Endgame

by Mia Downing

  Charlotte’s blood froze, her feet rooted to the spot by the frost coming out her shoes. No. “I want the name of the fucker who killed my baby. I was pregnant. Did John tell you that? Five months. I was barely showing.”

  Aaron breathed in sharply. She’d told him, though. But she guessed it made more of an impact with her gun pointed at this scum.

  “Don’t shoot me, but I knew.”

  Anger swirled, heated her skin, her muscles, her blood. Anger fired up the freight train and that was bad. Anger was bad when she held a gun, because that meant things usually went off before she got all the answers. “Who?”

  “August Winters. But he died in the explosion.”

  That should have made the anger pipe down, knowing the hit man was dead, but it only swirled faster. Harder. “He told me John was dead. Who ordered his hit?”

  “No one. John faked it. He faked everything, right down to your wedding—”

  “What?” she whispered. The gun wavered for the first time, shaking in her hands. Anger raced down a tunnel, the train gaining speed as everything she believed about her past began to disintegrate. “No.”

  “John didn’t marry you.”

  “No. Why?” She rubbed her left hand and remembered the ring was gone, just like the necklace he’d given her. She had woken without them, and her boys hadn’t known anything about her jewelry.

  “He wanted a submissive to brainwash, a hot courier to run his material and suck his cock on command, to fuck senseless at his sick parties. When you whined about commitment and threatened to leave, he staged a wedding.”

  Cold, hard, and mean didn’t feel, but right now, someone was taking a knife to her heart. She felt every slash. “But…why? Why not just marry me to begin with?”

  “Because he was already married. Where did you think he went on weekends, love? He went home. To fuck his wife.”

  He’d never divorced. So stupid, so stupid. Why didn’t she see it then? Because they had a pattern to their life from day one and she hadn’t found a reason to change it, even after he had said he’d gotten a divorce, had shown her the papers. He always went to the country on the weekends, and she liked the peace to regroup. She went home with him occasionally, but Reese had kept her busy so she couldn’t go often. Why didn’t she see? Because she was stupid, foolish in love.

  “But—”

  Reese laughed softly. “Oh, she knew. All about you. She wanted the money more than she wanted fidelity. John wanted…you. It was the perfect marriage.”

  She didn’t believe in God, but if he’d chosen right then to strike her dead, she would have been grateful. Her life, her job, her purpose, even her love for…that man. All a joke. Fake. A sham. She realized then her pregnancy had been doomed from the first division of cells, right after conception. John would have killed her and her child, even if she hadn’t wanted out.

  “Easy, baby,” Aaron whispered from her side. He didn’t touch her. Thank fuck. She would have shot him. But his voice anchored her to sanity as she fought the despair, the injustice.

  Then she focused on the man she’d kill after Reese—Chase. As bad as she hated John, she almost hated Chase more. John had destroyed everything, but Chase had been there to sort the pieces of the game. He had held her, comforted her, made her want to live again. Who knew the pieces he sorted would be ones that would come to suit his needs when he’d become her boss a year later?

  “How did you come to work for Chase?”

  “The American government knows a good thing when they see it. Chase wasn’t the one who took me on in the beginning, but he hasn’t given me the heave-ho, either. John went underground, and I turned traitor.”

  “Underground.” A sheen of cold sweat broke out over her body. She didn’t want to hear this, because this changed everything.

  “Meaning, cutting all ties and going where someone can’t find you.” Reese nodded, enunciating his words like he was talking to a small child.

  “He’s not dead.” Saying it didn’t make it any easier. The words rushed in her ears, everything moving so fast, when nothing was moving. Anger built, surging forward, upward, through her fingers, to the gun.

  “He’s quite alive. Only we don’t know where.”

  Alive. That was all her anger needed to hear. Charlotte raised the gun, shifted her shoulders, pointed it at Reese’s head, and fired.

  Chapter Twenty

  “No!” Aaron lunged and knocked Charlotte’s gun upward, deflecting the shot off the top of the bookcase instead of letting it hammer through Reese’s skull. He waited for the security guard to run down the hall but was met with silence except for the ringing in his ears. Charlotte stared at the gun, her hand shaking. She looked up at Aaron, her blue eyes cold yet feral. Wild. Uncomprehending.

