Wasted Lust - JA Huss Page 0,47
throat, chop to the back of the neck, leg sweep, stomach kick, face kick, run.
“We’re at a private airstrip in Nebraska. And you’re perfectly safe.”
“Then why lie?” I take my phone out and pull up my map app. It pings my location and places a pin in north central Nebraska.
“Because I had a suspicion about you and a pilot who worked for your friend James. And now I know that suspicion was true.”
I whirl around, breaking his grip on me. “What the hell kind of game are you playing? And why do you need to know about that pilot? He’s a good man, Jax. He saved my ass a few times over the years. And if you’re just using me to arrest people—”
“Calm down, killer.” Jax says it with a smile, but I don’t smile back. “I’m just—” He takes a deep breath. “I’m just piecing together your life, that’s all. I’ve been trying to figure it out for months. I’ve been looking for someone like you for years. Someone who could help me fill in the missing parts of my own life. And then one day, there you were in my case file. There wasn’t a whole lot in there except for the massacre that happened in Santa Barbara. At least the sterilized version of it. But your friend’s names were in that file. Bits and pieces of that plan you put in motion to kill off the Company were in that file. And I had some lingering questions about how you and your friends got from place to place back in those early days.”
“So you baited me? To get me to spill info about that pilot. Why?”
His smile falters and he takes a step closer to me, reaching for my elbow. I pull it away. He doesn’t deserve my trust right now. “I just need to know, that’s all. I need all the pieces of the puzzle to fit together.”
“Why?” I demand again.
He stares at me for a few moments. Silent. Like he’s thinking pretty hard about the conversation we’re having. How it might turn out, how it might turn against him if he says the wrong thing. “Because,” he finally says with a sigh, “your aunt got word that you were killed. That some assassin shot you in the chest and you fell off a boat in Newport Beach harbor. She was told your body was never recovered. She was a mess for weeks until the final shootout in Santa Barbara revealed you were still alive. But then there was another report. This time your body surfaced in Mexico. She was distressed again. All these years she’s been beating herself up for not being there for you.”
“So you’ve been reporting to her for a decade? About me?” Jesus Christ, I feel sick. He’s been watching me.
“Yes.” He stops again, hesitating. “No. I mean, not exactly. This is all new to me too, Sasha. I’ve only been on the case a few months. It all came in the file the FBI has. But I need more so I’ve been hunting down clues and trying to fill in the blanks.”
“You have something personal against me, don’t you?”
“Not against you, Sasha. You’re taking this the wrong way.”
“How should I take it?” I snap. “You’re a spy. You’re an FBI agent. You’ve just admitted that the FBI has been hunting me for ten years. I want to know what you’re really doing. I want to know right now, Jax, or I won’t get in that car with you.”
“Sasha,” he pleads, “listen to me. I’m not here to hurt you. I told you that when you came home last summer. I’m after someone else.”
“Nick,” I say.
“Yes. No. Maybe. I’m not sure, OK? You haven’t told me anything. I can’t know which direction I need to go until I debrief you.”
“Debrief me? I don’t work for you!”
“Not yet,” he says, scrubbing his hand down his face with frustration. “I realize I said you have the option of walking away tomorrow, but I fully expect you to cooperate after you talk to your aunt.”
“Why? What’s she gonna tell me?” My head is throbbing again. All this information is too much right now. I put up my hand to ward off his words. “Don’t. Please. Just stop talking. I want to cut this date,” I seethe that word, “short. I want it to end right now. Take me back. I don’t want to meet that woman calling herself my aunt. I don’t want to do