Page 58 of Ending the Game

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Nobody warned me what it’s like to look back with regret.

To be left wondering,What if...?

What if I’d told her sooner?

What if I hadn’t missed the signs?

It was my job to protect them... What if I hadn’t failed?

What if I’d only had a little more time?

Axel stands across from me. His shaking hand is holding a gun pressed to Carys’s temple, and I can’t make a move. At no point during my training has anything ever prepared me for having her life in the hands of a highly trained, desperate killer.

Her lips tremble in fear, and I have no way to comfort her.

No good shot to take him out without risking her life.

“None of this was supposed to happen. It was supposed to be easy money. Help them get the money and keep the girls. That’s what my contact said. That’s what they wanted.” Axel shields himself with Carys in front of him.

He anticipates every move I make.

He can predict my actions the way I’m positive of his reactions.

He knows I won’t risk her.

But with each passing second, he’s becoming more agitated.

More unstable.

It’s my only play. Unstable can mean sloppy. And sloppy can offer an opportunity.

“What about Linc? If nobody was supposed to get hurt, why is Linc dead?” The words hide my hate. They’re calm, masking my fury.

As long as he’s talking, there’s a chance I can get us out of this.

“This isn’t you, man. You don’t betray your team.” I inch forward again. “Your brothers.”

“You’re not my brother, Sinclair. You’ve got a rich brother and a richer daddy who can take care of you. I ain’t got shit to go home to. This was my score. Help them out on one op and get a million-dollar payday. They approached me in the city before our team ever knew about the mission. They knew. They’d been planning. Easy money, they said. But nothing’s ever easy, so before the guy left the café that day, I swiped the flash drive from the pocket of his briefcase. An insurance policy.” He shakes his head, lost in the thought.

Remorse is written over every inch of his face, but it’s too late for that.

He and I both know it.

We’re not both getting out of here alive.

“Dumb fuck. He didn’t even notice. Not then. And when I got back to base and saw what was on it... That wasn’t just a million-dollar payday. The contents of that little flash drive were going to set me up for life. They weren’t even encrypted.”

My reaction must flash across my face because he raises a brow.

“Your boys haven’t been able to crack it, have they? I encrypted that shit myself. Couldn’t have anybody stumble onto what’s on there. I figured, after I got my million, I’d tell them what I found and offer them a way to buy it back. Then I’d live out the rest of my life sipping margaritas out of a coconut on a beach somewhere in South America.”

Axel jerks his arm back and catches Carys’s jaw, causing her to cry out, but it doesn’t even register with him.

“If no one was supposed to get hurt... if everything was easy, what the fucking hell happened, man?”Keep him talkingplays over and over in my mind.

A mantra I’m fighting for.

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