The Redemption Lie

by Amanda J. Clay

  Nina breathed in and out, the mere sound of his voice sent her stomach turning, her mind reeling. She started to rise.

  “Nina, don't. Don't react,” Beck said, pulling her back down.

  “Nina,” Luther kept on. “No more shooting okay? Let’s just talk like civilized humans. Haven’t we had enough violence?”

  “I thought violence was the only way you knew how to talk?” Nina shouted over the bike. “When things don't go your way you just put a bullet in them.”

  Luther laughed, a mechanical robotic laugh. “I know I don't always practice what I preach. But right now, I want us all to just talk it through.”

  “You planning on surrendering?” Beck said.

  “No, not today Captain America. But maybe there's a solution where we all get out alive. That sure sounds a lot better to me than us all going to the grave needlessly, wouldn’t you agree?” Luther said.

  Nina saw the consideration in Beck’s eyes. It was easy to forget how convincing Luther could be. Spend five minutes in a room with him and it was like he had manipulative brain powers.

  “What do we do?” Nina whispered.

  “I guess we talk to him,” Beck said.

  “Are you fucking crazy? You get up and he’ll put a bullet in your brain.”

  “It’s worth trying. I don’t want to kill anyone else.”

  Nina started to protest, but Beck made a move to stand.

  “I am standing up,” Beck said.

  Nina shouted, “If you hurt him I’ll shoot out your kneecaps.”

  Luther laughed. “I won’t shoot you, Captain America. Here, in good faith I'll even throw my gun down.” A gun slid in the dirt toward them.

  Beck gave Nina a regretful look and then popped up. He kept his gun in hand.

  “That's more like it,” Luther said. “Now how about you put that gun down and we talk about this?”

  Nina popped up enough to peer over the bike at the scene.

  “There's nothing to talk about, Kavka. You're under arrest,” Beck said.

  “For what?” Luther said innocently.

  “Take your pick, sweetheart. Drug trafficking, money-laundering, kidnapping, assaulting an officer, resisting arrest.”

  “You make me sound downright dangerous,” Luther said.

  Nina’s heart was racing. Luther was being too calm, too nice. It wouldn’t last. She knew there was only a matter of moments before she heard the finality of Beck’s body falling to the ground.

  She jumped up and pointed her gun at Luther.

  Luther’s eyes locked on hers. Everything I’ve done for you… she could hear his thoughts.

  Everything you’ve done to me, she wanted to shout. But he’d let her live. He could have killed her 100 times over and he’d let her live.

  He deserved to die. He needed to die.

  But not by her hand.

  She swallowed. The gun burned in her hand.

  A tear trickled down her cheek as she pulled the trigger and fired into his shoulder.

  Luther stumbled back, silently, and collapsed into the water.

  Nina lowered the gun, breathing in and out, choking back dry harsh tears. Everything came over her, crashing over her body in waves of emotion and adrenaline. The adrenaline rushed out of her and suddenly she felt too heavy for herself. Her bones could no longer support her. Her lungs could no longer support her breath, and her heart slowed to a slow rolling beat. She fell back, and felt arms behind her. Beck caught her and held her up. She fell into him, finding comfort there. He pulled her tight, pressing her into his chest. He pressed his cheek to hers. Nina closed her eyes and let herself finally let go. It was over. Luther's hold on her was forever severed. She could finally get on with the rest of her life.

  Chapter 46

  Nina ran to the shore where the body was being pulled out by the freshwater tide.

  “Nina! Be careful,” Beck said.

  Nina turned around and nodded. “I just have to be sure. There's no way he's evading death this time.”

  She needed to see the cadence of breath on the night to know that he lived on.

  She watched as Luther’s limp body drifted out into the dark water, the stars glittering platinum against its inky surface. She felt darkness, cold, like she was falling into a cavern. She felt like a piece of herself was being ripped from her. Finally, after all this time, the connection she had with Luther had been severed. When he died before, her heart had broken, but there was always this part of her that still felt connected to him. It still felt like they had something left between them.

  And now she understood. She had paid her debt back to him, given him life. Now she could finally be free.

  She looked back to Beck. “Now I'm sure.”

