Page 35 of Kept By The Agents

I nodded in agreement. It hadn't taken me long to figure that out. What I hadn't been able to understand was what had left him feeling so empty. Now I knew. "Why didn't you ever talk about her?"

His sigh was heavy. "I fucked up. So damn bad. I'm not sure she's ever really going to forgive me."

"Yet you're hoping she'll agree to be with us?"

He shrugged his massive shoulders. "I can't think of the other outcome. It's why I never went back, the thought of her being the one to walk away this time. Not sure I can live with it."

"That's why you need to talk to her now." He frowned over at me. "She can't walk away. If she gets as angry as you think she will, she has nowhere to go. Gives you time to convince her that you've changed."

He considered that for a minute, then asked, "Isn't that kind of shady?"

It was my turn to shrug. "Do you care as long as you get the outcome you want? If you were doing it for some malicious reason, I'd tell you to fuck off and leave her alone. If utilizing the situation eventually ends with both of you happy, I say go for it. The end justifies the means in that case."

He didn't respond as the man we were waiting on finally stumbled out of the bar. We waited until he was twenty or so feet ahead of us and we stood. One of the things we did best, the CIA had trained us well, was blend in, so when the man looked behind him, he never noticed us amongst the people in the street.

"You suppose he needed to get drunk to deal with what he does on a daily basis?" Suave asked.

The man shoved open the door to a house and it didn't take long before there was yelling, along with the crashing of dishes.

My mouth thinned out into a grim line. A woman's scream from inside the home had me clenching my fists. "No. Pretty sure he's just a shit human being."

"Can we now?" Suave asked, his eyes pleading with me.

I'd been hoping that this guy would lead us back to the Raleka. Instead he'd led us to his home. Pulling a scarf from beneath my jacket, I wrapped it over my face. Suave's grin disappeared as he did the same. "Yeah."

That was all my friend needed before the wooden door to the house was splintering beneath his weight. The scene before us had him bellowing like an injured bull. Suave was a ladies' man, that much was true. But it was all a cover for a sensitive heart. One thing he hated was when women and children were mistreated.

The man from the farmers market had a girl down on the ground, crushed under his weight. She was struggling to get away from him while a woman beat his back with her wooden spoon. I didn't even want to venture to guess who the younger girl was to him, but it was clear what was about to happen in his drunken state.

The woman backed off with a gasp when we rushed through the door. Her eyes were wide with fear. As soon as she realized that our attention was focused on the man she started pleading.

"Please help my sister. Please."

I didn't have time to console her. All I could do was duck out of the way. Suave grabbed the man by the back of his shirt and yanked him off the girl. He jerked so hard the man went flying backward, toward me. When I sidestepped, he slammed into the wall with a jarring thud.

As much as I wanted to mete out my own punishment, there was no stopping Suave. I turned to the woman as my friend began beating the ever loving shit out of the guy. "Go upstairs."

She hurried over and helped her sister to her feet. They were on the stairs before she looked over her shoulder at me. "Thank you."

"Don't tell the Raleka what happened here and we're even."

She nodded in understanding, then shushing her sister, shoved her up the stairs toward safety.

The sound of wood splintering again caught my attention and my brows shot up when I saw the guy on the ground with a broken dining table in two halves around him. Suave was making this as painful for him as possible.

"We don't have time for more," I told him.

His eyes were wild when they met mine, but he jerked his chin in a clipped movement. The man was yelling, begging, pleading for his life.

"Funny that you would beg us to spare you," I said, squatting down until I was eye level with him. My words were rough, a bit broken in the language I wasn't completely fluent in, but he knew what I was saying.

Suave reached out and fisted his hand in the man's hair. The man's panicked gaze met mine.

"How many women begged for you to release them? To let them go home to their families?" I cocked my head. "Where is the Raleka keeping them?"

A mulish expression crossed his face, his eyes hardening. Despite his fear of dying he wasn't about to tell us anything. That was something every man who willingly worked with the Raleka had in common. I wasn't sure what this organization held over their heads that got such devotion to keeping their secrets. Whatever it was, it worked. I nodded at Suave and stood up.

His huge hunting knife was in his hand before I even finished the action. I watched with no sympathy as he dragged the blade over the man's throat.

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