  Mad. Not in the angry sense, either.

  Aaron swallowed down the bile, ignored the clenching in his chest around his heart. He wanted Sanders there to see what he’d done. To see her unraveled.

  “Easy, baby,” he whispered and put his arm around Charlotte’s tense shoulders. Carefully, because though she had to feel something for him, he doubted like hell she’d remember at this point. Even more carefully, he eased the gun from her hand. He couldn’t begin to imagine how much she hurt right now. “They want Reese alive.”

  That seemed to jostle her out of her mad state. She shook her head, as if to clear the cobwebs, her breath shallow. “On whose orders?” She snorted. “Sanders?”

  If she knew Chase wanted Reese alive, she’d kill him just because. So Aaron manned up and lied. “My orders. You can’t kill him. I won’t let you do that on my watch.” He didn’t want a dead body to deal with, never mind how much he’d have to pray to save her soul.

  Her eye narrowed. “Watch me.”

  “I won’t let you.” As if he could stop her. But if there was anything he’d learned about his Danger Girl, she had a deep-seated need to please. He took the chance and said, “This one lives, because I said so. You want to piss me off?”

  War waged behind her blue eyes as she stared him down. Aaron grew a bigger set of balls and glared back, though all he wanted to do was curl up in a very unmanly ball and beg. Her fists clenched, unclenched. Finally, she broke eye contact, dropping her gaze to the ground, giving him the power.

  He breathed a sigh of relief and tugged her to him, wrapping his arms around her shaking shoulders. Suddenly, he felt a hell of a lot more manly. He had the power, two guns, and Danger Girl at heel. No wonder why she’d wanted him submissive in his kitchen.

  “Good girl,” he whispered. “You finish up any questions.”

  “I was done asking when I pulled the trigger.”

  Who could argue with reasoning like that? He turned to the older gentleman, his leg bleeding all over the Oriental rug. “Reese? Anything you want to say to my girl?”

  Reese assessed Charlotte as he bunched his pant leg over the wound on his calf. “I’m sorry about the kid.”

  “Give me back the gun.” Charlotte went raging stiff in his arms. “Fuck that, I’ll use my hands.” She lunged. Aaron caught her in mid-spring, an arm around her waist as he dragged her away.

  “Let’s go. He’ll get his, later. We have bigger game out there.” He held her struggling body tight, angled her out the door first and turned. “Call him,” he mouthed, miming a phone to his ear, hoping Charlotte didn’t see. But the deal was Reese was to call Chase when they were done. Fucking assholes, both of them.

  Reese nodded.

  Aaron shut the door and tugged her down the hall, out the side door. “Where’s your car?”

  “Down that way.” She pointed the opposite way of his borrowed car.

  “Good.” He let her lead the way around the lawn in the shadows, through the woods. He held her hand and felt the tension drain from it, adrenaline leaving her weak and shaking a bit. Him, too. When they got there, Aaron took the keys. “I’ll drive. You’re wrecked.”

  “Left side,” Charlotte reminded him as she slid int
o the passenger side, which really should have been the driver’s side. He took his seat behind the wheel.

  “You okay?” He slid the keys home in the ignition and then turned to her. He had no clue where to even begin, what she’d need, how to console her. She stared straight ahead, her face pale in the moonlight, and his heart went out to her. She was one brave girl who was probably crying a bucketful on the inside. “Charlotte?”

  She blinked a few times, as if really seeing him for the first time that night. “How did you get here?”

  “I hotwired a car. I also knocked out some guy in the alley, but he was drunk, so I didn’t feel so bad.” He didn’t dare mention Chase’s name at that point, or the phone call. He was the only one here to kill.

  “So much for morals.”

  “I’ll pray a little extra.” For her, too. But she’d freak if he said that.

  Charlotte smiled sadly at him in the dim light of the moon. One of a teacher proud of her student’s deviant accomplishments. “You also broke into some guy’s house and kept him from getting killed. Better ante up a bit more.”

