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“You probably know most of that already. Kate helped me start a new life.”
“Yeah. And it all makes sense now. You were being tortured not only by Clark, but by people looking for someone to blame.”
“I couldn’t go anywhere…even another state. My face was all over the national news.”
“You could have just disappeared. Changed your name, your face, and gone on with your life.”
“That’s what Kate suggested, but I thought if Clark believed I was dead, he would stop killing.”
“I’m sure Kate told you that wouldn’t work.”
“Yes.”
“Clark got off on killing. You had nothing to do with it. He was going to kill whether you were alive or not. Blaming you was just another way of torturing you.”
“I know that now. A part of me knew that then, but I had to try.”
“So Kate helped you fake your suicide.”
“Yes. If not for her, it probably would have been a real one. I just couldn’t take it anymore.”
Ash held her close, understanding exactly what she meant. She had endured hell at the hands of John Leland Clark. In Ash’s estimation, there was no hell hot enough for the bastard.
“So once you had your surgeries, you could’ve done anything. Instead, you became a badass.”
She released a laughing sob. “Not feeling too badass at the moment.”
“That’s okay. Even badasses need to mellow from time to time.”
She pressed a kiss to the hollow of his neck in appreciation.
“So you and Kate cooked up the scheme of Jessie Diamond. I’m still not sure what you hoped to accomplish.”
“Kate learned that Turner’s ambition stretched much further than a Senate seat. She’s made several enemies over the years, and one by one they seemed to be fading away. The man who took over her tech company trash-talked her to the media. She never responded to his insults, and they basically died down. He was killed in a one-car accident while on vacation in Miami.”
“I remember that, but people get killed in accidents all the time. Kate and I discussed it. We both agreed it could be a coincidence.”
“That’s true, but three other people with varying grudges against the senator all suffered a major loss in the last year. That’s more than a coincidence. That’s a pattern.”
“I’m aware of all of them. I knew she was coming after me. That’s why we were scrambling to find something.”
“And that’s where I came in. She was looking for a way to ruin you. Infiltrating OZ was the next step. Kate and I agreed that if we got there first, we could control the intel.”
“Kate said you were supposed to tail me, not ask for a job.”
“Yeah, well… That was the plan, until I met you.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“For a lot of different reasons, but one of the biggest was because I knew Turner would be impressed. She knew infiltrating OZ would take time. I wanted to show her how talented I was. If she believed I was that good, that might buy us a little extra time. Also,” she threw him a wry grin, “I didn’t expect you to confront me about following you. I had to regroup and roll with the moment.”
“That was a dangerous thing for you to do.”
She shook her head. “Turner wouldn’t have hurt me as long as she didn’t find out the truth.”
“I’m not talking about Turner. I’m talking about OZ. You infiltrated an organization filled with elite spies who could kill you in a thousand different ways. You took a hell of a risk.”
“I needed to do something to help.”