CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

The very first thing I did when I got back to Providence was call Yale and tell him to meet me at the training center as soon as possible. While I waited, I packed a bag of weaponry and got changed in the locker room.

Fatigues, boots, both pistols. A knife in the side of my boot.

Then, from my locker, I took my dog tag. Merrick’s men didn’t normally wear them, but we were required to take them into combat so we had some identifying feature on our bodies, just in case the worst happened.

I dragged my bag into the front hallway and sank to the ground in a crouch. The training center was dead silent. Someone pulled up outside, and a door slammed. I could tell by the boots crunching over gravel outside that it was Yale.

I wasn’t taking him with me, but I needed him to know where I was going.

I’d gotten us into this. I had picked Lukas as our business partner for this project, and I’d fucked and fallen in love with his daughter, so I was going to clean up my mess without bringing anyone else into this or die trying.

And I wasn’t dying tonight.

The door pushed open, and Yale entered. He faltered as he saw me in my combat gear.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

I rose, straightening. “Lukas is going to betray us.”

His brows shot up. “How?”

“He never meant to keep his end of the deal. He was always going to have his men overthrow Merrick’s and seize the infrastructure of the training base for himself.”

There was a short silence.

“Fuck,” Yale whispered. “Does Merrick know?”

I shook my head. “No, and he won’t until it’s cleaned up. We don’t have time to brief him. I’m taking the plane and getting there tonight. I should be back tomorrow afternoon.”

“I’m going with you,” Yale said, no hesitation.

I shook my head again. “No, you have to keep Circe safe.”

“What do you mean?”

I slung my bag over my shoulder, metal clattering. “Circe risked everything and told me what her father planned. We owe her protection.”

Yale’s eyes narrowed. “Why would she do that?”

I was tired of lying about everything, so I just shrugged, throwing up my hand.

“Because we’ve been sleeping together,” I said. “She wanted to do the right thing.”

Yale’s jaw worked. For a moment, I thought he was going to give me a lecture. Instead, he just inhaled and let it out, slowly. “Alright,” he said. “Are you sure she’s not playing you? She could be sending you right into a trap?”

The thought had occurred to me for a fleeting moment. Before I saw her cry for me. Before I looked in her eyes and saw how desperate she was to keep me, so desperate that she was willing to lose everything. She loved me, of that, I was sure, even if, deep down, I still struggled to feel like I deserved it.

I wasn’t sure what tonight or tomorrow would bring.

Or what we would do to get the funding for the rest of the Wyoming base.

But I did know one, solid fact.

Circe Johansen loved me, and I was never letting that go.

I shook my head once. “She isn’t betraying me.”

His eyes bored into me. “You love her,” he said finally.

I stayed silent. I wasn’t ready to spill all my feelings out for Yale in the training center tonight.

“Does she love you?” he pressed.

I nodded.

He sighed, his head falling back. “Fucking hell,” he said. “Fine. What do you want me to do?”

“I need you to go get Circe and bring her back to my apartment,” I said. “Lock her in, make sure she’s safe. I don’t know what Lukas will do if he’s alerted that our trainees are attacking his. I don’t think he’ll go for his daughter, but he might.”

“I can do that,” he said.

He turned to go but stopped just inside the door. “Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t die, okay? I don’t want to have to tell Merrick.”

“I’ll try not to,” I said. “Oh, and…maybe you should sit down and have a talk with your sister.”

His forehead creased. “My sister?”

“Just ask her why Circe’s angry with her,” I said.

“Uh, okay, but that doesn’t seem like a priority.”

“It’ll make sense. I don’t have time to get into it right now. We can talk more when I get back.”

Still frowning, he turned slowly and disappeared. I stood there, realizing slowly that Yale probably knew more than I’d told him about my parentage. That shouldn’t have surprised me. Merrick and I looked a lot alike, and Yale worked closely with us both.

It was, unfortunately, a secret that told itself to anyone who cared to listen. I’d just bet all my cards that no one was paying any attention to me.

