Dirty Rich Secrets: Part Two Read online

  I inhale and let it out, nerves suddenly exploding in my stomach when I’m the one who suggested this. I need to do this. This is our backup, our support. What Aaron and I need to get the heck out of this mess. I punch in Smith’s number, and he answers on the first ring. “Smith. Who is this?”

  “Me,” I say. “Me. Don’t say my name, but do you know who this is?”

  “Yes,” he replies immediately. “I know exactly who this is.”

  “I need help. Meet me at the pizza joint on 88th in exactly one hour. Come alone. I don’t trust anyone else.” I hang up.

  Aaron’s eyes search mine, looking for some reaction I have to Smith, a connection, a bond. “He’s a friend. Nothing more.”

  “That you considered fucking.” He takes the phone from me and drops it to the ground. “Let’s go.” Anger spikes in me, but he’s already snagged my hand and started walking.

  “Don’t say that again,” I snap. “You know the story there. I was honest, and you’re being an asshole.”

  “Do you have any idea who’s around you right now? Do you know who’s behind you?”

  “No, but—”

  He stops walking, and his hands come down on my arms. “That was a test. That was a lesson. No matter how pissed you get, no matter how upset you are, you have to be aware of your surroundings. It’s life or death.”

  “That was not a test.”

  “Do you know—”

  “No,” I bite out. “No, I don’t.”

  “Figure it out right now. Keep talking to me but take in your surroundings.” He lists off everything around us. A trashcan. A homeless man against a pole. A woman in a red dress talking on a cellphone. “I’m protecting you.”

  “By being an asshole?”

  “Yes. You have to stay alive, Ashley. I need you alive. You will stay alive. Do you understand?” He’s intense. He’s demanding. The lines of his handsome face harder than I have ever seen them. He’s protecting me. He’s afraid for me.

  “Yes, I understand, but for the record, I don’t want Smith. It’s all you. It’s always been you.”

  He stares down at me, his look so probing that I think he’s trying to see straight into my soul, but he says nothing. He simply takes my hand and starts walking.

  We enter the subway again, and it’s not long before we’re on a car, and we start the cycle we’ve just lived all over. This will be one of many subway routes we take. The difference this time is we manage to get on a train that is nearly vacant when all of the others have been packed. Aaron leads me to the back of the car. He leans against the wall and pulls me to him, my back to his front, his hands settling possessively on my hips.

  He leans in, his breath warm against my ear and says, “You’re mine. From the day I met you, you were mine.”

  Heat rushes through me with this possessive statement that he’s said to me often in the past, most frequently while we were naked. My reply always the same and as it is now. “Are you mine?”

  “I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

  The train announcements start, and we begin to move. My body is thrown further into his, and his hand moves to flattens on my belly. My hand covers his, the action meant to tell him that I’m glad he’s here. I am so damn glad that he’s here.

  He turns me in his arms, and when our eyes meet, a million words and the charge between us steal my breath. “I can’t see the car,” I warn.

  “I’ve got it,” he says. “And you.” And then his fingers are tangled in my hair and he’s kissing me, a wicked, hot claiming, but the taste of desperation on his tongue is something I don’t expect. He’s desperate for more than me. He’s desperate to protect me. Everything he does is about protecting me, even being an asshole. He’s afraid of losing me and the idea that this skilled, powerful man is scared, scares me.

  Almost as if he, too, tastes my fear, he pulls back and looks at me. “Whatever you’re thinking, stop. I’ve got you. We’ve got this.” He kisses me again, and I taste those words. He has me. We’ve got this.

  He pulls back and strokes my damp bottom lip, before turning me to face forward again.

  “I’ve got you, too,” I promise softly, but the train is screeching to a halt, announcements being made again, and I know he can’t hear me. I decide I’ll tell him later when we’re safe and alone. And we will be soon. Smith and his team will help us. This is not going to go wrong unless, of course, whoever Aaron is worried is following us, catches up to us. That idea keeps me alert.

