Page 45 of How Much For a Life of Lies?

“You can try,” I said, resting my hand on my weapon.

He glared, shook his head, and then strode away. I dropped the cover, thinking about how many other bodies would be down there, and then followed Bulldog. Maybe Kozlov was here on site? Maybe not. But I knew Indigo was here, plus her two bodyguards and Bulldog. That was four I knew—the rest would come.

As I stepped forward, the sounds of the forest enveloped me.

Time to work.

SEVENTEEN

Zach

I watched Kai leave through a crack in the blinds, like some lovesick fool, and then, cursing, I set about locking the house down. Everything came with me that might incriminate me as something other than a wandering environmentalist.

It made the pack heavy, and my shoulders ached like fuck, but that and hefting the weight meant I had other things to focus on than sleeping with Kai.

Sleeping. Fucking. Whatever.

The noises he made, the way he said my name, the taste of him…

What had I done last night? Why had I let myself give in to something I had resisted for so long?

And now, he was heading into god knows what, and an unfamiliar fear gripped me. What if we never got to talk? I couldn’t afford to let my personal feelings cloud my operational judgment, and that was a bridge I had to cross after we’d closed Kozlov down. I forced myself to focus on the task at hand.

First, I needed to head to the mayor’s office, update the man on intel, and probably calm him down again. Then, it was time to provide backup for the fool who had somehow wormed his way past my defenses.

With a deep breath, I pushed aside my doubts and fears; I couldn’t let my feelings for Kai distract me from the mission. His life depended on it.

What would my life look like without him in it?

Quiet, for sure.

Lonely?

“Sierra Base, comm check.”

“We have you, Sierra Two.”

“Heading out.”

“Copy.”

Next, the mayor. Thomas Bennett had been the mayor of Cedar Ridge for several years, standing unopposed, and on the surface, he was a good man who wanted the best for the town where he’d been born and raised. College had been a blip, taking him away from here, and he’d come back with a shiny new degree with grand ideas of bringing prosperity to his hometown. Only the slow pace of legal and economic growth had led him to make compromises he never thought he would. Namely, getting into bed with Kozlov by allowing concessions that never should have been granted.

With the flood of income came too many crossed lines, and then, all too soon, the mayor was too far under, and there was no way out. The bribes he received helped fund community projects, making it easy to rationalize his actions. He might have had good intentions and was the king of rousing speeches about Cedar Ridge’s future, but right now, he was sitting at his desk, piles of papers to his right, laptop to his left, and he looked like death warmed up.

He was sickly gray, his blue eyes dull, and although he attempted to muster a confident smile, it was weak and thinned his lips. A crystal tumbler stood front and center on his desk, and an unopened bottle of Jack was next to it. Was the man planning on day-drinking his way out of his troubles? Not a good start.

“My son is back home this weekend,” he blurted as soon as I walked in, fear twisting his expression.

I shut the door behind me, all too aware of the prying eyes and the keen hearing of his secretary, June, and his part-time staff of two, Evan and Lois. All three of them were small-town gossipers. I’d heard chatting about why my meetings with the mayor were closed-door, given that I was an environmental researcher, and nothing more. The surveillance I’d set up in here showed a lot more than gossip, like the fact Evan and Lois had sex on the photocopier, on the desk, and in the stationery cupboard.

I really didn’t want to hear all of that, but yep, that was my role in this shitstorm.

Watch. Wait. Let Kai have all the fun.

Thomas continued. “He’s only got a few months left in his doctorate, and then he’s returning permanently to the area. How do I stop him from getting on Kozlov’s radar—how do I keep him safe?”

My inner Kai, all blunt words, wanted to tell the mayor he’d made his bed, that it was him who’d taken bribes, putting his family in the crosshairs, but I wasn’t Kai—I at least could play nice.

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