Savage curses under his breath. “This means nothing,” he says, turning around, his hands settling on his hips. “I was just staying alive.”
Adam ignores him. “I took a life-threatening bullet. Savage operated on me while firing on the enemy. He saved my fucking life and saved the woman. He took me home to New York, met my boss, and we recruited him away from the bastard he was working for. That was the closest to dead I’ve ever been.” He points at Savage. “That bastard there saved me. He’s a hell of a surgeon and warrior. And he’s my fucking friend.”
Rick runs his hand over his head and eyes the ceiling with such intensity it seems like he’s studying a hole that isn’t there. Meanwhile, I still feel like shit. If Rick’s a good, honorable man, why push me away for reasons aside from just not wanting me or us?
“Are you here to kill Gabriel, Savage?” I can’t call him Rick. We’re clearly beyond that. I’m like everyone else now. And everyone else calls him Savage.
His hands go back to his hips. “I didn’t lie to you. I came for you.”
I stand up and face him. “You didn’t come for me. Why are you here?”
“Tell her,” Adam orders. Rick doesn’t speak and Adam adds, “He not lying. He came for you.” He eyes Rick. “I know this is the part you don’t want to tell her, but you have to tell her. Tell her.”
My heart starts to race. “Tell me what?”
Rick grimaces. Adam grimaces. “I’ll tell her,” Adam says. “He was a Beret and not just any Beret.”
“That has nothing to do with why I’m here,” Rick snaps.
“It has everything to do with why you came. She needs the history. And holy hell man. Stop playing the martyr. That’s not you. You own who you are. You tell the world to fuck off all the damn time. Why can’t you tell her who you are? She needs to know. She needs to trust you. She deserves that comfort right now. Even Asher hated you until he knew your story.”
“Asher and I are more complicated than that and you know it.”
“Because he thought he knew who, and what, you were,” Adam snaps before fixing me in a stare. “They pulled him into a special unit, finished his surgical training and then took all of that skill and did a shitty thing. They made him an assassin for a black ops operation.”
I glance at Rick. “That’s how it happened?”
His jaw clenches. “Yes.”
I want to ask when he decided to send me that letter but I settle on, “Then how did you end up a mercenary?”
“New president,” he says, surprising me by actually answering. “The program funding was officially killed. Unofficially, it continued.”
Adam jumps in again. “Someone he respected and trusted asked him to join the mercenary operation to keep it going the right way.”
My eyes go wide and shoot to Rick. “Did you? Did it?”
“I didn’t have any control,” Rick says. “After enough kills, I drank my way through the rest of those years.”
“Which is how we ended up here,” Smith says. “Or that’s what I hear.”
My brow furrows. “I don’t understand. What does that mean?”
Rick scowls in Smith’s direction and then looks at me. “I put you at risk.”
“I don’t understand. How?”
“Vodka was my friend when I was working for Tag. He’s the head of Dark Zone, the mercenary operation. I said some things.”
“He talked about loving you and losing you,” Adam supplies. “He’s good at that. He drinks vodka. He talks about you. The next morning, he doesn’t remember anything but you. You don’t talk about what you love to a man like Tag. Savage gave Tag his weakness, which is you.”
My gaze shoots to Rick. “Is that true?”
“It’s true,” he confirms. “I fucked up.”
He fucked up, but he loves me. He’s always loved me. I’m ridiculously relieved by this considering where we were last night and where we seem to be headed.
“Tag came to see me in New York,” Rick explains. “He told me I owed him a favor. He’s right. I do. In mercenary language, that’s nothing you ignore. It’s a blood oath. You pay up or you, and those you love, get hunted.”
Understanding hits me. “You came for me, to keep me from being hunted.”
“Yes. One more kill and I’m free of him. He told me I’d enjoy this one, too, but didn’t give me the name. And then he told me to come here and wait for details. I knew the location wasn’t a coincidence.”
Smith interjects there. “We have reason to believe that Gabriel was a part of the black ops operation Rick was working for. And while he was CIA despite many of those operations being conducted on US soil.”
“And it’s illegal for the CIA to operate on US soil,” I say. “Maybe my father found out what he did. Maybe Gabriel sees him as a threat to his presidency.” I look at Rick. “You know, too. What if Gabriel hired Tag? What if they want you to kill Gabriel before he kills you?”