  “Hell of a night. Harder than a movie.” Way harder than any movie. He was glad he’d come, because he feared what would have happened if he didn’t. Reese would be dead. Charlotte was already a hot mess. How much more could she take? Fuck Chase.

  Charlotte sighed and surprised him by laying her head on his shoulder. A gentle action that spoke so much. She needed contact. Needed him. “I suppose you’ll want a blowjob for your excellence.”

  “Nope.”

  “No?” She craned her head, surprised and expectant.

  “Nope.” He got brave and took her hand. She didn’t protest, so he laced his fingers through hers and kissed the back of her glove. Then he went for ballsy brave. “I’m going to the South Pole until you come twice, screaming my name, and then I’m going to fuck you, hard. You want to suck me, fine. But I’m calling the shots. Tonight you get your four, baby, because you deserve something really good for putting up with this shit.”

  “Such language.” But she looked more…clear as she gave him the hint of a smile. Less in a stupor. More Charlotte than Danger Girl. “Why four and not a blowjob?”

  “Because I woke up and became an Anderson tonight. And Andersons call the shots. So I’m heading to the South Pole for a down and dirty exploration, then I’m going to fuck you across the international border. You thinking of revoking my passport?”

  That hint of a smile widened just a little, her lip crinkling with a hint of naughtiness. His Danger Girl had come back. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Mr. Gold.”

  ****

  If someone told Charlotte she was drowning, she’d believe them because that’s how she felt. She was underwater, her chest constricting, lungs aching, and she just wanted to die from the emotions raging inside her. Only she was in a hotel room in London, lying on a bed and watching Aaron wander around the room in just a towel. No water around unless she counted the shower he’d made her take. He hadn’t let her drown there, either.

  “I want to just kill Chase,” she finally whispered, more to herself than her prowling towel man. “One shot to the head. I’d have to be quick because he’s a much better shot.”

  “That’s it? One shot to the head.”

  “Dead is dead.”

  Aaron sat at the end of the bed next to her head. “And John?”

  “I want him dead, too. He killed my child. My life. I know I don’t have the whole picture of what he did, because I remember so little. I’m sure there’s more to hate him for. But he’s not the one who cobbled me back together only to drop me on the rocks to shatter.”

  She closed her eyes and tried to center herself, find the calm, but her heart still raced, her body numb, as if icy water had washed over her limbs, deadening them. “Is it stupid to hate the man who saved me to do his dirty work more than the man who ordered me dead? Or should I hate them equally? Or hate John more?”

  “I can’t tell you who to hate more or less. Just don’t hate me.”

  She narrowed her eyes on him, remembering his words from earlier. “You called Chase. With my phone, and probably used my laptop. That’s a lot of disobeying, punk.”

  He tentatively smoothed a lock of her hair from her face. Only Aaron was brave enough to touch her when she was mad. The boys would have avoided her like the plague.

  “Yeah, because I knew you were lying and you were going alone. I didn’t want you to die. I don’t have to follow the rules if you’re going to die.”

  “Said who?”

  “I crossed my fingers when I said I was going to listen. It made my promise null and void. It’s an Anderson thing.”

  “Christ on a motorbike.” She stared as he faked looking innocent, because really, what could she do?

  “You can’t kill me. I’m your partner,” he reminded her.

  “You are so childish I could scream.” And then she did and drummed her feet on the bed. “Childish, rotten punk,” she yelled and pounded her fist on the bed. Then she smacked the bed again, for good measure.

  “Feel better?” he asked when she finished.

  “You are a bad punk.” She glanced at him, sexy as hell as he sat next to her, the white of the towel accenting the golden hue of his skin. She banged her feet one last time, glad to feel the blood rushing through her veins again for the first time since she’d returned to the hotel. “No sex for you.”

  “I’ll change your mind,” he said with a cocky grin.

  “My God, do you live to piss me off?”

  “Actually, yes.” He shrugged. “Angry Charlotte is easier to deal with.”

