Page 14 of Danger Close

I had to tear apart the last three decades and figure out what had happened.

“She’s over thirty,” I countered. “And I know the groom. He’s a good kid.”

“Well?” She sat ramrod straight, her chin high. “Who is he?”

“Kai Griffith.”

“And?” she pushed, frustrated by my clipped answers. “Who is Kai Griffith?”

“You should ask Taz.” I had no idea what Trinity had or hadn’t told her. I didn’t know what she’d want me to say.

“For God’s sake! Will he hit her? Is he a violent man?”

Whohityou, Teri? The words rang out in my head, but I didn’t ask out loud. I knew she would not tell me.

“Is he the kind of man that will isolate her from her friends? Will he harm her? Is he a good man? Is he… is…”

She swallowed. I felt the pinch between my brows as I stared, reading far deeper into her words than what she meant.

“If I had any inkling he would harm our daughter, do you think I’d let her get married?” A need to protect flared in my chest.

“Lether?” she scoffed. “No oneletsTrinity do anything. She does whatever she wants. She always has.” Then her nostrils flared with a deep inhale. “Or is it becauseyouare the same kind of man? Are you and he friends? Is that why you defend him?”

Her voice faded out, quieting from the strength of righteous indignation to one of complete and abject defeat.

“I don’t know what kind of man you are…” I did not like that thousand-yard stare, or the sudden frailty in her tone.

Not one fucking bit.

Quietly, she added, “I never knew you.”

This fucking woman…

I was stuck, vacillating between two extremes. A part of me wanted her in my arms, my fingers tracing over her skin to coax out all the pain that was clearly etched behind the mask of anger. Another part of me wanted to scream at her, to make her cower and beat my chest until she choked out answers.Why did you hurtourdaughter? Why did you do this to us? WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?

In the end, anger won out. “I suppose you didn’t. You don’t know me, and I sure as hell don’t know you. The woman I married long ago would have known about her kid’s wedding. You? You’re a stranger.”

I would send her phone and wallet with Yuliya, so that they could hack into her information. They’d let me know if there was something in her history I had to know about, especially ifit had to do with Trinity. My moral compass was a bit warped, and hadn’t pointed north in at least thirty years, but I knew this was wrong. But I had to know what turned a model who had the world bowing at her feet into this hard-as-nails knock-off Laila Ali.

She was a mystery wrapped in an enigma. A puzzle I had to solve before I fell in too deep. I’d seen it hundreds of times with other agents. They got fascinated with their target and all of a sudden, fell head over heels. I’d never made that mistake before. I wouldn’t do that now.

“Where am I?” she asked, softly. She was in for a rough day…

Chapter 7

Mourningkill

Teri

“Mourningkill” was his only answer, and a command, “We’re going to dinner in one hour. Our daughter is waiting.”

“Dinner?” I’d asked. “What time is it?”

“You were asleep for most of the day, sweetheart. Almost twenty-four hours, now.”

A whole day? I had been in a dreamless sleep for awholeday?

He tapped the armoire of clothes, and said, “get dressed, Princess.”