Mine's to Kill (11 page)

In those words she heard his concern and she would agree. The men and women lost to this weren’t people she knew, but that didn’t change the fact that she cared. However, for them these were their friends, their family basically, and the death of one member of that family was devastating enough, but to have several men and women lost and because of one of their own was unforgivable and unshakable. Even if there was only one person on the inside, that didn’t mean any of them would ever fully trust each other again. Trust was broken, and once that happened there was no going back.

Chapter Ten

“B
etsy, we have you on camera, we have the audio and we know you’re our mole. We know you betrayed this unit.” Autumn stood there with York and Candice beside her. Huck was blocking the door just in case Betsy thought she might get a chance to run out of their makeshift interrogation room.

“The money was good while it lasted,” she chuckled. “I should have known.” She shook her head. “I told him we should have left the first woman alive so we could push the blame off on her.”

“You had Gracie killed?” York’s shoulders were tense and Autumn could tell his anger could reach the tipping point.

Betsy shrugged. “I needed more access to these files without her looking over my shoulder. The family that died with her was just a casualty basically. We needed her to die so they had to die with her. I got her job and uninhibited access to all of your files.”

York stepped forward and Autumn grabbed his arm trying to hold him back.

“I should kill you,” he snarled. “She was a good woman.”

Betsy laughed. Her pearly whites and soft toned face made her the perfect traitor—nobody would suspect her at first sight. That was the problem with judging people based on how they looked—it wasn’t an accurate assessment of their character.

“You think killing me, or jailing me, is going to change anything. Anybody can be bought, York, anybody.”

Autumn could tell from the way York’s muscles were contracting beneath her hand that he was near losing it completely.

Candice opened the door to the agents she had called in to handle the detainment. “Get her out of here.”

Betsy laughed. “He won’t let me stay in jail. He’ll get me a lawyer to get me out. You won’t win.”

Candice was the one to laugh this time, causing Betsy’s eyes to widen. “You’re not going to jail, Pumpkin,” Candice laughed.

“Where are you taking me?”

“This is a case of National Security Breech…at least I say it is. You’re going someplace where not even the angels can save you.”

The tall and thin federal officer manhandled Betsy into cuffs before placing a black sack over her head. She struggled and yelled until one fist to her face silenced her. Autumn felt herself shiver. She didn’t feel sorry for Betsy. She had made her choice to betray and now she was going to have to live with it, but the thought of what men like that would do to her just to find out if a more imminent threat was upon them made her shiver. She knew what would happen. She had worked the special ops division of Homeland Security. She knew exactly where they were taking her. Candice was right—where she was going, what she would go through could make the stories people spun about water boarding look like a game of Candyland.

“Where are they taking her?” York mumbled.

“You don’t want to know.” She assured him.

“Take her out the back. I wouldn’t want that piece of man toy Autumn has in the office to accidently see you carting her out.” Candice grinned at her as the two men took Betsy away, dragging her more than carrying her. “I know everything,” Candice assured her. “Nobody ever gets to hide anything from me. Just don’t make a habit of bedding the witnesses,” she winked at her.

“I was thinking now that we have this solved I could go back to Homeland, to the team I was with.”

Candice laughed. “Oh I’m sorry, honey. You thought I was bluffing when I said I was keeping you,” She laughed hard. “I meant what I said. You’re mine, and you’re here to stay. I have plans for you, sugar. You don’t get to ruin my plans.” And on those words Candice left her standing there with Huck and York staring at her with shock and what she would say, pity, in their eyes.

“Sorry, Huck. I really thought she would let you have your slot back.”

He shrugged. “Seems to me that you got the short end of the stick, Autumn. You’re allowing me more freedom here to do something that makes me feel like a valued member of this team. When I…well, let’s just say I haven’t felt really needed in a long time. You let me feel that here even without my position being my position. You, on the other hand, had to leave your family. I would have hated to leave mine and I thought I would be discarded. Candice told me you fought for me to stay on.”

She had. She hadn’t told him that, but when Candice spilled the setup to her, Autumn had gone to bat for Huck. She didn’t know the man; she just couldn’t stand the idea that she would be the reason he lost his job and took a cut in his pension.

“Thanks for that.”

“You deserve to be here.”

“So do you,” Huck said and York agreed.

“You can go home; we’ll take care of this. Your man toy,” York repeated Candice’s words, “is waiting for you.”

Autumn backhanded York against his stomach. He flinched. “Ouch, you pack some power in that little hand.”

“And I was pulling it,” she winked at him. “How did you know? About Colt, how did you know?”