  

  Nina and Beck sat back at the precinct sipping cheap coffee in Martinez’s office and trying to process. She was shivering, shaking, numb all at once.

  “Are you going to be okay?” Beck asked.

  Nina met his eyes. “What you mean?” The words sounded dry and emotionless to her ears.

  “As much as I don't want to admit this, I know that Luther meant something to you. I don't fully understand it, but I do know that while you might have hated him, there was part of you that loved him.”

  Nina's body shook and she felt the chill to the base of her spine just thinking about it.

  “I did love him. It's hard to explain. I know from the outside it must seem insane. But you have to understand that I fell in love with Luther at a very impressionable age. He showed me the world, we had something, we shared something. And I know at the end of the day it was dark and dangerous and unhealthy, but that’s how love is sometimes, right?

  Beck nodded. “I understand that. I don't blame you. And I want to help you through this. I want to help you grieve.”

  Nina met his eyes. “Why would you want to do that?”

  Beck smiled a little, his full lips turning up at the corners. He stepped closer took her hand. He pressed her hands to his lips.

  “Because the sooner you move past his loss, the sooner we might be able to move forward.”

  Nina dropped his hands and turned away. “I don't think you know what you’re asking for, Beck.”

  “I'm not asking anything of you. I'm just telling you what I think.”

  “I'm just a broken thing. Beyond redemption.”

  “We’re all broken, Nina. And no one is beyond redemption. Especially not you.”

  Footsteps pulled their attention away. They looked up to see Martinez coming into the room.

  “I should fire your ass. I knew you were god damn lying,” Martinez said in a grumble. He looked to Nina. “And I should, I don't know, throw your skinny ass in jail.”

  “On what charge?” Nina said, folding her arms over her chest and cocking her head. She fought the urge to smile.

  Martinez twisted his mouth. “I'm sure you did something illegal as fuck out there.”

  Nina couldn’t resist and burst into laughter.

  Beck put an arm on her shoulder.

  “I don’t know, sir, what about some kind of accolade? Maybe buy us both a drink.” Beck said.

  Martinez snorted but finally his somber expression faded into a smile. “You guys are so damn lucky, you know that? I mean you broke every fucking rule, went against every protocol and could have gotten both of your asses killed. But the end result is we got our man, arrested half a dozen more and you’re both alive.”

  “Did you…find him?” Nina said.

  “We’re dragging the lake, but you both saw him go down right?” Martinez said.

  “She made a clean shot, sir. He’s gone,” Beck said.

  Nina shifted nervously but kept her expression tight.

  “Nina, you would've made one hell of a cop,” Martinez said.

  “I don’t know, sir. I think you and I are on the opposite sides.”

  “Maybe you’d consider switching.”

  Nina snorted a laugh. “You offering m
e a job?”

  “Even if I could, I can’t imagine you’d take it.”

  Nina smiled but shook her head. “Afraid not. I have my own way of giving back. I've got a restaurant to run.”

  Martinez pulled a bottle of scotch from his desk drawer and filled up three glasses.

  “I do think I at least can offer you that drink.”

  

  “I don't know where we go from here,” Nina said as Beck walked her to his truck once they’d been given the clearance to go home and sleep. "It's strange now, it all being behind us, surreal.”

  “I guess move forward.” Beck shrugged slightly. “Maybe we can try moving forward together.”

  “Beck, please don’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because nothing can ever come of this. You can’t date an ex-criminal.”

  “I can date whoever I want, Nina. The agency doesn't own me. As much as they’d like to think they do.”

  “You and I both know that’s not true.”

  “Then we’ll keep it a secret.”

  “I spend my life around ex-criminals. You really want to be associated with that lot?”

  “Nina, you spend your life helping people get back on their feet. You're attacking the problem just like we are, only from a different angle. And who knows, maybe we can help each other. Maybe the world just might be better for it.”

  “How are you such an optimist after everything?”

  Beck shrugged. “Pessimism is pretty heavy to carry around.”

  They reached his truck.

  “C’mon, Nina. Don’t turn your back on this.”

  “It’s risking everything,” Nina said.