  We exit the train, and by the time we head to 88th, I’m in a hat, glasses, and a scarf, and Aaron is wearing a baseball hat and scarf. We approach the pizzeria from the opposite side of the street and take a spot inside a coffee shop to watch the pizzeria. We’re by a window in the corner, waiting for Smith or whoever else might appear. My back is to the door, my gaze on the pizza joint, that is until I feel Aaron’s eyes lift sharply to the door. He grabs my hand. “Don’t turn,” he orders.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Ashley…

  “He’s here?” I question in a low whisper, the smell of coffee and baked goods lifting in the air, while fear settles in my belly. In hindsight, I’m not sure how good of an idea it was to bring Smith to Aaron when Aaron hates him.

  “Yes,” Aaron says, “he’s here. I want to watch him for a few minutes.”

  “He won’t give you anything to question,” I say. “He’s a good man. I can’t say that enough. Even if he was going to betray you, he wouldn’t make it obvious.”

  “There are tells,” Aaron says. “Things I’ll teach you to read. Things you need to know to survive.”

  “What is he doing?”

  “Looking around. Looking for you.” But Aaron doesn’t look at me. He watches Smith. “Go talk to him,” he finally says. “He’s probably wearing a wire. He’ll lie and say he’s not if you ask him. Assume he is. Always assume the person you’re dealing with is wired. In other words, don’t tell him who I am.”

  “Then what do I say?”

  “Tell him you want him to meet a friend.”

  “But he’ll still be wired. What good will that do?”

  “Just do it, baby.”

  I inhale and let out my breath before standing up. I turn, and right as I do, Smith steps in front of me. He’s found us and now he’s assessing me and me him. He’s tall, with sandy brown hair and warm brown eyes, just the way I remember him. Today, he’s in a T-shirt and jeans with a leather jacket that I’m sure hides a gun. “Hi, stranger,” I say. “Thanks for coming.”

  “Who’s the man?”

  “Someone who needs your help. I need your help. I told him we could trust you, which is why I need you to take off the wire I know you’re wearing.”

  His eyes narrow. “Tell me you’re not in trouble.”

  “I’ve been in trouble. That’s how we met. He’s not my problem. Please, Smith. Pull the wire and show him you did it. Then we’ll tell you everything.”

  “Are you afraid for your safety?”

  “I’m afraid for both of our safety. That’s why we came to you. Please do this for me.”

  He inhales and looks skyward before he yanks out the earpiece he’s wearing. “That’s all I’m wearing. Let’s sit down.”

  I nod, and the minute I turn, Aaron is on his feet, taking my hand and pulling me around to his side of the table. He and Smith step to the table, facing each other. “Who are you?” Smith demands, “and why should I trust you?”

  “You know who I am, and I stayed away until I got word that they were trying to kill her to get to me. I saved her. And now, I’ve lost the only person outside of her I trusted in the process.”

  “Who is they? Who is trying to kill her, if not you?”

  “Let’s sit,” Aaron says.

  “Yes, please,” I plead. “Let’s sit.”

  The two men stare at each other several more beats and then as if they’d agreed when I see no signs that they did so, they sit. Then I sit. “He’s telling the truth,” I say. “
He was setup and then his mentor tried to kill me. If Aaron hadn’t come for me—I’d be dead.”

  Smith looks at me, eyeing me for several long beats before he looks at Aaron. “What the hell is this?”

  “I don’t know. I exposed my real name to Ashley, but that’s not enough to put me on a hit list. All I can think is that this is about a case I was working on before I was setup. I got close to something that hit high levels of the CIA. I needed to be out of the picture.”

  “You’re saying the CIA is dirty?”

  “Oh, come on,” Aaron says. “Like it’s hard to believe. Our level of dirty is filthy. And you have to know that. I can’t trust anyone. Hell, I don’t want to trust you.”

  “Then why are you?”

  “I have the money and resources to disappear and live well, but I want more for Ashley. I want to know that we aren’t living as hunted animals. She doesn’t deserve that and that’s why I stayed away. I needed to make this go away before I went after her.”