I alerted the pilot for the private plane and took the Kawasaki out to meet him. He was quiet as I boarded the plane, and he only nodded when I told him where I was going and what I planned on doing.

“You’ll have to walk to the base,” he said as we rose into the air.

I nodded from the copilot’s chair. “I know. I’ll have to wake our people quietly, get everyone ready, and take it from the inside.”

“The base is separated into two barracks?”

“They are,” I said. “I can get our men together before his men are alerted.”

We sat in silence for a long time. I leaned back, stretching my legs out as far as I could. The cockpit was small, and the sound of the engine made it seem smaller still.

“Caden,” he said, after a while.

“Louis,” I said.

He glanced over. “Sorry I didn’t see this one coming, sir. I just drove Miss Johansen; I didn’t see what Lukas was doing in his spare time.”

“It’s alright,” I said. “You kept an eye on them. You’re the reason I knew who I went home with the night I met her. You’ll be compensated.”

His mouth curved slightly. “How did you explain that one to Circe?”

“Facial recognition from the nighttime security cameras.”

“Ah, that’ll do it.”

There was another long silence. Then, he cleared his throat.

“Do you want me to stay on with the family?” he asked.

“I’ll talk to Merrick,” I said. “He doesn’t know you’re a double agent. If I had to guess, he’ll pay up with you and offer protection if you need it.”

“I’m thinking me and my wife might skip town,” he said. “Her family has a nice place down on the coast. I’d like a long vacation until my son’s ready for school.”

“Sounds nice,” I said. “Get me there and back tonight, and you can vacation on the beach for as long as you like.”

We were quiet for the rest of the flight. My body was ready to be out of the plane by the time we alighted on the landing strip, three miles south of the base. The stars were bright, and the mountains around us were so dark, I could barely see them.

Louis waited in the doorway. I jumped lightly to the ground, weaponry on my back.

“You’ll wait?”

He nodded. “I’ll wait.”

I reached up, gripping his hand. “Thank you, sir.”

“You’re a good man, Mr. Payne,” he said. “Good luck tonight. Come back alive. No one wants to tell Merrick you’ve gone and gotten killed.”

His words echoed in my head, so reminiscent of Yale’s, as I walked. The grass was long, but I had a small, circular light strapped to my ankle to keep me from stumbling. In the far distance, I could make out the training base—a quarter mile long and surrounded in steel wire paneling. The floodlights were on low, shedding a pale white glow over the steel rooftops.

Quiet, unsuspecting.

My mind wandered. Back at home, I knew Circe laid in the bed with tear stains on her face. Her future was uncertain. She’d given up working as the COO of one of the largest companies in the States and a father who loved her for me, the man she wasn’t supposed to be sleeping with in the first place.

I admired her bravery.

I also respected it. She’s jumped into a freefall with nothing but me as her safety net.

I had to come home.

I had to win, for her.

My heart was slow and steady. My senses were turned all the way up. My footsteps soft as I approached the fence and tapped my passcode into the gate. It creaked open, and I slid it shut.

Stepping on the edge of my feet, I made it to our side of the barracks. A coyote howled in the distance. Insects buzzed around the floodlights overhead. Otherwise, everything was silent as I unlatched the door and slipped inside.

It was time to see what I was made of.

If I would have lasted in the arena or died with everyone else.

That was never my path to take. But this, standing at Merrick’s right hand and protecting my Brenin, that was what I was good at. Maybe what I was born to do.

I paused in the dark, rows of bed lined up on either side, as it hit me.

Merrick wasn’t asking me to be him. He was asking me to be what Daphne had been for him—a kingmaker—because that was what he needed most. A guardian of the king who would replace him.

That was more important to our future than anything else.

My spine straightened. My shoulders went back.

Everything was falling into place, like it had been set up by some invisible hand. I was the kingmaker, and Circe Johansen was my wife.

It was that simple. All I had to do was believe I deserved it enough to take it.