  Beck smiled and brushed a lock of hair from her eyes. “Worth it. Hearts have been broken for less.”

  Nina realized then that Beck might just be the missing piece of her soul. The puzzle piece she’d been searching for to fill the dark void at her core; the answer to every question she didn’t know she was asking. It might all go down in a blaze in the end, but what was life without a little fire?

  She grinned and hopped into his truck. “Take me home.”

  Epilogue

  The buzz of the casinos rang in the background. The smells of sin and greed danced around them. Feinstein's tie felt too tight, felt like it was choking him. He wiped the sweat from his brow. Leksik Vahtra stared at him hard. Cold eyes. Cold like death. Empty.

  Luther had always been way too soft on that girl. Feinstein had known from the beginning that she was trouble. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the cunning cat would make her move. She would lie in the grass, watching her prey, just waiting for the right time to strike. Soon as her prey was vulnerable, as soon as it laid down for a nap or meal, her claws came out.

  Feinstein would not make that mistake. Feinstein couldn't afford to make that mistake. Luther had had an emotional investment in keeping her alive.

  Feinstein had no such emotional investment. And Leksik Vahtra, the reigning head of the Opik Estonian Crime Family, had zero interest in keeping Feinstein alive without purpose.

  Anyone who thought Luther was a cold psychopath had never met his uncle, Leksik. And the fact that he’d made a house call all the way from the Tallinn was not a good sign.

  “It's just a minor setback,” Feinstein said. He wasn't sure he believed his own words. He felt like he was standing on rapidly cracking thin ice.

  “Ve should ‘av never trusted him,” Leksik said. He spun his Montblanc pen around the desk.

  He glanced up at Feinstein. Feinstein's throat bobbed hard in his throat.

  “He had never given us any reason not to trust him, Leksik. Everything worked like clockwork. He was a professional. Always.”

  Leksik nodded slowly. He ran a tongue over his lips.

  “I don't doubt my nephew vas trustworthy. But his competence vas clearly lacking to be brought down by such amateurs. He had a weakness for zat girl.”

  “With all due respect sir, Nina Sullivan is no amateur. She’s smart. Fierce. I wouldn't underestimate her.”

  Leksik snorted. “You expect me to believe zat some two-bit criminal side piece is some threatening mastermind?”

  “I don't think that's what she aims to be, sir. But she's wickedly intelligent. And now she's got the DEA on her side.”

  “I see,” Leksik said. He clicked his tongue a few times.

  “Ve have our own special way of dealing with particular threats such deez.”

  Feinstein nodded. “I understand.”

  “How much did this whole mess cost us?” Leksik said.

  Feinstein paled. He shifted uncomfortably.

  “Something tells me I do not want to hear dis number.”

  Feinstein's forehead was sweating. He pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed the sheen away. Finally he cleared his throat and said, “Close to 10 million.”

  Leksik’s face fell into stone cold hardness.

  He looked at Feinstein directly. “Bring me her eyeballs.”

  The End of Book 1

  Thank you for reading The Redemption Lie!

  Stay tuned for All That Glitters, Nina Sullivan Book 2, coming soon.

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  Acknowledgments

  To Thomas, for helping me through this project from inception to finish.

  I couldn’t do it without you.

  A big thank you to my fabulous team! My editors Becca Hensley Mysoor and Katrina Fair, my cover designers Peter and Caroline O’Connor, and the entire team at Florence & Reynolds.

  About the Author

  Amanda J. Clay is a California native, currently residing in Denver, CO. When she’s not creating fiction, she spends her free time plotting world adventures.

  Do you have thoughts or questions about The Redemption Lie? I’d LOVE to hear from you! amandajclaybooks@gmail.com.

  Connect with me on Facebook or at amandajclay.com.

  Bibliography

  Also by Amanda J. Clay

  Rebel Song Series

  Rebel Song

  Rebel Rising

  Rebel Fire

  Stand Alone

  Lies in the Darkness

  Hollowbrook Haunting: A Gothic Novella

  Copyright @ 2018 Amanda J. Clay

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination.

  Book design by Bespoke Cover Designs

  First printing edition 2018.

  Florence & Reynolds Publishing