“You didn’t do anything,” she shouted back. “You were convenient, okay? Is that what you want to hear? You were the only one that wasn’t part of it.”
“Part of what?”
She didn’t say anything. She looked away, shaking her head angrily.
“I already know. Now I want to hear you say it. I want to hear you tell me the real reason you sold me out. Tell me, Kiera. Tell me all about how you fucked up and your little boyfriend covered for you, for all of you.”
“He was a terrorist,” she snapped. “He was garbage and we were going to take him home to sit in a fucking cell. You didn’t see what he did to those women in that town. He fucking deserved what he got.”
“But not from you,” I said accusingly. “Our job isn’t to go kill anyone we feel like. We could have gotten intel from him, but you decided that you knew better how to deal with him. The whole fucking team did, and then you had to cover it up, right?”
“Barrow made a deal with all of us that day. He knew what we did. He walked in on it and knew there was no way that we could cover up what really happened on our own. So, he did what was necessary so that no one would ever know that we beat the fucking terrorist to death.” She shook her head and her voice lowered. “But he made a deal with all of us that day. Whenever he needed something, we had to be there for him. He said we were all in this together and the only way that we could all be sure that no one would say anything was if we all had something to lose. He agreed to put his ass on the line for the team that day.”
“No, he used you. He helped you because he had power over you.”
She sighed, shrugging slightly. “It didn’t matter. Barrow pretended like he and I had something after that. He made me think that he really wanted me, that we had something special. We were together for two years before we were caught. And something changed. His true colors came out. He didn’t care about me. He used me because I was convenient to him. I should have known when we returned from deployments. He never wanted to see me. He always made an excuse.”
I wished that I could say I felt bad for her. It sounded like Colonel Barrow had used her in the worst ways, but then again, I couldn’t be sure if she was telling the truth or not. She seemed so sincere, but then I thought she had been sincere on the stand when she was testifying against me. I couldn’t afford to buy any of her bullshit.
The sound of helicopter blades in the distance had me rushing to the window. It wasn’t far off, and if they were headed for me, I didn’t have much time.
“You lied on the stand,” I accused. “I could have been sent to Leavenworth for the rest of my life. How could you do that to me?”
“It was Barrow’s idea,” she snapped. “I had to do what he said. He made sure that no one on the team would defend you. He gave me a choice, pin the rape on you or he would turn the whole team in. I had no choice.”
“You had every choice. You chose yourself over the truth. You almost ripped everything from me!”
I didn’t hear anything but the crunch of gravel. I ran to the window and saw three vehicles pulling to a stop in the driveway. Men stepped out, guns raised at the guard in front of the house. They were here for me. They had found me and now I was going to jail.
The door burst open and men surrounded me. Guns were pointed at me from every direction. I had no way out of this. I wouldn’t see Blake again, and I had no way to contact her to let her know I wouldn’t be meeting her.
“Get down on the ground! Move! Hands on your head.”
I slowly lowered to my knees, raising my hands and placing them on my head. One of them came behind me and jerked my hands down one at a time and locked them in cuffs behind my back.
“Are you Kiera Elliot?” one of them asked.
“Yes.”
A man stepped forward, this one in a suit and tie. He was pompous and arrogant looking, a typical suit who thought he was above the law. “Parker, you have no idea how glad I am to see you. You know, you did a good job with your little escape attempt. We almost didn’t see you.”
“Who are you?”
“Agent Dennick, but you can call me your worst nightmare.”
He nodded to one of the men and the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back and wheezing from the massive hit to my chest. Dennick walked over to me, standing above me and smirked.
“It was very nice of you to lead us right to the woman that you were convicted of raping. I have to say, when we spotted her in the house and realized who she was, it was like my dream come true. You just handed us a very sweet conviction, tied up with a pretty little bow.”
“What conviction?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? Kiera is listed as a missing person.”
My stomach dropped out. I told Knight he couldn’t just kidnap her. Now I was going to pay the price. I knew there was a chance I would get caught coming here, but I hadn’t really thought about the fact that someone might accuse me of kidnapping. I was too focused on getting a confession out of her. I thought they were only coming for be because of the breaking and entering at the lab.
“Ms. Elliot, is this the
