Page 73 of The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold (The Blonde Identity #2)

Two Days Before They Woke Up in Vegas

Scotland

King

“Did you really get her a ring?”

When an old acquaintance calls out of the blue in the middle of the night, a normal person is either terrified or ecstatic,

but when you’re both spies, there’s a whole range of other emotions, and King didn’t know which one he was feeling as he rubbed

his eyes and glanced at the clock by the bed. Three a.m. So either Tyler didn’t know what time zone King was in or he didn’t

care. Or both. King was vehemently hoping it was both.

“Who is this?”

“You know exactly who this is. Now answer the question.”

King didn’t want to answer the question, but he wanted to give Tyler a speck of intel even less. Six years as a private citizen

should have made King less cautious, but it hadn’t, so he tried to shake the sleep out of his voice and the scotch out of

his system. “Not that it’s not lovely hearing from you, Tyler, but this isn’t a good—”

“Did you really get Alexandra Sterling a ring?” Tyler asked again, harder this time. “Come on. Admit it.”

“No.”

“I heard you, Kingsley.”

King pushed upright and felt the cold air of the room hit his bare chest. The fire must have gone out.

He knew he’d built one—yesterday? Last week?

King couldn’t remember and it didn’t matter.

He was glad for the cold air. It was like being thrown into a freezing lake, and, when he surfaced, his head was clearer than it had been in months.

“You heard what ? When? ”

Tyler laughed. “She really did do a number on you, didn’t she?”

“I’m hanging up now—”

“I was at Merritt’s. That night. In the hall, getting ready to knock when I heard the two of you talking. But I need to know....

Are you that serious about Alex? Like... ring serious?”

“What difference does it make? She’s gone.” King hadn’t been willing to admit it—not for the first few months. But he’d been

looking for a year, and she wasn’t just in the wind. There is no wind in outer space, and that’s how it felt. Alex hadn’t

just left the life, she’d left the planet, and the longer she was gone, the bigger the black hole inside of King seemed to

grow.

“You’re good, Kingsley,” Tyler said. “Always were. But you shouldn’t have left the Agency.”

“Goodbye, Tyler.” King was halfway to hanging up the phone when he heard—

“If you’d stayed, you’d have the best resources money can buy. If you’d stayed, you’d know Alex had a whole host of aliases

the Agency didn’t know about.”

Now King was insulted. “We all have aliases the Agency doesn’t know about.”

“I know. But if you were with the Agency, you might have the resources to figure out that one of hers just bought a plane

ticket to Vegas.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Alex hates Vegas.”

“Hey. I’m just telling you that one of Alex Sterling’s known aliases is getting on a plane. What you do with that information

is up to you.”

It might be nothing. It was probably nothing. The last two dozen leads had been two dozen nothings, but King wasn’t just grasping

at straws. He was grasping at lifelines and there was no way he could stop.

“Why are you telling me this, Tyler?”

The question was a good one, but the silence was almost answer enough.

For a moment, King thought that maybe Tyler had already hung up—walked away.

It seemed to take a lifetime for him to say, “Remember when we were kids? You moved in down the street, and my parents freaked out. The Kingsleys were going to be our neighbors. It was like living next door to the pope.”

“So—”

“So she’s the only person I’ve ever seen go toe-to-toe with you. We’ve known each other since we were nine years old, and

she’s the only person I’ve ever met who might have a chance to make you happy. I was there the day the bomb went off, man.

I was there .” Tyler was serious again. No teasing. No mocking. No fire or fury or fear. If anything, he was almost pitying when he said,

“You deserve the chance to be happy.”

King wasn’t so certain.

“It doesn’t matter. She’s gone.”

“And I told you where she’s going to be, so get off your ass and do something about it. Tell her how you feel. Make a grand

gesture. It’s Vegas, man.”

“So?”

Tyler laughed. “People get married in Vegas.” There was a long pause, and the laughter died, and nothing was funny anymore

when he asked, “You do still have the ring, don’t you?”

King drew a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. He had an aching head and a year’s worth of false leads and battered

dreams, but the only thing that mattered was—

“Yeah. I still have the ring.”

“So put it in your pocket and get your ass on a plane.”