Page 171 of Exposé

I glanced back at the chair, scowled, then sat on the slightest edge of the flat cushion, the wood cross beam digging into my buttocks.

"Pay attention because I don't like to repeat myself." Nate's soft side hardened before my eyes. "Understand?"

I dug my front teeth into my inner cheek. "Don't leave anything out." My arms crossed over my rancid stomach as a faint smirk crossed over his face.

"My name is Nathaniel Barlowe, and I work for N-D-E-I-A. A covert agency."

My heart stopped, and my knee bounced.

"I was assigned—"

"First," I held my hand up, "what does N-D-E-I-A stand for?"

"National Defense and External Intelligence Agency."He scowled. "Don't interrupt."

I hung my head.

"There's a program within the agency that searches the internet for topics that have been flagged as 'something of interest' or 'dangerous information'. It was designed to help thegovernment keep an eye on trending topics or things that may be troublesome to national security." His jaw clenched, his eyes shifting to the ceiling. "You happened to start digging into a topic of interest, then requested a FOIA, which set off alarm bells loud enough that the keeper of Hell's gates responded."

"So you're saying American citizens are being spied on by our own government?" I scoffed and shook my head. "That's a direct violation of our constitutional rights."

Nate stood and shoved his hand through his hair. "I'm not here to debate the laws with you. I'm trying to help you out, so do you mind?" He held his hand out, palm up as if asking me to place my silence on the platter of his outstretched hand.

"Fine." I leaned back against the chair, then recoiled when sanity struck me, reminding me where exactly I was. "Can I at least write this down?"

He gave a sharp incline of his chin as he stalked toward the swollen dresser, swiping the notepad off the surface, my eyes drifting toward the exit.

"Thank you."

"You won't make it far."

I tore my gaze away and gawked up at him. "Huh?"

"You keep looking at the door." His head moved side to side. "Even if youdomake it out the door, where do you expect to go?"

"I haven’t thought that far ahead yet."

"Well, I have." Sat in his previous spot on the bed, his finger tapping against his knee. "You'd get, maybe, to the office door. If the strung-out clerk happens to see you and makes a scene, I wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet through his head. That is, if he's even willing to help you. Sleazy people like him tend to look the other way."

"You'd kill someone?"

His chest rose and fell with a quiet exhale. "I'm a Marine who's been deployed to the remote hellholes of Afghanistan andIraq where the only thing we did was eat, sleep, and breathe survival."

I gulped.

"Does that answer your question?"

"That was different. That was war. This is an innocent person."

He let out a cold, derisive chuckle, his eyes like steel. “Survival’s the only rule that matters, Ava. And if you put that at risk, I wouldn’t think twice about eliminating the threat. No hesitation. No remorse.”

"You're not the person I thought you were."

He nodded. "That's what I'm trying to tell you. I may have been assigned to you, but I was nothing but real with you."

"Okay, so you get put on my case to do what?"

Nate crossed his arms over his chest. "To observe. Deter your investigation at any costs." He smirked and let loose a laugh. "And despite what you think, you were moving quickly. You just hadn't put the pieces together."

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