He teased his lips over hers. “Our genitals are having a play date.”
She bit his lower lip. He chuckled.
“I’m holing up for the winter.”
Snaking a hand between them, she squeezed a testicle.
“Okay … okay.” He flinched.
“Tell me what this is.”
Jackson planted soft kisses on her entire face then hovered over her lips. “I’m making love to you, Ryn. You’re the only woman I’ve made love to. And this? You? It’s my whole fucking world.”
Chapter Eighteen
Some things in life were too overwhelming—too big—to see from Earth. Jillian opened her eyes, feeling a world away from reality. Maybe it was the view from the other side. Her captor’s words broke the unbreakable.
Jessica had a long list of innocent victims, but only one man had she left with a broken nose, two missing teeth, three fractured ribs, and a punctured lung. And he wasn’t an innocent victim.
“I’m sorry.”
She jerked her head up, eyes wide. Across from her, bound and propped up against the opposing wall, was him.
“Fuck you.” She shook her head. It just couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be her reality.
“I loved her. I’ve loved her my whole life.”
Jillian coughed past the sandpaper feeling in her throat. “You’d better be referring to that psycho bitch, because if you’re talking about—”
“Sunny. I loved your mother.”
“Don’t you fucking say that!” She fought against her restraints, but they didn’t budge. Her heart tried to bust through her chest. Could a heart kill someone? Jillian felt certain hers could.
“I loved her before she met your father.”
“Stop! Just … stop.” Tears stung her eyes. They were filled with anger. She couldn’t imagine how many times her world could be shattered and pieced back together, just to have it blown up all over again.
“She loved me too.”
“She would never love you.” Her words sliced through the air. She wanted them to slice through his throat, gouge out his eyes, and rip his fucking heart from his soulless body.
“We met in kindergarten.” He stared at the floor, a smug smile curling his lips.
Jillian squeezed her eyes shut, silently begging for icy water, sauna heat, or even another arrow, preferably to her heart—anything would have been better than the torture his words put her through.
“We lived a block away from each other and became inseparable. She was the first girl I kissed. She was my best friend … the best of everything. Soul mates.”
“Are you two lovebirds playing catch up?” Psycho Bitch descended the stairs, trying to regain some dignity by throwing her shoulders back, as if it could distract from her fucked-up face.
“Let her go, Vic. This has nothing to do with her.”
Her polite smile did nothing to enhance her mangled facial features. “It has plenty to do with her, Special Agent McGraw. Isn’t that what you liked me to call you when you fucked me like a dog, refusing to actually look at my face when we made love? Oh wait … except on our wedding night. You surrendered to the missionary position, but kept your eyes shut the whole time.”
Knox gave Jillian a fleeting glance. She glared at him. How did she not know he had a wife?
“Vicki?”
“Vic.” He looked at his ex-wife while speaking to Jillian. “Virtual Intelligence Command. Edgar gave her that code name. Everyone assumed the eyes and ears of G.A.I.L. was a man named Victor. Instead, it was his orphaned stepdaughter who happened to know her way around a computer. He took pity on her and gave her a job to let her be part of G.A.I.L. because her asthma prevented her from being in the field. Then I took pity on her and married her.”
“Pity my ass. You married me to get your greedy little hands deeper into the inner workings of G.A.I.L. You married me for money and power. You and all your other unscrupulous comrades took something good, something positive that came from my mother’s death, and you turned it into a corrupt business.”
“Money equals power, sweetheart. You don’t protect innocent lives without a helluva lot of power. An army needs deep pockets. Corruption is a fact of life.”
“It was never about protecting innocent lives. For you it was always about revenge.”
Jillian watched her two enemies sling their words.
“Jesus, Irene! What the fuck do you think this is? Revenge! You’re out for revenge and everyone is collateral damage.”
“Irene” narrowed her eyes, flitting them between Jillian and Knox. “Don’t ever call me that again.” She gritted out each word then took a puff from her inhaler.
“It’s your name.”
“It’s not my goddamn name!” Her fist slammed the table, knocking over a can of Mountain Dew and her bow that had been propped up against the leg. “Irene died the day she became Vic. You never knew Irene. She was Gail’s daughter—innocent and full of hope. Vic fed G.A.I.L’s corruption. She married a cheater—a cheater who drove her to the edge of insanity and then shoved her off it. Five years, asshole. I spent five years in that godforsaken place all because of you and your mistresses.”