Smoked

by Slade, Heather

  Casper untied him, and I pulled Siren into my arms.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “They’re all dead,” I answered, knowing full well that wasn’t what she meant.

  “You got this?” Decker asked Hughes. When he gave a thumbs up, I escorted Siren out while Casper and Deck helped Gene.

  “Hughes said there’s a safe house close.”

  “There is,” said Siren. “I can get us there.”

  While Byrne had been neutralized, there was still the question of the men he’d been working with. Until we knew exactly who they were, we weren’t in any position to let our guard down.

  I had, and that was what had let Byrne get the upper hand.

  “Let it go for now,” said Decker as I got in the back of the SUV behind Siren.

  I knew I had to. If I didn’t focus on the here and now, we could wind up in a worse situation than the one I’d landed Gene and I in. That didn’t mean I could stop the mistakes I’d made from lingering in the back of my mind.

  Siren sat between Gene and I and held his hand. Apart from her giving Casper directions to the safe house, we were all quiet on the drive. Each of us had our own experiences to process through before the hotwash that would eventually come.

  “How’s your pain?” Siren whispered.

  “Too much adrenaline to feel much of anything,” I muttered without looking at her. She squeezed my thigh with her hand and rested her head on my shoulder. Was she trying to give me comfort, knowing that I recognized my fuck up as much or more than anyone else in the vehicle? Even Gene knew that because of me, he had almost lost his life. I’d been distracted; my head wasn’t in the game; I didn’t protect my asset.

  We approached the safe house, waited while the garage door opened, and then pulled inside. Like when we’d left Siren’s place, Decker and Casper helped Gene.

  “Wait,” said Siren, stopping me before we followed the others inside. She put her arms around me and rested her cheek on my chest. “I’ve never been so frightened in my life. Thank God you’re okay.”

  Her words were meant to bring me comfort, but they did the opposite. She’d been frightened and worried because of me. Her head hadn’t been in the right place, not that she’d done a single thing wrong. She’d handled herself like the professional she was—unlike me.

  “Smoke?”

  “Yeah,” I mumbled, looking down at her.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” I removed her hands from around my waist. “Let’s get inside.”

  “Casper is working on Kim’s and Antonov’s twenty,” said Decker. “Hughes is on his way here now.” He looked at Siren. “The two of you will need to do an assessment of IMI agents.” Deck turned to me. “We’ll get a medic over here to assess your condition as well as Mr. O’Brien’s.”

  “Not necessary. I’m fine.”

  Decker nodded.

  “Both Kim and Antonov have been located. Kim is in his office at Interpol. Antonov is back in Moscow.”

  “Stay on them,” said Deck. Casper nodded.

  “What about the box?” asked Siren.

  “You know what he was talking about?” Deck asked.

  She looked at O’Brien. “It’s at my old house.”

  Gene nodded.

  “The woman who owns it now tried to give it to me the day we first met in the cemetery, and I told her I’d come back for it.” Siren turned to me; her eyes were scrunched. “I forgot.”

  I held my arms open, and she walked into them. “It’s better that you did. If Byrne had found it at your house, both Gene and I would probably be dead.”

  Siren’s shoulders began to shake. The adrenaline was wearing off, and she was crashing.

  “Come here,” I said, leading her down the hallway. I opened the first door I came to. It was a bathroom, so I went to the next. I led Siren in and over to the bed. “Lie down, kiddo.”

  “Will you hold me?”

  “I will.” I lay on my back and pulled her into my arms.

  “Isn’t that painful?”

  “I’m fine,” I muttered, stroking her hair. After a few minutes, she looked up at me.

  “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “How good you feel next to me.”

  She shook her head. “No, you’re not. You’re thinking you screwed up.”

  “I did screw up.”

  “What happened?”

  I had my mind on her, not the job, but I wasn’t about to say so. Nothing that had happened was her fault.

  “Smoke?”

  “I didn’t do my job.”

  “Okay,” she whispered, and I knew it meant she got that I didn’t want to talk about it.

  “Sounds like Hughes is here. We should get back out there.”

  Her arm tightened around my waist. “Another minute.”

  34

  Siren

  I told Smoke I’d never been more afraid in my life, but now that wasn’t true. I was more afraid at this moment. He was pulling away from me, and I could feel it. He blamed himself for not protecting Gene and me. It hadn’t been Smoke’s job to look after me, but it had been with Gene. If I were in his shoes, I’d be retreating too. The difference was, I’d disappear into myself professionally. Smoke was pulling away on a personal level too. I knew exactly how he saw this playing out, and I had no intention of letting him.

  It didn’t matter what it took. I wasn’t about to watch Smoke walk out of my life. I’d do whatever I had to, to make sure he stayed in it.

  When Hughes and I finished assessing IMI’s agent list, I looked around for Smoke. I found him back in the bedroom we’d been in, sitting on the edge of the bed, staring out the window.

  “I need to go and get the box,” I said, sitting beside him. “I want you to come with me.”

  Smoke’s eyes met mine. “That isn’t a good idea.”

  I nodded. “I’ll wait until you’re ready, then.”

