Page 91 of Hell and High Water

Her body is fit, muscular.

In spite of her powerful frame, she still has curves, an ass, pert tits. I finally get a better bead on her age, probably mid-thirties. Everything about her is confidence. Control.

“It was all downhill after that. We were on the run. Sold out.”

“Is that when Damon came to Sanctum?”

“No. That wasn’t until a few years later, from what I heard. Our unit fell apart. Scattered. All but the last three of us. Until they left me for dead.”

“Why would my father do that?”

“Dead weight? Too much work? I don’t know. All I know is, we got in a fight, an argument. He left that night, and I tried to follow him. Someone found out where we were and hit the whole place. Boom.

“I woke up a few months later in a Mongolian hospital. It took me a year to recover, another year to remember who I was.” Her tone veers toward bitterness again. “Sorry. Sore subject.”

She snaps back to the present, blinking away her rage.

I lean against the counter for a few seconds, trying to decide how to approach this without giving too much information away.

“So, what are you doing here, Alaya? In Sanctum. Why did you contact me?”

Although I have a pretty good idea that she was hired to shoot me and Rachelle. The thought makes me want to recoil, run.

“Because there's some things that I need to know. You see, I was hired for a job. It brought me to town. I completed it. But there were way too many questions left on the table and puzzle piecesthat didn't fit together.”

“Welcome to my entire life.”

“Exactly. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I found Damon’s daughter when I came to shoot her aunt.”

The words sink in, making me ice cold again.

She’s disarming, I’ll give her that. But she’s still the person who tried to kill me.

“I apologize for shooting you, by the way. I got a little caught up in the moment. See, I hate when I’m lied to. And I had just found out that my orders were tampered with and that someone I knew was still around.”

In the back of my head, something clicks. I don’t know why it didn’t register before. The fact that she worked with my dad. The third person she spoke of in her remaining team.

It has to be Gavin.

But the fact that she hasn’t said more about him makes me think she doesn’t know exactly where to find him.

So, I hold back, not wanting to give him up. Even if she really does know him, there’s a good chance he doesn’t want her to find him.

And I really don’t want her to find him, either.

“I can understand that. But why were you hired to shoot Rachelle?”

“That is the real question. It ties into why I got in touch. And why I am glad I didn’t kill you.”

“You think the people who hired you to shoot her were connected to my dad’s death?” I head into the kitchen. It puts the table between us, getting a better view of the room and trying to create a line of sight to the door. I doubt I could get past her, but I need to stay ready.

“There’s no doubt. But first, I need to make sure you are aware of a few things so that you can hopefully answer a few of my questions about this weird ass town.”

I press my lips together, realizing where this is going.

“Damon was involved with a certain clandestine organization here in Sanctum Harbor.” She says it tentatively, waiting for a response.

I stare at her, revealing nothing. It’s a bit of a stalemate, neither of us wanting to give up our trump card, not knowing what the other already knows.

---