Beneath the Secrets Part 3(17)

“Whitney,” she whispered.

“Yes.” He forced himself to look at her. “She was a new agent and scared, but brave. So damn brave. She’d seen the horror that was Alvarez and she wanted him to go down.” He leaned against the door. “Once she was inside the cartel, Alvarez was taken with her, too much so, and…I try not to think about what she might have done to stay alive.” He glanced up at the ceiling, thinking about how many times he’d lain awake wondering if Whitney was in Alvarez’s bed. “She traveled everywhere with him.” He drew a deep breath and leveled his gaze back on Kara to find tears streaming down her face. She knew what was coming. Of course she knew. “About six months into her cover, Whitney was sure she had something big that would take Alvarez down. I was meeting her to pick up the data, but we got word her cover was blown before I got here. I tried to call her and get her to run but she didn’t answer. I arrived at the hotel where we were meeting at and…and her throat was sliced and she was bleeding out. She…” He squeezed his eyes shut. “She died in my arms.”

“Oh God. I…” She moved across the seat and cradled his face in her hands. “I don’t know what to say. I know sorry doesn’t make it better. I know that so damn well.”

“Say you won’t go to this meeting. Say you’ll stay behind and you’ll let me handle this.”

“No,” she whispered. “No.” She shook her head. “I can’t do that, Blake. Remember. I have your back and you have mine.”

Emotion burned in his chest. “I didn’t have her back, Kara. I let her die. I let her live the hell of having her throat sliced open, and drowning in her own blood. I let that happen.”

“You didn’t let her die. She did her job. And you’re right. She was brave. And damn it, we’ll take down Alvarez. We will. We’ll let her rest in peace. But we have to do it together. We need each other.”

She was right. He needed her. That’s why this time, he really was going to make her hate him because he was going to do whatever it took to keep her off that boat.





Chapter Seven


With only an hour until they headed to the docks, Kara paced the new hotel room she and Blake had rented close to her apartment, waiting for his return. After seeing the girls off to the Oakland airport and New York, where Walker headquarters was, they’d both agreed they didn’t dare risk going back to her place, or his hotel—even for clothes. By the time they’d returned to San Francisco and shopped, it had been six o’clock, three hours until they were to meet at the docks. Blake had gone to meet Kyle and his brothers to show them certain surveillance points. She’d called him twice and he assured her he was headed back soon, but she was getting nervous. He’d been withdrawn ever since she’d insisted she had to go with him tonight. Had he left without her? Surely he knew she’d show up at nine at the docks on her own.

The door to the room jiggled and Kara rushed forward as Blake walked in, and she let out a breath of relief. He was still in jeans and a leather jacket. He hadn’t left without her. Kyle followed him in and her relief faded inside the crackling tension in the air.

“What’s wrong?” Kara asked.

Blake settled his hands on her arms. “Kyle’s going to stay with you while I go to the meeting.”

“What? No. I’m going.”

“No, Kara—you aren’t.” His hands came down on her shoulders, his brown eyes hard, determined.

She wet her lips, knowing two big men weren’t a battle she could fight. At least, not head on. A good agent—and she was a good agent—used smarts. “If you do this—”

“You’ll hate me,” he said. “I’d rather you hate me alive than bury you like I did Whitney.”

Like Whitney. A part of her softened. He cared about her. He was worried about her. But she cared about him too, and neither of them could survive his guilt and fear. He had to overcome it. She had to make him. She removed his hands from her shoulders. “Do what you have to do, Blake.”

His eyes narrowed. “That was easy.”

She glanced around him to Kyle, who had rubber cuffs in his hands. “I know when I’m beat. And I don’t need to be cuffed. I’ll stay.” Kara leaned in and kissed Blake. “And you stay alive, damn it.”

He molded her closer and kissed her deeply, passionately, and she tasted the bitterness of his guilt and his fear. “I will,” he promised. “For you, I will.” He turned and left and Kara stared after him.

“I guess that leaves you and me, darlin’,” Kyle teased.

“I guess it does, bubba,” she said thinking how bad she was going to feel in a couple of minutes. She liked Kyle and he was a good friend to Blake.

He grinned and sauntered into the room, sinking down into the desk chair and grabbing a room service menu. “I’m starving. You hungry?”

“Yes. I am.” Kara sat down on the bed and kicked off one shoe and then carefully removed the second where she’d hidden the secret weapon she’d gotten from an FBI lab. The same weapon she’d used to put Blake to sleep in Denver. “Anything good on the menu, or should we order pizza?”

He glanced down and she pulled off the sticker that exposed the sleeping drug, careful not to touch her own skin. “Looks good to me,” he said. “You want to take a look?”