Page 147 of Crossfire
“You told them I was hesitating,” I whispered, the sharp blade of betrayal slicing through me.
“I assured them you’d handle it. But they…” Daniel paused. “They dispatched another operative. Maybe an entire team.”
It took every ounce of strength to fight the shock and remain conscious.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded.
“I was ordered not to.” His voice was flat, matter-of-fact. Evidently, the years we’d spent together—our shared history of him taking me under his wing and saving me when I was a lost, dark teenager—would come in second place to an order.
It was unfair to feel deceived by him. After all, he was doing his job, loyal to the organization that I’d promised to be. And yet he’d sold me down the river; he put a target on the back of the woman I loved and said nothing to warn me it was coming.
“You knew this when you sent me that evidence,” I realized. “You sensed my hesitation when you called.”
Daniel’s lips thinned. “I was hoping you’d come to your senses.”
“Why did you tell me to come here, then?”
Daniel’s eyes deepened with apology.
And that made my stomach fucking sink.
“They wanted an opportunity with the target away from you.”
They wanted toseparateme and Ivy? It suddenly felt like a drum was beating against my skull.
With bile rising in my throat, I choked out, “Are you telling me…”
My heart became a goddamned racehorse, threatening to make the room go black.
Daniel’s features were loaded with sorrow, his silence becoming a cavernous space between us.
“It’s happening…as we speak.”
Around me, the world didn’t just shatter; it disintegrated, like a mirror struck by a bullet—each fragment a reflection of my worst nightmare realized.
That meant they were at Hunter’s mansion right now. Where my brothers, Luna,andIvy would all be the crosshairs of bullets or whatever horror they had planned.
They must have followed us there or been tracking my phone. I should have known this! I should have seen this coming! I thought I had time, but…
I was too late.
Ivy was going to die, and it was all my fault.
And now, my brothers might die right alongside her.
63
IVY
I had a terrible feeling about all of this.
The great room was enveloped in the deep auburn hues of the fireplace—each pop and crackle of wood punctuating the silence—while outside the floor-to-ceiling window, the moon draped the lawn in a haunting silver glow, as if the world outside was holding its breath, anxious to see how the night would play out.
In here, everyone else looked at ease. Hunter, Jace, and Bryson sipped scotch while my attention drifted to the front entrance, where I had last seen Grayson.
“It’s a cabernet.” Luna held out a wineglass to me.
Its deep red liquid mirrored the blood that haunted my past—blood I prayed would not be part of my future.