Luke catches my arm and turns me to face him, his eyes a hot wash of anger, every line of his body tense. “We’re talking about Kurt. Let’s talk about Kurt.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ana
My defenses prickle at the idea that Luke’s not only going to prematurely convict Kurt of wrongdoing, but my fear, that he knows something I don’t know, and he’s about to share, here, in front of everyone. “What about Kurt, Luke?” I demand.
“That first night I went to dinner with Kurt, he said: at some point, if my daughter decides you’re a keeper, one day, when I’m no longer around, your job will be to protect her. I told him I’d die for you, at least a half-dozen times in his lifetime. I didn’t say anything about standing by and watching you die.”
In that moment, I’m as resilient as a UFC fighter who might have gotten taken down, but relief shoots me right back to my feet. “And I said, what I’m saying again now. I can protect myself.”
“You wanted me to stay, Ana. Now you have me. I’m here and I’m not backing down.”
“Go in with me.”
“We’re the two people they’re looking for.” His tone is bullish.
Mine is determined. “I have to do this, Luke. You know I do. And we have to do anything we can to end this before someone else dies.” I catch his hand. “Please.”
Savage laughs. “Give it up, man. You won’t win. I never do and time is ticking. We’ll all fucking go.”
“He’s right,” Adam agrees. “I’ve seen the Walker women in action. Let’s just do this.”
“For the record,” Parker murmurs, “I think this is a mistake, but I’ll ride high by y’all’s sides.”
Luke grinds his teeth. “The vehicle isn’t big enough for us all.”
“Blake had another car dropped off for us,” Adam replies, tossing Luke the keys.
Luke catches them, a grimace etched on his handsome face, his gaze flicking to me. “What’s the plan?”
“Like it or not, Lucifer,” Savage says, “I’m the best killer in the room. I’ll go in with you.”
Luke’s lips twist, and I can tell he bites back a remark, as if the norm is for him to claim he’s the best, but he doesn’t dare, not with me here. Not after what happened to Kasey. So, I do it for him. I claim his crown. “You didn’t train with Kurt,” I say. “Luke did and Kurt respected the hell out of his skills. Luke might have earned his nickname in a plane, but he kept it with his combat skills.” I glance over at Luke. “You might as well walk in with me. There are cameras. If these people are as sophisticated as they seem, they’ll see us, they’ll come for us. And that’s where the best killer number two can come into play.”
“Now I’m going to have to show off and kill me some bastards,” Savage proclaims. “Then you can apologize for calling me number two.”
Adam tunes Savage out and says, “Blake can handle this,” snagging his phone from his pocket and punching the auto-dial. “We need to get in and out of the FBI building undetected. What can you do?”
“I can loop the feed, and control the output of the sensors,” he says. “When?”
“As soon as we can get there,” I say. “We have one problem. A security guard named Jack.”
“I’ll handle Jack,” Adam offers. “What else?”
“That’s it,” I confirm.
“If we get split up,” Adam states. “Meet at the address Blake is going to text us all in the next five minutes.”
“Let’s rock ‘n’ roll,” Savage says, tossing keys in the air.
“We’ll be right there,” Luke replies, and without an argument, the team begins to file out.
Parker is the exception, stopping at the edge of the island long enough to say, “Kurt wasn’t dirty, Ana. I’d bet my life on it. I just thought you needed to hear that.”
Luke’s attention rockets to him. “No one said Kurt was dirty, Parker.”
Parker gives a shrug and saunters toward the garage area where everyone else disappeared. Luke watches him every step of the way, irritation ticking in his jaw before he turns back to me, catching my hip and walking me to him. “You don’t listen worth a shit, woman. Obviously, marriage no longer means, love, honor, and obey.”
“I obey,” I assure him, “but usually while naked and without an audience. And we’re not married.”
“Yes, well, we can fix that, if we stay alive long enough.”
Warmth fills me with those words. “Sounds like a good enough reason to stay alive, if I ever heard one.”
“Yeah, baby, it is.” His hand slides under my hair, cupping my neck and dragging my mouth to his, and kissing me hard and fast. I find myself hoping this is the first kiss of a new tomorrow, but there’s a gnawing sensation in my belly that says someone else is going to die before this is over. And I don’t know if I can stop it from happening.