Page 32 of Toxic Devotion
“Right. Didn’t think so.”
Neil motioned with his gun toward the two chairs they had set up off to his right and Dumb kept his hands up as he walked there and sat down. Rome was ready with a roll of duct tape and while the others kept their guns trained on Dumb, Rome got the man’s arms and legs tied to the chair.
Ty pulled out a handheld fingerprint scanner and held it toward Dumb who gave him a toothy smile as he willingly placed his fingers on it.
The device hummed and while it searched for a match, Neil walked over to Dumber’s body, crouching down to search the man’s pockets. He held back a frustrated sigh when he came up empty.
He walked back to the others just as a beep came from the scanner.
“Nothing,” Ty said, a dejected look crossing his face.
“You’re not surprised,” Neil said to Dumb when he noticed the man’s lack of reaction to that information.
“Why would I be?”
“Your photo doesn’t match anything in any database and neither does your fingerprints,” Neil said, gaze running over the man’s face. That didn’t happen easily. Erasing someone like that took a hell of a lot of money or power.
There was a wicked smile on the man’s lips as he said, “Does yours?”
Neil couldn’t keep from rocking back on his heels in shock. Holy shit. Yeah, that was an option he hadn’t wanted to even consider.
“What does that mean?” Marco asked.
Neil swallowed, gaze dropping to the ground for a second before he lifted his head and looked into Marco’s eyes.
“It means,” he said and took a breath, hand rubbing the back of his neck, “that someone in the Agency wants me dead.”
Marco’s lips parted and the look he gave Neil had a lump forming in his throat. He knew Marco wanted him to quit. Marco didn’t hide that he wanted him out of that life and fully into his. He just couldn’t… He justcouldn’t.
“Why am I not surprised that you got yourself on someone’s shit list?” Ty mused, brow arched at Neil.
He didn’t even have it in him to curse the man.
He knew exactly who wanted him dead, he just didn’t know who inside the agency the man had his claws in. Hughes, the terrorist he’d caught years ago, was pulling the strings. He knew it. Finding out whose strings he was pulling wouldn’t be easy, but he’d do it. He needed this to end.
He met Ty’s gaze and when the man gave him a nod, he pulled Marco toward the door. They stepped into the hallway and when the door closed behind them, Neil met Marco’s worried gaze.
“This is worse than you thought,” Marco said, his voice low but steady.
Neil released a pent-up breath and nodded.
“It means that I have to be careful. Really careful.”
Marco’s brows furrowed and he tilted his head just slightly to the side, eyes burning a path into Neil. “Say it.”
He swallowed hard, the words stuck in his throat because he didn’twantto say them.
“We shouldn’t be seeing?”
“No,” Marco snapped, hands grabbing Neil’s face. “We’re not gonna let some asshole spook get between us. We’re not gonna let him pull us apart. No fucking way.”
This was why Marco was the strongest one of them. He needed Marco so fucking desperately just to function nowadays. He wasn’t sure he knew how to breathe without Marco anymore.
“Do we need to go back in there?”
“Ty will take care of it,” he muttered.
“Good.” Marco nodded and ran a hand down Neil’s arm to grab his hand. “Then we’re going home.”