  “Don’t, Siren.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t try to make this better for me. It isn’t going to work. As soon as I’m no longer needed here, I’m taking leave and going home.”

  “I see.”

  “It’s for the best, and we both know it.”

  “You wouldn’t let me get away with this shit.”

  He didn’t respond, so I stood.

  “Smoke, you wouldn’t let me get away with this shit.” This time I shouted it at him.

  “Stop it.”

  “The feckin’ hell I will.”

  “You’re outta your league, little girl. I got years on you, and I’m telling you to stand the fuck down.”

  “Kiddo, little girl—you don’t think I see what you’re doing? You think you can put me in my place? You think you can make me feel inferior because of my lack of experience compared to yours? You’re dead wrong, arsehole.”

  Smoke stood, picked me up by the waist, moved me out of his way, and stalked out of the bedroom. I stayed right on his heels. Before we got more than a couple of steps down the hallway, he spun around on me and pointed his finger in my face. “Leave me the fuck alone,” he seethed.

  I had no intention of backing down and got right back in his face. “Never.” I saw Decker approach from behind Smoke and shook my head. Casper was right behind him. “Stay out of this, the both of you. This is between Smoke and me.” My eyes met Casper’s; she smiled and nodded in what I could only assume was support. I turned my attention back to the man I loved. “If I screwed up, would you walk away from me?” I asked, keeping my voice soft. “Would you let me go if I felt like I needed to run away?” I took a deep breath. “Would you stop loving me, Smoke?”

  His eyes bored into mine.

  “Answer me, Smoke. Would you stop loving me?”

  It took a long while before he responded, and even then, he didn’t speak. His head moved from side to side, barely detectable.

  “You wouldn’t,” I said for him. “I won’t either.” I took his han
d and led him back into the bedroom, thankful he didn’t resist. I closed the door behind us. I took another deep breath, knowing the ultimatum I was about to issue may end things between Smoke and me forever, but I had to do it.

  “This is it, Smoke. Right here, right now. Either we’re together or we’re not. If we’re together, it’s forever.”

  The glimmer of a smile I saw in his eyes gave me hope.

  “Answer me, dammit.”

  “I didn’t hear a question.”

  “All right, then. You want it phrased as a question? Fine. I can do that. Broderick Smoke Torcher, will you marry me?”

  His eyes opened wide. “Marry you?”

  “That’s right. Marry me. In sickness and in health. ’Til death do us part. All that jazz.”

  “When you put it like that…”

  I gritted my teeth. “Yes or no, Smoke. Will you marry me?” He cupped my cheek with his palm, and I leaned into his hand. “Please say yes, Smoke.”

  “Yes, Siobhan Siren Gallagher, soon to be Torcher. I will marry you.”

  My eyes filled with tears as I pushed away the ramifications of what we’d both just said. I hadn’t thought about anything other than spending the rest of my life with the man I loved, and that was exactly how it should be. We’d figure everything else out. Our jobs. Where we lived. None of that mattered compared to having Smoke in my life forever.

  He brushed my tears away with this thumb and my lips with his. “You sure about this?” he asked, his forehead resting against mine.

  “The only thing I’ve ever been as sure of was when I woke up in the hospital in London, looked into your eyes, and knew in my heart that I loved you and you loved me.”

  35

  Smoke

  Married. Siren and I were getting married. Instead of thinking it was ridiculous or even being terrified by it, it felt right. More right than anything in my life up to this point. And while it had been a spur of the moment, fueled by the harrowing experience we’d shared, I knew, like she did, that it was real.

  I smiled to myself, thinking that no proposal in the history of the universe could have been more appropriate for Siren and me. Of course she was the one to ask me. It was the way it was supposed to be. I would’ve wanted to marry her. There would’ve come a time I admitted it to myself, but it would have taken months, maybe even years, until I stopped trying to talk myself out of believing she’d want the same thing.

  I let her lead me by the hand out to where Decker, Casper, Hughes, and Uncle Gene waited.

  “We’re getting married,” Siren announced like she might have if she’d told them we were going out for lunch.

  I looked at Casper and watched as her smiling eyes filled with tears. I dropped Siren’s hand and walked over to her.

  “Congratulations,” she whispered, hugging me. “I would’ve had to kick your ass if you screwed things up with her.”

  “She’d never let me.”

  Casper laughed. “I believe it.”

  I turned around and saw Hughes hugging my future wife and knew he was as happy for us as Casper was.

  “Hey, Gene,” I said, resting my hand on his shoulder. He looked stunned. “You okay?”

  He smiled. “You’re a lucky man.”

  I nodded. “The luckiest.”

  “She reminds me of my Janie. She was incandescent. Her passion, white-hot.”

  Decker approached and shook my hand. “The timing is fuckin’ crazy, but the announcement is a truly happy one.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered, smiling when Siren put her arm through Deck’s.

  “When you tell this story, Ashford, and I know you will, be sure to get it right. I was the one who proposed.”

  “I’ll remind you two wacky lovebirds that we have a mission to wrap up.”

  “Smoke? Will you come with me?”