He shrugged. “It wasn’t you. It was him. The first time I saw the two of you together he looked at you like a man who wanted you. I figured he would make a move and he’d either win or lose a few digits in the process. Then I saw him today, and he looked at you like a man who had you and knew he wanted to keep you. The man is in love with you—not lust. That look in his eyes is love.”

She contemplated his words. He might be right. Things had changed between them. She had seen his initial reaction to her and she knew he liked what he saw, but today had been completely different. What she saw in his eyes went beyond lust, beyond sex, he did love her.

“I am taking the rest of the day off. I’m sure you can handle everything, Huck.”

“The paperwork on this…sure.”

“Oh, God no. There’s no paperwork on this.”

“What?”

“You don’t get it do you? This never happened. This is now classified material. This gets buried.”

“Whoa,” Huck shot a look over to York who looked just as shocked. “You rolled with that?”

“Our unit did a lot of things, but we weren’t on the end of torture. That doesn’t mean we didn’t know once we arrested the guys that where they went would violate every civil liberty they thought they had. Scary, isn’t it? What our government is capable of…it’s scary.”

“Hell yeah,” Huck said and York agreed.

“Lock it up tonight and go home and get some sleep. Tomorrow we’re going to have to start vetting a replacement for this position. But tonight I think you all deserve a break. Just don’t turn your phone off, Huck—you and I don’t technically get a complete break from this place.”

“Never changes,” he chuckled. “Man I love this.”

She was happy that he had found his groove again. She knew how an injury could make a man feel useless—an injury that put him behind a desk when he was used to being hands on in the field. Huck was more valuable than he knew. Maybe one day she would tell him about the plans she had been considering for him. She figured even if Candice let her go back to Homeland she could advocate for Huck. But since she was stuck in Witness Protection she could move the chess pieces on the board with ease. Huck was going to be an intricate part of the equation; he just didn’t know it yet.

Autumn took Colt back to his place. They showered together. Finally, after sitting around most of the day she was able to wash the run off her body. She had sweated; fortunately nobody seemed to be telling her she smelled so she figured she wasn’t a threat to leaving a stench behind in the office. Colt had been on her like a kid afraid of letting their mother out of their sight for the first time.

“I’m okay,” she told him as he took another look at her arm. He shoved one hand through his hair, got up from the couch and paced backwards and forward. The man was going to pace himself into the grave with guilt when it wasn’t his fault.

She stepped in front of him, placing her hand on his chest. “I’m okay,” she told him. “See,” she gestured to her face and body. “We’re okay.” He pulled her in for a hug where he held her a long while. She had to dislodge herself from his arms. “I heard from Candice,” she signed. “They found the guy’s place. They found his journals. He went after men that he thought might be molesting kids, or could do it one day. He was molested as a child, so he apparently figured he was saving children by killing any man that looked like a threat in his opinion. Apparently the journals are pretty twisted, but that’s what it was.”

“I wasn’t a threat to any kids.”

“No, but you saw him. You were the only one who could really stop him—at least that’s how he saw it. I guess he figured the DA wouldn’t have a case against him without you. I don’t know. I can’t sort out crazy. But I can tell you that you’re safe. You don’t have to worry anymore.”

He pouted.

“What? I thought you would be happy.”

“You’re going to leave.”

“Well I do have a place of my own, but I like it here too. Your bed is more comfortable than mine,” she winked. “I can split my time between both places. We can split our time between both places.”

He smiled. “I paint here,” he pointed toward the back.

“Well, when I pose for you I’ll stay overnight. But every once in a while you can stay at my place too.”

“You’re going to pose for me?”

She smiled softly. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“And you’ll stay overnight when you do?”

“Sure.”

“Great, let’s get started.” He pulled her hand into his and tugged her down the hallway. She laughed hysterically. The man obviously wanted her to stay over. She wasn’t planning on leaving tonight.

“Sit here,” he told her. “Now, I must warn you that I’m going to have to work on this every day,” he winked. “I think you should be sure to bring enough clothes over for that.”

She laughed hard just as he had. She loved his laugh. She loved him. The thought of loving him this soon seemed crazy, but he was what she wanted, what she cared about, what she would kill to protect and to her that meant love. Instead of dwelling on the situation she curled up on the chaise he had positioned her on and she waited for him to take brush in hand and paint her a picture, to paint their love.

About the Author

Capri Montgomery is an author of multicultural and interracial suspense, science fiction and contemporary romance. Her passion for writing started at a young age and for over twenty years she has been turning the movies playing in her head into written works. She is passionately exploring worlds one book at a time.

When she’s not writing, Capri enjoys nature—unless the insects are biting her, traveling, old movies, art, photography, playing cello, and exploring emotions and worlds through music.

Find more information on books by Capri Montgomery at:

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