  “And yet, here we are,” Smith says dryly. “And here she is.”

  “There’s a hit out on her, which is obviously about me. They wanted to lure me out of the shadows, and it worked.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “Ashley believes you have the resources to help me make that happen.”

  “We have the resources to help,” he says. “The question is: should we? We can take Ashley. We can protect her.”

  “No,” I object. “That’s not happening. I’m staying with him, with or without your help.”

  Smith narrows his eyes on me. “He lied to you.”

  “He was on a mission. I was part of it. I was a way to get to a client my law firm was dealing with.”

  “He used you, and you feel good about this?” Smith challenges.

  “People meet with a side agenda all the time, Smith. They don’t plan to fall in love.”

  “And I do love her,” Aaron says, “with all my heart.”

  Smith’s gaze shoots accusations at Aaron. “Or, you’re still using her to get to the target at her firm.”

  “I’m no longer CIA. They’re hunting me. I have no reason to go after that client except one: to find out why that investigation led us here, where we are now.”

  Smith shifts his attention back to me. “You need to think about Cole and Lori.”

  “I am thinking about them,” I argue. “Someone tried to smoke Aaron out. There’s every reason to believe they’ll do that through me and my people next. This has to end.”

  “Keeping this small is important,” Aaron says. “If one person in your operation is dirty, and don’t tell me no one is, because everyone has dirty people involved, lives could be lost.”

  Smith scrubs his clean-shaven jaw. “I have to talk to the Walker brothers. Who was the client you were investigating?”

  Aaron shakes his head. “I need to meet your bosses before I give you anything. I’m not risking the people Ashley cares about getting hurt because I named a name to the wrong people.”

  Smith scowls. “How do I reach you?”

  “You don’t. We’ll reach you.” Aaron stands up and takes me with him. “You have twelve hours and then we leave the city.” Aaron pulls me around the table and doesn’t stop. He’s a bulldozer, driving me forward and through the restaurant.

  We exit to the streets, and he holds me close, cutting right. “Don’t look. Man in the leather jacket by the pole. He’s a problem.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means he’s not your friend’s friend.” We cut down a side street, and my heart is suddenly racing, adrenaline pumping.

  “What are we doing?”

  “Finding out what he wants.” Aaron turns right to a main street again and stops at a bagel shop. “Go inside. Wait on me.”

  “No, I—”

  He kisses me. “Do as I say. Now. This is how you stay alive. You listen. You let me do what I do.”

  I swallow hard, and because I have no choice, I enter the bagel shop and pray Aaron comes back alive. I walk to the back of the shop and sit down. A few seconds later, Smith walks in. I rush to him. “Someone was following us. Please. Go help Aaron.”

  “I know someone was following you,” he says. “And no. I’m not going to help Aaron.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Ashley…

  My anger at Smith is hot and fast. “What do you mean you aren’t going after him?” I demand but hold up a hand. “Never mind. Someone was following him. If you aren’t going after him, I will.” I start to move away, feeling suffocated by the tiny bagel shop.

  Smith grabs my arm and pulls me around to face him. “You will not go after him.”

  “You don’t have a say in what I do.”

  “You asked for my help. He asked for my help. You have it, which means you stay here.” He takes my hand and starts walking through the tiny path between tables until we’re at a stairwell leading to a lower level seating area. I all but stumble trying to keep up, and the minute we’re on the stairs winding downward, I voice my agitation. “Stop.”

  He doesn’t stop. He keeps walking. I want to hit him, but I can’t even get to him to do that. We get to the lower landing with a large seating area and doors leading to the subway. A good location to escape, run, or hide. Or, a good place to be kidnapped. I dig in my heels, but it doesn’t work. Smith is big, and he rotates me into a small space between a condiment center and a big thick beam. “What the hell are you doing, Ashley?”

  “Trying to get away from you and find Aaron.”

  “You mean the man I helped hide you from?”

  “You didn’t help hide me. I was put into protective custody, and had Aaron not come for me, I’d be dead. What part of someone on the inside spilling my location, do you not get?”

