Page 132 of Assassin

“Bad news?” he asked, sensing her discomfort. “What aren’t you telling me? You’re not leaving to go there, are you?” he asked, panic building.

Well, she couldn’t lie to him.

Instead, she lowered her voice.

“I may have to. EJ, Reaper just called. Tommy is getting erratic, and it’s only been a couple of days. He’s going to be a problem for The Hunters.”

Well, that wasn’t good.

Not.

At.

All.

They’d made the conscious decision, as a family, to protect Gene no matter what.

The collective would protect itself.

That was the bottom line.

“What are you going to do?” he asked, knowing this had to be her call.

The Hunters couldn’t be burned in NOLA. They were holding the port open, so the bad guys didn’t get in.

Yeah, it was dire.

“What choice do I have?” she asked. “If he goes off the rez, I gotta end him. I can’t risk Tommy doing something stupid or coming up here and hurting you. He’s going to put this all on you, EJ, and you’ll be his target.”

He reassured her.

“I’m safe.”

Was he?

She didn’t think so.

They’d played reindeer games with jealous, insane people, and Tommy was acting like one of them. That always made people do erratic things.

He was being consumed with jealousy, and that never ended well.

“If I have to pull the trigger on this, Ethan, will Gene be able to hold up? Is Gene going to be able to handle it if he finds out Tommy didn’t live?”

He stood there.

“Are you really going to take him out?” he whispered, shocked that she’d say it.

Oh, he knew his wife was the president’s personal handler, but this was Gene’s ex.

“If I have to, EJ, I have to. If he risks The Hunters, I have no choice. We have Tommy versus a dozen people we love and need to keep working to protect the country. This puts me in a really bad place.”

Jesus.

He didn’t envy her.

Oh, he’d been there, but he got out because he couldn’t do the job like she could. The choices that had to be made were difficult and weighed on him.

Now, the hard decisions were hers, and hers alone. For that, he was so sorry.

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