Page 237 of Whisper

“Try me.Please. Give me an excuse.”

“You’re confused, Kris. You don’t know what you’re seeing. You walked in on something that can’t be understood, not like this. Let me help you.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Kris bellowed. “Keep your fucking mouth closed! You’ve spread enough lies!”

“Kris, you’rewrong. You don’t understand—”

“Habibi, it’s him. It is.” Dawood sighed. Fresh tears poured from his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Who the fuck is that?” Kris jerked his chin to the body on the ground, a man lying on his side, his back to the headlights, to Kris. His burnished skin suggested Arab, and his unnatural stillness, the way his limbs lay loose and unmoving, clawed at Kris’s guts.

“Haddad’s partner,” Dan snapped. “Like I said, you don’t understand what is happening here—”

“Habibi!” Dawood shouted, panic shredding his voice. He tried to stand, his eyes wide, crazed. “Look out—”

A pinch, a hot prick, stabbed Kris in the neck. He whirled, but the world smeared, and shadows turned to darkness as everything tipped sideways.

He felt hands on his arms, catching him as he fell, and the last thing he heard was Dawood’s voice bellowing his name.

Dan lowered Kris’s unconscious body to the warehouse floor, cradling his head before it hit the cold ground. “You were supposed to keep a lookout.”

“I was working on the timer.” Noam glared at Dan as he yanked the syringe from Kris’s neck. “He appeared out of nowhere. I barely had time to duck so he wouldn’t see me.”

“He’s SAD. You’re Mossad. Aren’t you supposed to be better than SAD? Isn’t that your point of pride?” Dan cursed. “He may have seen too much. Why the fuck is he even here?”

Noam wagged the empty syringe over Kris’s body. “This beauty will wipe his recent memory. He won’t remember anything. He won’t even remember how he got here.”

“You better be fucking sure.”

“Iam. I use this all the time.”

Dan glared. “Is everything ready?”

“Almost. Converting from a switch to a timer takes a while.” Noam glowered at Haddad, cuffed and kneeling. “Would have been better if he hadn’t fucking turned on us. I thought he was the anchor of our plan?”

Dan grinned, all teeth and raw hatred, his fury pouring from him, crackling off his being, the very center of his soulfinallyunleashed. “Haddad has always fucked everything up. It’s his legacy. I shouldn’t be surprised about this.”

“I need a few more minutes on the timer.”

“Get back to it. And don’t worry about Haddad. He’s still going to fucking help us.”

“I won’t.” Haddad swayed on his knees, as if he were about to pitch forward. Everything in him screamed, reaching for Kris. Dan could see his straining restraint, how he barely held himself back from crawling across the dirt to go to his husband. “I won’t murder for you. Ever.”

Dan cradled Kris’s still face in one hand. Kris was so stunningly beautiful. He’d always been gorgeous, from the day he’d walked into CTC nearly twenty years ago and had pressed pause on Dan’s life the first moment he’d seen him. How he’d stolen Dan’s breath, had captivated Dan’s mind. He’d nurtured long fantasies of their lives enjoined, the happiness they could have, as soon as he worked up the courage to ask him out. How he’d craved Kris, nurturing his desire in the silence of CTC, watching Kris in his formative years.

Nearly twenty years ago. How long their lives had been entwined, had been shared.

They were destined to be together, in every way.

Until Haddad. Until Haddad had fuckedeverythingup.

Dan pulled his gun from Kris’s limp fingers. He rolled Kris’s head, turning Kris’s face to Haddad. Dirt and grit dug into Kris’s cheek as he pressed the barrel of his gun against Kris’s temple.

“No!Yallah, no, no.Astaghfirullah, no.No,please.Please…” Haddad’s voice, his breath, trembled. “Please…”

He begged beautifully. His tears glistened, each a drop of joy in Dan’s soul. Naked terror danced in Haddad’s gaze.

“Please… Don’t do this. Don’t…”