Page 85 of Amethyst Flame
I looked up at Agent Dane. “You do it. Bullet to the head.”
Dane’s gaze settled on me with a dark-on-dark worry, like two overlapping shades of black. Most people wouldn’t even notice. But I’d studied hues of color. And I was learning Dane.
He flicked a glance at Jacob. “I need to speak to Imogen alone. Why don’t you go get us all some takeout?”
Jacob seemed stunned for a second, then his face pinked with outrage. “Haven’t we had enough secrets? I want to know everything.”
“The spy life is filled with secrets, Jacob, even for me.” Dane went to the entry and picked up the keys from the console table. Came back. Held them out. “There’s always someone higher up the chain with more information.”
“But you’ve gone rogue, haven’t you?” Jacob taunted, not budging from his seat. He looked to me for support, as if we came as a unit, but he’d blown that chance already. A few times. “It’s just you,” he went on at Dane, “acting against orders.”
I’d had enough drama for the day. “Just let us talk, Jacob.”
Jacob whipped toward me. “You would’vediedif I hadn’t rescued you.” He huffed as if his heroics should earn him some reward. I was pretty sure heroics didn’t work that way. Marvel 101.
“Seems like I’m gonna die anyway,” I told him. “In an avalanche of insanity. Beggingfor someone to kill me.”
My truth bomb worked because Dane shook the keys at Jacob, who took them with a snatch of frustration and slammed out of the house.
Dane was silent for a long minute, hands on his hips, head bowed while we listened for the Kidnapper to back out.
Finally, I took a breath. “When the time comes, you have to make it look like an accident. A good one. Not like a too-convenient car accident. That’s just lazy.”
“Shut up, Imogen.” Dane’s words sounded strangled.
“I’m serious. My mom and Swann will go to war for me. They will dedicate their lives to exposing everyone and everything to do with the nanotech. And then you or someone like you will be ordered to silence them. Only one person needs to die.” I shrugged. “Well, two if you count Will.”
“Shut up. You’re not dying,” he ground out.
I snorted. “Uh…all evidence to the contrary.”
He rounded on me. “I’ve kept you alive so far.”
“The clock’s ticking on that, though, isn’t it?”
“Well, it would help if you didn’t go running off into the night, sleeping in your car in the mountains—yes,of courseI followed you!—and then heading out into the desert without backup to meet someone who absolutely had suspect motives.”
“Well, I can’t trustyou!” I returned while my brain contemplated what he said. He’d followed me last night? Had he stayed up there, watching over me too?
“How about giving me a little benefit of the doubt?” he asked. “I’ve earned it.”
“You’ve been lying to me!”
“I haven’t,” he told me. “I’ve left things out—a lot of things—but I haven’t lied.”
Ha. “That’s called a lie of omission.”
“It’s more like another day at the office for me, Imogen.” He sat down in Jacob’s spot. “Just because I don’t tell you everything doesn’t mean you can’t trust me.”
“It means you’re using me,” I said. “You wanted the dragon configuration, and you needed me to get it.” Point to me. “And, by the way, keeping silent about the fact that I’m dying isn’t just another spy secret. It’s hiding a fucking black hole of nothingness where my life is supposed to be.”
“Imogen, I’m perfectly capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.”
“Huh?”
“Discovering the next step in the techandfinding out if it can save you.”
“But the dragons can’t save me.”
