Page 30 of Vendetta
The tears came on.“And you came back here?Knowing what they would do to you?”
“I came back for revenge,” he said quietly.“I came back to shut them down… And then I met you.”
Dylan lowered her hand, blowing out a breath.
A darker thought crept in, like a splinter under her skin.Jason had come back for the ones who wronged him.But she was Eli’s niece.Her hand dropped to her lap, fingers curling tightly.Had she been a pawn on the board all along?Was every moment, every kind word, every look, every time he held her in the dark… just part of the long game?
Dylan studied him as if she was seeing him for the first time.The warmth in his eyes, the exhaustion and pain.The way he watched her, like she was the only thing anchoring him.Still, the question festered.She had to ask.
“Is that why you talked to me?”she said, barely above a whisper.“Because I’m his niece?”she asked, trying to sound sarcastic, but sounding hurt instead.
He shook his head, raking a hand through his hair.“I didn’t know at first.Not until the night you mentioned him,” he said quietly.“When I left that next morning, I saw your birthday picture with him in the background.”
“So, what was I then?”she asked, voice low but biting.“Just part of the job either way?I was useful as someone working atNed’s, but then you figured out I was related to Eli and that was a bonus?”
Jason’s expression shifted, something between regret and restraint.
“Was it all just intel?”she pressed, letting the tears fall.“Me, the bar, what I knew about Eli?Is that why you talked to me?Slept with me?”
So many emotions played across Jason’s face.She saw guilt, yes, but it wasn’t the dominant emotion there.It took a little of the wind out of her sails.
“God, I thought you were the only person who actually gave a damn about me,” she whispered.“And the whole time, you were watching me like some undercover op.Like I was a way in.”Her throat tightened.“Did any of this mean anything to you?”
More silence, thick and loaded.He dropped his head, not moving next to her.
“No.You weren’t just part of the job.”His tone wasn’t defensive, but honest.“You never really were.”
Dylan crossed her arms.She’d been trying to get the emotions from a traumatic night under control, only to learn the man she fell for wasn’t who she thought he was.Her eyes stayed on him, waiting.Daring him to go on.
Jason took a slow breath, like it would hurt him to say the next part out loud.“When I first saw you… it was at the bar.You were laughing with Peggy.I wasn’t even supposed to be looking at you.I was watching Cottonmouths, watching movement, drop-ins, timing.But then, there you were.”He shook his head, like it still didn’t make sense.“You were confident and gorgeous.”
Dylan’s arms loosened a fraction as he continued.“I told myself not to get involved.That if I kept my distance, I could finish what I came to do and disappear.But I kept showing up.Finding excuses to be near you.To see if you were okay.”He glanced away for just a second.“That’s when I stopped being careful.And that’s when it stopped being about the job.”
The silence that followed was different this time, fragile.
“You weren’t part of the plan, Dylan.But you became the reason.”
Her heart clenched, her gaze dropped.Something in her wanted to believe him.Wanted it so badly it hurt.Staring down at the water glass still clutched in her hands, her grip had gone white-knuckled, her fingers aching.But she didn’t let go.“You should’ve told me,” she said softly.
“I know.”
“I don’t know what’s real.”Dylan looked up at him through frustrated tears.“You were the only person I thought I could trust.And now… I feel like I’m drowning in everything I didn’t see coming.”
He ran a hand through his hair, tension bleeding out of him like slow poison.“You were a bright light in a place that was nothing but shadows.And yeah, at first, maybe I thought getting close to you would help.That you might know something about Eli that could help me take him down.But it stopped being about that the minute I realized you had no idea who your uncle really was, and how close you were to getting hurt.I didn’t tell you who I was because it would’ve put you in more danger.If you knew the truth, you would’ve reacted differently.They would have noticed.Eli would’ve noticed.I wasn’t willing to risk that.Not with you.”
“That’s why you showed up tonight?”she asked.“You saved me when no one else even knew I was gone.”She sat there for a moment, watching him like she didn’t know if she should be angry or grateful.Or both.
Her voice was softer this time.“How did you know where I was tonight?How did you find me?”
Jason exhaled slowly, his gaze never left hers.“Peggy,” he said.“She saw the car you climbed into.Took a picture of the plate before they drove off.She didn’t know what to do with that information, so she waited for me to come looking.”
PeggyandJason saved her life tonight.
“I was already circling the block.Something didn’t sit right,” he continued.“You didn’t message me, and… I just knew.I knew I was already too late the second she walked up to my van.I narrowed it down to a couple of different possible locations.And then I got lucky.”
Dylan swallowed, her throat tight.“But you still found me.”Her heart dropped just thinking about what might have happened if Jason hadn’t shown up.
“I would have torn this town apart to find you,” Jason admitted, conviction in his voice.“I didn’t plan to meet you.I didn’t plan to stay.I was just supposed to gather intel, figure out where the bodies were buried, and strike with enough evidence of why I was doing what I planned to do, just in case I got caught.”
