Page 96 of Ruthless Commander

Mateo glared at the guy, even when he turned around and pounded the keyboard, bring up details on the screen. He was testing Mateo, pushing his buttons, seeing how he was going to react. I knew without looking at my husband that he was seconds away from ending the guy’s life.

“The last contact I had with Edon was in Colorado.”

“For the Salvatores.”

“No.” The guy disagreed. “No, not the Salvatores.”

Mateo shook his head and stepped forward. “What do you mean,no?”

“I mean no.” He repeated, pulling up a map and stabbed a red dot with his finger. “That right there, that’s where he met his contact, and there.” He pressed play. On the screen that red dot flashed once, twice…and then died. “And that right there is where he switched off his tracker. Not in all the years I’ve been working with E has he ever done that. In fact, none of my contacts have. It’s the rule we had when we started working together, anunbreakable rule.”

I stared at the empty screen as he pushed back and turned once more, meeting Mateo’s gaze. “I received one text from him. He said this wasn’t a job, that it was personal.”

“Personal?” Mateo scowled. “That’s what he said. This is ‘personal’?”

“That’s what he said.”

Mateo said nothing, but I knew he didn’t like it.

Edon had nothing personal, not that anyone knew. Mateo was the only person in Edon’s life, the only person outside of his contracts. The thought of anything else made Mateo shake his head and turn away. “Can you send me all the information you have?”

“Of course. Encrypted.”

My husband stopped as he headed for the door. “Of course.”

He left then. I glanced at Hayden, then turned and followed Mateo as he left. He said nothing as he made his way down the stairs and climbed back into the car. But I could see how this affected him.

I opened the door and climbed in as he started the engine.

“You want to talk to me about this?” I asked.

But Mateo was already unlocking his phone and making a call. I might as well have been invisible in that moment as the tiny sound of a number ringing on the other side of the world filled the car before it was answered.

“Ya?Komendant,”came a thick accent through the speaker.

Mateo started talking as he turned the wheel and drove out of the compound and I snapped my seatbelt into place. For the first time since I’d known him, I watched my husband become a stranger, a person I didn’t know, one that spoke in a thick Albanian accent.

He spoke in a rushed, biting tone, one that made me wince. As we left the compound behind and headed for the highway that’d take us out of the city, I realized that this side of Mateo being an unknown, was as much as my fault as it was his.

I’d never asked.

Maybe it was me not wanting to pressure him into talking to me about things he didn’t want to talk about. I knew he was close to Edon. But I knew nothing else, not about his parents, or any other siblings he might have.

I didn’t ask, and he hadn’t let me in.

That thought stayed with me as I listened to my husband talk in a language I didn’t know.

It was just one more reason that shored up the decision to keep the baby a secret from him.

One more reason to guard my heart.

He wasn’t fullyinthis marriage…

That same fear surfaced.

Maybe this whole thing with Edon would be the reason he returned to the Commission…

And left us behind.