The corner of Marco’s mouth ticked up and she felt a small glimmer of hope. “Seeing as it takes intimidating the shit out of you to get you talking, I’m not about to throw away this chance.” He cocked his head to the side. “Did you do as they asked and become an assassin?”
Cam blinked. No one had bothered to ask her that question before. “The Fed League didn’t allow choice. You either did what they wanted, or they found a way to make you do it.”
“And what did they have to do with you, Camilla?”
She forced her voice not to waiver at the memory. “I told them I wasn’t interested, but once they took Adella, my cousin-slash-adopted-sister, and started cutting her in front of me, I had no choice but to do what they asked.”
Chapter Fifteen
When Cam’s voice cracked, something tugged at Marco’s heart, prodding him to reach out and comfort her. While he was hurting from the death of his cousin, he could only imagine how much worse it would be if something had happened to one of his sisters.
He stood up straight and removed his hands from the wall, but just as he was about to cup her cheek, he remembered Cam’s words from inside the bar.
Your touch disgusts me.
Marco forced his hands down and took a step back. Touching Cam would probably break the spell of honesty they were having, and he wanted to know more. “Did you kill for them, Camilla?”
She cleared her throat. “Based on my reputation, I’m surprised you’d even bother to ask that.”
It seemed that he wasn’t the only one who hid behind a reputation. “I don’t give a fuck what everyone else says. I want to hear the story from you.”
Cam searched his eyes for what seemed like forever before she said, “On one condition.”
Of course, the woman would bargain. “Shoot.”
Cam put one hand on her waist and pointed a finger at him. “From here on out, I’ll only work with the real you. If you use that damn man-whore routine with me again, apart from when you need it for a cover ID, I won’t hesitate to use my claws instead of my knee next time. Understood?”
His lips raised in a smile even as warning bells went off in his head. Never let people close enough to discover the truth. His grandfather had drilled those words into his head, over and over again. But he knew someone like Cam could keep his secret when she found out.
When? No, it should be “if.”
Trying not to focus on the slip, Marco said, “And I expect the same from you. No more overkill-mode Cam.”
Judging by the look on her face, she hadn’t expected that.
She nodded. “Fine.” She lowered her finger and said, “To answer your question, no, I didn’t kill for the Fed League. I chickened out on my first assignment.”
Even now, Cam remembered that day. She’d had her rifle out and in position, but as soon as her targets—a pregnant Feiru woman and her two children—had come into view, Cam had questioned the sincerity of the Fed League’s goals. The children had been targeted because of their father. Yet killing them would’ve done nothing to change the AMT system.
In the end, Cam had put away her gun and run.
Her only mistake had been running to Richard.
“Camilla.”
&
nbsp; She looked up, unaware that she’d been staring at the floor. Once her eyes met Marco’s, he continued. “Since you’re standing in front of me, I know you eventually got out. So what does Ekstrom want with you now?”
Good question. “All I know is that he’s not hunting me down because of lingering feelings. If he wants me, there’s a reason behind it.”
Her best guess was that Richard needed her sharpshooting skills. She didn’t want to think of the alternative—that he’d learned of her latent abilities.
She needed to finish her assignment in Merida and give Richard the slip. Once she was back at DEFEND’s headquarters, there were resources she could use to research the man who’d played such a big part in her past. She knew he’d disappeared a few years ago, and that worried her. Cam knew from working for DEFEND that when people went to such extreme lengths to not be found, it was usually because of some serious skeletons in that person’s closet.
Regardless of what they were, she just finally wanted to put that aspect of her past behind her.
She took one step and then another, until she was standing next to Marco. “We can worry about Richard later. Right now, I need to head back to Santa Lucia Park.” She raised an eyebrow in question. “Are you going to help me?”