Merciless (Option Zero 1)

“Haven’t had a chance to question to her. She flipped out as soon as we got here. You talk to Serena?”

“Just the one time before the auction. Did she find something else?”

“Rose found a burner phone. Not much on there other than several voice messages, all from Turner.”

If he’d had any doubt that Jules was involved with Turner, that sealed the deal.

“Anything else?”

“A text message.” Gideon paused for a second, then said, “Apparently, Turner told Jules to kill you.”

Jaw clenched with tension, Ash ground out, “And her response?”

“She replied, ‘Okay.’”

“I’ll be there in ten.”

He wanted details. The thought of Jules having some kind of breakdown tore his insides to shreds. What the hell had happened? Or had that been an act, too? Gideon was an expert in interrogation. Could Jules have fooled him? Ash didn’t think so.

Even though she had betrayed him, there was a helluva lot more to the story. If Jules had been hired to take him out, why hadn’t she? She’d had plenty of opportunities. Those days they’d been alone at OZ, he’d been at his most vulnerable. He had slept right next to her. She could have killed him in his sleep and he never would have seen it coming. She’d had access to plenty of weapons. So if her answer to Turner’s order to kill him had been an affirmative, why hadn’t she carried out the deed?

There was one person he needed to talk to before he confronted Jules.

He punched Kate’s number, and before she could get her usual warm greeting out, Ash barked, “What the hell is going on, Kate? Why did you send one of Turner’s employees to spy on me?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Who is Jules Stone? Have you been lying to me all along, too?”

“Ash…no. Oh dear, I was afraid this would happen. Where is she?”

“No. I ask the questions. What the hell’s going on?”

“Ash…all I can say is that in no way would Jules ever try to harm you. She was there to protect you.”

“Protect me? From whom?”

“Turner.”

“Oh yeah? Is that why she has a text on a burner phone from Turner telling her to take me out?”

“Oh damn, I knew she was close, but not…”

Ash spoke through clenched teeth. “Tell me what the hell is going on here.”

“That’s Jules’s story to tell, Ash. What has she told you?”

“Nothing yet. I’m on the way to the cabin to talk to her.”

“What cabin? Where?”

“The bioweapon auction was tonight. We’re in Slovakia. When the call came in about Jules, I had Gideon take her to a safe house.”

“But it’s a cabin…in the woods?”

“Yeah. So? We always have one available to—”

“Oh, Ash, no. You have to get her out of there. Now.”