  There was a knock at the door, and Hughes answered. When he closed it behind him, he had a box in his hand. “Is this what you’re off after?”

  Siren nodded.

  “I had one of my guys swing by and get it since it seemed for a while we’d never get the two of you out of the bedroom.” Hughes stepped closer and handed it to her.

  “I don’t have the key,” she murmured.

  “May I?”

  She looked at me with scrunched eyes. “Sure.”

  I took the box from her hands, gripped the tiny padlock, and ripped it off.

  “If that wasn’t the sexiest thing ever,” she murmured only loud enough for me to hear. “I feel like proposing all over again.”

  “Do you want some privacy?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Not from you.”

  “If you’ll excuse us,” I said to the others in the room as I led her down the hallway and back into the bedroom. She sat on the edge of the bed and rested both her hands on top of the box.

  “I feel as though it holds the secret of life or something.” She laughed. “Am I being too dramatic?”

  I put my hand on top of hers. “Whatever is inside, is something your mother wanted you to have.”

  “But, Byrne. Why did he want it?”

  “You heard him say that you’re just like your father. Maybe you’ll find what he meant.”

  “He did say that, didn’t he?”

  “Go ahead, Siren. Open it.”

  * * *

  “Oh my God,” she gasped, taking the contents out of the first envelope. “Guerin wasn’t investigating the drug gangs as much as she was IMI.” I waited as she continued reading. She gasped again and handed the paper to me, pointing at a name on the page. “Brendan O’Connor. That’s my father.”

  I read what she had. “This says that your dad was part of the task force investigating corruption in Irish Military Intelligence.”

  “They had proof,” she said, reading what was in the second envelope. “Guerin was working on an exposé at the time of her death. Several members of that task force were also killed that same week.” Siren kept reading and then looked up at me. “But not all. According to this, there were other agents who went unidentified. Three are named here.”

  “That’s what Byrne was after. Tying up loose ends.”

  Siren shook her head. “It’s been twenty-six years. Why haven’t they come forward?”

  I skimmed that page when she handed it to me. I recognized one of the names—Pierre Martin, Collete and Emelie’s father. “Because they’re dead.”

  “If that’s the case, why did Byrne want to get his hands on this?”

  “Because he had no way of knowing whether anyone else was identified.”

  Siren and I slowly went through the contents of the box. There was nothing contained within it that pointed to Byrne, Antonov, or Kim working together or with the disgraced and imprisoned former CIA director.

  It would be a blow to Cope when I informed Doc Butler of such. However, I knew the guy well enough to know there was no way he’d let this matter drop, and neither would Doc. We owed it to the agents who’d lost their lives protecting ours, to avenge their deaths by holding those responsible, accountable.

  “What’s that?” I asked when Siren pulled out a smaller envelope. Inside was a single folded piece of paper, and what was on it had been handwritten.

  “My dearest Aileen,” Siren began. “That was my mother’s name.” As she continued reading, tears fell from her eyes. “He loved her so much.” Siren brushed away her tears and laughed. “Even though, most of the time, he wanted to wring her neck.” She looked up at me. “Where have I heard that before?”

  I watched the expressions on her face change as she continued to read, in awe. Not just of her beauty, but of her bravery and resilience, her tenacity, and her strength.

  “His mother’s name was Siobhan.”

  “Your grandmother.”

  “My grandmother.”

  Epilogue

  Smoke

  “What do you think?” I asked as I watched Siren read through the two proposals she’d received.

  �
��I’ve never worked with Doc Butler or anyone from the K19 team,” she said.

  “They’re good people.”

  “Does that mean you’d rather work for them?”

  I smiled and shook my head.

  “I think, at the minimum, I should meet them.” Siren’s eyes opened wide, and she looked into mine. “Wait. Fatale is Doc’s wife?”

  “She is.”

  “I just got chills. God, she’s incredible. I mean, I don’t know of any female agent in the UK who didn’t want to follow in her footsteps. Most of the men, too.”

  “She was one of MI6’s best.”

  Siren turned her head and looked out the plane’s window. “And yet, she gave it all up for love.”

  “MI6, yes, but she is K19’s managing partner.”

  “It’s so beautiful,” Siren murmured, looking down at the mountain range I’d called home all my life. I leaned over and looked at the same view she was.

  “No regrets about selling your house in Dublin?”

  She turned and kissed me. “None.”

  I pointed to the papers she held in her hand. “They’re both generous offers.”

  “Come on, Smoke. Just tell me who you want to work for. K19 Security Solutions or the Invincibles?”

  “I told you, it’s your decision.”

  “That’s hardly fair.” She folded her arms and pouted.

  “We could always stay independent.”

  She tapped her lower lip. “We could do. But then, what if neither of them gives us any assignments?”

  “I can think of plenty to fill our time.”

  “At the ranch?”

  “Just in our bedroom.”

  “Will there be all-night vigilante rides when we get home?” she asked.

  I cocked my head.

  “The cattle rustlers.”

  “Thankfully, no. Decker’s security system not only stopped them from getting on our ranch, but through the facial-recognition software built into it, there were enough arrests to take most of that group down.”