Page 144 of Angelic Vengeance

Zach smiled as he rubbed his jaw, closing the distance between us again. “If you want to get rid of methat bad…”

I almost smirked at the venom in his words. I’d hit a nerve. Mention anything about putting distance between us and tension rolled off him in tsunamis.

“Then we have to get rid of Ruiz.” He stopped in front of me, forcing me to tip my chin up. “I mean… It’s what’s pulling us back together.”

I knew what he was doing. He knew I knew.

“If you really wanted us to be over…” His hand came up, trailing my collarbone, and my body hummed with intensity. Despite everything, I loved this man’s hands on me. It made me feel alive. My blood roared when he pushed my hair back, exposing my naked shoulder. “You’d tie our loose ends.”

Bing.

Zach didn’t look away from me as he dug his phone out of his pocket. Soon as he glanced at it, he smirked, showing me the screen.

A text from Zane with Ruiz’s live location.

“What’s it going to be, Pérez?”

My eyes burned into his. “Let’s get this over with.”

CHAPTER 43

Present

SOMETHING FELT WRONG.

It couldn’t be this easy.

Not after everything.

“Hey.” I glanced up at Zach; the frown on his face mirroring my own ironically making me feel worse about the situation. He could feel it too. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I rolled my shoulders, ignoring the blasting rhythm of my pulse, and walked with more determination into the darkness of the abandoned subway. City Hall station, in lower Manhattan, had been closed off to the public since the forties; the New York Transit Museum offered tours a few times a year, but tonight was not one of them.

As we descended the stairs to the platform, the sick feeling in my stomach intensified. I’d never even had adrenaline on a previous mission; but tonight my chest was tightening with anxiety.

Holding my riffle up, I looked through the night-vision visor and scanned the area.Dead silent. I lowered my arms and turned to Zach. “You sure you got the right coordinates?”

I gasped when he jumped onto the tracks.

“They’re in the tunnels,” He clarified, extending his hand out to me.

This was nothing compared to jumping rooftops in Shanghai; crossing forests in Russian winters; exploring the huts in Rio in search of my target. Yet, my heart pounded in my chest with unease. Goosebumps rose on my skin as I glanced into the pitch-black abyss of the tunnel. At least here, the moon and city lights somewhat illuminated through some of the ceiling windows. There… Wasnothing.

I refused to think as I grabbed Zach’s hand in mine and used his support to jump down.

“Careful,” He rasped into the dark, guiding me over the metal rails as my eyes adjusted. His big palm squeezed my hand protectively, sending heat in shock waves through my body.

Clearing my throat, I pulled my hand away and grabbed my rifle. Zach gave me a side glance before grabbing his gun too. Take away the three weeks we’d been broken up, I couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t hold my hand. It was easy to forget and fall back into a comfortable routine.

My shoe caught onto a piece of the railing. I lost my balance and fell forward, extending my arms and expecting a nasty fall. It was pitch black; there could be anything on the ground, from used needles to broken glass bottles.

A strong, protective arm wrapped around my waist, holding me up. Zach grabbed me under the arms and helped me back on my feet.

“Thanks,” I whispered and tried to step away.

But he didn’t let me go. His hands ran down the sides of my body, stopping just under my breasts and squeezingmy rib cage. The pressure dropped between my legs like a weight, making me dizzy.

“Where’s your vest?”