forward and throwing her arms around him. “We thought you were dead. God, Grayson would not have survived losing you. I wouldn’t survive losing you.” She looks up at him. “You have no idea how relieved we are that you’re here.”

We.

God, I’ve missed being a “we” with Mia.

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