  Angry Charlotte reminded her of the past, and of Chase. The anger in her simmered down and fizzled a bit. She sighed. “Chase told you all that. Everything that Reese told me.” It embarrassed her that Aaron knew first. “I feel so stupid. Here I am, rushing off to find out what the whole world knows.”

  “Don’t do this.” He tapped a finger over her lips to quiet her. “You’re smart and beautiful. These people have all manipulated you to believe what they wanted you to believe. They’ve made you what they need you to be, and now they feel it’s time you know the facts. Shitty of them, but this isn’t personal, so they say.”

  “He say anything different? Add anything?” She prayed to Jake’s God again, for the zillionth time that Chase had told Aaron a different story. That Chase hadn’t lied to her all of these years, hadn’t molded her to be a killer for his own needs. She’d been fine with changing for the revenge aspect, but wasn’t at all charmed to change to further his career.

  Aaron shook his head. “No.”

  She sighed, feeling so small and defeated. She wouldn’t tell Aaron, but she was glad he had showed up. He’d kept her from burning a bridge they might need again. He’d kept her sane.

  “You know I’m on your side, right?” he asked gently, as if talking to a small child. She felt like a small child, too, an orphaned thing left on the street that no one loved. Pathetic, but true. “No matter what, I’m here for you. My goal is for you to live through this. You know my other goals. They haven’t changed.”

  “I know.” She reached out and took his hand, squeezing it. Stupid man, still entertaining the notion they had a future. He didn’t get that her future narrowed down considerably now that she knew John was motherfucker number one. He’d wanted her dead before. He’d want to finish. That’s the kind of man he’d been, one to see things through to the end. She now understood why Chase had said this was a suicide mission from day one. “I need you to hug me.”

  Surprise lined his face, arched his brows over confused blue eyes. He lay down on the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her in a crushing bear hug. “How’s that?”

  “Oye, too much,” she squeaked. But it felt good to be loved at this moment, even if he would squish her to death. Chase didn’t love her, neither did John. They’d both used her for what they needed. John to run his empire, Chase to eventually destroy John, to mo
ve up the work ladder. Both paths ended up at her gravestone.

  “I didn’t realize how much I needed you here.” The words slipped out before she could stop them.

  His smile was sweet, as if she’d offered him something so special. “You need me. That’s a first.”

  “I’m human. I won’t lie. The idea of needing you scares me. I needed Chase after doomsday.” She shrugged, the sadness billowing up inside her chest. “If you understood how sad and angry I was then…to take someone that pitiful and turn them into me, a weapon…”

  She fought the sinking feeling, the despair, as if she were being swallowed whole again and only Aaron’s hand kept her above water. “He held me when I cried. He knew when I sobbed, I was crying for absolutely no reason. My whole life was fake. I was just a stupid girl, brainwashed by an evil man.”

  “You were justified to feel the way you did. It wasn’t for nothing. You lost everything, and maybe it wasn’t real on paper, but it was your life.” Aaron shifted to his side, his face inches from hers. “Maybe…maybe Chase didn’t want to add to the tears you already shed. Maybe that’s why he held you. Because he knew, and telling you wasn’t going to make it any better.”

  “Devil’s advocate. No sex.”

  “Baby, I hate the man. But he is my brother’s best friend and I find it hard to believe Jake would befriend someone stone-cold evil.”

  “You only know what Jake wants you to see. He can be just as emotionless as Chase. Just as cold.” And she wondered just how much Jake knew, too. She couldn’t go there, though.

  “Still.”

  She sighed and rolled onto her side. He slipped in behind her, his arm under her head, the other over his waist. She flinched. “Don’t hold me like that, okay? Not right now.”

  He flipped on his back and pulled her over so she could rest her head on his chest. “Better?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why can’t I hold you like that?”

  “That’s how Chase used to hold me and I’d cry.” Her tears hit his chest in hot splashes, pooling under her cheek.

  “I’m sorry.” Aaron held her tighter, hating the man who had failed Charlotte over the years. He still refused to lump his brother in there with the two of them. Jake wasn’t innocent, but he’d said in L.A. that Chase used him, too.