Page 105 of The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold
It was the wrong question at the wrong time—King knew it before the words were even out because, suddenly, Alex was as gray and as hard as the castle’s walls.
“Why? So you can take it?”
“So one of us can be smart for once!” He wanted to pull the words back. Swallow them whole. Choke on them if he had to, but he was too mad to see straight, much less function.“Alex—”
“Yeah.” She gave a cold, dry laugh. “You got me. I’m still the girl in theFuture Spyhoodie, and you’re still the guy with all the answers.”
“Wait.”
“You may be the Great Michael Kingsley”—she leaned into his space—“but I’m the one who took down Viktor Kozlov.”
“And I’m the guy you called to come save you!” King started to pull his own hair out. “No. I didn’t mean...”
But Alex was already backing away. She was shaking her head like he was just another in a long line of men who couldn’t wait to betray her. She’d been undercover with Kozlov for five years. She’d almost died doing what the whole damn Agency hadn’t been able to accomplish—and doing it alone.
Because shewasalone. And in a way she always had been.
She was halfway down the stairs when he caught up to her. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Where do you think?”
“Youcan’t go to Paris!”
“And how are you going to stop me? Tie me up?”
He was already shaking his head, saying, “Don’t tempt me.”
She huffed out the kind of laugh you only give when nothing is funny. “You’re not going to break me, Michael Kingsley.”
“That’s funny. Because you’ve been crushing me for years.” It must have been the tone that stopped her because she froze halfway to the door. “As long as you have that drive... As long as they eventhinkyou have that drive, you aren’t safe. You’re not safe anywhere but here. Sostayhere. Please. I’ll go get Zoe. I’ll bring her here. I’ll fix it. Just give me time to fix it.”
“Fine. You can come with me—”
“No!” There was a room at the end of the hall that showed what happened when the woman you loved didn’t come home. King wasn’t going to take the risk—not with Alex. Not when he finally had her. He wasn’t going to lose his heart and his mind and his life. Not if he could help it. “I watched you almost die. Twice. I held your limp body in my arms and cleaned your wounds and sewed your skin and willed your heart to keep beating. And I can’t... I can’t do it again.”
It would kill them both this time, and so he had to stop her. Hehad tostop this—this terrifying ride that he’d never wanted to take in the first place.
“Twenty-four hours, Alex. Please. Just give me twenty-four hours to put a plan together and—”
But she was already heading for the door. “I’ll call you from Paris. You can meet me and—”
“No.” He didn’t know where the word came from, but, this time, he didn’t want to stop it. “If you walk through that door... Alex!” She turned and considered him. “If you leave, then don’t come back.”
So, of course, she never did.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
King
King was drunk when he picked up the phone, but of course he remembered the number.
“What?” Sawyer sounded tired and out of breath and so frustrated, he could scream, and that’s how King knew he was right—Sawyer was looking for Alex because Alex was the only person alive who could make someone that angry.
So King sighed. And whispered, “Paris. She’s on her way to Paris.”
Chapter Sixty
Present Day
