Page 87 of Ruthless

“I would have explained until she agreed to come with me.”

“I tried that. It didn’t work.”

“Then you should have respected her decision.”

“She wasn’t thinking straight. She was almost killed not ten yards from her own apartment in one of the most secure buildings that exists. You saw the security when you were there. Whoever these people are, they’ve got someone inside…someone close to Eve.”

“I’m not denying that, but—”

“But nothing, Ash. I made the decision. It was mine alone. I’ll deal with the consequences.”

“You’ve not only destroyed your partnership with Eve, but you’ve also jeopardized your position here at OZ.”

“I’m aware of that,” Gideon gritted out.

“We’ll revisit this when this is over.”

“Understood.”

“We’ll be in touch.”

The line went dead, and Gideon let his shoulders slump for a moment. He’d known what he’d been doing and would be ready to face the consequences when the time came. Didn’t mean he wasn’t bothered. He loved working at OZ and saw everyone who worked there as an extended family. Leaving them would hurt, but given the chance to reconsider his options, he still believed he’d done the only thing that made sense.

Too bad he was the lone wolf in that belief.

“We need to go back and look at the attack on the embassy.”

Gideon turned to Eve, who stood at the entrance of his bedroom. He was glad to see that the color had returned to her cheeks, and she was back in work mode.

“You think this is connected to that, other than Bennett’s involvement?”

“I don’t know. When Dirk confessed, he claimed his two objectives had been to get rid of his father and to sell me for a nice profit. I don’t know how deep anyone dug into his motives after that confession.”

“I’ll call my old contacts at DGSE and see if they’ve got anything we can use.”

“Might want to mention it to Serena. She’s still got some contacts at the State Department that might be able to help.”

“Will do.”

They looked at each other for several seconds. Everything within him wanted to go to her and hold her. If he had known that they’d only have the bliss of being together for such a short time, he would have savored those moments even more.

“Eve, you know that I would never intentionally hurt you. Don’t you?”

“I know that you would never physically hurt me, Gideon. Hurt me in other ways? I think you’ve already proved that you can and you will, more than once.”

She turned away, going back to the makeshift office, leaving him alone with his regret and the knowledge of something he already knew. Sometimes—maybe most times—you didn’t get what you wanted most in life.

But Eve was alive, and dammit, if that was all he got, then he’d call it a win.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Ile de la Lune

“What do you mean she’s gone?”

The male voice whispered harshly, “Just what I said. She and that giant she brought with her have disappeared.”

“You said that—”