Page 112 of Shadow Blind

Her gaze became even more intense, and she reached out, brushing Demi’s tense arm with her fingertips. “Don’t let fear of the unknown, of future possibilities, sour what you could have with Aiden now. What if nothing happens to him? What if he lives into twilight age? Think of all the memories you will have lost because of what might happen.” She fell silent, her gaze turning distant and dark, before adding softly, “Even if Samuel dies today, I will always be grateful for the cycles we had together.”

As Olivia returned to her chair beside Samuel’s bed, what she’d said echoed through Demi’s mind. And she realized she felt the same way about her years with Donnie. Yes, the agony of losing him had gutted her for a while. But the pain had eventually subsided. These days, memories of him mostly brought peace or smiles. She also knew, wholeheartedly, that she’d take the pain of losing him over not having loved him, not having married him, not having shared those seven years with him. Hell, she’d even go one step further and admit that if she could go back in time and have a do-over, she’d still marry him, even knowing what was coming.

Besides, could the fear of losing Aiden get any worse than it had been over the past three days? She doubted it. Eventually, she’d hit a plateau, and the fear level would freeze.

No, she didn’t believe in soulmates, but she couldn’t deny there was a powerful attraction between her and Aiden. An attraction that had been there from the very beginning, while she’d been married and happy with Donnie. Even back then, what she’d felt for Aiden had been incredibly strong, unlike anything she’d felt before. She felt tied to Aiden in a way she hadn’t felt with Donnie. Which was part of the reason it was so difficult to walk away from him.

That connection kept pulling her back.

But what if there was another reason it was so hard to call it quits and walk away from him? Oh, not the mythical soulmate connection. Something else. Something tangible. What if her instincts were telling her she’d regret leaving him, that she’d regret not giving them a chance to explore this connection between them?

They loved each other. She was certain of that now. Didn’t she owe it to herself, and Aiden, to give their love a chance? To see where it led?

Livvy was right. Aiden was one in a million. And if Cosky read the situation right and Aiden couldn’t return to the SEALs, any job he took would be less dangerous, easier to live with, easier to compromise on.

That’s what they needed. A compromise.

A solution they could both live with.

Chapter forty-four

Day 20

Washington, D.C.

Clark snatched up the cell phone before the first ring faded. Hope crashed and burned when he saw the caller ID. Christopher Lovett.

Not Kuznetsov, then. Dammit. The Russian was still ghosting him. This shouldn’t surprise him, not after finding his nanobot weapon for sale on the dark web. But it didn’t look like the weapon had been sold. Or if it had, it hadn’t been deployed. There were no reports of people going crazy and killing each other. So, there was still an outside chance Kuznetsov had listed the nanobots for sale in the expectation that Clark would turn the weapon over to him soon.

But if that was the case, why wasn’t the Russian returning his calls? Time to admit his pet arms dealer had gone rogue or been captured. His eyes and ears in Admiral Hurley’s office swore they didn’t have the Russian. But that didn’t mean much. Someone else could have got to him.

It was bad enough Kuznetsov wasn’t the one calling, but the name on the caller ID sent tendrils of tension through his chest. His head started pounding. He clenched his hand around the phone and fought the impulse to ignore the summons.

The only reason Lovett would call was with more bot-related bad news. They were long past any bot-related good news. The kill switch programing still wasn’t working and nothing they’d dropped into the tank had killed the NNB26 prototype. Not for long, anyway.

He forced himself to punch the talk button and lifted the cell to his ear. “Tell me you’ve finally discovered a method that will kill the damn things.”

They’d had high hopes a liquid nitrogen dump would freeze and shatter the bots. Which it had. Except they’d reformed and reassembled once they’d thawed. The portable MRI hadn’t phased them. And as he’d feared, a localized EMP burst hadn’t affected the hardened technology. It hadn’t even slowed the fucking things down.

What the hell did they have to do to destroy them?

This was the first time in his long, money-making career he regretted being so good at his job.

“You better get down here,” Lovett said, his voice so tight Clark didn’t recognize it.

“What’s wrong now?”

Nothing had gone right with the damn things since they’d reactivated. They were microscopic organic robots, for God’s sake. Regardless of the hundreds of sci-fi and horror shows portraying robots running amok, in reality, robots were engineered to be turned off, to be controlled. So why couldn’t he regulate the fucking things?

“They seem to be…vibrating.” Lovett’s voice tightened even further. He sounded terrified.

“Vibrating?” His eyebrows rose. That was new.

“Yes, vibrating. And the vibrations are getting stronger, sliding in and out of various frequencies. They’re able to move their tank through the vibrations. A very slight amount, to be sure—but my God, that tank weighs a couple of tons—for them to move it at all is….” He paused and took an obvious breath. When he continued, his voice shook. “Quite disturbing.”

“Yes. Quite.” Clark tensed, his heart suddenly racing. Why did this news feel so ominous? “I’m on my way.”

For the first time, as he descended inside the bright elevator, the car seemed to close around him with claustrophobic pressure, intensifying his feeling of dread.

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