Outlaws, Matt Rogers [best ereader under 100 TXT] 📗

She said, ‘What is this?’

‘I’ll explain,’ he said. ‘Trust me, I swear to God, I’ll explain. Just stay there. I’ll be there in five minutes.’

‘What if I don’t want you to be?’

He didn’t answer that.

She said, ‘You can’t do this. You can’t throw my life into turmoil like this. You just abandoned me.’

‘I told you I’d explain.’

‘That’s it?’

‘That’s it. I need you to trust me.’

She sighed. ‘Okay. I’ll stay.’

‘Thank you.’

‘There’d better be a damn good explanation for this.’

‘There is. See you soon.’

He ended the call, brought the phone away from his ear and pressed the top of the device to his forehead. He closed his eyes and exhaled.

King said, ‘All good?’

‘All good. Let’s go get her.’

They both stared at Violetta as she drove, unsure what the hell was going on, unsure where allegiances lay.

King looked at Slater and said, ‘I’ll ask it if you won’t.’

Slater shrugged. ‘Be my guest.’

King looked at Violetta. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘I’ve spent this whole time wanting to explain,’ she said. ‘Are you finally going to let me?’

‘Sure.’

‘I’ve been forced to do certain things,’ she said. ‘Things I’m not proud of. Yes, I sent you to California for little reason. Yes, I did it so you wouldn’t be here when Slater went rogue, as everyone knew he would. But they weren’t my ideas, and I had no choice.’

‘You always have a choice.’

‘I didn’t,’ she said. ‘It’s all well and good being morally righteous, but not when there’s a gun to the head of someone you care deeply for. So I had to comply, but I did everything I could to buy time. I made sure Alexis’s family wouldn’t be touched, which risked everything. I fought for them not to blow Slater’s head off with a long-range weapon. I bought him a day or so. But the pressure was too much. They wouldn’t budge. And they could tell I was stalling. The tactical team they surrounded my apartment with was just as much to keep me prisoner as it was to protect me.’

King stared at her. ‘There was never a gun to my head.’

She said, ‘I’m not talking about you.’

He sat still.

She said, ‘There’s things you don’t know.’

‘Care to explain?’

‘Is this the place?’ she said, craning her neck to look out the windshield as she pulled up out the front of the three-storey walk-up.

Slater nodded. He tapped the same number on the contact screen of Violetta’s phone. When it was answered, he said, ‘Come down. We’re here.’

She appeared on the second-storey landing moments later, a small backpack slung over her shoulder. Slater knew it would contain the laptop, along with a handful of smaller possessions. He’d never met a more alert and intuitive civilian — it was as if she had combat experience hardwired into her system from birth — so she would have known to remove every trace of evidence from the small apartment, no matter the circumstances.

She spotted the Land Rover, and the outline of his face through the tinted glass of the rear windows, and descended the stairwell.

He couldn’t wait.

He got out and crossed to her. She was holding herself together, but not by much. He outstretched his arms, and she fell into them.

‘Why?’ she whispered.

He told her the truth. Kept it straightforward, kept it objective, kept it unbiased. She deserved that much. Deserved to know what might have been.

When she stepped away as he finished, her green eyes blazed. Her skin had paled.

She said, ‘You were going to die for me. For my parents.’

He nodded.

He said, ‘They’re safe. No one will touch them. Violetta’s computer guy draped a veil over them. They can carry on living their lives, but as far as the U.S. government is concerned, they no longer exist.’

She doubled over and put her hands on her knees.

Trying not to hyperventilate.

When she stood up, she said, ‘Don’t ever do that to me again. Just give me it straight from the get-go. I’m a big girl. I can handle it.’

He said, ‘I promise.’

‘Christ,’ she said, rubbing her eyes. ‘Okay. Let’s go.’

He led her to the car, and they got in the rear seats.

Tense introductions were made all round, which wasn’t helped by the fact that as King introduced his girlfriend he kept his gun pointed at her stomach.

Alexis said, ‘This is weird.’

‘Yeah,’ Violetta said. ‘It’s weird.’

Slater said, ‘What the hell happens now?’

‘We have a few hours before they find out King’s gone rogue too,’ Violetta said. ‘When the tactical team is discovered, and they find me missing, it’ll be absolute carnage.’

‘So what should we hope to achieve before then?’

‘I have access to safe houses across the city, but then so does everyone I work with.’

‘No need,’ Slater said, jerking a thumb at the landing above their heads. ‘I have a safe house of my own we can use temporarily.’

Violetta looked at King.

He nodded.

They all piled out.

67

There’s things you don’t know.

King needed to know.

They scaled the flight of stairs as discreetly as they could, each shooting paranoid glances out over John Paul Jones Park, but it was largely unpopulated. Alexis unlocked the door, and they all spilled through, and King saw the knowing glance Slater and Alexis exchanged as they entered the cramped space.

We need to talk.

Slater looked at King, who nodded his understanding. Go.

They moved to the corner of the room, out of earshot, and sat down on the sofa. Hushed words were exchanged almost immediately — apology, acceptance, forgiveness, trust.

King turned away from them, allowing them their privacy, and sat down with Violetta at the kitchen table.

She eyed the Glock in his hand.

He looked at it.

Looked at her.

Then put it down on the countertop between them, and spun the barrel away.

She reached out and put a hand on his knee, then leant forward and kissed him briefly on the lips. It conveyed everything they both wanted to say but couldn’t.

This world is madness. Let’s not make this personal.

He said, ‘Can you tell me?’

She cocked her head.

‘What they threatened you with.’

She sighed.

She said, ‘If I do, it means that I