“What?”
“I know, it pains me to say that, but without him going on a hunch, you could be in a very different place right now.”
He takes a pause, looking at me to see if I’m listening.
My mind is racing, trying to think of anything that would tell me she isn’t who I thought, but… there’s nothing. She has always been good to me and looked after everything I needed.
“Scott knew things weren’t as they should be when she ordered you to be moved, yet nothing was recorded in the usual channels with the agency. The same as she never said anything about me to the agency, claiming she was doing me a favor, but if she was doing her job, there is no way they wouldn’t know about me from the moment we met. There are things that you wouldn’t understand about the agency and I can’t tell you, but rest assured that Scott and I know that there’s trouble around you.”
“More secrets! I’m so fucking sick of secrets!” The water is welling in my eyes, but my anger won’t let the tears fall.
“I know, baby, but you need to know there will always be certain details that you aren’t authorized to know. It’s not that we are deliberately keeping it from you, it’s just a matter of national security.”
“Whatever. How did you get me from Scott? He should have been protecting me from you after what I said to Davina.”
The look of shock on his face tells me there are things he doesn’t know too.
“Wait, what? Why would you need to be protected from me? What the hell ever gave you that idea?” He tries to move closer to me, but I hold my hand up to stop him where he is. I’m not ready yet, plus when he touches me, he scrambles my brain. I can’t think clearly.
I’m torn if I should say anything, but I figure I have nothing to lose now.
“That phone call yesterday. You’ve been planning things and couldn’t leave but said you were the only one to finish this. You said that you didn’t trust me…” It still hurts to say it.
“Fuck…” I’ve rattled him. I know his nervous cues of running his fingers through his hair.
“Is that why you went strange yesterday, you heard me on the phone?”
“Strange? I was petrified and so goddamn confused. Why would you say that about me?”
“I wasn’t even talking about you. Fuck, if only you had talked to me. I was talking to Ghost about our suspicions on Davina. Jodie got me thinking when she mentioned about there being no cast on Davina’s leg, then Scott pointed out his suspicions, plus the water.”
Standing, he’s now pacing back and forth beside the bed, even though it’s only about four steps each direction.
“What do you mean the water? Kurt, what the hell is going on and who the fuck is Ghost? Oh my god, this is just getting bizarre.” Now I’m up on my knees on the bed.
“All the water in your fridge was full of poison. That’s why your bottle was already opened.”
My hand grabs my chest where I can feel it tightening, the air rushing out of my lungs.
Sinking back onto my heels, all the fight leaves me for a minute. “How… how do you know?”
“I suspected it, so Ghost organized for it to be tested. It was then we knew we had to get you out of there. I thought I had time for him to get the plan in place, but Davina trying to move you fucked that up. We owe Scott your life. He sedated you after you went hysterical, making you pass out, so then he could call me to pick you up. Ghost sorted out the rest.”
I try to process what he’s saying but there is one big question he hasn’t answered.
The most important one of all.
“My parents… Davina told me they’re… dead. Who killed them if you didn’t… was it her?”
I’m not sure I can cope with the answer, someone who I put my life in her hands being responsible for this will ruin me.
Walking back to the bed, he looks down at me with so much compassion.
“Can I sit with you? I need to tell you something only one other person knows and that’s Ghost, but it’s time that I told you the truth.”
Nodding is all I can manage.
“You know I told you about the case that made me leave the agency? How it affected me so much I knew I couldn’t continue to protect people if I wasn’t on my game every minute of every day?”
Wriggling a little closer to me, his hand gently rests on my leg.
My breath hitches. “I didn’t know until a few days ago, until Ghost put the pieces together for me… The couple I was protecting were your parents, and while the agency thinks they’re dead, they are very much alive and in hiding.”
My head is spinning; I feel like I want to vomit and jump in the air at the same time. My mind and body are so confused at the emotions racing through it like a freight train.
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth now… I mean, I want to, but I just—” I don’t know how to say everything that’s in my head or my heart.
The relief that they are alive is fighting with the panic that this is all one big ruse and I’m the gullible victim.
My gut, though, is trying to remind me that this is Kurt. He doesn’t have it in him to be that cruel.
“I wish I hadn’t hurt you to the point you even have to ask that question, but I do understand. It’s like a knife through my heart, but I’ll take the blame for that.”
My cheeks are wet with a few tears that have escaped. My body’s not able to hold my
