Waverly.
My best friend was planted firmly in the middle of an epic shitstorm and I’d left her there to deal with the fallout. I was an asshole––no––I was a fucking asshole, on so many different fronts. More than once, I was tempted to turn around. Then I thought about everything I missed, like watching Sloane’s belly expand as our babies grew, or holding her hand while she brought them into the world. Moments I’d never get back. Memories I’d never have because of one man’s lies.
My grip tightened around the steering wheel when the phone rang again. Only that time I answered, asking the onequestion burning a hole in my gut since I took off like a bat out of hell.
“Is Sloane okay?”
“She’s in shock. What about you? Where’s your head at, D?”
Fucked.Vacillating between disbelief, joy, and pissed off, giving me a severe case of emotional whiplash. But I didn’t say any of that.
“If this is a dream, I don’t ever want to wake up.”
“It’s real.They’rereal.”
“Thank fuck.”
“Which is why you should be here with them instead of wherever the hell you are.”
“You don’t understand, Way.”
“Then explain it to me, Duncan.” She sighed heavily. “It’s time to exorcize those demons you’ve been battling since the day I met you.”
“How?”
”Let me in.”
So I did. For the next thirty minutes, I told her everything, starting with the investigation into Murray and how it led to meeting Sloane. Through it all, Waverly remained silent, letting the story tumble from my lips. Reliving the memories, knowing the outcome was not the one I’d been led to believe, was almost cathartic in a way. At least until I got to the crash. The pop. The flash. The sick feeling when the car left the ground. My hand automatically went to the area right below my heart, rubbing across the gnarly scar where a piece of shrapnel had lodged itself deep enough to puncture a lung. Breathing had hurt for weeks afterward. Even now, the ache remained, like an echo from the past.
“We hit an IED in the middle of the road.”
“Jesus.” Waverly muttered.
“I’ve never thought about it before, but someone had to have been following us, reporting our location to another person up ahead. Otherwise, any car traveling up the mountain before us would’ve met the same fate.”
“Makes sense,” she added.
“At some point, I passed out. When I came to, we were upside down. Sloane was unconscious and bleeding pretty badly from her head. I didn’t want to move her, but the car caught on fire. The last thing I remember was carrying her out of the wreckage.”
“The last thing you remember?” Confusion was evident in the way she posed the question.
“One minute I was there, the next, it was days later in the hospital. There’s nothing other than a black haze where my memories should be. All these years, I assumed my mind blocked out the trauma of Sloane’s death, except…”
“She’s very much alive.” There was a brief moment of silence, then a muffled curse as Waverly put the pieces together. “Who told you she died in the accident?”
“Niall.” My jaw clenched hard enough to crack. “My handler. Back then, he was with the Irish national police. Since he called tonight with information about my old case, I assume he still is.”
I’m sure Niall thought he could spark my interest, maybe even lure me back into the fold by dangling the ultimate carrot in front of my face. Revenge. What he did not expect was for me to hang up on him midway through his lame-ass pitch.
“Whoa, hold up. My head is spinning.”
“Now you know how I feel.”
“First off, why the hell would he lie to you?”
“I’ll let you know when I find out.”
He’d betrayed my trust in the worst way imaginable.Finding out why was only part of the reason for my hasty departure. I needed to know if I was in danger. Rogan James had been ousted as an undercover agent, but what about Duncan Palmer? Were Sloane and the kids safe? I’d have a better idea in a few more hours, if I was lucky.