Page 149 of Stealth Mission

For two seconds I’m confused.

Fighting a snarl, I curse inside my head. She should not be here.

Eyes panicked, wet hair tangled around her face, Marianna stumbles and almost goes down on the mud. “No! No one’s going to hurt anyone. That’s already been done.”

Her voice breaks on the last words. Killing me.

When Marianna wipes a hand over her face, she smears the leftover camo paint and rainwater. Her body’s shaking as she looks me in the eyes. “Evan, we’re going totalkabout this. All of it.”

“You need to leave, Marianna.” I’m hoarse, my chest is heaving and the pounding inside my head is so loud the boom of thunder outside the cave barely registers.

As if things aren’t bad enough, Scout steps into my peripheral field of view making me growl against clenched teeth. I told them to keep her safe back at the house until I was done getting to the bottom of this shit.

I’m about to unleash my anger on him when Justice strolls in like he’s on a walk in the park. He looks between us. “Let’s get to the bottom of this before this cave floods and we’re proper fucked.”

Marianna wraps her arms around herself and nervously looks around at the water that’s rushing past us. “We should go. The trail is going to be too slick soon, and this cave floods. It happens very quickly.”

I grab the old man’s arm and push him toward the mouth of the cave. I’m not moving because I’m worried about him, I want Marianna out of here. “Move out.”

He struggles against my hold, pointing toward the mud-covered backpack lying in the rushing brown water. “Don’t leave the bag. There’s an American Passport in it. Allison someone…”

Chapter Fifty-Eight

I don’t even realize that Scout and Justice aren’t with us until Evan drags Peter onto the front porch of the house and shoves him into a chair. Although I’m hurt and angry with Peter, this upsets me.

“You’re going to hurt him!”

Peter grabs my hand. His fingers are cold and soaking wet.

“Don’t, Marianna, it’s okay. I’m not made of glass. He has every right to be angry, and so do you.”

I pull away from his grip when Evan tugs me by the elbow. He takes me to the loveseat and pushes me gently down. I’m too tired and too broken to fight.

With his big hands, he cups my face and looks down at me. “You shouldn’t have come.”

The tempest of tenderness and anger in his expression crushes the breath out of me.

He’s broken too.

“This is my fault, Evan. You shouldn’t be tangled up in this mess. You just need to walk away.”

It’s going to devastate me. I may never recover, but that’s what he should do.

My words must hit him hard, because his fingers tighten on my jaw when he flinches. “I’m not leaving you to fight this battle alone.”

“What about when it’s done?”

And there’s the ugly truth. Slipping out because I’m raw and vulnerable.

His gaze flicks between my eyes. “You should want me out of your life, sweetheart. You saw me, Marianna. I had no qualms about killing him. None. All I want is revenge for you, but I won’t do it with you watching me.”

“Evan…” I grip his thick wrists with both my hands. “I love you.”

And there’s the other truth. The big, gigantic thing that’s been lighting up my soul and torturing my heart at the same time.

It’s impossible to miss the change in his expression, or the way he turns rigid. Cold replaces the warm where his hands were when he drops his palms from my face.

When he turns back toward Peter without saying a word to me, an anguished sob tears out of me. Clawing through the constriction in my throat.

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