Page 150 of Agency

“What if we helped?” Andrew asked. “What if we showed you a way forward that didn’t require that?”

“What… What do you mean?”

“We stop people,” Morgan said. “We stop people, and we save lives, and we try to make the world a better place. Maybe not the way your aunt thinks she does. But we do, Ambyr.”

“Come work with us,” Andrew said, not having bothered to ask Jericho first. “You’re as good as we are, if not better. Let us show you there’s another way of doing this. We might not be stopping bad people the same way as your aunt, but that’s still our job. Protecting our clients, making sure they’re okay.”

“Yeah,” Morgan said, squeezing me tighter. “I mean, look at what we did here. Our client was some girl from South Central last week, and we ended up stopping the leader of an international assassin ring before this week has even had a chance to start.”

“They’re right,” Jericho said, his voice seemingly deeper than the lake itself as his big hand touched my face with surprising tenderness. “They really are right. Even if they’re dumbasses and chucklefucks. You’re good, Ambyr. You’re one of the best.”

My chest swelled, and I could feel my eyes again tearing up as I tried to swallow back my emotion. But, why, I had no idea. Why was I trying not to cry? Why was I trying not to cry when people who cared so much about me surrounded me on all sides?

Could I do something like their careers? Be a security professional, instead of a killer? Both had a similar skill set, I knew, but the focus was so different. Could I defend those individual lives, even while my aunt was so clinically erasing others? Could I balance her scales, and maybe even right my own?

“I… I don’t know. What about your bosses?” I asked. I turned my face to Jericho’s. “You guys answer to people, right? People in Colorado?”

“We do,” he replied with a nod in the inky black. “But I think Rachel will understand. And so will Alex. It’s not often someone with your skill set comes along, especially as part of a team. You’re unique.” His smile was a slash of bright white teeth, a practical flare within the darkness as he again stroked my cheek with his strong, thick fingers.

“We can make this work, Ambyr. We can make it work. If you’re open to it.”

“I’ve been open to so many things,” I said, going up on combat boot clad tiptoes to kiss him. “So many things. And I still am. Why not more?”

One of their hands landed on my ass.

Another landed on my stomach.

Another’s wide, all-encompassing palm was on my cheek, fingers stroking my jaw.

“So many things?” Jericho asked, before leaning down to kiss me again.

“So… so many things?” Morgan asked, turning my face to his and kissing me.

“A multitude of things?” Andrew finally asked as he twisted me in his arms and brought my lips to his.

“Yes,” I said, laying my head against my final lover’s chest and smearing my face camo across his shirt. “So, so, so many multitudes of things.”

Andrew hugged me tight. Morgan pressed closer. Jericho encircled all of us.

Their arms tightened around me, the warmth of their bodies easing the night’s chilliness and seeming to wrap me up in another, even more caring version of that cocoon I’d experienced back on the cabin’s couch.

Could this be the final transformation I’d needed? Not just from prisoner to lover, or lover to partner–and member of whatever this was. But from killer… to… protector? Was that even possible for someone like me?

“Clean slate,” Aunt Val’s words seemed to whisper on the lake winds, sending a shiver down my spine despite the warmth enveloping me from all sides. “Live your life with a clean slate, away from all this.”

My god… What was this emotion now welling up inside me as they squeezed me closer and held me tighter? Something I hadn’t felt before, something I had to pick up and actually examine.

Not anger. I’d felt that so much.

Not grief, even. Grief had been so much of life, there was no chance I couldn’t recognize that. Not sadness, either. I knew sadness. Sadness came from feeling alone in the world.

Not excitement. God, I’d been such an adrenaline junkie for so long, there was no way I wouldn’t recognize that kind of thing.

Not happiness, even. Happiness was such a transient emotion. A brief flutter of wings and happiness was gone, disappearing through your clutching fingers like camp fire smoke you’d been foolish enough to try and catch.

No, this was something I couldn’t ever remember feeling.

I think… I think this was contentment. And a true sense of being able to direct my own destiny for the first time ever. This was me finally finding my agency, after having left the Agency.