  “Someone dirty like Aaron?”

  “He saved my life,” I bite out, “and he’s not dirty.”

  “So every lie he told you doesn’t matter now that he has his hand back in your pants?”

  I punch his shoulder. “Asshole. Why are you being such an asshole?”

  “Because I care about you.”

  “Enough to dump me in some safe house and forget me?” I challenge.

  “That’s not fair.”

  “He didn’t forget me. I never forgot him. I love him, and I thought you were my friend.”

  “I am, which is why I’m standing here right now.”

  “If you’re my friend, you’ll help him. I can’t lose him again.”

  “I don’t want you to end up dead or used and discarded again, Ashley. Let me get you out of here.”

  “He’s not guilty. He needs help. I told him he could trust you. I was wrong, obviously. Let me go and we’ll leave, and we’ll leave you alone.”

  “I’m trying to help you, woman.”

  “Someone was following him, and we’re standing at the bottom level of a bagel shop while he needs us. That is not helping me.”

  His teeth clench. “I can’t let you stay with him.”

  “You don’t have a choice. Let me go, Smith. I can’t lose him again. How many times do I have to say that? What part of that do you not understand?”

  “Apparently, all of it.”

  At the sound of Aaron’s voice, I can finally breathe again. He’s alive. He’s safe. He steps beside us, and his hand comes down on my arm. “Let her go, Smith. You might be a solider, but you’re not the killer I am.”

  Smith’s eyes meet mine. “This is who you love and want to stand by?”

  “Let me go, Smith.”

  “No,” he says. “He can kill me and then maybe you’ll see who he really is.”

  “The man who loves her,” Aaron says. “The man who would die for her, and the longer we stand here, the more of a target we become.”

  “Let her go before he kills you,” another voice bites out.

  Smith grimaces and flicks the newcomer a look. “What the fuck are you doing, Adam?”

  “I know Adam,�
�� I tell Aaron softly. “He’s with Walker, an ex-SEAL.”

  “I am,” Adam confirms. “I worked closely with the CIA. I talked to someone I trust. He believes Aaron was setup.”

  “Holy fuck,” Aaron curses. “Who did you tell?” He looks at Smith. “I told you to keep this between us. We need to leave now.” He pulls his gun and points it at Smith.

  “Aaron,” I gasp. “Stop. No.”

  Aaron stays focused on Smith. “Let her go now, or I’ll kill you right here.”

  “Easy, man,” Adam says. “I didn’t tell him you were here. I told him our overseas operation had an encounter with you. Step back, Smith.”

  “Ashley,” Smith murmurs, a plea in my name.

  “I’m okay,” I say. “I promise you. He’s a good man, but thank you for risking your life for me because that’s what you’re doing right now.”

  “Step back, Smith,” Adam orders, yet again.

  “Now,” Aaron orders.

  Smith inhales and lets me go, taking a long stride backward. Aaron pulls me to him, holstering his weapon. It’s only then that I realize that the lower level we’re inside is empty, thank God. “We’re leaving.”

  “We can help,” Adam states. “I talked to my boss. He knows the situation and that was one of our men following you.”

  “I’m aware of that now,” Aaron states. “He followed me like a man with no skill.”

  “He’s not a man of no skill,” Adam replies. “You’re simply a man of great skill, and I assure you, I am as well. Talk to me. Let me help.”

  “Why would I trust you?” He eyes Smith. “Your track record thus far isn’t to my liking.”

  “You can’t do this alone,” Adam says. “You knew that or you wouldn’t have come to us.”

  “And yet, I can. We’re going to walk out of here, and you’ll never see us again.”

  “But that’s not what you want,” Smith interjects. “You said you want to give Ashley her freedom. Leave her with us.”

  “So she can be a sitting duck waiting on her slaughter?” Aaron challenges. “No. Never. You’ve proven how you take care of her.”

  “Let us earn your trust,” Adam offers. “Let us help you find the answers you need. Give us the questions you need answered. We’ll find the answers.”