Page 61 of The Bait

Asher nodded. “There’s shit in there that’s not good, Harry. I mean, none of it is good. But... but he was dealing with some deep, dark shit, that I would have sworn he’d never touch. I thought he had some moral high ground, but...” He looked back out into the trees. “But now I’m not so sure.”

“Dark government stuff?”

He nodded. “Arming terrorists, supplying trade toboth sides of wars. To the point where I don’t know which side of terrorism he’s on.”

Holy shit.

“And there’s something else. Something that...” He sighed. “Something that I can’t get out of my head.”

“What is it?”

“The password to access everything.”

“Haemosu? The Korean sun god?”

Asher nodded and let out a long sigh. “There’s a file in there called Ciro Savic.”

Harry didn’t understand. “What is that? Is it a person? A place? Cheerosavick?”

“It’s a name. A man’s name. There’s a photograph of birth records. Born in Sarajevo. He’d be thirty-six.”

“Who is he?”

Asher’s eyes met Harry’s, and he whispered, “I can’t be sure, but I think it’s me.”

Harry’s heart fell through his stomach. “What? How?”

He shrugged. “Ciro means sun. Yunho always called me the sun. I brightened his world, he’d said.”

Harry couldn’t quite get his head around it.

“It means he knew,” Asher added quietly. “For years, a decade or more. He knew my name. My identity, the names of my parents, where I’m from, where I was born. He knew my nationality,” Asher said, thumping his chest. “And he lied to me. He kept it from me.”

Oh, fucking hell.

“Asher, baby. I... I don’t know what to say. I’d like to say maybe he had his reasons, but there’s no excuse.”

“No, there’s not.” Asher sighed and looked back out the ruined building. “Did he keep it from me to control me? To keep me on his leash, without loyalty to a country, without a home.” He shrugged. “I just don’t know.”

“I’m so sorry,” Harry whispered.

“Of all the people I thought would never hurt me.”

“Maybe... maybe he has his reasons,” Harry offered. “I’m not justifying it; I’m just saying I know he loves you. There has to be a reason he never told you, and when we find him and rescue him, you can ask him. If it’s bad, if he’s part of this mess and held it from you to string you along and hurt you, then I will kill him myself.”

Asher gave the barest of nods. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Harry rubbed Asher’s arms. “You will never have to find out.”

“I’m scared, Harry,” Asher admitted. “I can’t remember the last time I was scared. Probably when I was here.” He gestured to the broken building. “We’re out of practice. We’re too old for this. Once upon a time we were at the top of our game, and now I don’t even know what our next move is. I always had Yunho to guide me, to send me intel, to get me anything I ever needed. And we don’t have that anymore. We’re on our own with no idea if we’re on the right path. Everything has been a guess, at best.”

“What we have is experience,” Harry replied. “And we have each other. We are famous in this industry. People fear us. We are good at what we do.”

“Weweregood at what we did. You said it yourself, I’m not the same person I was two years ago. Two years ago, I wouldn’t have even blinked at a situation like this. Now...” He shook his head. “I second guess every single thing because I could lose you and it scares the fuck out of me. The fear, it freezes me. And in this game, if I hesitate for a nano second, I’m dead. Or worse, you are.” His chin wobbled again. “And then what? I would have nothing. And you know, before I would have sworn that ifsomething happened to you, I would watch this world burn. But honestly, I wouldn’t have the will in me to do anything but eat a bullet myself.”

“Baby, no.”

“See? I’m not the same person. Not even close. Because I’m seriously considering just taking you home. Just getting the fuck out of here and going home, where we can live out our days in peace. I can’t go back to this life, Harry. I just can’t.”

---