Once everyone was gone, happier and a little drunker, Derek sorted out the kitchen as best as he could. The party had been a success and Elaine had been so happy all through. It was beautiful to watch. He just wished there wasn’t a looming threat over her happiness, ready to destroy her new peaceful life.
“Hey, I can do that in the morning.”
Derek turned and smiled at Elaine where she was leaning against the island behind him before he went back to stacking the dishwasher. “It’s okay. I’m almost done. And I’m just getting it ready for tomorrow. If we’re lucky, mom will wake up earlier than us and do the job for us.”
She snickered behind me, “Yeah, it would be nice to sleep in without worrying. Today has been exhausting.”
He closed the dishwasher door then turned to face her, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned back against the counter. “You threw a great party. You should be proud of yourself.”
She smiled shyly, “Yeah? You think so? I was nervous it was going to tank. I’ve never done anything of this sort before.”
“You’ll get the swing of things in time.”
She rolled both her lips into her mouth and stared at him with slit eyes, “You don’t think I’m trying too hard?”
He groaned, “I’m an ass for saying that. I was just jealous of your relationship with Daniel, still am.”
“There is no relationship. We’re just friends.”
“You two have never slept together?” he really didn’t want the answer to that, but he felt like he needed to ask.
“We have, once, that first night. But we quickly realized we were just substitutes for those we really wanted.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“So are we going to give us a chance?”
Her lips raised in a lopsided grin, “I let you move in didn’t I?”
He pushed off the counter and moved to her, trapping her against the island with his body, his arms caging her in, “I think it would have been a lot more obvious if you’ moved me into your room.”
She shook her head, “No can do. Katya sleeps in that room too.”
He cantered his head to the side, “Why?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know. Now that I have her full-time, I don’t want her sleeping far from me, otherwise I won’t be sleeping much.”
“There is a reason why the master bedroom is very far away from the rest.” He said lowering his voice to a seductive tone.
“Doesn’t matter. You and I won’t be doing the horizontal dance anytime soon.”
Derek groaned, pressing his pulsing erection against her. All he had to do was look at her and he got a boner.
“Why not?” he whined like a child whose mother had said no to buying him the latest Thief video game.
“Because I want to make sure we are more than just sex. For both our sakes and mostly Katya’s. I know you quit the CIA and that’s the only reason I’m willing to give us a serious chance.”
He exhaled loudly. He traced the skin just below her lower lip with the tips of his fingers, “Okay. But I want something too.”
“What?”
‘The truth about your past.”
She suddenly moved, her hands pressed against his chest with intent to push him away, but he quickly caught them and held them behind her back, tightening his hold when she fought him.
“We can’t really build a future with the secrets of the past waiting to jump out of the closet and ruin everything.”
“I’m never going to talk about that, so stop asking,” she hissed, the warning in her voice loud and clear.
“You bet your sweet ass you will. Maybe not today but soon. But right now, you will tell me why you killed Noah Grayson.”
She stilled, “Took you long enough.”
He shook his head from side to side, “You only reserve that style of killing for those you believe deserve a slow death. What did he do?”
“Your last op.”
Derek tensed. There had been so many things that had gone wrong with that operation he was lucky he escaped alive. Well, he was lucky Katarina got him out of there alive because there was no way he would have walked out on his own.
“Yeah what about it?”
“And the one a few years back, in Syria.”
He clenched his jaw hard. That one still gave him nightmares. He’d walked right into an ambush. He’d been captured and tortured. He got his ass kicked so bad he’d prayed for death more than once. Parts of his body still ached as a result of the terrorist’s hospitality. The part that really gave him nightmares was when they dragged him into a room where one guy was behind a camera mounted on a tripod and another was sharpening a machete. Katarina and Ellsa had saved him, coming right when the blade was coming down to sever his head from his shoulders. He watched as they killed everyone inside like avenging angels, and for a split second he’d felt sorry for his captors. They’d then carried him out and the feel of the sun against his face was such a relief he’d passed out. The next time he woke up he was in a German hospital. His superiors were there standing around him and they congratulated him on taking out five of the terrorist cells. They said he’d crippled them and it would be years before they rebuilt. Derek had no idea what they were talking about, but all he could think of at that moment was how glad he was Katarina and Ellsa were on his side, they were his guardian angels.
His fists shook at the memory of the machete’s sharp blade pressed against his neck, he didn’t notice Katarina slip out of his grip. He could still feel the sharp edge of the blade breaking the skin where his shoulder met his neck.
Her hands came up to frame his face, “Don’t think about that anymore. It’s over and we’re never going back to that again.”
‘Are you saying Grayson sold me out?” his voice shook with rage and residue of fear.
She nodded once, “It took a while to confirm, but once I did, I couldn’t let him live for betraying you. It was risky enough what you did, but for him to intentionally send you to your death more than once all for a few millions… I wasn’t going to permit that and Ellsa would have agreed with me.”
Derek let out a heavy sigh, shaking the panic and anger off, “Ellsa had my back because of Damien. What’s your reason?”
“First because I had to go where Ellsa went then after that first night with you…You made me feel again and losing you would mean losing that. Then finally for Katya. Someone tried to kill her daddy and that’s a big no-no.”
Derek laughed at that and Katarina smiled, “Good, I’m glad.”
“Why ask me now?”
“I knew you had a solid reason for killing Grayson so I covered for you at the Company. But my boss found out, he also found out about us and Katya.”
She stiffened, “What?”
“Don’t worry, he knows what’s what. All I had to do was find out why you killed Grayson for him and I’m completely done with the agency. It does explain why we lost so many agents. He’ll probably send you a fruit basket for cleaning up.” She relaxed a bit and Derek hated doing this to her, but she had to know, “Tomas Jones, what do you plan to do with him?”
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously and she dropped her hands from his face and crossed them over her chest, “I’m not going to like the next words out of your mouth, am I?”
“Not sure. I think he had business with the Company, but they now have a contract out on him. He should be dead by morning.”
“What’s the rush?”
He shrugged one heavy shoulder, “Not sure, but the boss doesn’t want him seeing morning. Daniel tell you anything?”
“No. The moment the verdict was in, he was done with Jones.” She smiled cheekily, “took his wife as payment.”
Derek laughed, “Go Daniel. You do know they aren’t in the clear yet. Tomas could have gotten a contract out on them the second he was sent in.”
Katarina sighed, “I really didn’t want to go back to this, but Daniel has become a friend and he’s important to Ellie. He forgave Tasha for what Ellsa did, I owe him this.”
“Why you? Why not Ellsa?”
“Tasha, doesn’t remember what Ellsa did.” He could see she muddled something in her mind the few seconds she was silent. He wasn’t going to ask, but he was glad when she volunteered the information anyway. “After the experiment, she asked me to make sure she didn’t hurt an innocent but I wasn’t there to prevent what she did to all those guys.”
“Why not?”
She stared him dead in the eyes, “because I was with you.”
Oh damn! “So we owe him this?” She nodded. “Well then. You make the coffee, I’ll go tell dad we’re going out.”
“Where to?”
“We are going to watch Daniel’s house until Tomas Jones is found dead in the morning. I highly doubt he made a payment if I’m right about the hit man. I’m guessing all his accounts were frozen?” she nodded, “Good. Then whoever he sent won’t have any motivation to carry out the hit.”